Japan

Momojiro and Jonathan go to Kochi on a ferry. On the ferry a singer called Yuka dropped her sheet music into the ocean. Momojiro helps her by diving in to collect the sheets for her and ends up falling in love.Read More »

A dynamic woman who aspires to be a writer, living a wild life in constant search of freedom while indulging in lust with four men.Read More »

An in depth look at the making of Kurosawa’s films.

The series consists of episodes of varying length, typically between 30 and 60 minutes, which chronicle the making of Kurosawa’s films. Altogether 21 of Kurosawa’s 30 films are covered by the series: basically, the ones that he shot for Toho studios.Read More »

A truck driver in Yamagata prefecture finds himself stuck on the road due to a police speeding checkpoint. The trucker decides to use the road shoulder instead. Wen stopped they explain to the police that they have an emergency and are in a rush. Then a police cruiser with two policewomen again catches them. Apparently, this time it is for the crime of having been in a woman’s public bath.Read More »

Before he went on to create Totoro and Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki captured a whole generation of children’s imaginations with his retelling of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries using a loveable cast of canines. Sherlock Hound, released as either Famous Detective Holmes or Detective Holmes in Japan, is an anime based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series where all the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic animals, the majority dogs, though Holmes is a fox and his enemy Professor Moriarty is a wolf. The show featured regular appearances of Jules Verne-steampunk style technology, adding a 19th-century science-fiction atmosphere to the series.Read More »

Synopsis:
A fantasy story based on the relationship between Kenji Miyazawa and his younger sister Toshi. This is the first 35mm film written and directed by Isao Yamada, who has created a unique world with his 8mm and 16mm short films. Tomohiro Aso is in charge of photography, and Simon Turner of “The Garden” is in charge of the music.Read More »

A violent, guitar-playing, electrically charged boxer faces off against an electronic wizard half-merged with a metallic Buddha.Read More »

Quote:
Western audiences associate Japanese popular cinema with monster movies and period dramas such as samurai films but, as with most national cinemas, comedies and musicals were industry mainstays. Very popular with domestic audiences, they were generally considered not to travel well. Janken Musume (Janken Girls, also known as So Young, So Bright) is a good 1950s example.Read More »

Quote:
When his pistol is stolen, police detective Murakami is humiliated, especially when the gun is later implicated in a crime. Working with his superior, Chief Detective Sato, Murakami works feverishly to trace the location of his pistol, ultimately clashing with a gang of youthful Okinawans.Read More »