Synopsis: Seventeen years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a newspaper reporter looks for the bomb’s effects, but everyone seems to have forgotten. He meets a woman who was there when it happened but when they fall in love she isn’t able to move on.Read More »
Takehiro Nakajima directs this romantic drama about a love triangle between two men and a young woman. The film centers on Sayoko (Misa Shimizu of Unagi fame) who works as a voice-over artist for television cartoons. One day she happens upon a lithe young man and his middle-aged lover in mid-kiss. Something about the incident fascinates her, and soon she’s frequenting gay bars until she finds the couple once again. The young man is a designer named Go (Takehiro Murata) while the older man is married and named Terasaki (Takeo Nakahara). When Sayoko learns that Go’s ailing mother has moved in with him, disrupting the couple’s usual tryst, she offers them the services of her place. For a while, things go beautifully. As the two guys go at it upstairs, Sayoko merrily thumbs through art books. Then Terasaki’s wife gets wind of her husband’s extramarital activities and storms Sayoko’s pad. Terasaki is forced to dump Go and the lad consequently goes into a deep funk. In an attempt to cheer him up, she tries to set him up with a hunky former sailor. Instead, the sailor rapes and impregnates Sayoko. Years later, the three meet again.Read More »
Fu and Suzu are two pretty anarchist girls, who take to the road. They are off to visit the tomb of a small pig named PUPU. On the way, they meet Suzu’s ex-lover, a gay couple, and a golf player; always getting in trouble. But whenever trouble comes, ‘TrunkMan’ the hero appears to save them. All changes, though, when one of the girls falls in love with TrunkMan.Read More »
After the death of his friend Tetsuji, Ryo (Takashi Naito) and his biker gang drift apart. Ryo runs a bar, while Reiko wants to get married and have a normal job. As the first anniversary of Tetsuji’s death approaches, Zaji, Yuhi, and Nemu work to fix a bike for the legendary “Yokohama Ryo” to ride. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Hideo Murota) seeks to destroy any remaining biker gangs. Ryo is pulled back into that world by both friends and enemies, and is expected to live up to his own legendary figure that he no longer wants anything to do with.Read More »
Nagisa Oshima’s documentary details the rise of Chairman Mao during the revolution and shows the Communist Party’s struggle and cultural upheaval. Made in 1969 for NTV station, this TV documentary also questions Mao’s dictator tendency during the cultural revolution.Read More »
People mysteriously start receiving voicemail messages from their future selves, in the form of the sound of them reacting to their own violent deaths, along with the exact date and time of their future death, listed on the message log. The plot thickens as the surviving characters persue the answers to this mystery which could save their lives.Read More »
Psychiatrist Masatomo Yamamoto has dedicated his whole life to his patients. Now over 80 years of age, he tries to bid a farewell to them and his work. Soda’s sequel to Seishin (2008) is a loving look at care and aging.Read More »
An intellectual couple in a staid and tedious marriage are surprised when the wife’s niece, who has run away from home, turns up unexpectedly to stay with them. Their mundane lives are sent into disarray by the emotional and energetic Ako.Read More »