Japan

Matsugoro is a poor rickshaw driver whose animated spirit and optimistic demeanor make him a favorite of the town. Matsu helps an injured boy, Toshio, and is hired by the boy’s parents, Kotaro and Yoshioko, to transport the boy to and from doctor appointments. Matsu comes to love the boy and his parents. When Toshio’s father dies, Matsu becomes a surrogate father, helping to raise the boy and secretly falling in love with Toshio’s mother Yoshioko. But Matsu knows there is a great gulf between their classes and there seems no hope that Matsu can ever be more than the rickshaw man to the mother and son.Read More »

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A former soldier is caught working the black market and sent to prison while his partner escapes and goes on to become a gangster, but their paths cross again as they both fall in love with the same woman.Read More »

Emotionally withdrawn strip club dancer Ayako has never recovered from her mother’s suicide when she was young. She begins a relationship with patient potter Daiji, but leaves him behind when she quits her job and returns to her home town after a 10 year absence.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Aided by a gang that includes two Americans and a Korean, Miyahara attacks an armoured truck transporting money to a US army base. But soon the cronies fall out – with the settling of old scores, jealousy and murder leading all the characters to a tragic end.’
– BFIRead More »

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Another stunning Tuesday Suspense Theater movie from Obayashi. I love how there is some music playing almost every second of the film. That gives the movie an special feeling of drama and I think of it as another way to telling the viewer like Hey, don’t forget you’re watching a movie!

And the fact that this is a cat monster movie about making a cat monster movie featuring Takeko Irie, also known as the cat monster actress, and her daughter playing a character inspired in herself! I will sure give a rewatch to this after I watch some of Takako Irie’s cat monster movies.Read More »

A mysterious and wondrous islands surrounded by an unparalleled natural environment exists in Tokyo Prefecture that is referred to as the Galapagos of the East. They are called the Ogasawara Islands. A man lives on one of these islands. He is 65-year-old Miyagawa Noritsugu, a legendary surfer–a tarzan of the sea–who established the world’s first swimming-with-dolphins tour. Artists of every type are summoned to the island and shown around by Miyagawa. The imaginative power of these intensely perceptive individuals is drawn out by this tour and a never-before-seen Ogasawara comes to life. In order to chronicle these islands, director Toyoda Toshiaki moved to Ogasawara and took 5 years to complete this documentary. The film’s pièce de résistance are the scenes didgeridoo instrumentalist Goma, actors Kubozuka Yosuke and Shibukawa Kiyohiko, drummer Nakamura Tatsuya, and guitarist Yamaji Kazuhide are performing out among majestic natural surroundings.Read More »

Playing on the legend of ghosts returning in the form of cats to seek vengeance for their deaths, Kuroneko [Black Cat from the Grove] tells the tale of a mother and daughter, raped and killed by marauding samurai, and their supernatural revenge.Read More »

Misaki’s husband Ken’ichi dies in a car accident soon after their marriage. He had managed the Sunrise Villa apartments, which his parents have managed after his death. A psychic claims to have received word from Ken’ichi’s spirit that he wants the apartments to be kept running responsibly.Read More »

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n April 24, 2004, Kawase Naomi had a son, Mitsuki. Following Japanese tradition, she gave birth on a tatami mat, assisted by a midwife and surrounded by all her family. As soon as the umbilical cord was cut, she tools up her camera and films every day her child and her ninety-year-old grandmother. With this highly emotionally affecting «docu-diary» the filmmaker continues to reflect on the world around her, her origins and the future. Although she initially wanted to describe only the life she carried within her for nine months, Kawase Naomi eventually extended the scope of her film to include Mitsuki’s interaction with those around him. By deliberately breaking with any notion of linear temporarily, she creates, with gentleness but also with harshness and violence, a pendulum like movement between moments, past and present feelings. Read More »