Japan

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In the sequel to Children of the Beehive, a journalist arrives in the secluded foothills of Shimizu’s cherished Izu in search of a hidden commune to ask, “What happened to the children of the Beehive?” Three years have passed and her question situates itself not only in the realm of Shimizu’s craft, but that of reality: What became of the war orphans Shimizu raised? Rewriting the past, Shimizu even renders one of the original’s most heartbreaking sequences into a work of fiction. Invoking meta-narrative elements, Shimizu reshapes the orphans’ narrative, which is quite well-known to visitors of the commune thanks to the popularity of the first Beehive film. A fascinating work of docudrama that treads between the realm of fact and fiction, Children of the Beehive: What Happened Next breathes the fresh air of Shimizu’s loose and reflexive approach, anticipating the works of Kiarostami.Read More »

A young man is determined to have as many affairs as possible but not to get married. One of his conquests is of a different mind however. For she is pregnant and so he agrees to live with her. But he misses very much the other younger girl whom he saw a lot of, and with the older woman’s consent, sees the younger one and on her request, asks her to move in with them. This is the beginning of a very strange triangle which they all live through to a not unhappy ending.Read More »

Jubei is a Japanese merchant who learns tricks from Western merchants to get ahead in the game.Read More »

Plot
Inako Natsui is a quiet, modern girl working in a laboratory and living a closed and somewhat monotonous life in a small town. From time to time she goes to nearby to visit her lonely mother Wakayama who has been a widow for the past seventeen years. The girl’s relatives, particularly Aunt Sadako and Uncle Shuhei, the local mayor’s deputy, plan to introduce her to a suitable young man, but Inako has no real desire to get married. She is more interested in the hot mineral springs from where she takes her laboratory specimens. This all changes when she meets Mr Tamamiza, a young divorced man who’s been left with a little boy. Her relatives are decidedly against the match. The girl falls in love with the man without realizing that she will encounter a painful conflict between her family and providence, as unexpectedly as the spring which gushes out from the geological fold, driven to the surface by mysterious subterranean forces.Read More »

A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.Read More »

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Noriko, 28, is a secretary in a small company in Tokyo. She is a modern young woman but she still lives with her parents, just like her brother, his wife and their two children. She is under great pressure from her family; in fact, it is not reasonable at this age not to have yet married. But the young girl rejoices in her independence. Her boss offers her a good deal of his knowledge but Noriko hesitates until a sort of illumination solves the problem for her, at least…Read More »

A young woman navigates a discovery within her immediate family only to find much more.Read More »

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Sequel to The Rainbow Seeker where Ryo meets Katsu on a small island in the south of Japan. There, he falls in love for a single mother…Read More »

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A year ago, singer Sayuri Komatsu committed suicide due to stress triggered by reports of her affair. Teru Morishima, who lost Sayuri, now lives as a taxi driver. Despite his loneliness, Teru maintains a connection to society by talking about his life on a radio show. However, one day, after meeting a woman who is the spitting image of his wife, he begins to desire love once again, and his dreams are thrown into turmoil.Read More »