Aoi Miyazaki

This beautifully composed black & white film explores a transcendent story of redemption. On what seemed to be a normal morning in southwest Japan, a crazed killer, apparently without motive, hijacks a city bus. In the ensuing carnage only three people survive - the driver, a schoolgirl and her older brother. (The Shooting Gallery)

A chance encounter between two girls of the same name, "Nana," triggers a series of events and relationships. (imdb)

Tomie is found murdered and disposed of in the garbage. Her friends at school are shocked -- who would do such a thing? Naturally, one of the girls in the school thinks she'll take the opportunity to get closer to Tomie's bereived boyfriend. Then Tomie shows up alive at school the next day acting as if nothing had happened. What's going on? (KFC Cinema)

The anime fantasy opus Origin: Spirits of the Past commences with a backstory prologue set in an ancient era, when the moon awakened the forest and unleashed a terrible, destructive beast upon the Earth. As the story proper opens, the landscape of the world has changed immeasurably. Mankind is divided into two warring factions: one that seeks a peaceful, harmonious balance with the forest, and another that wishes to dominate and control it. (All Movie Guide)

The story of a love triangle between 3 university students (IMDB Comments)

Aoi Miyazaki (EUREKA) plays Sachiko, a thirteen year-old girl living with her depressed mother (ryo, DISTANCE). The film starts by showing her mother's suicide attempt, a scene that pretty much sets the tone, both content-wise and stylistically. (DVDBeaver.com)

An omnibus story of nine ordinary people in Tokyo who don't usually get much attention in their daily lives. Consists of five intertwining storylines, including one involving a struggling pop singer who spends most of her time performing for geeks in Akihabara while waiting for her big break into mainstream showbiz. (Baseline StudioSystems)

Girl likes boy. Boy likes girl's older sister. Silence. Time.

A.D. 2015: A virus has been spreading in many cities worldwide. It is a suicidal disease and the virus is infected by pictures. People, once infected, come down with the disease, which leads to death. They have no way of fighting against this infection filled with fear and despair. The media calls the disease "the Lemming Syndrome" (imdb)

Kenji, abandoned by his mother, scrapes out a meager existence doing odd jobs including driving bar hostesses and their customers home. Besides this he takes care of the sister of an old friend in jail and a young illegal immigrant. But his life reaches a turning point when he happens to meet Chiyoko, his long lost mother. She is now married to Mamiya, the owner of an express package delivery service. They also have a teenage son, Yusuke. (imdb)

Japan, 1960s. Misuzu, a group of high school students befriend the ambitious Kishi, who wants more and even devises a plan to rob a bank van, which results in the legendary 300 million yen affair in 1968. (HKFlix)

All About My Dog is a 2005 Japanese film consisting of interwoven shorts about dogs. The film's various short stories are directed by Isshin Inudou, Hideki Kuroda, Yoshio Kuroda, Satoshi Nagai, Shinsuke Sato, Tetsuhisa Yazu and Atsushi Sanada. The Marimo short section is particularly popular on internet memes (Wikipedia)

A record company office worker named Kanna Aoi Miyazaki discovers a punk rock band called Shonen Meriken Sakku (Brass Knuckle Boys) through the internet and subsequently decides to represent them on behalf of her company. What Kanna did not know was that the Brass Knuckle Boys consists of all middle aged men. (AsianMediaWiki)

Min moves to Japan with his father who is a potter. One day at a local shrine, he meets Nanae, a beautiful Japanese girl with stunning eyes who is aspiring to be a painter. Min falls in love at first sight and finds out that Nanae attends the school to which he has just transferred. Their friendship develops fast despite their cultural and language difference. Unfortunately unexpected events tear them apart,and Min can not find Nanae. Why has Nanae disappeared without a word? (wikipedia.org)

Lives of a young girl and a hitman crosses paths, as both have their agendas and ghosts from their pasts haunting them.

With his spiky bleached blond hair, dark shades, and pale complexion, the twentysomething Richi (Arata) is most assuredly an enigmatic individual. Working as a part-time DJ and a record store employee... read more read more..., the man gives off an aura of eternal cool, but this image only serves as a mask to hide a trauma buried deep in Richi's past. (Flixster)

Meiko Inoue is a recent college grad working as an office lady in a job she hates. Her boyfriend Naruo is permanently crashing at her apartment because his job as a freelance illustrator doesn't pay enough for rent. And her parents in the country keep sending her boxes of veggies that just rot in her fridge. Straddling the line between her years as a student and the rest of her life, Meiko struggles with the feeling that she's just not cut out to be a part of the real world. (Yellow Cinema)

Drama about the exploitation and abuse of children in Thai prostitution rings.

Upon reaching the train station to death, a dejected soul is informed that he is 'lucky' and will have another chance at life. He is placed in the body of a 14-year-old boy named Makoto Kobayashi, who has just committed suicide. Watched over by a neutral spirit named Purapura, the soul must figure out what his greatest sin and mistake in his former life was before his time limit in Makoto's body runs out. (Anime News Network)

"Chronicles Of My Mother" recounts the relationship of an author (Koji Yakusho) and his elderly parents. The author has a strained relationship with his father and his mother's (Kirin Kiki) memory grows weaker by the day. A reconciliation is attempted by the son. (asianwiki.com)

Hana falls in love with a mysterious man, but he has a confession to make: he is a descendent of an ancient tribe of wolfmen, who have the ability to alternate between human and wolf form. Hana does not bat an eye, and the two begin a romance that produces two children, Yuki and Ame. A tragedy leaves Hana to care for her two children as best as she can, kids who behave more like pets than people. As Yuki and Ame grow older, they must also grapple with who they are and what they want to be. (LA Eiga Fest)

One day Mikio is diagnosed with depression. His wife of 5 years, Haruko, draws comics for work, but they do not sell well. She mainly relied on Mikio for support. Meanwhile, Haruko did not notice any changes in her husband. She begins to blame herself for not noticing any signs. Mikio's depression derived from his work. His company has been pressing him to quit the company. After Mikio quits his job his condition improves, but the dynamics of their relationship changes. (asianwiki.com)

Mitsuya Majime is an unsuccessful salesman. But his love of reading and dedication, as well as a post-graduate degree in linguistics, catches the eyes of Masashi Nishioka and Kouhei Araki, dictionary editors who are seeking a replacement for Araki himself. With Majime on the editing team, the group plans to produce a new dictionary called The Great Passage which would bridge the gap between people and the sea of words and would take years to complete. (wikipedia)

Four women, who have their own different sorrows, embark on a road trip. They look back at their past and restart their lives. (imdb)

Married couple Aiko Tsumari (Aoi Miyazaki) and Ayumu Muko (Osamu Mukai) live a happy and peaceful life. Aiko is bit naive, while Ayumu works as a not so popular novelist. One day, a letter arrives for Ayumu. Because of this letter, the couple become estranged . (asianwiki.com)

A professional voyeur and an elusive serial killer both suffer from a sensory disorder that affects on in 100,000 people in director Toru Matsuura's hallucinatory thriller. Shin suffers from synesthesia, a rare sensory disorder in which one form of stimulus triggers a completely unrelated response. His constant mental state borders on insanity, and he makes his living by providing voyeuristic videos to a well-paying clientele. (rottentomatoes.com)

20 years ago, an elementary school student falls on an island in the northern tip of Hokkaido. A teacher and 6 students makes contact through songs. What happened to the student who fell? The teacher returns 20 years later to meet with her former students. (imdb)

A lost boy in Tokyo, Kyuta, slips into an alternate universe, where he is raised by a bear-man, Kumatetsu, who fights for a living. Kumatetsu trains Kyuta in the art of fighting over the years, but eventually Kyuta is thrust into a cataclysmic adventure which spans both worlds. (imdb)

A doctor (Sho Sakurai) ponders his future while caring for a terminally ill patient (Mariko Kaga).

Yume Kikuchi, a girl who can use magic, goes to Tokyo to be an apprentice mage to the handsome Masami Oyamada (a professional mage). In Tokyo, Yume learns about magic, helping people, and various other things on her way to being a mage. But she soon also finds out that even just magic alone isn't enough to make someone truly happy... (myanimelist.net)

A grisly unsolved murder links three seemingly unrelated stories in three different Japanese cities. (imdb)

Sasaki-san is a superlative cook who is on auto-control and can make wondrous meals with nary a thought anymore. In a literal case of the last wish on earth, he receives a special request to cook a specific dish. The catch is he needs to discover the recipe of famed chef Yamagata who was in occupied Manchuria in China in the 1930s.

Uchiyama Kaede and Shiina Kasumi used to be best friends. Now in high school, Kasumi grew more popular than Kaede, which has led her to continually bully her ex-best friend. One day after school, Kaede meets Kishida Takumi, a bike thief who's especially talented in picking locks. She asks him for a favor: if he could possibly open the key to the school roof. Meanwhile, the arrival of a new teacher seems to bring changes to the school.

Yuta, an absent-minded 5th-grader, is sent to spend the summer with his grandfather, whom Yuta's parents think is becoming senile and could benefit from Yuta's companionship. At first, Yuta thinks Gramps is a bit addled, too, but as he gets to know the old man better, he finds that his grandfather sees things quite differently from other people. The special bond that ...

Ryota Tsuboi is a producer for a CM production company. His wife Sae is a food stylist. She is also enthusiastic about her daughter Moe's education and her work. Ryota goes to Nagano to see his father. There he has a strange meeting. (imdb)

First starring movie by Kinoshita Hoka who is active as a unique supporting character in numerous works. Tokyo, Afternoon. Cloudy sky, scrambled intersection. Suddenly, Kida Hotzumi was hit by someone with a metal bat. The criminal escaped as it is, and Kida who regained consciousness can not grasp himself at all. Why on earth? To whom? Memory was completely missing. Kida ...