Arata Iura

The film traces the growth and friendship of 2 very different high school ping pong players. "Peco" Hoshino is a brash, arrogant player, determined to turn "pro" (imdb)

After people die, they spend a week with counselors, also dead, who help them pick one memory, the only memory they can take to eternity... (imdb)

A radio broadcast issues a public service announcement reminding listeners of the third anniversary memorial service for the victims of the Ark of Truth cult disaster, a biological terrorist attack that introduced a genetically engineered virus into the nation's water supply, leading to the deaths of 128 people and an additional 8,000 illnesses. (filmref.com)

Who is the mysterious "Friend" and how does he tie into Kenji's youth? Why are there disappearances and deaths tied into Ochanomizu University? Their memories hold the keys to the puzzle, but time and age have clouded their minds. The strange occurrences and the reach of the "Friend" conspiracy grow by the day. It will all culminate on New Year's Eve 2000. Will Kenji and the others be able to put together the puzzle and save the world? (robojapan.blogspot.com)

Wakamatsu here tells the story of the Asama-Sanso hostage drama, which riveted Japan for ten days in 1972, and remains as evocative there as the words "Patty Hearst" or "Munich '72" are in the west. The Asama-Sanso incident brought a bloody end to not just a small group of radical extremists, but also to the idealism of the 1960's, as the romance of rebellion gave way to the darker sides of human nature, from Altamont to the Japanese mountainside. (Kosmorama.no)

The story follows several months in the life of Lui, a young woman who, while exploring body modification, decides to split her tongue. It follows her feelings at this time, and follows her slow spiral downwards into alcoholism. The story ends with Lui's own tragic discovery about her lover and the mysterious tattoo artist she has grown to become entranced by. (Wikipedia)

A life-size blow-up doll develops a soul and falls in love with a video store clerk. (imdb)

A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38. (imdb)

This is the third and final film in the 20th Century Boys Trilogy. A mysterious cult leader, simply named Friend (Tomodachi in Japanese), has gained control of the world. The plot follows the actions of Kenji and his childhood friends as the book of prophecies that Kenji wrote continues to influence the course of the world.

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)

A blind master swordsman attempts to lead a quiet life with his wife but he is provoked back into battle. (imdb)

Fujio Rika (Kurita Rei) is a bright young woman so set on marrying her ideal (i.e., rich, tall and handsome) boyfriend Ono Seiichi (Sekiguchi Tomohiro), an up-and-coming executive, that she descends into an almost neurotic state of shock when he suddenly dumps her. Drunk one night, she begins calling people randomly on her cell phone, until one, Kono Shingo (Arata), finally responds. (mubi.com)

On November 25th 1970, a man committed ritual suicide inside the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese Ministry of Defense. The man was Yukio Mishima, one of Japan's greatest and most celebrated novelists.With four members of his own private army -- the Tatenokai -- Mishima had taken the commandant hostage and called upon the assembled military outside the Ministry to overthrow their society and restore the powers of the Emperor. (mubi.com)

The latest pump-up of the blow-up doll subgenre (Lars and the Real Girl, Air Doll) comes as a bit of a discreet boom. The directing debut of Hirokazu Kore-eda's D.P., Yutaka Yamazaki, Torso, as the title helpfully suggests, features... a torso: a headless plastic trunk - complete with male member - that provides a measure of comfort and pleasure, soothing the urban solitude of an otherwise normal-looking (if a little easy on the eyes) woman in Tokyo. (JapanSociety.org)

From the late 1950s and into the 1970s, more than 90,000 of the Korean residents in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice and an end to discrimination. Our Homeland tells the story of one of their number. Yoon Seong-ho was sent to North Korea as a teen by his fervently North-supporting father. Returning to Tokyo for medical treatment after 25 years, he finds it difficult to open up to his family, including his passionately anti-North sister Rie. (en.wikipedia.org)

Sae and Kouhei met by accident on a train when they were both high school students, and a relationship starts to form. Later, when Sae needs to leave Hokkaido to go to Tokyo for studies, the two of them attempted to have a long distance relationship. However, their bond is tested by multiple challenges facing the two of them. (en.wikipedia.org)

The body of a child is found near the house of a seemingly ordinary couple: Shunsuke and Kanako Ozaki. The baby's mother is arrested as the prime suspect, but it doesn't take long for the police to consider Shunsuke a person of interest. (japansociety.org)

The blood of the Nakamoto's family is cursed, so their members are handsome but condemned to violently die young. Oryu, a midwife, has watched some of them growing up, living and dying. Now she's old and, talking with the animated photograph of her dead husband (a monk), she recollects the story of their tragic existence.

An unscheduled late night train arrives at Tokyo station on 15 August, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. Boarding the train are spirits of great men who died honourable deaths in the war more than 60 years ago. They have come to the modern world to see their homeland as a peaceful country and to tell the lingering spirits of the war dead about the current conditions. (The Movie Database)

A young man named Kengo Kosaka suffers from extreme mysophobia, or fear of dirtiness. Due to his compulsive disorder, he is unable to maintain a relationship with anyone. Kengo is also a lonely young man. Meanwhile, high school student Hijiri Sanagi has scopophobia, or fear of being stared at. Because of this fear, she refuses to go to school. Both Kengo and Hijiri do not expect to find love with another person, but they meet and fall in love.

On a small island somewhere in northern Japan, a child has disappeared. Although just a small village, apparently no one knows anything, and the case is closed. But thirty years later a journalist decides to start a new investigation at his own risk. Captivating mystery set in a village that seems doomed to be buried under a thick layer of snow, sorrows and lies. (Camera Japan)

The story revolves around Ryota Hironaga's family where the parents have been divorced for almost as long as he can remember. He was raised by a single mother as a result. There was an empty seat at the dinner table as a result, which he and his sibling seek to fill by searching for their father. (imdb)

After the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, a troupe of women's sumo wrestler arrive in the area near Tokyo. The group of female sumo wrestlers include Tomoyo and Tamae. Meanwhile, Tetsu and Daijiro are members of an anarchist group. They go to watch the female sumo wrestlers and become fascinated by them. (imdb)

A woman with an adopted child is contacted unexpectedly by the child's birth mother. (imdb)

An office worker learns that she is the last member of a ninja clan and that she must use her family's techniques to battle corruption and racism in local government.

The sixties and seventies were the Golden Age of Wakamatsu Production, established by Wakamatsu Koji, the master of the pink film genre and one of the leading Japanese directors of his time. One young filmmaker, Megumi, embraced the challenge of being a female assistant director to Wakamatsu. (imdb)

Following the manga series and the subsequent television serial of the same name, and featuring the same cast, a young and relatively inexperienced man comes across a woman during his working day and sparks fly. (imdb)

Amiko isn't like other children. Her endless energy and curious eccentricities make her an outcast at school and get her in trouble at home. When a painful family loss disrupts her seemingly idyllic seaside life, her sense of isolation intensifies, yet it doesn't stop Amiko from inviting people into her world.

Yumi was a victim when the triple disaster of an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown occurred in Japan in 2011. She is a guest of her aunt now. She finds a job at a local bar and works under the owner Sugiya, a man who has amnesia and barely recalls anything except his recipes. The two begin to develop feelings for one another.

Stories of Unnatural Death Investigation, a Japanese non-governmental organization as they work on unnatural death cases and try to reveal the truth behind the deaths. (imdb)