A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find on the street. (imdb)

Shigemori (Masaharu Fukuyama) is an elite lawyer. He is compelled to defend Mikuma's (Koji Yakusho) murder case. Mikuma has a criminal record from a murder that took place 30 years ago. Mikuma also confesses to the murder charge and he faces the death sentence, but Shigemori begins to have doubts about Mikuma's guilt. (AsianWiki)

Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support. After the death of his father, his aging mother and beautiful ex-wife seem to be moving on with their lives. Renewing contact with his initially distrusting family, Ryota struggles to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in the life of his young son until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again. (imdb)

A story that revolves around three sisters who live in their grandmother's home and the arrival of their 13-year-old half sister. (imdb)

Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own. (imdb)

Ryota Tsuboi (Hiroshi Abe) is a producer for a CM production company. His wife Sae (Tomoko Yamaguchi) is a food stylist. She is also enthusiastic about her daughter Moe's education and her work. Their only child Moe is affectionately called "furodo," because she claims to see a fairy. Meanwhile, Ryota has a timid personality and, because of this, has difficulties fitting in at home and work. (asianwiki.com)

Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

Four short films based on ghost stories written by award winning modern Japanese writers Yasunari Kawabata, Osamu Dazai, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, & Saisei Muro. (The Movie Database)

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

A yearly reunion of a dysfunctional family.

A documentary following Okinawan-born singer-songwriter Cocco on her Kira-Kira tour, and at home. (KG)

A story set in the year 1872 in Japan. In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn't an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.

Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers and have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, charging her oldest boy to look after the others. And so begins the children's odyssey... (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)

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)

Without Memory is a documentary film by director Hirokazu Kore-eda that shares many themes with an is a precursor to After Life, along with being a worthwhile piece on it's own. This version is the same that was shown at the BAMcinematek with Kore-eda in attendance, which I note because it is narrated in English and only has subtitles for the Japanese speaking parts.

A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant... (imdb)

Hirata Yukata became the first man in Japan to publicly acknowledge that he had contracted HIV through homosexual sex. Koreeda's film is designed as a lament for Yukata, who had a profound impact on the filmmaker. His dying years are not presented as a time of physical deterioration, but rather an evolution of a relationship between two men, one of whom emerged from the process with a markedly changed perspective on the goal of objectivity in nonfiction film. (KG)

The television documentary However..., was Kore-eda's first film made in collaboration with the independent production company TV Man Union, and was screened on Fuji TV as part of their late night NONFIX factual strand. While the film's central focus is that of Japanese social policy and welfare, and issues surrounding the government's response to the Minimata disease, the narrative structure introduces many strategies and techniques more familiar to fictional cinema. (topmovies)

An elementary school in Japan begins an experimental program that frames the students' curriculum around one single project: the raising of a calf from adolescence to adulthood. Through ... (imdb)