Joe Odagiri

Two young guys work in a plant that manufactures oshibori (those moist hand-towels found in some Japanese restaurants). Their weird bond is based on uncontrollable rage--something neither can articulate or control--and the strange jellyfish that they keep as a pet. (imdb)

Amechiyo (The banished prince) falls in love with Tanukihime (a princess of raccoon dog disguised to human). This is an Operetta which includes comedy, singing and dancing, and a love story (imdb)

Shinobi centers on the drama resulting from the war between two ninja clans in the early part of the Tokugawa era... (imdb)

In war-torn Japan, the Tokugawa Shogun, desperate to restore peace to his people, orders the assassination of the hostile warlords. A beautiful young woman is raised from birth with nine other orphans, to become an assassin. Her name is AZUMI, the ultimate assassin. (imdb)

An experienced police detective has to investigate the murder of an unknown woman dressed in a scarlet dress. All the clues he finds relate to him, which troubles him a lot. A ghost dressed in a scarlet dress soon starts appearing to him while more murders are discovered: all victims were drowned in salt water. (imdb)

Masaya has been through a period of intensely rebellious behavior ever since he was a child.His mother comes to live with him in Tokyo (upon his invitation, he after all has some talent and begins to find himself. He then learns that his mom has contracted cancer and the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered. (IMDB and me)

Fumiya Takemura (Jô Odagiri) is over $7000 in debt. A loan shark makes him a deal where the debt will disappear if he accompanies him on a walk throughout Tokyo, at the final destination at Kasumigaseki's Police station. (whatismyname)

A traveling mystical doctor, a "Bugmaster' passes through remote regions of Japan curing the ill effects of supernatural creatures, the Mushi, who spread plague. (imdb)

One night, three strangers find themselves taken hostage by a depressed and drunk salaryman on the bus home. Afterwards, the trauma of the incident brings them together in a strange series of co-incidences that eventually lead to an underground job in the revenge business. But once they start, how can they be sure they will be able to stop? (heroic-cinema.com)

A man dreams he caused a car crash, then discovers a real hit-and-run accident. The driver is arrested by police as the prime suspect, though she claims she was not responsible. (movies.yahoo.com)

Mild-mannered and earnest Minoru helps out with the family business, a gas station in Yamanashi prefecture. His younger brother Takeshi works as a photographer in Tokyo. However, their worlds are turned upside down by an apparent murder on a suspension bridge that holds many memories for the both of them. (Yahoo! Movies)

Hong Kong director Yu Lik-wai's phantasmagorical tale of Chinese underground traders, Brazilian erotic dancers, and international politico-gangsters is set in the sleazy, steamy commercial and entertainment demimonde of Sao Paolo, Brazil. (viff)

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)

In 1923, the Korean teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees. He makes fortune, abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family, having many mistresses and children and showing no respect to anybody... (imdb)

Asuka is an aspiring model who moves to Tokyo to pursue her career. She moves into a small apartment with a friend of a friend, Kasumi. A bizarre murder occurs in the hotel across the street. The body was mutilated and repositioned into a lurid work of art. After this, a string of murders start happening all around the two girls, as if some crazed serial killer was following them. At the scene of each crime, the perpetrator leaves a black lip print, and is subsequently dubbed "The Black Kiss." (imdb)

In Monument Valley, Utah, the traditional homeland of Western movies, three people from Pakistan, Japan, and a local American trailer park meet through mishaps and discover each other's humanity. The beautiful landscape of South West -- an eternal sky spread over solemn & peaceful rock formations -- produces an abstract cosmos in which the three people face each other in the purest manner. (film-echoes)

Bored with his boring and typical Japanese life, Shin becomes fixated on one of the most crime-ridden places on Earth, the fictional New York City area known as Hazard.. After being robbed he meets two Japanese criminals who decide to take him in and together the three of them survive by continuing to commit crimes and scamming people out of their money. Eventually they cross the wrong person and local cops get involved, leading to a drawn-out police chase. (nipponcinema.com/trailers/hazard/ (shortened))

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

Saori has always disliked her gay father and has lived her life denying his existence. [She finds out] her father is dying of cancer and that the nursing..is in danger of closing. Out of curiosity and debt, Saori goes to visit her father at the House of Himiko, a nursing home for gay old men. It is a sad place but filled with sardonic good cheer..She begins taking an interest in keeping the nursing home alive... (asianmediawiki.com)

The disillusioned general of an ancient Chinese army regiment finds himself stranded in a village populated by a strange clan with mystical connections to wolves. (imdb)

Staff and guests at a hotel endure a heady night of chaotic festivity and scandal.

3 people suffering from psychiatric problems, and a doctor stranger than any of them. (imdb)

On her seventeenth birthday Aoi is raped by her friends. Her family rejects her and she runs away from home. Because money and materialistic wealth is now all she cares for, she ends up working in the sex industry. (imdb)

Low-profile theater troop actor Mutsugoro Suzuki begins an oneiric journey back to his hometown, marked by his quest to find the one responsible of infecting him with a STD. (imdb)

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.

Jun Shik works for Tatsuo's grandfather's farm while Korea is colonized by Japan, but he has a dream to participate in Tokyo Olympics as a marathon runner. Tatsuo also aims to become a marathon runner, so the two are in rivalry. But war breaks out and they both are forced to enlist. During the war, Jun Shik and Tatsuo are captured by the Soviets. They run away but are soon captured by Germans and forced to separate. In 1944, they meet again at the shores of Normandy. (imdb)

Akino, Mihari, Hibiko and Azuki, the four beautiful Ninomiya sisters, have been entrusted with the management of the "Salamander Kinjiro Foundation". Their organisation receives several billion yen in grants from the government for the care of Kinjiro, a giant salamander and national treasure exhibited at the 1867 Paris World Expo by the 15th Shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Yoshinobu.

Master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Tokyo Sonata) returns with this story of a man who uses an advanced neurological technology to enter the frightening mindscape of his comatose lover. (tiff.net)

In the future, a meteor crashes into Earth bringing with it a virus known as M34 and attacks humans, turning them into vicious monsters. The fate of the world rests in the hands of 16-year-old girl with the power to defeat the virus. (imdb)

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)

As former detective Akikazu searches for his missing daughter, Kanako, he soon learns she has a mysterious secret life. (imdb)

Having himself telepathically linked to a mysterious stone belt, Godai Yusuke believes that he is fated to be the warrior Kuuga, who fights the Gurongi monsters that keeps murdering humans. (imdb)

Gassoh tells the tale of three childhood friends who harbor different political and social leanings. The year is 1868, after 300 years of domination, The Tokugawa Shogunate has fallen. Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the last Shogun, has just been exiled to Mito. This historical political event was said to have started without bloodshed as the political leaders at that time agreed to a peaceful discussion (rather than war) to usher in the Meiji era. (psycho-drama.com)

A mother finds out she has two months to live and decides she must prepare for it by: 1) Bringing her estranged husband back; 2) Restoring the family business, a bathhouse, that is on the verge of ruin; and 3) Building her daughter, Azumi, up so that she can stand on her own. (youtube.com)

Story about the first gorilla playing baseball in Korean Baseball League. (imdb)

A recently divorced and traumatized man moves to Hakodate, Hokkaido and attends a vocational college to learn carpentry along with several other students who are in the same boat as he. When a couple of the guys go to a hostess club the man meets an unconventional girl who likes him and a relationship is born. (imdb)

The White Girl was born allergic to the sun. Her only friend, Ho Zai, is too young to understand her problems. Her classmates tease her. Her overprotective father keeps her cooped up at home, but she's not at home in her own world. Even her bedroom is a bunk bed with a curtain for a wall. All she wants to do is grow up and leave the village. At night, she meets a man by the sea. His name is Sakamoto. He's not from the village. He's an outsider. (imdb)

In Kanini & Kanino, two crab brothers embark on a grand underwater adventure to find their father, after an accident carries him far downstream. In Life Ain't Gonna Lose, with the love of his strong-willed mother, Shun faces the challenge of an everyday life threatened by a deadly allergy. Lastly, in Invisible, a man wakes up one morning and goes through his day in a world where no one can see him. (gkids.com)

An anthology of human relationship stories connected by the only open in the wee hours diner the characters frequent. Resolutions are often facilitated by the owner/chef. (imdb)

A struggling, unemployed musician living with his girlfriend looks to improve his life after he discovers how she's been paying the rent. (imdb)

Comedian Ryuji Akiyama satirizes top "creators" in Japan with a deadpan, unerring eye for humor, with help from some surprising celebrity guest stars. (Netflix)

A love story spanning 5 years between a man and a woman. A 22-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman both miss the last train at Meidaimae Station in Tokyo and meet there. Their relationship develops romantically.

Japanese artist, Foujita, is Paris’ darling in the roaring twenties, loved for his delicate nudes. After leaving his 1st wife, Fernande, he meets Lucie Badoud and names her Yuki. Together with their friends Van Dongen, Kisling, Picasso, Modigliani & Kiki, they go to all the parties. (MUBI)

This horror anthology features nine independent episodes, each 30 minutes long, that revolve around bad karma and terror.

A woman who used to be a contender for the Olympic Judo Team had to give up on her dream due to an injury. She ends up working at manga magazine when the publishing industry is going through a turbulent time. (imdb)

Yoko lives a reclusive life until news of her father's passing compels her to travel home. Stranded at a rest stop without means, she must hitch rides to make it to his funeral. (imdb)

Egami Mei is a genius surgeon, but is somehow still lacking. On other hand, his younger sister Satsuki is poor at studying. (imdb)

Kiriyama Shuichiro works as an information management officer in the prefectural police station. He is very observant and has interest in the unresolved cases which have gone past the legal time frame, he investigates the cases without permission with the aim of "confirming" the culprit only. Some characteristics of this character would be his dark green spectacles, his wallet containing 20,000 yen at all times and he likes udon and nyuumen. (imdb)

This historical biopic follows the life of Japanese heroine Yae Niijima. As Yae dedicates her life to helping others, she becomes a role model for modern women everywhere. (imdb)

Goro Inogashira travels all over Japan for work. Upon receiving a message from an old friend's daughter, Goro arrives in Paris and learns of the elderly man's wish to taste a particular soup he had in his childhood before he dies.

Also called Candy House, this drama revolves around Taro's (OdagiriJoe) candy shop named "Sakuraya" and the lives of the four people who frequent this place as the shop, despite turning in no profit, holds treasured memories of their childhood days and all the guys including Taro spends their days chatting about the mundane topics and just being content with no aspira...