Mariko Okada

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)

Three women who share memories of the Hiroshima disaster try to uncover the hidden family ties that may or may not bind them together. (imdb)

Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omacha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house.

Ryoko Itakura, a relentless national tax inspector, uses clever investigation tactics to expose white-collar tax evaders across Tokyo. Her biggest target becomes Hideki Gondo, a shrewd love-hotel owner who conceals massive profits through complex schemes. As Itakura probes deeper into his financial empire, a cat-and-mouse game unfolds between the dedicated auditor and the cunning entrepreneur.

Kosuke Kindaichi is a popular detective found in Seishi Yokomizo's novels, and this is one of several movies that have been made based on his character. Yokomizo's plots have more twists and turns than Japanese calligraphy and loudly invite parody. This film is not an RSVP to that invitation. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi has not parodied Yokomizo's style so much as imitated it. (nytimes.com)

When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime. (imdb)

The lives of three movie actresses unfold, transform and get exposed. Each of them owes their choice of profession to a respective traumatic event. (imdb)

A man and his wife, both former political activists, lead a quiet life until a teenage girl claiming to be their daughter arrives at their home. This encounter triggers a fragmented and surreal journey through time, blending memories of past radicalism with visions of a dystopian future. The narrative challenges traditional structure to explore the psychological weight of failed revolution.

This landmark of the Japanese New Wave weaves two parallel narratives: the historical account of anarchist Sakae Osugi and his complex relationships in the 1920s, and a contemporary search by two students investigating his life. The film explores the intersection of political radicalism and sexual liberation, utilizing avant-garde cinematography to bridge the past and the present.

Yuriko, owner of a barbershop in Sapporo, takes a trip with Sugino, her lover. When they enjoy themselves in the cold and the snow, Yuriko tells him that she has come with the intention to break up with him. Convinced that there is another man, eaten up by jealousy, Sugino decides to kill her at the lake Shikotsuko. But Yuriko tells him that she's pregnant...

Before going to university, Kawamura goes on holiday in Europe. In Lissabon he encounters Naoko, who sells furniture and art objects. Kawamura is obsessed by a sketch of a European church he saw in Nagasaki. He came to Europe to see that church with his own eyes. Naoko lost her parents during the bombing of Nagasaki, and tries to forget Japan... A story of attraction and repulsion begins.

A young woman is driven by bitterness and frustration to the promiscuity of her mother against which she had rebelled.

The heroine, Ritsuko, is married to Shingo, a design engineer. Shingo is unable to father a child so Ritsuko is artificially inseminated. The birth of a son, Takashi, however, does not help marital relations between husband and wife. When Sakaguchi, a doctor having marital problems with his wife, Shina, is revealed as the sperm donor, Ritsuko develops a passion for the doctor.

After a random encounter at a bar, two couples collide. Two men, two women, embroiled in a love-and-hate drama that threatens to engulf them. The sexual anxiety between the interwoven couples tautens right up to the nearly unbearable tension of the climax. (imdb）

A beautiful woman, Gin, is blackmailed after being surreptitiously photographed by a young man. The initial threat evolves into a complex, psychological power struggle as they travel together across the scenic Lake Biwa. The narrative delves into themes of voyeurism, suppressed desire, and the shifting dynamics of guilt, set against the backdrop of Japan’s evolving social landscape.

A samurai warrior is haunted by the spirit of his first wife. (imdb)

Shizuo Matsutani, a bank clerk, is engaged to Yumika, daughter of a rich shopowner, Denzô Hashimoto. But when he discovers that his mother, the beautiful Shizuka, is having an affair with said, he delays his wedding because of it. He has even begun to despise Denzô, who he thinks wants to destroy the relationship he has with his mother...

Part one of the two part The Scent of Incense."

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble. (themoviedb)

A man travels to Akitsu Springs to die, only to be nursed to health by a young woman who works at the springs. The film follows their lives through the years as the man leaves, grows, and marries, but never stops coming back to Akitsu Springs.

Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year old daughter. He gradually comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, and so he arranges a marriage for her. (imdb)

Story of a woman, Saiko, who divorces her doctor husband when she is given a baby by a stranger who claims it is the husband's child. Saiko embarks on an affair with her cousin's husband, but a crisis threatens when she discovers that her ex-husband is about to remarry. (BFI)

A widowed mother gently resists the persistent efforts of her late husband's friends to find her a new spouse, all while focusing on her beautiful daughter's marriage prospects. A delicate, poignant exploration of filial duty, societal expectations, and the quiet sacrifices made for family.

Tradition and modernity clash when a young woman inherits a sweet-making firm in Kyoto. (letterboxd)

When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous friends. (Criterion)

Tane, the lady proprietor of an inn for amorous couples, lives there with her three children. When her eldest daughter loses her fiancé due to the fact her mother is a mistress, her despair drives her to become a cabaret hostess.

In postwar Tokyo, a middle-aged widow takes a job as a maid in a traditional geisha house to support her daughter. Through her daily routines, she observes the quiet decline of the establishment as its aging owner and residents struggle against rising debts, internal rivalries, and shifting modern values threatening their traditional way of life.

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun... (imdb)

The woman-only prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her. (imdb)

A film based on the works of Nagai S?kichi.

Coach Shimamura of the hapless Sparrows baseball team is pleased to obtain a hot new pitcher named Onishi. But when Onishi begins a romantic relationship with the coach's daughter Michiko, Shimamura becomes angry with the young man, lashing out at him when he disobeys instructions during a game. In turn, Michiko becomes angry with her father, who becomes increasingly depressed. (The Movie Database)

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto... (imdb)

Returning to a devastated postwar Tokyo, Yukiko seeks out Kengo, a married forestry engineer with whom she had a passionate affair during World War II in occupied French Indochina. Disillusioned to find him unwilling to leave his wife, she becomes trapped in a toxic, destructive cycle of reunion and betrayal, clinging to memories of a past that no longer exists in a ruined nation.

With his closest friend, Matahachi, Takezo (the town's wild, orphan kid) leaves his village to join an army on its way to battle... (imdb)

At Rabaul, ace pilot Wakabayashi leads a rapidly depleting squad of airmen trying to defend Japanese forces from air attacks. Known as "Devil" Wakabayashi, he rules with an iron fist – taking issue with men who spend their time in local bars and pointedly refusing to send rescue craft for crashed pilots. (Windows on Worlds)

The story is based on the author's personal experience as a teacher dispatched to Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku. Set at a middle school in Matsuyama. Botchan (young master) is the first-person narrator. He grows up in Tokyo as a reckless and rambunctious youth. In the opening he hurts himself jumping from the second floor of his elementary school, fights the boy next door, and tramples a neighbor's carrot patch by wrestling on the straw that covers the seedlings.

The context here is tightly drawn in scope around a couple and their colleagues and friends, and the intended theme of marital discord is consistent and pervasive. The plot weaves around within these constraints, bringing out the various aspects of the eternal battle of the sexes. (imdb)

Mieko Takamine is a former ballet star and current ballet teacher married to So Yamamura. The couple have a teen-aged son and daughter. Takamine's affections seem to be engaged by an old friend (Kan Nihonyanagi). Okada is now an advanced ballet student -- but is distracted by her mother's romance (which she is not entirely unsympathetic to) and the illness of her old teacher. (Michael Kerpan)