Shunji Iwai

Life isn't easy for a group of high school kids growing up absurd in Japan's pervasive pop/cyber culture. As they negotiate teen badlands- school bullies, parents from another planet, lurid snapshots of sex and death- these everyday rebels without a cause seek sanctuary, even salvation, through pop star savior Lily Chou-Chou, embracing her sad, dreamy songs and sharing their fears and secrets in Lilyholic chat rooms. Immersed in the speed of everyday troubles, their lives inevitably climax in a fatal collision between real and virtual identities, a final logging-off from innocence. (imdb)

After a young girl's mother dies, she is cared for by Glico, a brassy hooker, who gives the girl the name "Ageha" (Butterfly). Ageha goes to work for a collection of oddballs who run a junkyard and salvage business.

Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé Itsuki died two years earlier in a mountain climbing accident. While looking through his high school yearbook, Hiroko in a fit of grief decides to write a letter to him using his old school address. (imdb)

When two best friends develop a crush on the same boy, they develop a plan to trick him into dating them. (imdb)

In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place (imdb)

Believing that the world will end that very day, three mental patients Coco, Tsumuji, and Satoru set out upon a journey... (imdb)

On the day when a fireworks display is planned, Norimichi, Yusuke, and their friends at school in a Japanese seaside town cannot agree whether or not fireworks are "flat" or "round" when they explode in the sky. With her parents divorcing, the young teenager Nazuna has more serious matters on her mind... (imdb)

Documentary on the life and work of director Kon Ichikawa.

In this high school romance Hiro is dismayed to learn her new love Shu will be going away to college in Tokyo. She asks him not to go. (imdb)

In the 90s there was a decade of indie rock bands in the japanese culture. Bandage tell a fictional story four boys whose friendship and musical talents are tested in the ever changing world of music industry and their experience in love and hardship in real life. (imdb)

Simon is a fairly normal young man, dedicated to his teaching job and ailing mother. Underneath, however, things are not what they seem. Simon hunts online chat rooms, searching for young, suicidal women. Simon has a particular condition: he craves blood. (berlinale.de)

A salesman from Delta Works, a London-based computerized database, offers a one month free trial that seems uninteresting until he mentions that an operator, always selected from a group of young women in their 20's nick-named "Delta Ladies", will also be supplied in the trial period. Poo arrives at the one-man Aida Detective Agency with the Delta Mazelan 'F' Series hardware. A dragon fish has been stolen by Tetsu Tobiyama and biologist Thomas Earwing seeks its return... (imdb)

Yukio brings home a couple of turtles to keep Moemi company. He drills a hole in the front of one turtle's shell so that it can be taken for walks on a leash, but Moemi spares the second from the same fate. Their lives seem reasonably happy until she has her braces removed, and Yukio finds kissing her less satisfying. She starts tying up everything in her sight with knotted twine. A psychiatrist diagnoses "Obsessive Knot-Binding Syndrome" due to deficiencies in her relationship with Yukio. (imdb.com)

Agreeing to move out of his old apartment early to help out others, Ichiro shows up unexpectedly to move into his new place on Christmas Eve... (imdb)

It all started with a stowaway... when Apollo, a robot that looks like a human found a Cipher chip. Shortly after that Apollo started to acted strange and Mikaru, his human friend that looks like a robot, took him to the doctors. But nothing is the same as before and soon they're on their run while the truth about the Cipher chip and what had happened to Apollo reveals itself. (Anime News Network)

After her parents separate, 14 year-old Tetsuko (Alice) moves with her mother to a new town in what she calls "The Boonies" and must enroll as a transfer student in a new middle school. She immediately finds herself bullied due being assigned the seat of "Judas" who is said to have been murdered over a year before. She is told that if anybody knows his fate it would be Hana, the recluse in the house next door, who has been unable to bring herself to attend class since "Judas" disappeared. (imdb)

Nanami is an apathetic, part-time teacher in Tokyo, bullied by her students for having a quiet voice. She spends time on a social network and meets a young man. They are soon engaged, but Nanami has too few guests for the wedding. She meets Amuro, a jack-of-all-trades who pads her guest list with actors. Her marriage quickly falls apart and she starts working more part-time jobs. Amuro offers her a housekeeping job in an old mansion, but she soon realizes the job isn't what it seems.

Schoolchildren Norimichi, Yuusuke, and Junichi want to know if fireworks look round or flat from the side. They make a plan to find the answer at a fireworks display, while Nazuna schemes to run away with Norimichi or Yuusuke, whoever wins at the pool. (The Movie Database)

Attending the reunion in lieu of her late elder sister, Zhihua accidentally runs into Yin Chuan, on whom she had a crush in her youth. As old memories are evoked Zhihua slowly uncovers the intricate story of the trio. (imdb)

A lovely story...

A woman battles her spending habits.

A woman sits around at home.

A man tries to figure out who his ex-girlfriend is dating.

A professional hitman comes to kill a man as his final job. He manages to shoot him to death, but when he is leaving the house, the man he killed shows up again.

A film about a pregnancy

Businessman Yohei Kogure is being treated for a psychosomatic disorder. He's forgetful and regularly dreams about a girl who he believes to be his daughter.

A scientist desperately wanting to prove that mermaids exist is ostracized from the scientific community in Japan. He settles down in Australia steadfast in his hypothesis when a Japanese student visits him in Australia with strange questions about mermaids, how the young man survived in the ocean, and why he doesn't remember anything.

A documentary looking back on the making of Shunji Iwai's TV play Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom?.

Three short dramas using the backdrop of food.

An actor who has lost his job due to the coronavirus buys capsule monsters online and begins to raise them.

In the Great East Japan Earthquake, a young girl named Luca loses her family and is left with a disability that prevents her from speaking properly. She can, however, make her voice heard when she sings. (imdb)