When Marnie Was There

Upon being sent to live with relatives in the countryside due to an illness, an emotionally distant adolescent girl becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and infatuated with a girl who lives there - a girl who may or may not be real.

Empire of Passion

In a small Japanese village at the end of the 19th century, a rickshaw driver's wife takes on a much younger lover and the two conspire to murder him.

Departures

Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.

Riding the Metro

Shinji (Shinichi Tsutsumi) steps out of a train station to find himself transported back to 1964.

Tokyo Family

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

Going Home

Haruo returns to his hometown for his mother’s second marriage, where he happens to meet his first love Miyuki for the first time in eight years. Miyuki is back in town with her daughter Chiharu, after leaving a failed marriage.

The Little House

Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof.

Black Strait

Newly out of prison after killing his boss' rival, Akio Maki is eager to move on and start a new life with the boss' daughter. However, the chains of the past are not so easily broken and Maki is soon ordered to kill again.

Saijo katagi

Set in an old merchant house in Kyoto, the film traces the passing of an era through the story of a parent and child.

Tale on Tokai Chivalry

The film is set in Fukagawa in the early Showa period and depicts a fateful confrontation between two men who rise and fall in a black stream, trying to live a real human life, violating the cruel laws of the passing generation.

What a Wonderful Family! 3

At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.

Lily Festival

Sachi Hamano's Yurisai (Lily Festival) is about a man (Mickey Curtis) in his seventies who comes to live in an apartment building that also houses seven elderly women. The film examines the ladies' sexual desires as the man proceeds to woo each of them. Kazuko Yoshiyuki portrays one of the female residents. The film was adapted from a novel by Houko Momotani and was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Crossroads

Domestic drama focusing on a soon to be retired train driver and his wife.

Modern Chivarly: Sworn Brothers

After the enactment of the Anti-Prostitution Law, the red-light district in Shinjuku lost its allure. Even the gambling den of the Ryūzaki family was always deserted. Ryūzaki, the boss, declared his retirement in response to the changing times. It was thought that Igarashi, who valued righteousness and principles and had the respect of others, would become the second-in-command. However, he was an annoying presence to Ryūzaki...

Kikujiro

Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.

Snowland Revisited

Kunio Shibano was bankrupted. He visits a snowland spa area to commit suicide. But he meets Geisha Moeko, and she gives him power to face life one more time...

Yoshiko & Yuriko

Based on a true story, Yoshiko and Yuriko relates the journey and great love affair of Yoshiko, who was a renowned translator of Russian literature and drama, and Yuriko, who was a feminist novelist and great activist of the post-war democratic literature movement. Both have left huge marks on Japanese literary history. The two women shared a strong attraction to each other from their first meeting and enjoyed a powerful love affair. Yoshiko reveals that she's an out lesbian, whilst Yuriko is married (not altogether happily) to a well-known ...

O-higara mo yoku, go-shusho sama

While Kazuo Tanaka eagerly practices his greetings for the big wedding the next day, his first as a matchmaker, his second daughter Hitomi prepares for her travels with her secret lover. The eldest daughter Reiko, nine months pregnant, has left her cheating husband to enter a frenzied Tanaka household. On the wedding day, Kazuo learns his father has passed away. Afraid of ruining the wedding, he asks Reiko and Hitomi to deal with the crisis. Rushing home after the ceremony, Kazuo and Kanako are faced with various problems.

What a Wonderful Family! 2

Several years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin after carousing. Soon, a new disturbance arises for the Hirata family. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his comedy about the “perfect“ Japanese family turned upside down in chaos, laughters and understanding. This time, with an additional taste of death.

Gun Demon Without Form

A detective drama that realistically shows the work of an experienced detective who, under cover, pursues the organizer of the arms trade route from Kobe.