Cinequest

Like Father, Like Son

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.

Still Walking

A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.

Ghosts vs. Aliens 03

A two-part feature directed separately by Shimizu and his colleague Keisuke Toyoshima. Unrelated to each other, both have a common goal: to bring ghosts and aliens together in pure, referential and absurdistic delirium, including neo-Nazi specters, zombie yakuzas and nasty aliens.

The Broken Commandment

At the strong insistence of his father, Ushimatsu Segawa conceals his origins from a “buraku” area of low-class “untouchables,” leaving his hometown to serve as an elementary school teacher where he excels and is loved by his students. But he constantly struggles with the secret of his low-birth status and is disturbed by all of the discrimination levelled upon his class. It prevents him from pursuing a romance with Shiho, whom he meets at the temple where he resides, but who descends from a samurai family.

Between the White Key and the Black Key

In an audacious reworking of the biopic, this ensemble drama sees jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi’s memoir cleverly reinterpreted into a surreal and playful story about chasing dreams, disillusionment and the inner lives of professional artists. Closer to playing two sides of the same coin than tackling a dual role, Ikematsu Sosuke embodies two versions of Minami – the naïve upstart and the jaded pro – who magically cross paths as they become entangled with a cast of colourful characters in the seedy alleyways and jazz clubs of Ginza over a sing...

Woman in Witness Protection

Biwako is a vain, middle-aged actress who witnesses a brutal murder. Realizing that the very public life of the woman makes their sole witness vulnerable to the killers, the police assign two officers to safeguard her until the trial. In the interim, the lives of Biwako and everyone around her are changed in unexpected ways.

Ah, Wilderness: Part 1

Set in the near future around Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinji got out from a youth detention center. Barikan suffers from stuttering and extreme shyness. These two men meet in a boxing gym. Shinji and Barikan become friends and pursue boxing under a hopeless situation.

Close Your Eyes and Hold Me

Tenderly played Japanese love triangle between a man, his girlfriend and a transvestite hooker

Mahjong Treasure Bath Chronicle

Namba Hiryu was captured by Kisaragi-kai, a group of villainous sparrows who are opening dark gambling venues at hot spring inns nationwide! Mashiro, a daughter who learned mahjong from Hiryu when she was young, challenges the Kisaragikai with Chiko, who was the leader of Hiryu, in order to protect the public bath at her parents' house! Mashiro and his friends struggle with the sneaky mahjong of the Kisaragikai, but when they enter the hot springs and their bodies get hot, the mahjong becomes stronger! ?? Can Mashiro and Chiko rescue Hiryu w...

Double Mints

Mitsuo Ichikawa receives a phone call from Mitsuo Ichikawa. Their names are pronounced the same, but spelled differently using kanji. They also graduated from the same high school. Back in their high school days, Mitsuo Ichikawa was like a subordinate to Mitsuo Ichikawa. Mitsuo Ichikawa is now a hoodlum and tells the other Mitsuo that he killed a woman. They become accomplices and build a new relationship.

Puzzle

High school student Azusa jumps off from the rooftop of a school building, but she survives. One month later, the school is taken over by group of people wearing bizarre masks. A pregnant teacher is imprisoned, while the head director of the school and male students disappear. Azusa then finds pieces of a puzzle in an envelope given to her by classmate Shigeo. The puzzle pieces holds the key to solve the case. Azusa chases after Shigeo and she sees something which is unimaginable.

Heisei Irresponsible Family: Tokyo de Luxe

The members of the Ameya family are all scammers. After their election scheme goes bust in their hometown, they move from Shikoku to Tokyo and resume their fraudulent activities. Everything carries on smoothly until the eldest and the fourth sons' modus operandi go awry, the mother's lover runs off with another woman, and disasters strike one after another. This film is a collaboration between Yoichi Sai and Goro Kishitani following "All Under the Moon." The family business of the Ameya family is defrauding people. The matriarch, who keeps ...

The Light Shines Only There

A man has thrown away love and a woman has given up on love. The two souls meet in a brief summer in the northern city of Hakodate.

Being Good

Tasuku Okano is a diligent young man who was raised by decent family. He works as a new teacher at an elementary school. Tasuko deals with his students the way his head teacher told taught him, but the situation in his classroom isn't very good. He notices that one of his students might be abused, but he tries to ignore it by reasoning that he is too busy to become involved. Tasuko though feels terrible about the situation and decides to help his abused student. Masami was raised by an abusive mother. She is now violent towards her own 3-yea...

Molester Diary: A Man Who Kept Stroking Ass 2

The familiar Chikan group members who bite into the buttocks of women in the crowd of crowded trains and are absorbed in lewd acts without discipline today. Leader Kawasaki and Gum man, and a manga artist I. For some reason, I took on the role of a bodyguard to protect Kawasaki's daughter from molesting, but what was the father of the molesting young man who was also a molester !? The ties between the parents of the molester are intertwined, and the two are exactly Romeo and Juliet. From an idol to an actress ── Misa Aika fascinates her wit...

Onpaku

Tokyo is a mere five-hour flight from Hong Kong but it is a totally different world. Sarah (Josie Ho) has come to Japan seeking to buy an investment property and to have a brief and restful holiday after a bad break-up with her boyfriend. Everything has been precisely arranged in advance; from the schedule, to the hotel, to the real estate broker and the site visits. Immediately after her arrival, things start to go terribly wrong.

The Sun

The story is set in the early 21st century with the population decimated by bio terror. Two kinds of humans now exist. One is the Nokusu who were infected with a virus but survived and consequently they carry an antibody. Most are young, healthy and have high intelligence, but they have a high sensitivity to ultraviolet rays and are active mostly during the night. The other group are the Kyurio. They survived by never having the virus. The Nokusu discriminates against the Kyurio. Tetsuhiko Okudera is a Kyurio. He was born in a poor village....

Night of the Shooting Stars

Working long hours in the emergency room, nurse Kana Aoshima befriends musician and frequent hospital patient Shogo Amami. Shogo's therapy visits for his muteness and blindness happen to frequently coincide with Kana's shift, which enables the nurse to get to know the handsome artist well enough to start falling in love with him. Fate intercedes, however, when Shogo is killed after being hit by a car - a development that utterly crushes Kana's will to live. Shogo's spirit is transported to heaven, where it is given the chance to return to Ea...

A Girl in the Sunset

Based on four early novellas by Noble Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata, this omnibus of four short films are by emerging directors from the second graduating class of the new Graduate School of Film and New Media at Japan’s top art school, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Tokyo Geidai), where famed directors Takeshi Kitano and Kiyoshi Kurosawa teach.

Ah, Wilderness: Part 2