Akira Emoto

ウィニング・パス

Shinichi Nakada

Maki Horikita, Kenichi Matsuyama

This is a story about a high school student who had it all going for him. He was great at basketball, he had a love like no other, until a day where he loses the ability to walk. This is the story of his struggle through hardship to regain it all.

Shoplifters

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Lily Franky, Sakura Andō

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them.

Memories of Matsuko

Tetsuya Nakashima

Miki Nakatani, Eita

While combing through the belongings of his recently deceased aunt, Matsuko, nephew Sho pieces together the crucial events that sank Matsuko's life into a despairing tragedy.

油断大敵

Izuru Narushima

Koji Yakusho, Akira Emoto

Shall We Dance?

Masayuki Suo

Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari

A bored Japanese accountant sees a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves ballroom dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.

ぐるりのこと。

Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Lily Franky, Tae Kimura

Kanao, a courtroom portrait artist, observes crimes, scandals and the decline of Japanese values without passing judgement. As he and his wife endure the tragedy of their first child’s death, hope slowly unfolds and their love story flickers to life once again.

Wood Job!

Shinobu Yaguchi

Shota Sometani, Masami Nagasawa

After failing his university entrance exam, Yuki Hirano sets his eyes on the role of a forestry trainee. Setting off for training he doubts his decision many times, but eventually after passing the training course, he is sent to Kamusari Village for a year of work experience - where he becomes assimilated with the beauty of nature and the warm-hearted people of the village.

夏の庭 The Friends

Shinji Sômai

Rentaro Mikuni, Naoki Sakata

A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. The boys form a bond with the recluse and set about weeding and replanting the garden.

真夜中まで

Makoto Wada

Хироюки Санада, Michelle Reis

Koji, a jazz musician, takes a cigarette break in between sets at a Tokyo nightclub. He witnesses a murder and runs into a girl, Linda, who is being pursued by the killers. For the next two hours, Koji and Linda are running from both the hitmen and the police. Mistakenly identified as prime suspects, they have to solve the crime but time is running out: Koji has to be back to perform in his club by midnight, as a very special guest will be attending.

Maborosi

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano

A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.

Zatoichi

Takeshi Kitano

Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

0.5 mm

Momoko Ando

Sakura Andō, Junkichi Orimoto

Sawa, a home helper for a middle class family with an elderly infirm grandfather, is forced to stretch her morals to keep her job. As a result, she finds herself broke and out on the street. She survives her first night by striking up an ambiguous friendship with a kindly old man, gaining access to a portion of the immense wealth held by Japan's aging population. She continues with similar encounters, and while these begin as scams or revenge on rampant sexism, they ultimately become vulnerable intergenerational exchanges.

ぺきんのすいか

Nobuhiko Ōbayashi

Bengal, Masako Motai

Shunzo is a popular greengrocer in a town near Tokyo. His life, and the lives of his wife Michi, and their two children, undergoes a dramatic change when he encounters Li, a poor college student from China.

The Eel

Shōhei Imamura

Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu

White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away; so he suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks to almost no one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.

東京タワー　オカンとボクと、時々、オトン

Joji Matsuoka

Joe Odagiri, Kirin Kiki

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

ヘヴンズ ストーリー

Takahisa Zeze

Moeki Tsuruoka, Tomoharu Hasegawa

A young girl named Sato watches on television as a man named Tomoki states brazenly at a press conference that he hopes convicted murderer Mitsuo is eventually placed back into society so that he can kill him with his bare hands.