Tetsuo Shinohara
1962 (63 года)クリアネス
Tetsuo Shinohara
Kiki Sugino, Toshihiko Hosoda
Sakura is a 20-year-old college student who has sex for money to fund her shopping addiction. After her customers leave her apartment, she spends her time spying on Leo, a young, beautiful, and (dyed) blond-haired boy, who works at a male escort service across the street. One day, Leo pays her a visit, and so starts an unlikely friendship. But Leo has a troubled past. He is the son of a prostitute who worked for his current pimp and died before she could repay money that she owed. He himself entered the business when he graduated from junior high school. Though Leo refuses to make love to Sakura (he has a policy of not having sex outside of work), the two fall in love and become inseparable until Leo gets into a fight with Sakura's boyfriend and gets him into a car accident. Leo turns himself in, and Sakura moves to Okinawa to wait for him at their dream destination.
CLEARNESS
深呼吸の必要
Tetsuo Shinohara
Karina, Shosuke Tanihara
Breathe In, Breathe Out centers on six, later seven, individuals who have gotten jobs harvesting sugarcane on a small Okinawa island. Each worker has their own unique personality as well as their own issues as they learn to work together...
Breathe In, Breathe Out
First Love
Tetsuo Shinohara
Rena Tanaka, Mieko Harada
This coming-of-age story from Japan opens just after 17-year-old Sataka has gotten dumped by her boyfriend. When her mother is hospitalized with a malignant stomach ulcer, Sataka is left alone with her emotionally repressed father; whiling away the hours one day, she comes across a love letter written to her mother 24 years earlier. Deciding to track down the letter's author, Sataka eventually finds Shinichiro (Hiroyuki Sanada), an overweight slob who was abandoned by his wife years earlier and now spends his time hanging around pachinko parlors. Determined to clean him up and reintroduce him to her mother, Sataka nags Shinchiro until he finally agrees to her demands, and a gradual friendship develops between the two as Sataka drags him to the gym and a clothing store. But once Shinchiro's makeover is complete, he turns the tables on his young friend, and when the time comes for him to meet Sataka's mother, all concerned parties find themselves embarking on a new phase in their lives.
First Love
小川の辺
Tetsuo Shinohara
Noriyuki Higashiyama, Rinko Kikuchi
A samurai Sakunosuke gets an order from clan chamberlain to kill another samurai who is married with his own younger sister. As a loyal samurai he has to accept the mission even though he has inner conflicts.
At River's Edge
草の上の仕事
Tetsuo Shinohara
Naoki Goto, Hikari Ota
Two young men cut grass in what appears to be a huge countryside park. The younger, more butch one is a pro; he does this every day. The other, slightly nerdy and clumsy with the equipment, is a temp; he wants to be a writer. The day starts badly, but they reach a truce during lunchbreak. And then, in the afternoon, they drift towards - what? Emotional intimacy? Sex? A glimmer of mutual understanding? Shinohara's prizewinning short shows the collision of two personalities, two approaches to life, and yields some moving and curiously melancholy perceptions of the world as young men see it. A minor classic of Japanese indie cinema.
Work on the Grass
Yokubô
Tetsuo Shinohara
Yuka Itaya, Saki Takaoka
Yokubo from director Tetsuo Shinohara is based off of the award-winning love story by Mariko Koike. A young man searching for physical comfort and dumb lust, and the world-weary woman drowning in a sea of men that works with him. This is a fantastic new film from a remarkably skilled cast about "the beauty of sensualism."
Desire
花戦さ
Tetsuo Shinohara
Mansai Nomura, Kamejirô Ichikawa
In the late 16th century, after the death of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes power. The age of war is about to end, but Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rule makes life difficult for the people. Monk Senko Ikenobo is a master of flower arrangement. He prays for peace in the world and tries to give hope to the people with flower arrangement. He becomes good friends with Rikyu. Rikyu is a monk and a politician. He has the most profound influence on chanoyu. Rikyu is forced to commit hara-kiri by Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s order. Monk Senko Ikenobo challenges Hideyoshi Toyotomi.
Flower and Sword
天国の本屋～恋火
Tetsuo Shinohara
Yūko Takeuchi, Tetsuji Tamayama
Kenta, a young pianist who has just lost his job, is drowning his woes at a bar, when he meets a man in a Hawaiian shirt named Yamaki. He invites Kenta to work with him, and the next thing he knows, Kenta wakes up to find himself in a room he has never been in before. It is a strange room that seems to have no connection to life. He descends a staircase to find many shelves of books.
Heaven's Bookstore
山桜
Tetsuo Shinohara
Rena Tanaka, Noriyuki Higashiyama
Based on a short story written by Shuhei Fujisawa (who also wrote Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, Love and Honor), the film depicts the uneasy life of Noe Isomura (Rena Tanaka) with the difficult family she has married into after her former husband passed away. One day as she tries to brake off a branch of a cherry tree, she is aided by a samurai who she does not recognize but who recognizes her. He turns out to be a former suitor that she never met named Yaichiro Tezuka (Noriyuki Higashiyama) and who teaches swordsmanship to the local samurai. Meanwhile, the powerful new chief retainer of the village enacts land policies that threaten the survival of the local farmers.
Yamazakura, The Cherry Tree in the Hills
女学生の友
Tetsuo Shinohara
Tsutomu Yamazaki, Aki Maeda
Genichiro, a lonely retired man living with his son’s family who mostly ignores him, feels closest to his granddaughter who is in highschool. Through her, Genichiro meets another high school girl, Mina, who also feels ignored by her family. She is also troubled by her friend’s pregnancy and the bankruptcy of her father’s company. Unlike her friends, Mina has an ungilded view of life and finds herself comforted by Genichiro’s wisdom. Genichiro likewise is happy to be making a difference in someone’s life.
High School Girl's Friend
木曜組曲
Tetsuo Shinohara
Kyoka Suzuki, Mieko Harada
A closed-room mystery where five women gathered in memory of a mysteriously dead female writer to unravel the mystery behind her death. Based on the novel of the same name by Riku Onda, directed by Tetsuo Shinohara. Four years ago, an actress/novelist died of overdose. Since then, five women who were her friends gather around once every year to recollect her memories. However this year, they receive flowers with a strange message which insinuates that her death could have been a murder.
Mokuyo Kumikyoku
