June 12, 1998

An Obsession is Aoyama's remake for the 1990s of Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog ("Nora inu," 1949). The basic plot situation is the same: a cop, after losing his gun to a killer, sets out on a search for the criminal who in the end is all too disturbingly similar to the hero. Under Kurosawa's humanistic world view, Stray Dog presented the fundamentally shared nature of Japanese suffering amidst the Occupation and postwar poverty. An Obsession, however, is different.The film begins with a fin-de-siecle, apocalyptic sense of insanity which Kurosawa's humanism could never tolerate.

Delphine is twenty years old. She is too young to have experienced the activism of the seventies, but for her it is not something that belongs to the past. She decides to find something that will allow her to act and which, she claims, is owed to her.

Kenji Nakagami, one of the most notable Japanese writers of the post-war, died in 1992. His work reveals a strong connection to his homeland, Kishu: a mountainous region that connects to the Pacific Ocean through a river. "To The Alley" (alternative title) is a documentary about Kenji's life. Incorporating 16 mm images from the writer's personal archive and adding new footage, director Shinji Aoyama travels through the paths of the life and art of the Japanese writer.

An ex-boxer working for a game parlor owner gets caught up in a complex blackmail operation he doesn't understand. Before long he's caught between two yakuza bosses and a mysterious thief who motivation is unknown. Add in the boss' daughter who has a crush on him and watch him struggle to make sense of it all and come out alive.

The traumatized survivors of a murderous bus hijacking come together and take a road trip to attempt to overcome their damaged selves. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose.

An omnibus recorded in a short film by five film directors with the motif of the song "Kai Band".

Centering on a young drifter almost casually drawn into violence--a crime drama about a boy and a man equally ill-equipped for criminal life and straight society. Neither wants to be a Yakuza, but normal life presents problems.

Three couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has killed his mistress...

The film is a collection of one-minute short films created by 60 filmmakers from around the world on the theme of the death of cinema.

Based on a novel by Shinya Tanaka, this film is set in a quiet riverside town, where 17-year-old Tooma lives with his father and his father’s lover. Tooma witnesses his father’s sadistic behavior towards his lover and soon finds himself following in his father’s footsteps.