Tokyo Rhapsody
"Tokyo Rhapsody" consists of 11 short films all centered around the music genre known as "Kayokyoku". Kayokyoku is a catch-all term to describe the music that defined two generations of post-war Japan. Although the term survives, it has a strong connotation with a simpler, pre-"Economic Bubble" era when Japanese people shared a common identity in the reconstruction of their nation.
Shinobu Yaguchi
Toshiyuki Mizutani
Yoshikazu Ebisu
Itsumichi Isomura
Mitsuhiro Mihara
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Shinobu Yaguchi
A tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up poisoning and replacing the schools brass band.
A bittersweet coming-of-age film based on a novel dealing with forestry. Yuki Hirano wants to live an easy life, like working a part-time job after his high school graduation. But, after his high school graduation, Yuki hears from his homeroom teacher that he has been hired for a job. When Yuki gets home, his mother is packing his stuff. Yuki's mother and his homeroom teacher decided that Yuki will work as a forestry trainee after his graduation. Yuki will have to go Kamusari Village. Since then, Yuki begins to work as a forestry trainee and becomes assimilated with the beauty of nature and the warm-hearted people in the village.
This short film won acclaim in several international film festivals.
After being hypnotized, Shizuka Suzuki has to sing and dance whenever she hears music.
Rain in Tokyo area. Two girls holed up in their tiny apartment. They go out, steal cabbages, hit a supermarket and kill a cow. The sun comes out and changes everything. Alive with spirited spontaneity plus a dash of anarchy, The Rain Women is the true heir to Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating.
Made under the restrictions of "no zoom, pan, editing or post-sound," directors Shinobu Yaguchi and Takuji Suzuki skewer Japanese social conventions in 14 short episodes. In one segment a woman misreads an advertisement and arrives at a job interview dressed in a bunny suit. Another concerns a woman who hides to surprise her friends only to overhear their unkind appraisal of her hygiene. And another entitled "Grandpa from Hell" is a surreal yarn about a cult leader. Ranging from the humorous to the deeply bizarre, the film's static, minimalistic style makes such "Dogme 95" films as The Celebration (1998) look extravagant.
Sakiko, a young bank teller, has an unhealthy obsession with money. Thieves hold up the bank, kidnapping Sakiko in the process, but eventually crash their car, resulting in a suitcase stuffed with cash falling into a nearby river. For the remainder of the film, Sakiko begins a desperate quest to retrieve the money.
A world wide electrical outage occurs. Everything that requires electricity comes to a stop. Tokyo is nearly ruined. Yoshiyuki Suzuki (Fumiyo Kohinata) decides to escape from Tokyo with his family.
The misadventures of Junko, a schoolgirl who unwittingly sets off a catastrophic chain of events after being caught using her friend's train pass.
Also Directed by Toshiyuki Mizutani
A shy, nerdy man, Takeru finds a schoolgirl hooker Lily is unconscious in a Tokyo park, so he decides to bring her home and lock her up in a secret basement. Although Lily is afraid of him, in fact, Takeru didn't do anything to hurt her. After Lily begins to uncover a shocking episode
After seeing her husband off to work, the young author identified only as Yoshiko sets off to read the large collection of letters she received from other young authors. These are often letters containing samples of their work for critique. One large envelope contains a letter. The letter-writer does not provide his name. The letter is a confession of crimes. The letter-writer has no family or friends, and claims to be "ugly beyond description". He is a chair maker and loves his work and all the chairs he creates, even going so far as to claim some sort of intangible connection to his work.
The sequel to 'Mistress Spirit'
A yakuza's woman got in a car with Ida, a salesman who has no choice!
The fourth head of the Masashimizu group suddenly died. It was good until his adopted son Haruhiko Ayanokoji, a lawyer, succeeded him, but the gang consisted of only three odd people. Depicts the struggle of Haruhiko, who wears two pairs of straw sandals, a boss and a lawyer. A unique court yakuza story starring Masao Kusakari.
The suicide of a female teacher 15 years ago was actually a murder. A new investigation team, spearheaded by Mizorogi, is formed based on new information turned in to the police. Obsessed about cracking cases right up till the statute of limitation, Mizoguchi has a bitter thought about a 300 million yen case that has reached the statute of limitation... When he goes to investigate the male high school student(s) whom the woman had taught and other persons related to the deceased, he sees an unexpected connection with another case...
Do criteria exist for the death penalty? Yusuke Mito, a law faculty lecturer who did not become a lawyer even though he passed the bar exam, the famous lawyer Kojiro Otomo who advocates the abolition of the death penalty, and the public prosecutor Mariko Nagase studied law together. Each have their own thoughts about the death penalty. One day, Otomo’s wife is murdered by someone. Shinzo Sabae who is resentful of a lawsuit that Otomo had been in charge of, is arrested as a suspect. Otomo reverses the stance he had had until now and seeks the death penalty against Sabae. This prompts Mito to make the decision to become a lawyer and stand in the court. However, the first case Mito takes charge of is the defence of Sabae, who murdered the wife of his good friend, Otomo…
Yoshizaki Kaoruko, who had been a clinician at a university hospital, takes up a post at a medical examiner’s office after she is told by her professor to try to get experience. However, everyone from the supervising doctor Akita Shinya, director Yanagida Shuhei and assistant Yamashita Mieko are all individualistic characters. This does not bode well for the future. Meanwhile, Akita and Kaoruko are put in charge of the dead body of a popular model who fell to her death. The police consider it to be a suicide, but Akita is drawn to a subtle point .
Roman Porno from 1984.
Also Directed by Itsumichi Isomura
Based on the comic written by Masao Yajima and illustrated by Kenshi Hirokane
Etsuko - a typical Japanese high school student, who's unlucky in love, an academic failure, and plain bored with life. That's until one day, the view of a boat gliding gracefully in the sea inspires her to take up the oar. Since she's rejected by her school's all-male rowing team, she decides to form her own all-women team. Nothing will ever be the same again.
A drama depicting the heroine who loved another yakuza man while being the wife of the group leader, in the battle of the internal conflict of the yakuza organization.
Early Wakamatsu Production.
Takayuki (Takao Osawa) is an elementary school teacher in Tokyo. He is seized with Behçet's syndrome, and will gradually lose his sight. He resigns from his job and leaves his girlfriend, Yoko (Yuriko Ishida) to return to his hometown, Nagasaki, where his mother lives. Takayuki spends his days strolling around Nagasaki, to imprint familiar scenes on his memory. Yoko visits him and insists on staying. Takayuki has major concerns for her future, and his own life. He drives her away, for her own good. After days of affliction, the two reunite. The story leads to an emotive conclusion, the end of his spiritual journey.
8-year old boy, Shimpei, who loves fishing and painting, lives with his beautiful mother, surrounded by nature. His mother, Satsuki, has a weak constitution and lost her husband years ago. She takes care of her son lovingly but sometimes strictly, on her own. Shimpei's childhood sweetheart, Sayuri, is deaf, but somehow they can understand each other and they always spend time together.
A young woman named Izumi (Keiko Kitagawa) suffers the loss of her boyfriend Junichi (Masaki Okada), who died from a fatal motorcycle accident. The shock from her boyfriend's sudden death causes Izumi to lose her memory from the time of the accident. A lawyer named Makiko (Nene Otsuka) then helps Izumi to remember the final moments of her boyfriend's life.
Nikkatsu Roman Porno
An emotionally unstable woman who works at a supermarket meets and falls in love with a younger man.
Tenderly played Japanese love triangle between a man, his girlfriend and a transvestite hooker
Also Directed by Mitsuhiro Mihara
Drama following a young boxer Tomokazu and his relationship with his best friend Yoshiko and sister Misao as while he's training for an important match. His sister and friend have always been there for him, supporting him, but Tomokazu is about to find out that not everything is as simple as it may seem.
Hanatani Village in the valley of Tokushima Prefecture is going to be submerged when a dam is constructed. In order to preserve the beauty of the place for future generations, the villagers decide to take photographs of all the families in the village. Kenichi, the only photographer in the village, is put in charge of the project. He calls his son Takashi, an aspiring photographer, to help him with the task. Takashi is puzzled since his father and he are not at all close, but as they visit each family in turn and Takashi sees his father working, Takashi's feelings towards his father begin to change.
Youth fantasy love story starring idol Kazue Fukiishi.
Ten years ago, a group of girls hear this urban legend: A hideously burned girl will appear if you repeat the incantation, "Purple Mirror," five times in front of the mirror at 11:35 at night. One after the other, they die mysterious deaths. Ten years later, students belonging to the school's tennis club stay at the school's old grounds for their training camp. Hearing of the rumor, they decide to repeat the incantation before the mirror for fun...
Kazu, Keisuke, Ippei and Tadashi work for the same advertising company and live in the same company dormitory. The men relieve their stress by eating dinner together on Fridays. Kazu's nickname is “Side Dish.” Kazu takes on a new project which is to make brochures for restaurants in Enoshima Gourmet Town. He has a hard time, because a lot of the restaurants there have never advertised before. At that time, Keisuke tells Kazu about Tomokazu, who is the owner and chef at an Italian restaurant in Enoshima Gourmet Town. Kazu visits Tomokazu’s Italian restaurant and asks for permission to place his restaurant in the brochure, but Tomokazu kicks Kazu out.
Yamashita Takako (Miki Nakatani) works in the food section of a department store. She pays frequent visits to a reputable local Chinese restaurant about opening an in-store branch. The owner of the restaurant, Wang Qingkuo (Tatsuya Fuji) from Shanghai, who does all the cooking by himself, gives Takako the brush-off. One day, however, Wang collapses due to overwork, and is left with partial paralysis. Hearing the rumor of the restaurant’s closure, Takako resigns from the department store and becomes an apprentice to Wang.
The second collection of "Rabu cinema" which the expectant six directors took in full digital video. Spoofed comedy by Director Koshi Mihara of "Heroine! Naniwa Bombers" "Burning Ping Pong". Heroine is "I can not live" Nanako Okochi. Osaka comes to a boys school in Minami Kawachi, a young female teacher from Tokyo comes Eri Morinaga. Elegi who took a hot feeling in my heart and took office in the mid-powerful coach of the rugby club. But the key members are obsessed with Eri rather than rugby! What? Eri nevertheless skillfully utilizes her eccentricity and planting passion for rugby for its members ....
Minako and Mayuko are rival members of their high school's karate club. While staying at a training camp boarding house, one of the other members, Saori, starts to lose her mind overnight. When one of the 10 staff members of the training camp vanishes, Minako starts to investigate the cause...