Uta Monogatari: Cinema Fighters Project

Miyu and Shuya are high school students. They have dated for 2 years. Miyu and Shuya have a promise that no matter what, they will watch a movie together on the first day of each new month. When Miyu and Shuya are on their way to the movie theater, Shuya suddenly cancels their date. Shuya seems like he is hiding something and he acts nervous. Later, Miyu goes to the place where she is supposed to meet Shuya, but she witnesses Shuya getting into a car accident. She panics, but when she wakes up she finds herself on the morning of the accident. Miyu keeps waking up on the day when Shuya got into an accident.

A 17-year-old country boy named Norio decides his only option is to follow his late parents’ example and commit suicide. After failing even at that, his 34-year-old English teacher Akemi convinces him that he should instead move to Tokyo with her and become a lawyer on her dime. Unfortunately, Akemi doesn’t have quite as much money as she leads Norio to believe, and has to secretly get a job at a karaoke bar under the guise of “going to the salon”. Meanwhile, she continuously prods her somewhat dimwitted student to work harder toward her manufactured goal of him becoming a lawyer. Although Norio is falling in love with Akemi, he’s not all that interested in studying, and matters only get worse when he discovers his benefactor’s secret source of income.

The emotional journey of a four-member family that fails to recognize that it is rapidly growing apart until the mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Mitsuko is 24, heavily pregnant and estranged from the American father of her child. Her parents believe she is happy and successful in America and are unaware that she has secretly returned to Tokyo. Making the biggest decisions on the slightest whim, she moves back into the tenement street where she lived as a child. The move changes lives, reignites old romances and creates a supportive circle of love that may be exactly what Mitsuko needs.

After 5 years in Tokyo, 5 part-time jobs, 5 boyfriends, Sawako's life is going nowhere. When her father gets seriously ill, she has to take over his struggling factory. Gradually she becomes the decider of her own life.

Short film about youth in the 80s.

Protagonist Ryoko is played by Machiko Ono, one of Japan’s most talented and accomplished actresses, who made her screen debut in Naomi Kawase’s Cannes Camera d’Or-winning “Suzaku” (97) and went on to appear in a succession of successful works including “Bali Big Brother” (2015) and “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store” (2017). Other consummate veterans fill out the supporting cast. The inimitable Joe Odagiri, known for his memorable performances in “Sway” (2006) and “Over the Fence” (2016), takes the role of Ryoko’s late husband, while the manager of the sex shop where Ryoko works is portrayed by Masatoshi Nagase, a charismatic and prolific performer whose recent credits include Naomi Kawase’s “Radiance” (2017).

A young man in a green Martian costume allows himself to be dragged hither and thither by a bossy housewife. In this way the film swerves between deceptively ordinary realism and a fantastic absurdism. The housewife Junko (Otori Rei) has started to behave increasingly strangely since the death of her son. Her husband can't put up with it any more and goes off with a female colleague. The man in the green suit, Katsura Tombo (Oda Yonosuke), is a bread salesman but he forgets his work. His strange costume is supposed to lure new customers, but he seems to have forgotten that. He is more or less kidnapped by Junko and falls in love with her. Junko however has other intentions with the rather naive salesman. The failed Martian drives her around in his aunt's van, but his helpfulness doesn't get rewarded.

Saeko is a normal schoolgirl who just happen to witness two rockets collide in the sky one day. Finally, this is something out of the ordinary. She attends school, but it is dull. Life is boring. The teacher has other things on his mind. Her father stinks. Her father's factory is going broke. Perhaps she can save it. That would be something different.

Majime, an eccentric man in publishing company, who has unique ability of words, joins the team that will compile a new dictionary, ‘The Great Passage.’ In the eclectic team, he becomes immersed in the world of dictionaries. But the team is overwhelmed with problems. Will ‘The Great Passage’ ever be completed?

A young couple is devastated when their son is killed by a falling tree during a windstorm. As the distraught father begins to look for answers into his son’s death, what appears to be a tragic accident turns out to have been the result of multiple blunders by multiple people.

The story of the relationship between a college student whose relationship with her boyfriend is going nowhere and a bisexual medical artist who makes prosthetic body parts. Haru is a college student ignored by her boyfriend yet believes she is still in love with him. One day at a café, Haru meets Riko, a medical artist (prosthetist) who creates body parts in order to disguise clients’ missing pieces, lost due to accident or disease. Both were alone, but struck up an immediate friendship and closeness. Riko doesn't care about gender when it comes to relationships, and believes that love itself is the most important thing a human can achieve. Haru struggles in her life between friendship and a deeper relationship with Riko.

Momoko Ando's submission as part of the Uta Monogatari Cinema Fighters Project 2018

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.

Shimajiro and friends embark on a journey through the desert to help young Coco reunite with her mother after being separated in a fierce sandstorm.

A man kills someone on the battlefield and rescues someone in the devastated district.

This is the fourth movie starring a tiger boy named Shimajiro.

My name is a “cockroach”. I was called that from childhood.

A special Decoder allows people to have conversations with nature.

A woman and her child get trapped underground while investigators look for them.

Astonishing, mysterious, eccentric, adorable, melancholic, sensual and delightful - the Volume 2 of the weird and fascinating world of Japanese independent animation which has been flourishing and stronger than ever.

An overturned dung beetle confronts social exclusion and the promises of a benevolent mountain spirit in this delightful short pregnant with meaning. -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film

One day a man had a strange audition for the movie. But he couldn't make acting good.

men and women gradually obsessed with unrealistic existence from feelings of guilt, with the motif of Okinawan folklore

In pursuit of his love of extreme dance, Ken (Joey Beni) wanders the globe and makes his to Okinawa, Japan. There, Ken meets Iwao Shinjo (Masahiro Aragaki) who is a master of the Ryukyu Classical Dance. Ken learns the steps for Ryukyu Classical Dance, which itself secretly holds the techniques for Ryukyu Karate.

Misaki visits her boyfriend Koichi in Okinawa, the southern island of Japan. To welcome the arrival of Misaki, Koichi's friend Jinsei holds a welcoming party at his house. At the party, Misaki learns from the wise granny about the legend behind the bag hanging from the fig tree and the local demon: Kijimuna, which deeply fascinate Misaki. Jinsei then introduces Misaki to a young female writer, Kagemi, who tells Misaki the darker side of the Kijimuna legend. As the local shaman and medium to the other world, Kagemi’s knowledge in local lore gives Misaki much more to wonder about. The quiet life in Okinawa takes a sharp turn with the arrival of Jinsei’s ex-wife Sanae, which leads to a tragic accident. Soon, the parties involved begin to see a vengeful spirit and their peaceful lifes turn into a nightmare.

A teacher leads an unlikely team to a high school baseball championship in this sports drama. Managing a team on the verge of extinction, teacher Hiroyoshi rallies the squad on an underdog journey.

A tale of three families on a remote island.

Five authentic tales of people young and old, searching for a fresh adventure and new beginnings, all with one thing in common - they all take place on the exquisite island of Okinawa.

Pyuupiru is a Japanese contemporary artist whose works are highly acclaimed in recent years. An old friend of his (hers), Daishi Matsunaga has filmed him for 8 years, ever since Pyuupiru frequented clubs wearing eccentric handmade costumes. Pyuupiru went through a gender identity disorder, broken heart and castration operation, and then he held a performance at Yokohama Triennale in 2005 as a compilation of his life experience. Pyuupiru was born as male, but he gradually realized that his body does not fit him. He tried to clear that feeling by wearing those eccentric costumes. People started to take notice of it as pieces of art, and he started creative activity in the contemporary art world. This film follows the vicissitudes of his mind, body, and the art works that he gave birth to. Enormous amount of footage also reveals the relationships with his family, friends and his boyfriend who have always watched him with a warm look, although they had mixed feeling for the reality.

This omnibus film consists of three films made by three directors from three countries. With “Journey” as the theme, each of these films tells about a journey. “The Sea” is a film by Degena Yun (China), telling about mother and child’s trip to the sea from Beijing. “Hekishu,” a film by Daishi Matsunaga (Japan), tells about the journey of a Japanese businessman involved in infrastructure development in Yangon. The film depicts the entrepreneur’s emotional feelings in the face of Yangon residents who lost their homes due to the construction of the new infrastructure. The last is a film titled “Variable No. 3” by Edwin (Indonesia), which tells the story of a couple’s journey to Tokyo. There they meet a mysterious man. The man who works as a tour guide and rents out the inn, gives a strange advice to the husband and wife.

Hiroshi (Yojiro Noda) has given up on his dreams of becoming a painter and works part-time cleaning office windows. He learns that he has only 3 months left to live. During his last summer, high school student Mai (Hana Sugisaki) appears. Hiroshi becomes attracted to her.

Action actor Tateishi Daisuke who struggles with loneliness after suffering a traumatic experience due to an accident during filming. One day, he comes across a senior high school girl Ayumi who is being harassed consistently by Chinese brokers and the local yakuza. He decides to protect her from them. However, after this incident, he comes to develop a mindset of seeing violence as a way to gain the affirmation and approval of others thus gradually loses himself and behaves in an extreme manner.

Is love an ego to save yourself, or... Based on Takayama Makoto's autobiographical novel, this film tells the story of the love between Kosuke, an editor, and Ryuta, a personal trainer.

Brand new MMA documentary following the careers of several top Japanese fighters. Watch these men prepare for big fights and put their lives in the ring for spirituality and glory.

A single mother receives a phone call saying her son had died from a shark attack in Hanalei Bay, Hawaii, where she now visits annually on her son’s death anniversary. One day, she meets two young Japanese surfers who tell her about a young Japanese surfer with one leg.

This project, a fusion of poetry, music, and movies, gives birth to a new style of filmmaking, through the work of five directors.

After a 15-year hiatus, The Yellow Monkey, one of Japan's greatest rock bands, reunites in 2016 and goes on tour. They vow never to break up again. Director Daishi Matsunaga of Pieta in the Toilet and Pyuupiru captures them on and off stage examining what they did during their absence and where they are going.