Kaori Momoi
Tsubame (Kaya Kiyohara) is a 14-year-old girl. She has a crush on university student Toru (Kentaro Ito), who lives in the same neighborhood. Tsubame lives in a warm environment with her father Toshio (Hidetaka Yoshioka) and stepmother Asako (Maki Sakai), but, one day, she learns that Asako is pregnant. She feels left out because of her stepmother's pregnancy and she also feels frustrated because she can't reveal her love to Toru. The rooftop of her calligraphy class is the only place where Tsubame can find solace. There, she feels the wind and looks up at the stars. One night, Tsubame goes on the rooftop as usual. She finds a strange kickboard scooter and a mysterious old woman Hoshi-baa (Kaori Momoi) appears in front of her.
Rumi Hayachine is a 2nd-year high school student living in Tono who loves to daydream about and draw supernatural spirits. One day, her beloved grandmother decides to move out saying, “I want to do what I want with my life.” At school, Rumi is pressured to think about her future but cannot decide what path she wants to take. When her best friend Kie says she wants to go to university in Tokyo, Rumi feels even more abandoned by everyone around her. However, Kie secretly submits a drawing made by Rumi into a contest, and it wins an award. This gives Rumi the extra bit of confidence she needs to find her path in life.
The space will be witness of dreams, hopes, disappointments and dramatic destinies of its residents, delivering an intimate human history of Mexico through the decades. La Habitación will reunite eight directors that will expose the reality of each historical period resulting in a profound and inspiring portrait of modern Mexico.
Japanese woman Keiko (played by Kaori Momoi (Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha", Miike's "Sukiyaki Western Django")) has been living in a shelf for decades due to a family tragedy in Kobe and is not able to bid farewell to her past. Without a passion she joins a group of Japanese women traveling to Northern Europe to participate in a kimono show. Unintentionally Keiko has been pulled in a vortex of events making her as a local celebrity. Confusion and despair turns to self-confidence until Keiko comes face to face with her mysterious and almost otherworldly-like husband (played by Issey Ogata (Scorsese's "Silence", Sokurov's "The Sun")) who disappeared twenty years ago.
In the near future, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that she has been lied to: her life was not saved, it was stolen. She will stop at nothing to recover her past, find out who did this to her and stop them before they do it to others. Based on the internationally acclaimed Japanese Manga, "The Ghost in the Shell."
Years after she related to him the story of her parents’ death in a fire, for which – rightly or wrongly – she feels responsible, Japanese psychiatrist Dr. Sanada meets his former patient Azusa once again. Back then, she lambasted him for being wrong for the job. Back then, he let slip that she isn’t actually crazy. Now she’s a prostitute living in precarious circumstances in Los Angeles and is accused of murder, with her memories once again moving inexorably towards a fire. Sanada assesses her in the presence of an investigator who appears not to understand Japanese. Is Azusa now mentally ill for real? Was she back then? And why does the description of her tormentors upset him so?
A young German woman bonds with an elderly Japanese woman while touring the Fukushima region of Japan in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake.
Setsuko, a 55-year-old single 'office lady' in Tokyo, is given a blonde wig and a new identity, 'Lucy,' by her young unconventional English instructor. 'Lucy' awakens desires Setsuko never knew she had. When the instructor suddenly disappears, Setsuko must come to terms with what remains--herself.
Psychological thriller connecting three different people in the mysterious vortex, trying to untangle the dramatic fight of border between the truth and fantasy.
Through round after round of extensive plastic surgery and vigorous maintenance, Ririko has become the absolute manifestation of beauty, and becomes a wildly successful model, actress, and singer. However, soon, her body, unable to withstand the burdens of surgery, begins to crumble, and along with it so does her mind, as she plummets towards a frightening and inevitable end.
In memory of the Japanese earthquake on 3.11, each director presents a 3 minute and 11 second short film in tribute to those who were lost that day.
Teran Plains' village was attacked by a giant starving Gerold, and the village's youngster, Peck, sought Toriko for help. But lying ahead in wait is something much more ferocious and hideous than just a Gerold.
One day, a mother who used to be hospitalized in Tokyo comes to Kashihara city in Nara prefecture to find her son. But the only clue she has is the digital camera which her son forgot at the hospital.
One week in one of the most exotic and picturesque cities of the world. The day of changes comes when Amaya meets a charming Englishman, Paul and it dramatically changes Amaya's perception of her cultural and personal identity.
Recently appointed dean at a film school, Kimuro Hajime develops a special concern for one of his students, Daisuke. The brash, headstrong young man is fixated on with the Second World War. He feels a sense of frustration at the irrational sacrifice of young people's lives during the war six decades earlier. Daisuke finds that he can vent his frustrations to Kimuro, who experienced the war firsthand. Kimuro's wife, Emiko, is also troubled by memories of the war. She lost a loved one in the war and has never gotten over it. And Kimuro himself also has something from the past that he has yet to face. He believes that the burden of his unresolved past will eventually be the death of him. When Daisuke's neurosis causes him to quit school, life changes for all three of them.
Korean-Japanese director Gu Su Yeon makes his directorial debut with the mouthwateringly delicious The Yakiniku Movie: Bulgogi. As the title clearly states, pride of place goes to juicy, bite-sized meat, and viewers will get a delightful eyeful of food, food, and more food in this fabulously fulfilling gourmet comedy. Reveling in Japan's love for food-themed shows, the film revolves around a culinary battle of David and Goliath proportions, cheekily parodying Japanese cooking shows with Iron Chef-like editing, excited running commentary, and comedic how-to segments. The Yakiniku Movie also shines a light on the food culture of Japan's resident Korean population, proving that tasty food transcends all boundaries.
Several hundred years after the Battle of Dannoura, the Genji and Heike clans face off again in a poor mountain town with a buried treasure legend. A revolver-wielding stranger, a lone gunman, burdened with emotional scars and blessed with incredible skill, drifts into town and crosses paths with two warring clans who are both on the hunt for a hidden treasure in a remote western town. Knowing his services are valuable to either side, he offers himself to the clan who will offer up the largest share of the wealth. Yoshitsune commands his Genji gang in white while Kiyomori leads his Heike gang in red. Expectations collide as the key players wonder which gang the gunman will join. Dirty tricks, betrayal, desire and finally, love, get jumbled together, as the situation erupts into a showdown.
A look at the relationship between a young blind samurai (Kimura) and his wife, who will make a sacrifice in order to defend her husband's honor.
A sweeping romantic epic set in Japan in the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
Director Kazuo Hara tells the tale of the eponymous Chika and four different relationships she has during the turbulent political climate of the 1970s. Four different actresses play the role of Chika in order to emphasise the different ways she is perceived by her husband, a teacher, a student and an aging gangster.
The Sun (Russian: Сóлнце, Solntse) is a 2005 Russian biographical film depicting Japanese Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) during the final days of World War II. The film is the third drama in director Aleksandr Sokurov's trilogy, which included Taurus about the Soviet Union's Vladimir Lenin and Moloch about Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler.
Izo is an assassin in the service of a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified. Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine.
A group of disparate characters find themselves trapped overnight on a island somewhere off the coast of mainland China. The circumstances force them to overlook their preconceptions of one another, and they forge a kinship that goes to the heart their identities.
Junko was born with a type of ESP called pyrokinesis which she can use to incinerate anyone and anything at will. Junko is secretly in love with Kazuki, a young man who works with her. His sister is killed and a boy named Masaki suspected but the police don't arrest him. Junko tells Kazuki about her powers and takes revenge.
A film based on two short stories by Shiina Makoto. Tadon is the story of a cab-driver who spends his days listening to his passengers' conversations. Chikuwa is about a writer who faces a creativity bottleneck.
A large, dinosaur-like monster has risen from Tokyo Bay and attacked the city. As the government collapses into chaos, the people of a rural town in Fukui Prefecture, from whose perspective we see the entire movie, watch as the events unfold on TV. Some decide to run for their lives, some take it as a sign of the apocalypse, some go completely crazy, but most of the townspeople wait and watch, and wonder where the monster will head next.
Filmed somewhat in documentary style, it follows three girls over the span of one day and night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Jonko runs a group of high school girls involved in paid dating, Raku is a street dancer, and Togo was brought up in the US and back in Japan for one year wants to escape to New York. Their contact with the world of talent scouts and yakusa places them in danger.
Hamanaka Koichi (Nagatsuka Kyozo) returns to his wife Hisako (Baisho Mitsuko) and family in a sadder, run-down section of eastern Tokyo after having run away from home years before. He gives no explanation of his absence and his family asks no questions. It is only through the questions that a young writer named Asakura (Kamikawa Takaya), who is secretly in love with Hisako, poses of local shop owners, that we learn that Hamanaka's disappearance may be related to the fact that the woman everyone thought he would marry, Tami (Mamoi Kaori) - who runs the cafe across the street from the Hamanaka electric store - had ended up tying the knot with another man who died soon thereafter.
There still stands a famous apartment building where such prominent manga artists as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked, and shared experiences.
Swallowtail Butterfly takes place in an alternate Japan, in a ghetto where immigrants from all over the world have come to live and make their fortune. The city is called Yentown, and it is much like Tokyo. Sixteen-year-old Ageha (Ito), a young girl whose mother has just died, is passed on from person to person until a prostitute named Glico (Chara) finally takes pity on her. Under Glico's care, Ageha has many experiences with the other poverty-stricken immigrants in Yentown. Eventually, due to a sudden twist in fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately.
14-year-old Shizuko (Mami Nakamura) dreams of drawing manga in Tokyo to escape her life of poverty and loneliness. Shizuko’s father has left the family, and her mother (Kaori Momoi) — who is desperate for money — takes in an icy, brutal lover (Michio Akiyama) who insists on being called “Father.” He is obsessed with having a “high-class” family and forbids Shizuko to draw her “low-class” manga, which he calls “trash.” When Father discovers that Shizuko has been impregnated by a schoolmate, he inflicts a brutal punishment. Her mother, unable to support the family without him, responds with drunken apathy. In self-defense, Shizuko’s creates manga characters who are gentle and caring.
Tanaka is a yakuza who collects 'protection money' from establishments. He has just been released from jail, where he had spent eight years, and finds out that his boss wants to get rid of him. Tanaka is not an archetypal yakuza; he travels by public transport. But he does have two mistresses: Ayumi, who runs a nightclub, and Yoshie, a brothel-keeper. When Tanaka's boss ends up in hospital, second man Kurauchi exerts increasing pressure on Tanaka. Tanaka deliberately has himself wounded by a fighter to dodge several of Kurauchi's demands.
Ryoko, a free-spirited 23-year-old woman, quits her job after being caught having an affair with a co-worker and finds herself on the street. She comes to Tokyo, relying on her aunt Moeko, a career woman who works as a manager at a major city bank. The two, who have completely different personalities, quarrel constantly whenever they see each other.
On August 9, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This film, based on a story by Mitsukaru Inoue, describes the daily life of people in Nagasaki the day before that fateful event. It presents the human drama of people's lives, and their feelings of joy and sadness. These include a newlywed couple, an expectant mother, and lovers who must say farewell because the boy is called to serve in the army. Each of these people, like others in the city, hoped to live with their dreams for ‘tomorrow’. But tomorrow never comes for them, as their lives are brought to an abrupt and unexpected end. Knowing how the story ends, in this case, doesn't detract from it at all; rather, it enhances the emotional impact, which is further heightened by the poignant musical score from Teizo Matsumura. 'Ashita' is the first film in Kazuo Kuroki's 'War Requiem Trilogy,' which also includes 'Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima' (2002) and 'Chichi to Kuraseba' (2004).
Yuichi Koga is an upper-class business executive, running his own adult video company, and living a successful life with his wife and daughter. Outwardly, his family seems really happy, but in reality Yuichi enjoys sex with everyone but his wife Chikako. One day, he gets a phone call from a woman named Sanae, an old elementary school classmate of his.
Tatsuhiko and Shofumi are hoodlums living in downtown Hawaii, who have flown out of Japan and entered the country illegally for a reason. The two make a living by trafficking marijuana under the pretext of selling tea leaves, but they are in a foreign land where they don't speak the language well.
Stuck doing show-biz schlock, an investigative reporter stumbles on a scheme to swindle pensions through an attractive gold futures scam, a potential news-story.
The story revolves around a hardcore Onyanko Club fanatic who decides he wants to kill the girls to prevent the young, cute idols from getting old and married - in a sense, to preserve their youth for eternity.
On the night of August 19, 1980, a bus was set on fire by the vagrant Hirofumi Maruyama at the Shinjuku West Exit Bus Terminal. In the burning flames, Mitsuko, who was exhausted by her affair, suddenly thought of suicide. As a result, she escaped too late from the bus and suffered a serious injury. From there, she was hospitalized for a long time. As she gradually recovered, the wife of her affair partner, Soroku Sugihara, died of cancer. Soroku proposed to Mitsuko again, and they lived together. Due to Soroku's mounting debt, they decided to flee to Tojinbo. With the desperate persuasion of her acquaintances, Mitsuko regained her desire to "live again."
One day, kindergarten teacher meets a novice magician and together they travel to another city to find love...
A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving unhurt is his second wife, Kumako. It soon comes to light that Kumako’s husband was insured for 300 million yen and she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband for the insurance money. The newspapers denounce her as an evil woman, while the public is in no doubt about Kumako’s crime. Ritsuko Sahara is chosen as her defence attorney but the pair clash over almost everything...
A man and a little girl meet in a bicycle parking in Tokyo. The little girl says she wants to watch the sea, and their travel begins. The man has no conscience of being a kidnapper. He asks the girl to phone her mother and tell her she’s with him. During their trip they will meet various people. But they always have to go further, or the man would to get arrested...
Mid 50s: the trials and tribulations of Shinsuke Ibuki, freshly arrived in Tokyo from Kyushu.
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Kokyo, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.
Intellectual collegue professor Sasa becomes obsessed with beautiful Sugiko, a virgin. Eventually, luring her to a love hotel.
Mariko is living the life of a typical Japanese college student in the 70's, spending far more of her time balancing boyfriends and part-time jobs than on her schoolwork. She finds herself torn between a former boyfriend who's the tough, insensitive-but-sexy, type, and a new acquaintance who's more sensitive to her feelings, but who still acts childishly selfish at times. Will she choose one of them, or decide to go her own way?
Sayoko is desperate to bear a child of her own, but her live-in boyfriend Shinsaku strenuously objects to the idea. One day, someone leaves behind a six-year-old child at their door, claiming that Shinsaku—or four other men—is the child's father! Sayoko and Shinsaku set out on a journey to find the real father.
Though his parents help him run the family business, Jun still feels persecuted by their love; when they bar him from meeting with his girlfriend, tensions increase.
Hirobe is a lonely man. After witnessing her girlfriend die with a terminal illness, he wanders through the city like a shadow. One day, he meets Masako and they begin an affair. Masako is in an unhappy marriage with Yazawa, who is also cheating on her with a younger lover. The tension builds up to an unforgiving, yet quiet climax...
Two semi-slackers with an ultra-intimate friendship work, slack and drink in a freezing Hokkaido town.
A footballing law student tutors an undergraduate, developing into a romance that soon enough goes awry.
Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).
A young outlaw can’t escape his rebellious past despite connections to a well to do family.
Yukie, Koichi and Akira are rogues looking for a place to crash. They move into a house which Etsuko (Kaori Momoi) inherited from her parents. Soon after getting settled, the hippies slip into a communal lifestyle. They eat, have sex, and generally share everything together.
A rebel youth joins a duo of entertainers only able to communicate by gesturing; when the female performer is suddenly abducted, he and Takeru must take action.
