Naoto Yamakawa

The video is a compilation of six short stories based on Japanese folklore legends. Each story is approximately 15 minutes long and are briefly introduced by a host. "Peony Lamp" is a story of love, death and ghosts. "She Bear" tells the story of a monster lady who terrorizes passers of a city tunnel. "Yamamba" is a spirit living in the depths of the forests waiting to feed on anyone who ventures there. "Nurarihyon" tells us of a playful spirit visiting a family's restaurant. "Heartbroken trip", a young woman visits a spa not knowing what awaits her. "Lost Souls" a stop during a long car ride turns into a nightmare.

5.7/10

Remake of the Korean film Ditto about a college student in the past who falls in love with a boy from the future.

The encounter and parting of a man and woman in Hokkaido

In a small town, high school students in their final year try to balance their studies while also playing together in a rock band.

7.2/10

Horror and Science fiction anthology from Japan

All the protagonists move about in a Tokyo Bar that has an entire wall taken up with a black-and-white reproduction of a photo of Monument Valley. The action starts as Billy the Kid, in full living color, walks out of the photo and gets a job as a waiter. Along with him on the working staff are a samurai straight out of the history books, a G.I. from World War II, and several other anachronistic characters. The plot (as such) revolves around keeping away the brutal mobsters and thugs who dominate the city streets outside of the bar, making the tavern safe for its easily recognized facsimiles of well-known characters.

5.2/10

A man ran into a woman on a street. She was not attractive, but was a perfect girl for him. After missing the chance to talk to her, he contemplates on how he should have approached her. Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning”.

7.3/10

Set in a barren, futuristic Tokyo of highways and wastelands, a rowdy group of punk bands and their fans gather to protest slow, boring, Japanese living.

6.1/10

Two young men are hungry, so they decide to rob a bakery. Adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami.

6/10

First 16mm feature by Naoto Yamakawa.

Short 8mm film made by Naoto Yamakawa while studying at Waseda University.

A man returns to his hometown and waits for a woman at the train station, and the dialogue between the man and the woman is interwoven. The film stars Yamakawa regulars Muroi Shigeru and Sato Akihiro in the lead roles.

The film begins with a morning scene in an apartment, which one might expect to be a drama about a college student living with a man and a woman, but the style takes a turn when the man and the woman, who had left for school one step ahead of the others, suddenly return home by train. What lies behind, what has passed, passes by with an indifferent face. The author's method of daring to focus on the behind is not only to tell the story through the image of the protagonist, but also through the people in the image, or through the author's own image. It is told not only through the image of the protagonist, but also through the people in the image, or through the artist's own image.

Short 16mm film made by Naoto Yamakawa while studying at Waseda University.