Utae Shoji

Ayu has lost the meaning of life after she has been working as a prostitute. However, her cold life change when she meets Yoshiyuki whom she wants to help with his heart problems. The two love each other, but Yoshiyuki's father doesn't allow their feelings. Ayu goes back to prostituting only to help Yoshiyuki earn money for his operation.

Sachi Hamano's Yurisai (Lily Festival) is about a man (Mickey Curtis) in his seventies who comes to live in an apartment building that also houses seven elderly women. The film examines the ladies' sexual desires as the man proceeds to woo each of them. Kazuko Yoshiyuki portrays one of the female residents. The film was adapted from a novel by Houko Momotani and was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival.

7.4/10

The follow up to the very popular first instalment.

The widow of a murdered yakuza boss serves jail time for attacking the man she believes killed her husband. After her release, as she is shadowed by a hitman, she returns to thoughts of revenge.

6.9/10

A 30-year-old man's life gets up-ended when his girlfriend accepts an arranged marriage meeting with a more successful man.

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.

5.2/10

The 16th NHK Asadora. Starring Yoko Akino in a contemporary story about a woman who is an office worker.

Blind masseur and master swordsman Zatoichi finds a robbed and fatally wounded pregnant woman, whose baby he delivers before she dies. He takes the baby in search of its father and finds the child's aunt, who is about to be forced into prostitution for want of a payment the dead mother was bringing. Zatoichi determines to save the woman from her cruel fate.

7/10

A five year old boy leaves his mother and grandparents to see his father who has gone to work in Osaka.

Ryotatsu, the wayward Priest blinded by Shinkai, the Wicked Priest, has his own story in this ultra-violent tale from the era of the Meiji Reconstruction. When a woman leaves her blind son at the Monastery, Ryotatsu is forced to teach the boy how to cope as a blind person in old Japan. When he takes the child with him on the road to find the boy's mother, they run afoul of not only yakuza gangsters, but some corrupt army officers have been trying to sway public opinion against the Satsuma rebels by posing as members of Saigo Takamori's group. It's a bloody mistake for them to underestimate the strength of the Blind Priest, and he'll make them pay with their lives!

6.4/10

A country boss gives up his way of life because of his daughter's marriage.