Japan Foundation Film Festival
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21 titles
- DirectorYuki TanadaStarsMei NaganoNao HondaMasataka KubotaTomoyo Shiino is an office lady. One day, she watches the news on TV and learns that her friend Mariko Ikagawa killed herself. They graduated from the same high school and Tomoyo knows that Mariko was abused by her father for a long time. To save her soul, Tomoyo steals her remains from Mariko's family. While recalling memories with Mariko, she goes on a trip with her remains.
- DirectorSang-il LeeStarsSuzu HiroseTôri MatsuzakaRyûsei YokohamaIn a park on a rainy evening, a 19-year-old university student, Fumi, offers an umbrella to a soaking wet 10-year-old girl, Sarasa. Realizing her reluctance to go home, Fumi lets her stay in his place, where she spends the next two months in peace. They take each other's hands and seem to have finally found their place in the world until Fumi is arrested for kidnapping. Fifteen years later, the lonely two are reunited both still suffering from the stigma as the victim and perpetrator of "a pedophile case". Will the society give a place to their unshakable bond they have formed?
- DirectorHideyuki HirayamaStarsSatomi KobayashiYutaka MatsushigeA woman who believes herself to have had an unusual stroke of luck forms a relationship with a man who failed to stop his wife from killing herself.
- DirectorKazuya ShiraishiStarsSadao AbeShimako IwaiTakanori IwataMasaya Kakei is a university student, but he attends a school that's not his ideal school. His days are generally gloomy. One day, he receives a letter from serial killer Yamato Haimura, who was convicted for eight murders and received the death penalty. Back when Yamato was committing his murders, he ran a bakery store. At that time, Masaya was a middle school student and a customer at his bakery store. According to the letter, Yamato confessed to committing the murders, but he insists that he did not commit the last murder. Masaya begins to investigate the last murder case involving Yamato.
- DirectorOudai KojimaStarsIkken YamamotoJin-Cheol KimChang-bak KimAfter serving 2 years in prison, Ishigami Takeshi spent two years working on a construction site and building up his funds before he returned to Tokyo with the help of Yasu, his best friend. He is determined to try and go straight but before he can do that, he has to raise even more money to break free of the criminal underworld and that requires a deep dive. He enlists his Korean friend Junghi and starts a business selling data for phone fraud to his Yakuza friend Yuki. As the business grows, Takeshi can just about make escape velocity, however, his old ties are holding him back and as a split in a yakuza family signals that start of a war, Takeshi finds himself getting dragged back down to the criminal underworld.
- DirectorTakahiro HorieStarsTasuku EmotoJun FubukiNao HondaManga-ka (manga author) Sawako suspects that her husband is having an affair. Instead of confronting him directly, she finds a more creative way to drop the hint.
- DirectorMiwa NishikawaStarsKoji YakushoSeiji RokkakuYukiya KitamuraA lifelong Yakuza, released from prison after 13 years, journeys to find the mother who abandoned him as a child. He is hindered by his gangster past and struggles to adapt to his new life outside of prison.
- DirectorKashou IizukaStarsKazuki HorikeMasafumi ShinoharaTomoka MurayamaJungo (18), a high school student living in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture, has a Filipino mother who works at a Filipina hostess bar. His mother has never told him about his father, and the only connection he has to his father is the monthly child support payments. Jungo is homosexual and has a boyfriend, Yusuke (18). Even though Yusuke wanted to form a partnership with him, he was reluctant to do so because of his background. One day, her mother, Reina (41), brings her boyfriend home, saying she wants to remarry with him. Jungo doesn't want to live with a stranger, so he decides to find his real father.
- DirectorSadao YamanakaStarsDenjirô ÔkôchiKiyozoKunitarô SawamuraA man gets rid of a cheap pot without knowing it contains a map to a treasure. As word spreads, many join in hunting it.
- DirectorKatsuhide MotokiStarsKuranosuke SasakiKyôko FukadaTsuyoshi IharaDuring the reign of the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Yunagaya Domain in the Tohoku region is a small han. But at the han, there is a gold mine. Suddenly, Masaatsu Naito of Yunagaya Domain receives an order to perform Sankin-kotai within 5 days. Sankin-kotai is a custom that requires the daimyo to visit the shogun in Edo. Unfortunately, the time needed to visit the shogun in Edo for Masaatsu Naito is 8 days. Masaatsu Naito also learns he received the order because a high ranking government official wants the gold mine. Also, the expense for Sankin-kotai is high and the Yunagaya Domain is such a small han that it seems impossible to complete. Nevertheless, Masaatsu Naito begins an unexpected operation to complete Sankin-kotai in 5 days.
- DirectorTatsushi ÔmoriStarsTomokazu MiuraDaisuke MiyagawaHio Miyazawa5 people, whose identities are unknown to each other, gather for a one time robbery job. They head to a motel, where a yakuza gang use to launder money. The group succeed in their heist and prepare to go back to their normal lives, but the yakuza are following them.
- DirectorTetsuya NakashimaStarsJun'ichi OkadaNana KomatsuSatoshi TsumabukiOne day, a visitor leaves Hideki a memo of his unborn daughter's name "Chisa". Two years later, Hideki's house is attacked by a sinister presence. To protect his family, Hideki asks for help to perform a ritual to break an unknown spell.
- DirectorYôji YamadaStarsIsao HashizumeKazuko YoshiyukiMasahiko NishimuraFor her birthday, the grandma of a traditional Tokyo family asks her apathetic husband a gift: divorce. This shocks not only the incredulous husband, but the whole family, and they all will try to prevent the catastrophe at any cost.
- DirectorGen IwamaStarsDaido MoriyamaYutaka KambayashiSatoshi MachiguchiThere is one photographer who transcends art, fashion, and design, and is loved and respected all over the world. He is Daido Moriyama, aged 80, probably the most prominent and least charismatic figure in the world of photography. This intimate documentary captures Moriyama as he lives his daily life.
- DirectorSatoko YokohamaStarsRen KomaiDaimaô KosakaMei KurokawaA shy country girl chooses a part-time job at a "maid cafe" where she serves customers while dressed up as a maid.
- DirectorShunsuke KariyamaStarsMana AshidaKotone FurukawaTomoko IkutaUrara Sayama is a 17-year-old high school student, who doesn't have any friends or a boyfriend. Her only enjoyment is reading boy's love manga, which she keeps it as a secret. She also works part-time as a cashier at a bookstore. There, she meets 78-year-old Yuki Ichinoi, who has lived alone since her husband passed away. She happens to buy a BL manga due to its eye pleasing cover. Since that purchase, Yuki becomes a fan of the manga genre. Due to their common interest in BL manga, Urara and Yuki develop a friendship and they decide to take on a challenge.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsYoshiko KugaEiji OkadaOsamu TakizawaThe hero Saburo (Okada Eiji) is obstructed by a series of events from meeting Keiko (Kuga Yoshiko), his fiancee.
- DirectorYûya IshiiStarsShizuka IshibashiSôsuke IkematsuRyûhei MatsudaNewcomer Shizuka Ishibashi throws herself into the role of Mika, a nurse by day, a 'girlie bar' hostess by night, subject to feelings of anxiety and isolation, and unable to reach through a hard outer shell that stops her from expressing tenderness to anyone else. Sosuke Ikematsu, one of Japan's most important young actors, stars as Shinji, who struggles as a day-hire construction worker with a sense of impending doom, but who still tries to find the source of an unnamable hope he feels inside. The setting is Tokyo in 2017, where empty words, a sense of doom, and feelings of isolation co-exist with hope, trust, and love. In the sense of real life conjured up in these two people is a new kind of film: the densest kind of love story.
- DirectorAkiko ÔkuStarsNonKento HayashiAsami UsudaLove on the edge, which can't get any closer than 10cm: Mitsuko, 31, who is getting used to a solo life and has a counselor named "A" in her brain, falls in love with a young man.
- DirectorMasaki TachibanaStarsMayu HottaNobunaga ShimazakiJunya EnokiTamaki becomes a captive of the vast beauty of the skies from the moment Kuramochi takes her under his wing and up for a flight in a glider.
- DirectorKeisuke YoshidaStarsKisetsu FujiwaraArata FurutaAoi ItôA teenager girl's accidental death incites a media frenzy and causes her harsh father to turn his range against those he believes are responsible.