Monster

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

Four renowned Japanese directors each adapt a supernatural short story by Japanese literary masters for the KAIDAN HORROR CLASSICS omnibus series. In his adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's THE ARM, Masayuki Ochiai reveals the inner world of fetishists in an eerily unsettling tale of a man who convinces a woman to let him borrow her arm for a night. Meanwhile, Shinya Tsukamoto explores death and unrequited love in Osamu Dazai's THE WHISTLER, about a woman who spies on her dying sister's secret love life after her own romance is dashed by her father. After VILLAIN, Lee Sang-Il looks at social outcasts once again in Ryunosuke Akutagawa's THE NOSE. The story follows a priest with a hideous nose who kills a young local boy in a moment of blinding anger. Meanwhile, Hirokazu Kore-eda creates a gentler ghost tale with Saisei Muro's THE DAYS AFTER, about a married couple who thinks the young boy who visits their house daily may be the ghost of their dead infant son.

In 1979 Tokyo, four distinct sisters uncover their aging father's affair, causing their happy facades and bottled-up emotions to slowly unravel.

Kasumi Arimura suddenly gets a break from filming and returns to her hometown for the first time in a long while. Her mother, Yumiko, comes to the train station to pick her up and they head for the family home.

In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.

A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.

Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.

Two inseparable friends move to Kyoto to chase their dreams of becoming maiko, but decide to pursue different passions while living under the same roof.

After the death of their estranged father, 3 adult sisters invite their teenaged half-sister to live with them.

A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.

Jun'ichi is a young man without job or home who seems to have a great power of fascination over woman. He crosses the paths of different women who are unsatisfied with their lives and find comfort in his presence. It is a subtle love story between Jun'ichi's drifting life and six different woman from 16 to 65 years old.

Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.

Ryota, a timid salaryman who has difficulties fitting in at home and work has his average life changed after his estranged father falls ill. Along with his wife Sae and their only child Moe, he travels to his father's country town, where he begins to uncover his father's mysterious past spent searching for a mythical creature.

When a young mother reconsiders abandoning her baby, she discovers a scheme selling foundlings for adoption.