Between the White Key and the Black Key

The Man Who Went Beyond Manga: Fujio Akatsuka

The late Fujio Akatsuka is revered by many Japanese artists and scholars for his developments to early comedy manga, but his contributions aren't just limited to the world of print media. Featuring commentary from family, friends, colleagues, and celebrity fans, Fujio Akatsuka's story is told with archival footage and animation, showcasing the life of the man who went beyond manga.

Eat And Sleep at Camp Alone

Kento enjoys cooking with canned foods and eating them at a camp-ground. Nanako likes cooking with natural ingredients she obtains herself from nature. The only thing in common between them are that they eat and sleep alone at camp.

Pandora's Box

After Japan's defeat in WWII, "Pandora no hako" follows a young man named Risuke who has contracted tuberculosis. He travels to the countryside to a unique nursing facility to receive treatment for his disease. At the sanatorium all the patients and nurses go by nicknames and Risuke decides to reinvent himself as Hibari. During his stay, Hibari develops realationships with other patients and nurses. After Hibari's friend Tsuikushi gets discharged from the nursing facility, Hibari writes to him about his relationships with Dakesang the chief nurse and Mabo another nurse that is bright and seems to like him.

Sell My Hand

Ookuwa Kitaro is a jack-of-all-trades who travels nationwide across the country working part-time jobs in order to repay his debts, while dealing with all kinds of troublesome situations.

Bungo: Stories of Desire

Omnibus film "Bungo Sasayakana Yokubo" features 6 different short stories set under 2 different themes ("Mitsumerareru Shukujotachi" & "Kokuhaku Suru Shinshitachi").

Pumpkin and Mayonnaise

A struggling, unemployed musician living with his girlfriend looks to improve his life after he discovers how she's been paying the rent.

Dynamite Graffiti

When Suei was little, his mother had an affair with a young man who lived next door. Suei's mother and the young man killed themselves by using dynamite. After Suei graduated from high school, he worked at a factory before quitting his job. He then went to Tokyo and began working in the erotic magazine industry. Suei eventually became the chief editor of a famous erotic magazine in the 1980's.

Vengeance Can Wait

Hidenori and Nanase have lived together for ten years in a tense, platonic relationship. The wheels of change are set in motion when married couple Takao and Azusa move in next door. After Hidenori catches Nanase and Takao having an affair, he becomes obsessed with watching Nanase through a peephole, and planning his cruel revenge.

Strangers in Kyoto

Madoka meets her husband's parents, who run a 450-year-old hand fan shop in the center of Kyoto. Together with her artist friend Anzai, they start an essay manga about the traditional shops in the area. On Madoka's first day minding the store alone, she ends up giving an interview to a TV crew and angering quite a lot of people by being a bit too candid. While Madoka is enamored by Kyoto, she has quite a lot to learn about the unsaid rules and the passive-aggressiveness of the local proprietresses.

In Those Days

Having failed to get into graduate school, with no girlfriend, no money, and no prospects of success with his band, Tsurugi's life has reached rock bottom. One day, after watching the video of Aya Matsuura's song “Momoiro Kataomoi”, he becomes obsessed with the idol singers of “Hello! Project”, and plunges into the idol geek lifestyle. However, as time passes, he and his buddies all find other things just as important as the idols and begin to move on.

Rolling

Kanichi works at wet tissue company in Mito, Japan. He runs into Gondo. 10 years ago, Gondo was fired from his job as a teacher for secretly filming others. He is now with Mihari who works as a hostess. He took away her away from Tokyo. Kanichi falls in love with Mihari at first sight and takes her away from Gondo. Meanwhile, due to a female student on the video Gondo secretly shot, an unexpected disturbance is created.

The Pavillion Salamandre

Four beautiful sisters are entrusted with taking care of Kinjiro, a giant salamander and national treasure. Rumors spread that Kinjiro is an impostor, so a genius x-ray technician is sent to run some tests.

Dias Police: Police from Another Country

About 150,000 illegal entrants live in Tokyo. They are not recognised as refugees and live in poor conditions. To protect themselves, the illegals create a secret organisation. The organisation has a bank which Japanese Financial Services Agency is not involved with, a hospital that is not authorized by Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare and an illegals police force called "Dias Police." The only police officer in the organisation is Saki Kubozuka. His age and nationality is unknown. Saki Kubozuka does not speak much, but he has a warm heart and strong sense of justice. He takes care of the weak and tries to maintain public order.

同じ星の下、それぞれの夜

An fantastic anthology made by Katsuya Tomita, Masanori Tominaga and Tetsuya Mariko for the 4th Okinawa International Movie Festival in 2012.

be found dead

Anthology of stories involving a person finding dead body

目を閉じてギラギラ

Nozomu Kizaki, a man who hates violence and has survived in the underworld by using “sermons” as a weapon. He is also known as “Gandhi Kizaki” (Sho Aikawa). He has given up on the yakuza business, and in order to support those who are struggling to repay their debts, he teaches baseball to children while running the Hope Shokai, a money-lending business. One day, while on a collection mission, Kizaki discovers that one of the debtors is Gota Yagisawa (Takeshi Ayano), a prodigy pitcher who once made his name at the Koshien National Championships. Gota, who had never held a regular job and was mired in debt, is moved by Kizaki's “sermon” and decides to rebuild his life under his guidance. However, the shadow of the Kuroda clan, a yakuza organization, looms behind the pair...

Blood and Chocolate

A young teenage werewolf is torn between honoring her family's secret and her love for a man.

Lord of the Flies

Following a plane crash a group of schoolboys find themselves on a deserted island. They appoint a leader and attempt to create an organized society for the sake of their survival. Democracy and order soon begin to crumble when a breakaway faction regresses to savagery with horrifying consequences.

Rescue Dawn

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

The Brave

A down-on-his-luck American Indian recently released from jail is offered the chance to "star" as the victim of a snuff film, the resulting pay of which could greatly help his poverty stricken family.

55 Steps

The inspiring true story of Eleanor Riese, a mental illness patient herself, who brings a class action suit to give competent mental patients the right to have a say in their medication while they're in a hospital, and Colette Hughes, the lawyer appointed to her case.

Empire of the Sun

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Milk

The true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. In San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk becomes an activist for gay rights and inspires others to join him in his fight for equal rights that should be available to all Americans.

Casualties of War

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.

Naked Singularity

When a successful New York public defender loses his first case, he is pulled into a drug heist by a former client in an effort to beat the broken system at its own game.

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown

No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.

The Russia House

Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investigate the purposes of Dante, a dissident scientist trapped in the decaying Soviet Union that is crumbling under the new open-minded policies.

A Walk to Remember

When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's minister. Jamie has a "to-do" list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon.

The Way We Were

Opposites attract when, during their college days, Katie Morosky, a politically active Jew, meets Hubbell Gardiner, a feckless WASP. Years later, in the wake of World War II, they meet once again and, despite their obvious differences, attempt to make their love for each other work.

The Honeymoon Killers

Martha Beck, an obese nurse who is desperately lonely, joins a "correspondence club" and finds a romantic pen pal in Ray Fernandez. Martha falls hard for Ray, and is intent on sticking with him even when she discovers he's a con man who seduces lonely single women, kills them and then takes their money. She poses as Ray's sister and joins Ray on a wild killing spree, fueled by her lingering concern that Ray will leave her for one of his marks.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.

The Football Factory

The Football Factory is more than just a study of the English obsession with football violence, it's about men looking for armies to join, wars to fight and places to belong. A forgotten culture of Anglo Saxon males fed up with being told they're not good enough and using their fists as a drug they describe as being more potent than sex and drugs put together.

Desperation

When a sheriff arrests a writer, a family, a couple, and a hitchiker and throws them in a jail cell in the deserted town of Desperation, they must fight for their lives.