When the Night Breaks

In post-war Japan, a publisher goes to visit her former teacher for help on a modern translation of a legend about a mummified Buddhist monk who was revived and who, centuries later, turned into a sex demon who terrorized a village in pre-modern Japan.

A successful lyricist, Sakumaki (Yukio Ninagawa), lives with his partner Kazue (Keiko Fujita) and their daughter, though he has always kept an emotional distance from them. One night, he returns home to find a mysterious woman in black (Yuko Kusunoki) waiting in his apartment. She calmly tells him that he will die the next night at precisely 12:13 a.m. Shaken, Sakumaki flees, only to discover the same woman appearing wherever he goes. As her presence grows more menacing and unexplainable, his fear spirals into paranoia. Directed by Toshiya Fujita, the episode blends domestic drama with supernatural dread, blurring the line between hallucination and reality. With Ninagawa in a rare starring role, supported by Ichiro Zaitsu and Akira Nagoya, the story pushes its protagonist into a psychological nightmare where fate, guilt, and obsession collide.

A middle-aged office worker, Masao Okada (Eiji Okada), discovers that his worsening illness is terminal cancer. Shaken and resigned, he meets a mysterious man, Suzuki (Haruo Tanaka), who knows every detail of his life. Also a dying patient, Suzuki proposes a “game”: two men with little time left will live in suspense, wondering when and how the other might kill, using paranoia as a way to escape the greater fear of death. Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe and based on a story by Kyotaro Nishimura, this short TV film from "Horror Theater Unbalance" blends psychological dread with social reflection. Alongside Okada’s fragile romance with nurse Akiko (Masumi Harukawa), the story introduces a nihilistic subplot where a reckless young couple (Renji Ishibashi among them) engage in a fatal dare that ends in self-destruction — echoing the era’s sense of emptiness and contrasting Okada’s struggle to find meaning in the face of death.

In a struggling small theater troupe, director Inuo pressures an actor to perform a death role with extreme intensity, resulting in a fatal accident. Despite the tragedy, Inuo attempts to proceed with the scheduled performance. Legendary underground theater performers Jūrō Kara and Mako Midori appear in the episode, exploring themes of theatre performance, obsession, and the boundary between reality and illusion.

Based on the original mystery novel by Seicho Matsumoto. Novelist Ryuji Sugimoto is publishing his serial in a local newspaper when a woman from Tokyo subscribes, saying she’s interested in his work—only to abruptly cancel weeks later. Suspicious, he realizes her true interest may not be the fiction at all, but a real double suicide reported in the same paper.

A university anatomy surgeon and lecturer, Dr. Mizukami, runs over and kills a corporate worker while driving with his student and lover, Ryoko. Instead of reporting the accident, Mizukami hides the dead body and attempts to carry on with his academic and professional life as if nothing happened.

A salaryman promoted against his will skips his first morning meeting and slips into a spiral of small rebellions—cafés, nightclubs, and a fleeting romance—while rejecting the rigid “medals” of corporate success. Torn between family and freedom, he plots a staged disappearance to reclaim a late-coming youth, in a bittersweet drama underscored by the haunting refrain of “Akita Ondo.”

Japanese horror movie from 1973.

This was a sponsored documentary film by director Kazuo Kuroki of Japan. This highly artistic film focused entirely on Japanese marathon runner Kenji Kimihara. Kimihara finished eighth in the 1964 Olympic marathon with a time of 2:19:49. He had previously won the Japanese trials in 2:17:11 on April 12th of that year. He competed in a total of three Olympic marathons in all (finishing 2nd in 1968, and 5th in 1972) and he won 9 of 18 marathons prior to the Mexico City Games, including the Boston Marathon in 1966. Kimihara’s personal best was 2:13:25.

On August 9, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This film, based on a story by Mitsukaru Inoue, describes the daily life of people in Nagasaki the day before that fateful event. It presents the human drama of people's lives, and their feelings of joy and sadness. These include a newlywed couple, an expectant mother, and lovers who must say farewell because the boy is called to serve in the army. Each of these people, like others in the city, hoped to live with their dreams for ‘tomorrow’. But tomorrow never comes for them, as their lives are brought to an abrupt and unexpected end. Knowing how the story ends, in this case, doesn't detract from it at all; rather, it enhances the emotional impact, which is further heightened by the poignant musical score from Teizo Matsumura. 'Ashita' is the first film in Kazuo Kuroki's 'War Requiem Trilogy,' which also includes 'Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima' (2002) and 'Chichi to Kuraseba' (2004).

In Kagoshima, in the final days of World War II, an offer of marriage comes to Etsuko Kamiya, who lives with her brother and his wife. The offer comes from Nagayo, but Etsuko is attracted to his friend, Akashi.

Intellectual collegue professor Sasa becomes obsessed with beautiful Sugiko, a virgin. Eventually, luring her to a love hotel.

Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima. The film takes place during 4 days in the summer of 1948, as the ghost of her father visits Mitsué (Rié Miyama). He had somehow learned that she has fallen in love, and tries to convince her to start her new life. But Mitsué obstinately refuses his warm and humorous encouragements : « People were killed in my place. I do not have the right to find happiness », she says.

After a young boy captures a rare butterfly in Nagasaki, a caterpillar begins a relay-trip toward the northern tip of Hokkaido, serving as a silent witness to a series of vignettes featuring people struggling with the psychological and social scars of post-war Japan.

Murase is a bodyguard of yakuza group. Ochiai is a police officer who once was a student activist. When they meet, they are surprised how identical they look.

Japanese fishery instructor Akira is attracted to beautiful Cuban young girl Martia. Though initially rejected, Akira still returns with Martia to her homeland. On the way he sees a post-revolution Cuba, cultivating fields, relics from the revolution, armies in training, and Castro in a political rally.

Kaido is a professional pickpocket who works the Tokyo subway with his young foster-daughter, Rei: She lets herself be groped while Kaido relieves the groper of his wallet. More often than not they're observed by a middle-aged cop, who generally lets Kaido go free. Rei is unsettled when Kaido takes on a young street punk, Kazuki, as an apprentice -- with instructions to make Kaido stop drinking. Kazuki, however, would like to go into business with Rei.

A student travels back to Kobe for the summer. Once there, he meets his friend Rat, hangs on the usual place, listening to the Beach Boys and meets a mysterious twin girl.

At a seaside city somewhere in the Tohoku area, the corpses of Nozomi, daughter of an affluent family, and Yamazaki, son of an engineer at the local nuclear power-plant, are found tied-to on a beach, as if they intended to commit double suicide. Nogami, a reporter, begins to investigate.

Near the end of Japanese civil war, several disgraced ronin living in Edo's red light district attempt to regain their honor by defending a brothel from a hostile militia bent on wiping out local prostitutes.

In the final days of World War II, a 15-year-old boy grappling with survivor's guilt watches a rural Japanese community quietly fracture under the heavy emotional tolls of war.

Tateo, young and neurotic, wishes to leave the village his mother has raised him in.

Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), the imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).

From the opening sequence, combining underwater and aerial footage, this masterpiece about the construction of a steam-power plant in Kurihama (south of Tokyo) far surpasses the limitations of the promotional film genre, and emerges as one of the most staggering sensory experiences in Japanese documentary.