No More Easy Life

The Gentle Japanese

A survivor of the tragic mass suicides on Tokashiki Island in 1945 falls in love with a near-mute motorcycle engineer.

Manon

A story about a woman who is a research student of a theater company and the three men who are at the mercy of her.

Nurse Natsuko's Hot Summer

The Wangan Highway

Based on the novel of the same name by Yoshio Kataoka.

The Crossing

14-year-old Takuya lives in a rural town near mountains and rivers. His 29-year-old uncle Koji works as a graphic designer in urban Tokyo. Koji's father dies and Takuya is arrested for attempted robbery-the two young men must now face a crucial crossing in their lives. The concluding chapter to director Higashi Yoichi's "boy and river" trilogy, the film highlights contemporary themes like family, adolescence, and the healing properties of nature. The wild but beautiful Kuma River stars as a threatening symbol for the boy's rite of passage. Supernatural beings reign in the mountains above the village.

A Japanese Demon

A psychotherapist suffers from the onslaughts of Satori, the demon whose name is paradoxically homonymic to the word used for enlightenment experiences in the Zen tradition. Many people mistakenly believe that such a state is the goal of Zen practice; however, the demon strikes at people who are in a state devoid of thought or feeling. Satori's influence spreads from the psychotherapist to a couple who grow increasingly uninhibited.

The River with No Bridge

A widow and her two sons, Seitaro and Koji, live in the small town of Komori, where Buraku people are forced to reside. The two boys are continuously harassed by their teachers and classmates through their childhood as a result of their Buraku heritage. In the midst of the 1918 Great Rice Riots in Osaka, Seitaro meets with Asako, the daughter of a rice shop owner, and falls in love with her. She too is of Buraku descent. At the same period, Hideaki, an old friend of the brothers returns to Komori, and he along with Koji and the townspeople create "Zenkoku Suiheisha", the National Levelers Association, an organization pledged to build a bridge over the river of discrimination, making all people equal in every way.

Okinawa Islands

A film documenting life in Okinawa under the domination of American military bases

My Grandpa

Kenzo was behind bars for killing a gangster. Upon his release, he goes to live with his son, whose marriage is on the rocks. His 14-year-old granddaughter Tamako is ostracized when she discovers that her grandfather is a murderer. Kenzo soon helps defend Tamako from bullies at school. When Tamako stands up for herself, she comes to believe that she has inherited some of her grandfather’s great strength. Eventually, an associate of the man Kenzo killed comes looking for revenge, along with the dead man’s son.

The Crying Wind

Seikichi, makes his living fishing from a small boat off the coast of Okinawa. He and his 12-year-old grandson Akira live in a small, tree-lined village in the northern part of the island which is surrounded by a white-sand beach and plots of pine and flowering bushes. On the cliff that skirts the shore sits an open-air burial ground containing the skull of a kamikaze pilot who was shot down during the last days of World War II. When the wind blows through the bullet hole in the skull, it produces a whistling sound. The locals call it the "Crying Head."

Third Base

Third is an aimless young man who hangs around with a couple of girls who are amateur hookers. One day, while acting as their pimp, he gets into a conflict with a young gangster and winds up killing him.

The Second Love

Kazumi - whose sensitivity does not undermine her strength when she handles her second husband's emotional conflicts with the wisdom of an adult. Kazumi's younger and more inexperienced husband Hideo is continually suspicious of her fidelity.

Somebody's Xylophone

A married woman obsesses over a hairstylist she becomes involved with.

Wandering Home

War photojournalist Yasuyuki Tsukahara married popular manga artist Yuki Sonoda and had children. Because of Yasayuki's drinking problems the couple divorced. Yasuyuki is now coughing up blood, hospitalized, and violent. Even with all of these problems Yasuyuki can't give up drinking alcohol. His family gets tired. Yasuyuki is then hospitalized in an alcoholic ward. There he finds comfort living with other patients and having conversations with doctors. With the help of his family, Yasuyuki recovers mentally and physically, but his body has already paid a heavy toll.

Village of Dreams

Tells of the childhood of two nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.

Four Seasons: Natsuko

A young woman breaks off her long-term relationship with her boyfriend to move to Tokyo in search of new experiences.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to 'leap' backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems, and eventually, will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future of herself and her friends.

Dancing at Lughnasa

Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.

Little Forest

A young woman leaves the city to return to her hometown in the countryside. Seeking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, she becomes self-sufficient in a bid to reconnect with nature.

Child of Kamiari Month

A year after losing her mother, a young girl learns that she must journey across Japan to the annual gathering of gods in the sacred land of Izumo.

Goodbye, Don Glees!

Teen misfits Roma, Toto, and Drop call themselves the “Don Glees,” an informal name for their backyard adventures. One day, when the trio gets blamed for a nearby forest fire, they set off into the woods to prove their innocence. As disaster strikes their expedition, tensions flare between the friends as they realize that growing up has taken them on wildly different paths in life.