Moeagaru Seibutsu

Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko - the ugliest girl in the village. Her love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste - but still he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke goes in for fleeting romance - for example, with the girlfriend of a gangster boss. But when he finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke's little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko's hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself. And this is just the first five minutes of Lisa Takeba's short-but-powerful feature debut. Just like in her previous short films, the director - who cut her teeth in the advertising world and as the writer of a video game - throws a lot of genres and techniques into the mix: from science fiction to gangster films, from hospital eroticism to animation. Hectic and absurd, but with its heart in the right place. © IFFR

A compilation of 28 short films about kaijus.

"Over 8" is a joint project from a Shimokitazawa theater and young directors to create new wave films. Their latest is an omnibus film on the theme of "nakedness," directed by five up-and-coming directors. The producer is Shu Kageyama, who has worked with directors Shozin Fukui and Hideaki Anno on their films as one of the main crew members. Truth, emotional problems, trauma, desire, minority....some things can only be fully revealed through "nakedness." Come and witness the freshly-told stories of five vividly different colors and styles, all about "nakedness."

Normality meets absurdity: Natsuko and Gomuo were an ordinary couple until Natsuko meets a terminally ill woman who will die if she does not have sex for more than 24 hours. What situations do the two young women plunge into when life hangs by a thread?

Strange and violent things start to happen when a reclusive woman is held captive in her own home.

8mm short by Shu Kageyama.

Extreme violence, excessive sexual content, lightning-fast editing and story development. Numerous poetic lines spoken by characters with exaggerated personalities. These are told through beautifully and delicately captured images and transparent and ethereal music. Almost all scenes, including indoor scenes, are shot in sunlight, and all are handheld, creating images reminiscent of newsreels and documentaries, overwhelming the viewer with their power.

8mm short by Shu Kageyama.

8mm short by Shu Kageyama.