Watch Out for the Patriot! - Kunio Suzuki

A psychological thriller set in the post-COVID Tokyo. The film follows a woman looking for her missing son, and a shady young man who approaches her, claiming to know her son.

Three people from a former theater club get back in touch for the first time in 20 years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of them have led completely different lives, but an absent woman continues to cast a shadow over them. This story takes place over one night, and explores the themes of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and connections between people.

Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.

A socially-distanced college reunion, an unusual rapport struck between a food delivery man and a patron, a bus-stop encounter, and a blind woman scammed into thinking her brother is sick constitute the stories of Mayu Nakamura’s COVID-era quadriptych—a work that encapsulates the newfound anxieties of loneliness, insecurity and the struggle for connection within the depths of the pandemic lockdown. Tied together by the remarkable performances of actress Nahana, who embodies the various female characters across the film’s differing narratives, Nakamura’s episodic feature delves into the lives of women in COVID-era Japan, finding profundity and human connection amid the unlikely encounters of strangers.

"Alone in Fukushima" is a feature film documentary about Naoto Matsumura who remained in the nuclear zone with animals in Fukushima.

“Alone Again is Fukushima” is the long-awaited sequel to "Alone in Fukushima" (2015), which followed Naoto Matsumura, a man who remained in the nuclear zone in Fukushima to tend animals. The film has followed Naoto for nearly a decade and portrays how Naoto and the animals survived the residents' return to the town, Tokyo Olympics, and COVID-19. In the course of 10 years, many animals and humans were born and died. But Naoto remained in the town and took care of the animals. He raised chickens and kept bees in order to survive. In 2017, Tomioka became the place where people can come back to live, however most young people didn’t return. There is no end in sight for the nuclear crisis in Fukushima. The contaminated water is overflowing and will be pumped out to the ocean soon. Meanwhile the government is trying to restart the nuclear reactors all over the country. The film will give us a chance to reflect on this situation by looking at how Naoto and animals survive in Fukushima.