A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the suicide bombing of a young girl and is forced to undergo retraining. However, unbeknownst to him, he becomes a key player in a dispute between rival police divisions, as he finds himself increasingly involved with the sister of the girl he saw die.
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
In Tokyo, lonely patrons pay to sleep ("soine") with someone. Massage, cuddle, sleep… for comfort and nothing more than the warm embrace of another. Tasuku, a young man fresh out of a relationship, starts a new job as one of the cuddlers. He's nervous and reticent, but soon finds himself with a procession of clients, male as well as female. In his unique position as their companion, he finds himself privy to the true selves they keep closeted. Tender performance and contemplative writing elevate an exploration of the human need for comfort and tenderness, while learning to be true to oneself.
5 university students gather to exchange information on their job search activities. They encourage each other and post their thoughts & worries on Twitter, but behind that they have a lot on their minds. Takuto Ninomiya observes those around him. His roommate Kotaro Kamiya has a bright personality and communicates well with others. Mizuki Tanabe is Kotaro Kamiya’s ex-girlfriend. Takuto Ninomiya has feelings for his roommate's ex-girlfriend. Rika Kobayakawa is determined to land a job. Takayoshi Miyamoto is critical of job-seeking activities, but he later tries to get a job.
A homeless man meets a medical school student who pays him to volunteer for a surgical procedure known as trepanation, drilling a hole in his skull, which ends up giving him the ability to communicate with the dark side of people’s subconscious minds.
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
A new salesman named Kosuke Okuda happens to meet Mao Watarai, a friend from his middle school days. Back then, Mao was called stupid and bullied, but now she is an attractive woman. Kosuke and Mao fall in love and decide to marry, but Mao has a secret.
A serial-murderer is on the loose who just so happens to also be removing the hearts of his victims and taking them with him. His victims however, are not merely random humans as thought by the police. They are in fact, the past and present guardians of the gateway of the afterlife.On the day he is to be married, Detective Kanzaki, who happens to be on the case, discovers that his fiancé Mina has been murdered with her heart also missing. He also learns that the killers are Kudo, a geneticist, and his evil secretary Rei. The two are trying to obtain six hearts from the guardians so that they may call forth a horde of demons from the Gate of Rage and have their every desire granted. Only problem is, once they open the gate the entire world will be covered in darkness.
In war-torn Japan, the Tokugawa Shogun, desperate to restore peace to his people, orders the assassination of the hostile warlords. A beautiful young woman is raised from birth with nine other orphans, to become an assassin. Her name is Azumi, the ultimate assassin.
Detective Nishi is relieved from a stakeout to visit his sick wife in hospital. He is informed that she is terminally ill, and is advised to take her home. During his visit, a suspect shoots one detective dead and leaves Nishi's partner, Horibe, paralyzed. Nishi leaves the police force to spend time with his wife at home, and must find a way to pay off his debts to the yakuza.
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
A biographical story of Tomoatsu Godai, the influential entrepreneur of the Meiji era who laid the foundation of the modern Japanese economy.
There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen - John 'Doc' Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes - who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.
A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.