April Story

A genius film director, Tadashi Kobayashi holds an audition for his new film project. Several actors and actresses answer the open call, but most will only be cast as extras. Can the film come to a completion without accident?

"The Pine's Branches" is the latest work in Murata Tomoyasu’s series “Sei toshi ni matsuwaru kioku no tabi (Journey through memories of life and death),” which he began following the Tohoku earthquake in 2011.

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.

A young salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital affair.

In medieval Japan, a woman and his children journey to find the family's patriarch, who was exiled years before.

The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, whose husband was one of 80,000 human beings killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.

Mushi are beings in touch with the essence of life, far more basic and pure than normal living things. Most humans are incapable of perceiving Mushi and are oblivious to their existence, but there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with Mushi. One such person is Ginko who travels from place to place to research Mushi and aid people suffering from problems caused by them.

Am I really the daughter of a thieves family? Hana Mikumo, daughter of the "L family", a family of thieves, unexpectedly falls in love with Kazuma Sakuraba, the son of a family of police officers. She spends her days dreaming of a normal life whilst hiding her true identity. Eventually her true identity is revealed to Kazuma, and after overcoming many difficulties, the two accept their fate and get married. Along with their new daughter Anzu, they manage to live happily, despite the problems that arise between their two families. Then one day, Hana's father announces his plan to retire from thievery after an incident. To make up for all the trouble he has caused Hana and Kazuma in the past, he offers them a late honeymoon trip. However, the trip actually turns out to be the last job of the "L Family", who are in search of the biggest treasure in history, and it becomes a grand adventure that reveals a family secret that even Hana does not know...

In the early 1200s, Dogen brought Chinese Zen philosophy to Japan, and established the Japanese Zen school of Buddhism. He taught that a person was capable of realizing Buddhahood within himself, by way of Zazen. Zazen is extended hours of sitting and meditating to achieve a state of “Mu” (nothingness, or empty existence).

Two young brothers become the leaders of a gang of kids in their neighborhood. Ozu's charming film is a social satire that draws from the antics of childhood as well as the tragedy of maturity.

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

The legendary one-eyed one-armed swordsman Tange Sazen is back to aid a Magistrate in his efforts to steal bribe money on its way to Edo for the benefit to poor farmers.

Two friends who work together at a Tokyo laundry are increasingly alienated from everyday life. They become fascinated with a deadly jellyfish.

Masaki, a baseball player and gas-station attendant, gets into trouble with the local Yakuza and goes to Okinawa to get a gun to defend himself. There he meets Uehara, a tough gangster, who is in serious debt to the yakuza and planning revenge.

High School student Miyui Mashio is really struggling. She can't fulfill her dream of becoming an idol and her parents are always fighting. Suddenly, she finds a genie in a bottle and through an accident, finds herself back in 1991. She realizes she is now going to school with her parents. But the problem is, her parents do not seem to get along - so Miyui will never be born! Miyui learns her father is interested in idols and so together with her mother and other girls she forms the idol group AGS16 to make sure her parents will eventually fall in love.

On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.

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.

Toko grew up unloved by her mother Mizuho who continues to adore her deceased son. She lives alone in an apartment the electricity has been cut off and the trash is piling up. One late night, Toko enters a gloomy building in order to escape from a threatening stalker, Tomita. There she finds a handgun. She brings it back home and confirms it is loaded with four bullets. One day, the family living next door who have already been enduring poverty and violence end up murdering a man. Toko helps them bury the man's body, shooting it with the handgun. Toko becomes captivated by the gun itself. She is further entangled in the true circumstances of the incident due to the detective searching for the handgun and a suspicious man Kazunari who knows a secret about the handgun. Toko tries to throw herself into the whirlpool but then the lid is blown off her "past."

Live action film adaptation of a romance that was turned into a book after making a splash on the Internet bulletin board “2 Channel.” Humorously depicts a 29-year-old virgin who meets a prostitute, and struggles with love. Directed by Iizuka Ken of Arakawa Under the Bridge.