Eri Ishida

The story of a woman's life work founding a bone marrow bank for her son. (CD Japan)

Kenji, abandoned by his mother, scrapes out a meager existence doing odd jobs including driving bar hostesses and their customers home. Besides this he takes care of the sister of an old friend in jail and a young illegal immigrant. But his life reaches a turning point when he happens to meet Chiyoko, his long lost mother. She is now married to Mamiya, the owner of an express package delivery service. They also have a teenage son, Yusuke. (imdb)

A gangly, withdrawn youth is recovering from a lung ailment at his grandfather's house, while his classmates are working at a nearby war plant. When one of those classmates was fatally wounded in an air raid, Yasuo ran away instead of finding help -- and he has been wracked with guilt ever since. (japantimes.co.jp)

The Clone Returns Home is a compelling meditation on the paradox of life and death, and the meaning of love and family. (imdb)

In "Route 225," Yoshihiro Nakamura takes an approach somewhere between stranger-in-a-strange-land fantasy and coming-of-age parable. His 14-year-old heroine and her pudgy younger brother may make a wrong turn into an alternative reality, but instead of plunging into Miyazakian adventures with strange creatures, they find themselves trying to unravel a maddening puzzle, with no logical clues to its solution, somewhat like Alice trying to decipher the nonsensical commands of the Queen of Hearts. (japantimes.co.jp)

5 episodes in one single movie, every time new characters reveal their inner hidden true self. A good selection of Japanese directors. Most of the time, the characters meet each other, remember thing they thought lost forever, becoming friends and not least becoming aware of the power of seduction of the Other. Of course you have to be a fan of Japanese cinema in order to better perceive the selected short movies. (imdb)

This erotic and violent story taken from Emily Bronte's classic novel, takes place in medieval Japan instead of 19th-century Yorkshire. Onimaru (Yasaku Matsuda) is an orphan boy taken in by a group of priests who worship the Mountain of Fire and try to appease the gods of anger. He loves Kinu (Yuko Tanaka), the beautiful daughter of a local family. (mubi.com)

Set in Sendai, Japan, 2 men live completely different lives. One is a star professional baseball player and the other burglarizes empty homes. Their fate connects with unseeable connections when Tadashi Imamura (Gaku Hamada) and a suicidal woman enter the home of the professional baseball player ... (asianwiki.com)

A tale of young love and friendship. Onkel, with the help of Kosuke, is trying to win the affection of beautiful Fusako. They manage to convince her to participate in an acting competition at the school festival...

Hama-chan takes more paid holidays than anyone else at work, but is friends with the company's president, whom he calls Su-san. Su-san's doctor, concerned for the president's health, suggests that he retire. Su-san becomes depressed, goes fishing and collapses on the beach, but Hama-chan come to his rescue.

Hama-chan still works at Suzuki Construction in Tokyo, while continuing his friendship with company president Ichinosuke Suzuki. Hama-chan wishes he could have child - the only thing missing in his happy life. Su-san then takes Hama-chan on a fishing trip to cheer him up. While on the trip Su-san meets the daughter of his first love. He learns from the girl that his first love's tomb is about to be demolished to make way for a resort.

Densuke Hamazaki is an office worker at Suzuki Construction and gets transferred to the main Tokyo office. After settling in to his surrounding along with his wife Eri, Densuke befriends an elderly man named Ichinosuke Suzuki. Ichinosuke is a lonely and old man who learns to enjoy life again through his friendship with Densuke. Meanwhile, Densuke is completely unaware that Ichinosuke is the boss of his construction company. The two men become friends through their shared passion for fishing.

Su-san must give a lecture in far-off Iwate, which serves as another excuse for the company president and Hama-chan to go fishing. Once there, however, Hama-chan is mistaken for the company president and Su-san for his chauffeur! But Su-san is delighted at the mix-up: he gets to go fishing with a beautiful woman working at a local inn.

Hama-chan and Michiko have a son, whom they name Koitaro. At the office, Su-san's nephew begins work at the construction company and becomes friends with Hama-chan. When the nephew runs off with the sister of Hama-chan's friend, he and Su-san go looking for the young lovers ? and fishing, of course.

Approached by a friend about a matchmaking arrangement, Su-san goes to Hama-chan's home seeking help. Hama-chan is away on a business trip, but Michiko entertains Su-san late into the night. When he gets drunk and ends up spending the night, Hama-chan, begins to question his boss's relationship with Michiko.

Hama-chan and Michiko's son, Koitaro, is now one year old. When Michiko leaves home to attend a school reunion and Michiko's mother is unable to care for the infant, Hama-chan is forced to take Koitaro to work and the baby soon gets lost, creating all manner of havoc at the construction firm.

High school student Saya Toma (Erika Toda) lost her parents and younger brother in an airplane accident. Detective Akio Kondo (Yu Tokui) came and told her "your family has a high possibility that they were killed by people who have spec." That was the first time she heard of "spec". 6 years later, Saya Toma, who has never forgotten what the Detective said, decides to become a detective. She returns to Japan after receiving training by the FBI in the United States. (The Movie Database)

Mitsuo Wada (Toshiyuki Nagashima) works at raising tomatoes in a greenhouse, next to a big public housing complex. Because his father has moved out to go live with his girlfriend, Mitsuo lives alone with his mother and grandmother, a situation that does not particularly curb his romantic life. (Eleanor Mannikka)

Haunted by her past, an English teacher explores love and dust with a dashing yakuza gangster in Tokyo (imdb.com).