Hidetoshi Nishijima

Three contemporary stories inspired by the everlasting emotions expressed by the precious dolls of Bunraku theater. Three stories delicately intertwined by the beauty of sadness. Three stories of undying love. (Palm Pictures)

Alone and self-sufficient since childhood, Tony shuns emotions as illogical and immature. After finding his true vocation as a technical illustrator, he becomes fascinated with Eiko, whom he marries. His life changes, he feels vibrantly alive, and for the first time, he understands and fears loneliness. But when Eiko's all consuming obsession for designer clothes ends in tragedy, Tony finds himself alone again, sitting in his wife's closet, gazing at her treasured couture pieces... (imdb)

Live-action sci-fi movie based on a 1973 Japanese animé of the same name (Shinzo Ningen Casshân). Theme song by Utada Hikaru. (imdb)

"Canary" is the troubling tale of a boy trying to survive after a terrible event involving his parents and a cult. After living several years among the cult with his mother and sister, he finds the cult suddenly in turmoil regarding the sarin gas train attacks in Tokyo. First taken to a councelling center, he then sets out with his only friend to find his sister and mother in Tokyo. (cdjapan.co.jp)

Girl likes boy. Boy likes girl's older sister. Silence. Time.

Thirty-five years later, old and dying, Mihara turns up for a bit part in a trashy drama, playing a dying patient in a hospital. None of the youngsters recognize him, though a young female props manager, Mio, takes a shine to him and a couple of older set hands renew their acquaintance. Unlike in the old studio days, time is now money and any sense of craftsmanship is secondary to getting the shot in the can. Mihara keeps fluffing a line until Mio and the others take some extraordinary action. (dvdasian.com)

Six women in Tokyo follow their daily life routine.

Laconic thirteen-year-old piano prodigy Uta has been in a detached slump ever since her father disappeared. With her mother struggling to make ends meet, Uta was forced to leave her old house and piano behind - ..the only piano she wants to play. Much to her mother's dismay, she keeps skipping her piano lessons, distancing herself even more from the people and places around her. She starts to open up when she meets 19-year-old aspiring pianist Wao, with whom she develops an unlikely friend (avistaz.com)

In a nutshell, Reiko pukes up black mud as a foreshadowing of her interactions with the 1000-year-old mummy's spirit, which was preserved in the same kind of mud (and possibly drank the mud during its lifetime to preserve beauty). Makoto (the anthropologist) takes the mummy to the deserted house because it causes side-effects to those around it (Hino describes his nightmares and Makoto himself drives his car off the road). (imdb)

Chinatsu is a lesbian who is in love with her friend and roommate, a straight girl Kyoko (Chika Fujimura). Meanwhile Kyoko, is a free spirit of sorts, that enjoys painting, flirting up with guys and even sporadically leading Chinatsu on. The object of Kyoko's more fervent affections, is a male aquarium-store clerk who doesn't even acknowledge her attention. These two live so closely (they even share a single bed) that Chinatsu is basically torturing herself emotionally. (AsianMediaWiki)

Hirai is a prison guard who looks after Kaneda, a man on death row and a model inmate. Hirai is about to marry a single mother, although he cannot afford to take time off from work to take his wife on a honeymoon and to bond with his new stepson. When Kaneda's execution order is signed, it presents Hirai with an opportunity to take time away but at an overwhelming emotional cost. (independent.com)

Saori has always disliked her gay father and has lived her life denying his existence. [She finds out] her father is dying of cancer and that the nursing..is in danger of closing. Out of curiosity and debt, Saori goes to visit her father at the House of Himiko, a nursing home for gay old men. It is a sad place but filled with sardonic good cheer..She begins taking an interest in keeping the nursing home alive... (asianmediawiki.com)

Kanikosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity. (mubi.com)

Using stark black-and-white imagery and a raw, digital aesthetic, Cut tells the story of Shuji (Hidetoshi Nishijima), an unknown filmmaker who craves great cinema like a junkie dying for a fix. The only problem, he figures, is that great films are dead -- unless he can find a way to make them himself.

The story is about Yutaka who is transferred to the Bangkok branch of Eastern Airlines where he meets a woman named Toko at a bar. He's set to marry Mitsuko the daughter of the airline's founder in the near future, though he's with her primarily to further his career ambitions. He gets caught up in a passionate love affair with Toko, but he eventually decides to break it off and go through with his marriage after all... (myac.asia)

Kei (Nishijima) is a struggling actor, freeloading off Yu (Eri Yu) which makes him impulsive and insecure resulting in unpredictable behavior, fits of anger, and a proposal of marriage. Yu works in a boutique as a shop assistant and seems to be playing the archetype of the abused and unappreciated Japanese woman who tackles her fate with a Zen determinism. (imdb)

A young husband appears to be cheating on his wife, he thinks she is having an affair with her cousin. She retreats to a large upstairs room covered in cobwebs, and is willing herself to become an insect, just like the character in Kafka's Metamorphosis... (gooddrama.net)

A look at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II. (imdb)

Ishigami comes home from work and discovers his wife dead. Just then, he receives a phone call from his wife and falls in utter confusion. Unexplainable things keep happening as Ishigami struggles to find his wife. Gradually, Ishigami realizes all his memories are gone and finds himself acting like someone else. What is his true identity? (imdb)

Kenji and Aya spend their summer days in a Hotel. While she is doing her own thing, he tries to work on his novel. But then a few strange hotel guest arouse the curiosity of the couple...

Takakura is a former detective. He receives a request from his ex-colleague, Nogami, to examine a missing family case that occurred 6 years earlier. Takakura follows Saki's memory. She is the only surviving family member from the case. Meanwhile, Takakura and his wife Yasuko recently moved into a new home. Their neighbor, Nishino, has a sick wife and a young teen daughter. One day, the daughter, Mio, tells him that the man is not her father and she doesn't know him at all. (imdb)

A shy 30-something woman whose inner thoughts appear to viewers as a board of five very different individuals discussing her actions.

Lone wolf detective with an enormous personal grievance seeks to connect the mysterious death of his daughter to an urban legend of a villain who terrorizes Japan by insinuating himself into people's dreams and the collective psyche of the Japanese people. (imdb)

Yoshi, aged 24, awakes after 10 years in a coma, goes on to start a new life and rebuild his family. (imdb)

The drama revolves around furniture repair shopkeeper Shiina Shusuke, who is looking for new owners of the seven cats, which his late wife had kept, with his childhood friend Fujimura Misaki. The cats will be wrapped in a blanket and left with new owners for a couple of days as a trial. This short yet precious time spending with cats will give owners something to hope for in life. (d-addicts.com)

Harima Kaoruko has two children. She lives separately from her husband Kazuaki. They have agreed to divorce after their daughter's exam for elementary school finishes. One day, they learn that their daughter drowned in a swimming pool. The doctor informs them that their daughter is brain dead and does not have a chance to recover. The couple has two choices. One choice is to donate Mizuho's organs to others in need and their other choice is to wait until Mizuho's heart stops beating. (imdb)

Kurumi is hired at a high-end hotel, but is instead dispatched to work at fun fair that is connected to the business network. The new work is out in the country and there is not much else to do or places to go. The go-to employee is one Yoshiko. Kurumi wants to be successful and valued and is eager to learn from Yoshiko. All is not as it seems on the surface however. (imdb)

During the Edo period, a gifted swordsman was exiled from his clan when he questioned the misconduct of his leader. Years after, his dying wife wish was for him to go back to his clan. (themoviedb)

A fourth-grader, Aoyama-kun, investigates the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village, which is somehow related to a power from a young woman working at a dental clinic. (imdb)

Megumi is a top sales person at the handbag section of a department store. Many people admire, and sometimes even envy, Megumi for her beauty and outstanding skills to sell products to customers. However, Megumi secretly suffers from a complex: she is flat-chested and was once nicknamed "kabe onna" (wall woman) by her former classmate. One day, a new sales person named Marie joins Megumi's department. Unlike Megumi, Marie is extremely busty as if she's carrying mounds (yama) on her chest.

Fuyuko (Tomoko Nakajima), begins the film nine months pregnant, but doesn't deliver until her third year, to the bafflement of all around her. Fuyuko, however, is in bliss about her unusual state, despite her size. (imdb)

A young man has graduated from college and already secured a job. With his free days fast dwindling he opts to put his available time to good use by bicycling around Japan. The trip is interrupted when he crashes his bicycle into a lorry only to be taken to a local establishment for on-site treatment. Told from the vantage point of an older man's memory, the journey recalls the meeting, the locals, their relationships and environment.

Haru who has relocated to Hiroshima in southern Japan comes across a rogue telephone booth in the middle of nowhere when she returns to Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan. The unconnected telephone in a white booth is driven by superstition that it is a direct line to the dead. She and several locals converse and they share their stories and the different states of belief regarding the booth that is prevalent. (imdb)

The series follows Shiro Kakei and Kenji Yabuki, a middle aged gay couple living in Tokyo, Japan. Shiro is a serious and reserved lawyer, while Kenji is cheerful and outgoing hairdresser. (wikipedia.org)

Nishijima Hidetoshi as a stage actor and director happily married to his playwright wife . Then one day the wife disappears. (imdb)

A bombing incident occurs in downtown Tokyo. Many people are caught in the explosion and Kuraki Naotake, a police superintendent in Public Security Bureau, loses his wife who, it appears, was involved in the explosion. Together with (detective) Osugi Ryota and (government agent) Akeboshi Misa, he starts to investigate the incident. (imdb)

***A woman sees a company called "Fushiawase wo Anata ni" promoting a new sales concept. ***A woman wakes up in her bed every morning not remembering the events of the past night and finding that someone has moved around... ***As there is no more room in hell, the evil/sinful find they cannot die. ***A struggling author chances upon a diary which changes his life. ***A woman's husband dies in a car accident, but that same evening he is heard pounding on the door for someone to let him in.

Shiro Kakei lives with his boyfriend Kenji Yabuki. Shiro works as an attorney and cooks well. He is meticulous and also thrifty. Kenji is a hairdresser with a good personality. (imdb)

Set in 1713, during the reign of child Shogun, Tokugawa Ietsugu, Ooku addresses the scandals of the inner palace where the Shogun’s wife and concubines reign. While men battle on the battlefield and in the courts for power, the women themselves also battle within their own chambers for power as well as love. (Eversky.org)

A salary man debates selling his grandfather's land to pay off his father's debt.

As the threat of giant unidentified lifeforms known as "S-Class Species" worsens in Japan, a silver giant appears from beyond Earth's atmosphere. (imdb)

Sasaki-san is a superlative cook who is on auto-control and can make wondrous meals with nary a thought anymore. In a literal case of the last wish on earth, he receives a special request to cook a specific dish. The catch is he needs to discover the recipe of famed chef Yamagata who was in occupied Manchuria in China in the 1930s.

It is Xmas, the time for shopping, consumerism, gifts, late gifts and of course silly hats. This is no time for a call into a television station with an ultimatum about a bomb in a major population centre like Tokyo. In fact, a video is uploaded demanding a conversation with the Prime Minister or else.. a bomb will blow up. Can the police stop the criminal and avoid deaths? (imdb)

Two men attempt to come to terms with a traumatic past by solving a present mystery in Takahisa Zeze's eerie millennial serial killer drama

Two holes appear suddenly on the walls of a cheap apartment where a piddling fiction writer, Makiguri, lives. What he wrote fiercely after that was his own death.

Half a century has passed since the country declared the coexistence of humans and monsters, an era of chaos. Aoi Izumi, a young human rights activist who appeals for the abolition of discrimination, meets a man.

Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to control Japan where rival warlords battle by waging war against several clans. His vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears (imdb)

Follows Suzie, an American woman living in Japan, and Sunny, a domestic robot made by her husband's company, as they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie's husband and son who disappeared in a mysterious plane crash.

A mysterious woman team up with a man whose daughter was killed and who is now seeking revenge. Together they kidnap members of an organization and torture them to find out what really happened.

Haruo returns to his hometown for his mother’s second marriage, where he happens to meet his first love Miyuki for the first time in eight years. Miyuki is back in town with her daughter Chiharu, after leaving a failed marriage. (Avistaz)

The Special Investigation Unit, Tokyo's top-secret police force of highly-skilled specialists, dabble in espionage as they confront irregular cases with the power to shake up the country at large. (imdb)

Isayama Nami, in order to start over her life and to find happiness, married the man she fell in love with at first sight during a blind date and moved to a quiet high-end residential area. Nami isn't really good with domestic chores in general, including cooking or cleaning, but she has a very strong sense of justice and it would be very ill-advised to make her angry. (imdb)

Hiroto Miyama works with rookie lawyer Honoka Kono on a team that specializes with criminal cases for Madarame Law Firm. Atsuhiro Sada has become the director of the law firm. One day, the law firm receives a request about a case that took place 15 years ago. The case was about a poisonous wine incident.

In 1983, photographer Gocho Shigeo met an early death at the young age of 36. The view we see reflected in Gocho’s photographic images has become more profound over time since his death and has struck a chord in people’s hearts. While focusing on Gocho’s collection of photographs Self and Others, the film also visits places associated with him, creating a collage with the manuscripts, letters, photographs and voice recordings remaining in an attempt …

This historical biopic follows the life of Japanese heroine Yae Niijima. As Yae dedicates her life to helping others, she becomes a role model for modern women everywhere. (imdb)