Rinko Kikuchi

In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out -- detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. (Paramount Vantage)

Naisu no Mori: The First Contact is the only film that features an ejaculating Ass-Television that plugs into a schoolgirl's navel to save an alien planet and give birth to a tiny sushi chef. (SFIndie.com)

Several directors take part in an anthology dedicated to short anime films. (imdb)

Yui (Yui Aragaki) is an arts student at university who falls in love for the first time with Takashi (Ryuhei Matsuda), her neighbour in the flat above her. Takashi had already had a relationship with Atsuko (Rinko Kikuchi), Yui's flat previous tenant, whom Yui sincerely admires. (AsianMediaWiki)

Kannami Yuichi is a fighter pilot who is newly transferred to Urisu Base to replace a pilot who died in battle. Yuichi strangely does not age like normal people would, and the base commanding officer Kusanagi Suito seems to have the same ability. They are revealed to be Kildren, a group of ageless adolescent pilots who are genetically-created to engage in endless dogfights between two companies, Rostock and Lautern. (nihonreview.com)

Four segments shot as if they're the climax of four action Movies by four different Directors. Set in the near future in Japan, depicts the fierce conflict between refugees from the rest of Asia--who have flooded into Japan when their economies have collapsed--and the Japanese armed police. (asianmediawiki.com)

A beautifully shot classic love story set in Tokyo. A successful businessman finds out his daughter has committed suicide after having her heart broken by an older Spanish man and hires a contracted killer to execute him. Problems arise when the killer starts to develop feelings for her target while tricking him into trusting her before she makes her move.

The film tells the story of a Drive-In worker and a young tramp who has been left alone by her boyfriend somewhere in Hokkaido. Things seem to work out at the beginning but as time goes by the newly formed relationship between the tramp and the Drive-In worker starts to show the workers harmful will of possession. (imdb)

An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding. (imdb)

Upon hearing the song "Norwegian Wood," Toru (Matsuyama) remembers back to his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend. As the two try, in very different ways, to contend with their grief, Toru forms a bond with another woman, Midori. (imdb)

When four unrelated people are murdered in an apartment building a film director sets off to interview the residents in an attempt to solve the mystery.

A freelance writer is given a bizarre assignment by the sexy editor of "Black Book Monthly": find a bug with the power to bring humans back from the dead, in order to report on the afterlife. With his trusty companion Endo in tow, he sets off on a quest for the elusive insect and along the way meets the mysterious Sayoko, a former dominatrix and habitual wrist-cutter who delights in rubbing wasabi into her wounds. (imdb)

Three women are transported to the virtual world of Avalon F, where they must test their fighting skills against monsters known as Sand Whales.

An omnibus of short films by auteur directors based on Dreams. (imdb)

Shunichiro Miki delivers a shot of utter madness. Penis guns! Nipple monsters! A giant girl running a very small shop! This quasi-sequel to THE FUNKY FOREST more than lives up to the weird factor of its predecessor. (Fantastic Fest)

When an alien attack threatens the Earth's existence, giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace. (imdb)

A band of samurai set out to avenge the death and dishonor of their master at the hands of a ruthless shogun. (imdb)

Japanese remake of the film "Sideways". A middle-aged Japanese man travels to California to attend the wedding of his friend in America, and visit Napa Valley before the ceremony. (imdb)

A lonely Japanese woman becomes convinced that a satchel of money buried and lost in a fictional film, is in fact, real. With a crudely drawn treasure map and limited preparation, she escapes her structured life in Tokyo and embarks on a foolhardy quest across the frozen tundra of Minnesota in search of her mythical fortune. (Sundance)

Greenland, 1909. Josephine Peary is a mature, proud, determined and naive woman, in love with celebrated Arctic adventurer Robert Peary, a man who prefers glory and ice to the comforts of an upper-class home. For him she will face all danger, even risk her own life. Allaka - young but wise, brave and humble - is in love with the same man, and expecting his child. The relentless icy landscape both separates and draws these two women together during the long, tense wait for the man they both love.

Inui Sakunosuke (Noriyuki Higashiyama), a young samurai, is ordered by his clan's chief retainer (Takashi Sasano) to execute one Sakuma Morie (Ainosuke Kataoka), who has been drummed out of the clan for opposing its leaders' policies with a directness judged intolerably rude. But Sakuma is a close friend, as well as the husband of Sakunosuke's sister Tazu (Rinko Kikuchi). (The Japan Times)

Having lost custody of her six year-old son, a young Japanese woman (Kikuchi) has four days to say goodbye to him on-board a yacht belonging to her western ex-husband's wealthy family. Alone with the crew, who are under direct instruction to keep a watchful eye on her, the woman must try to forge a connection with her son before she has to part from him for many years. (IM)

In an attempt to colonize Mars, 21st century scientists seed the planet with algae to absorb sun light and purify the atmosphere, and cockroaches who in turn spread the algae as they feed. 500 years later, the first manned mission to Mars loses contact with Earth, and a second ship is sent to investigate. (imdb)

Portrait of the Wind centers on Tamio, a world-traveling photographer who came home to take over the family business after his father's death. One day at the photo studio, he finds a kindred spirit in Ayako and the requisite sparks fly between them. The beginning of the film deal with their budding romance, and it isn't long before the two become a serious couple, and Ayako is pregnant. As compelling as all of this proves to be, the romance merely sets the viewer up for a tragic narrative turn. (lovehkfilm.com)

Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots, including rival Lambert and 15-year-old hacker Amara, against a new Kaiju threat. (imdb)

A modern adaptation of Narayamabushi-ko, The Ballad of Narayama. (imdb)

A made-for-TV anthology horror film composed of three stories: Rei Video & Hoken-shitsu by Hideo Nakata and Haiko Kidan by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

On a massive luxury cruise ship while at sea, the loyal butler Suguru, and a mysterious woman named Chizuru cross paths as they try to uncover a murder-mystery that occurs on the ship. (imdb)

Yoko lives a reclusive life until news of her father's passing compels her to travel home. Stranded at a rest stop without means, she must hitch rides to make it to his funeral. (imdb)