Yôsuke Kubozuka

The film traces the growth and friendship of 2 very different high school ping pong players. "Peco" Hoshino is a brash, arrogant player, determined to turn "pro" (imdb)

A young girl looking through her father's notes finds something written about the last experiment he worked on before he went insane. Everything in his notebook looks ordinary until near the last page, at which point his handwriting deteriorates and the name "Tomie" is mentioned several times. From that point forward his notes are written in what looks like blood. At the same time, another young girl escapes from a hospital. Who is she, and what does she have planned? (imdb)

A wild - at times bloody - story about a guy from the North Korean community in Japan, who tries to find out what his roots are and where he belongs to. Sugihara speaks Japanese, he looks like an ordinary Japanese punk and has Japanese friends - but he is different... (IMDB Comments)

What's a guy to do when he loves guns, particularly American ones featured in movies, but he lives in a country where it's illegal to own one. Well, he ends up being sent to an institution that is more like a military academy than US prison. This very funny film studies the everyday obsessions of prisoners who have nothing left to do during their days but wonder about their next meal or contemplate their next soak in the tub..... (imdb)

A young man named Teru, mentally altered by a childhood injury, runs a laundry and falls for Mizue, a lonely young woman with internal scars. (imdb)

Ayase plays a blind woman who roams about town with her shamisen (a three-stringed Japanese guitar), but she has exceptional sword skills with which she fights off yakuza and other villains. (imdb)

An adulterous couple flees Taipei for a vacation somewhere in South America, but their idyll turns bizarre and ominous within hours as they rumble across a surreal landscape populated by underground royalty and suicidal squirrels. (judyonthenet.com)

A man abandons modern civilization and lives in a secluded cabin on a snowy mountain, sending mail bombs to corporate CEOs. One day, a mysterious creature appears before him... The latest feature from acclaimed filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda (Blue Spring, Nine Souls) is a film about spiritual survival and the restoration of humanity amidst an oppressive society. (tiff.net)

At fifteen, Sumida (Shôta Sometani) is left alone to manage the family's languishing boat-rental business and fend off his drunk and penniless father's bouts of violence. Sumida sees his simple dream for an ordinary future rapidly evapo­rating before his eyes. Sharing similarly humble but fading dreams is his classmate Keiko Chazawa (Fumi Nikaidou), who also happens to have a major crush on him, even though Sumida seems deeply annoyed by her presence. (MUBI)

Japanese Fascism Meets Clockwork Orange

Top model Lilico undergoes multiple cosmetic surgeries to her entire body. She's looked upon as an icon for beauty. As her multiple surgeries begins to take its toll, Lilico makes the lives of those around her miserable as she tries to deal with career and personal problems. (AsianWiki)

A yakuza street-gang hip-hop musical epic from Sion Sono. In a futuristic, alternate-world Tokyo, the city is made up of ghetto slums and nightclub playgrounds where gangs of wayward youth rule the streets. The city is carved up into 'hoods, and the crossing of territorial lines quickly leads to riots and rumbles. On the turf ruled by the savage yakuza Big Buppa, the simmering tension is about to boil over into all-out war. (TIFF)

37,000 Peasants perished in the Shimbara Revolt: among them, the leader of that uprising, Shiro Amakusa. Amakusa is resurrected from hell bent on revenging the death of his fellow comrades ... (imdb)

In the seventeenth century, two Jesuit priests face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and propagate Christianity. (imdb)

Two police officers, both caught breaking the rules, are blackmailed into forming a partnership by a shadowy internal affairs unit to solve a case where only a maverick may go possibly undetected

When Tetsuya (Yosuke Kubozuka) was 10-years-old he met Emi (Meisa Kuroki), who suffered from a heart disease. In hopes to cure Emi's condition, Tetsuya decided to become a doctor. Following through on his dreams, Tetsuya is now a doctor and is about to marry Emi. One day though, Tetsuya hears about Don (Edison Chen). Tetsuya remembers the times he spent with Emi and Don as a child and also feels insecure about Don. (The Movie Database)

At some point, Irie Manato began to withdraw himself from the world. Even when picked on, it's not the real Irie, but an act. However one day he meets a strange girl - Misawa Yui. Yui, who finds the tedium of everyday life unbearable, teases Manato with her almost too upfront and honest manner. Alone and afraid Manato wavers but finds himself drawn to her. But his feelings for Yui are doomed to be unrequited. (mydramalist)

Set shortly after Japan's defeat in WWII, the story follows a young man named Risuke who has contracted tuberculosis. He travels to the countryside to a unique nursing facility to receive treatment for his disease. (imdb)

A detective from Tokyo scours London for his missing brother, who's been involved with the Yakuza and accused of murder.

Seven years ago, a mysterious monster was found deep in a rural coal mine. Since then, rumors of a plague spread through the small town, and people experience an unexplainable mental illness. (imdb)

Completing Toshiaki Toyoda’s politically urgent Resurrection Trilogy following Wolf’s Calling and The Day of Destruction, this electrifying short follows a man tasked with assisting in the ritual suicide of a samurai who won’t die without condemning the corrupt powers that be.

Story of a young man, Makoto, who lives in Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Tokyo, an area of youth delinquency & gangs. One of Makoto's best friends fm high school, Takeshi, "King" is leader of one gang, the G-Boys. Makoto is known as tough & smart. While trying to solve the mystery of a friend's murder, he finds himself a somewhat unwilling helper in many mysteries & problems in area. All the time, tension grows between the G-Boys (Makoto won't join any gang) & a new gang, the "Black Angels." (imdb)

After a catastrophic flood, a young girl Mio, leaves her hometown of Osaka to work in a restaurant in Edo. She is blessed with great talent, but is troubled by the difference in taste between Osaka and Edo, and toils to find a solution. Meanwhile, she learns that her best friend, Noe, is in Edo but she is rarely allowed to see her because of her lowly status. (Japanese Film Festival)

Under the helm of rookie director Tokiwa Shiro,a family reunites following the funeral, last rites and cremation for a meal. The widow has determined that she will cook the food for the funeral, but there is barely anything to eat. They realize that it was the dead man's will for it to be so. They eat eggs, reminisce, bond and talk some more. They remember the dead man and his ways and even laugh as they recall their better days.

A depressed ex-boxer (Yosuke Kubozuka) self-medicating for the injuries that ended his career finds a stray cat that brightens his day, but she is snatched up by a comical grungy mechanic (Kenji Furuya). (Avistaz)... and that leads them to connect with the classic 'woman who knows too much and must be silenced', there are further complications. (me)

After escaping Earth, young couple Romi and George arrive on the planet Eden 17. Yet, despite the planet's name, it is anything but a paradise. With the land suffering from severe drought and seismic instability, the couple struggles to create a new life for themselves and their child. (animenewsnetwork.com)

ATHENA (アテナ) is a live-action drama series based on Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life game originally broadcast from April 7, 1998, to June 30, 1998, on TV Tokyo. The series starred Kei Ishibashi as Athena. A VHS collection including unreleased scenes was released in 6 volumes in Japan. The opening theme Lavender Dream (ラベンダドリーム), is performed by Yuki Ishii.

Midori is a coming-of-age drama set in the heady high school world of peer rivalry and sexual awakening, featuring an emotionally detached high-school girl who, her parents dead, lives with her brother and his overprotective wife. After being sent out of class due to a dizzy spell, she becomes acquainted with Shun, a boy in the class below, in the school sanatorium. As the two begin feigning illness together on a regular basis, their uncomfortable flirtations soon blossom into a ...

Ran, a female boxer, confronts a mysterious organization by participating in a no-rules deathmatch after discovering her missing younger sister Yuzuki is involved in a crime. With danger at every corner, Ran must trade in her boxing gloves for brass knuckles. Will she save her sister? (letterboxd.com)

A group of high school students and teachers are suddenly transported from the year 2002 to a post-apocalyptic 2020. As they struggle to survive, they question the meaning of fate. (imdb)

Several men and one woman have drifted to an uninhabited island. The only woman will try to survive by taking advantage of her own sexual attractiveness.