Movies
815 Results
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Cotton Town, Please Respond (2024)
- Director
- IWAMA Gen
- Cast
In the once-thriving textile town of Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, known as the birthplace of Japan's cotton culture, the local industry has been driven to decline by cheap imports. When a producer and director are tasked with reviving it through film,...
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What Should We Have Done? (2024)
- Director
- FUJINO Tomoaki
- Cast
Fujino Tomoaki directed, shot and edited this film over a 20-year period, documenting his sister who developed symptoms of schizophrenia and their socially isolated family. The filmmaker's sister is 8 years his senior, and she excelled academically ...
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Fists and Prayers: The Life of Iwao Hakamada (2024)
- Director
- KASAI Chiaki
- Cast
- HAKAMADA Iwao, HAKAMADA Hideko
This documentary, completed 10 years after his release, chronicles the struggle of Hakamada Iwao, who spent 47 years and seven months in prison having been accused of robbery, arson and murder. Death row inmate Hakamada Iwao is suddenly released fro...
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Radio Shimo-Kajiro –The songs that led us here today– (2023)
- Director
- KOMORI Haruka
- Cast
Filmmaker Komori Haruka, who has continued to record the scenery and people's lives in Tohoku since the Great East Japan Earthquake, presents this documentary, following an unusual support effort for the disaster-stricken areas. Simo-Kajiro Danchi i...
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94 year old gay man (2023)
- Director
- KIKKAWA Genki
- Cast
Through the story of a homosexual born in 1929, this documentary unravels the history of homosexuality in Japan, a condition that was once openly discussed as a "treatable mental illness." 94-year-old Hase Tadashi, who lives in Nishinari Ward, Osaka...
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War Clouds (2024)
- Director
- MIKAMI Chie
- Cast
This is the first documentary directed in six years by Mikami Chie of The Targeted Village and Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa fame. The focus of this film is the current situation in Okinawa and the Nansei Islands and the lives of the island...
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She is going to be a Mayor on ◯/◯ (2024)
- Director
- PEYOUNNE Maki
- Cast
Playwright-cum-director Peyounne Maki helms this documentary about the 2022 Suginami mayoral election in Tokyo. Suginami resident Peyounne Maki started making this film when she faced eviction from the apartment where she had lived for many years du...
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The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (2024)
- Director
- SODA Kazuhiro
- Cast
Tenth observational film from filmmaker Soda Kazuhiro, known for Campaign and Peace. In 2021, director Soda and producer Kashiwagi Kiyoko left New York after 27 years and moved to the Seto Inland Sea port-town of Ushimado, where they previously shot...
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Ainu Puri (2024)
- Director
- FUKUNAGA Takeshi
- Cast
Documentary by Fukunaga Takeshi, who directed an episode of "SHOGUN," following an Ainu family he met while making his second feature film Ainu Mosir. Amanai Shigeki (Shige) lives in Shiranuka, Hokkaido. While living a modern life, he practices the ...
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Underground (2024)
- Director
- ODA Kaori
- Cast
- YOSHIGAI Nao, MATSUNAGA Mitsuo
Documentary from ARAGANE and Cenote director Oda Kaori about subterranean Japan. A shadow reveals its form from the darkness underground. It communicates with a woman's consciousness, and she begins to see fragmentary memories that transcend time a...
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Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (2023)
- Director
- SORA Neo
- Cast
- SAKAMOTO Ryuichi
Film documenting the "first and last" concert by musician Sakamoto Ryuichi, who passed away in 2023. Sakamoto announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2021 and battled illness for over two years. In September 2022 he performed in NHK Studio 509,...
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men with cameras -Photography of the Great Kanto Earthquake- (2023)
- Director
- INOUE Minoru
- Cast
Documentary that delves into the story of cameramen who filmed the Great Kanto Earthquake and the footage that they shot. The Great Kanto Earthquake struck on September 1, 1923, at 11:58 AM. The magnitude 7.9 quake reduced the city to scorched earth...
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Shades of Indigo (2024)
- Director
- YOSHIDA Shigeru
- Cast
This feature-length documentary explores the roots of the Japanese "blue" by looking at the people who use the indigo dyeing process. Directed by Yoshida Shigeru, who has produced numerous films, dramas and promotional videos. The indigo dyeing tech...
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SENKYONANDESU (2023)
- Director
- DARTHREIDER, Petit Kashima
- Cast
- DARTHREIDER, Petit Kashima
An election coverage documentary launched by rapper DARTHREIDER and current affairs comedian Petit Kashima as a spin-off of their YouTube show. It is produced by director Oshima Arata of Why You Can't Be Prime Minister fame. DARTHREIDER and Petit Ka...
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SHIN CHIMUDONDON (2023)
- Director
- DARTHREIDER, Petit Kashima
- Cast
- DARTHREIDER, Petit Kashima
This is the second documentary following Senkyonandesu the Movie, directed by and starring rapper DARTHREIDER and current affairs comedian Petit Kashima. This films covers the Okinawa gubernatorial election in September 2022, which marks the 50th ann...
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NO LIMIT, YOUR LIFE (2023)
- Director
- MORI Tetsuya
- Cast
- MUTO Masatane, MUTO Yuko
Documentary about ALS patient Muto Masatane and his wife Yuko. Captures their day-to-day lives challenging the limits of the disease. Muto landed a job at a big ad agency and was sailing full speed ahead in life. But at age 27 he was diagnosed with ...
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The Heart of the Emergency Room (2023)
- Director
- ADACHI Takuro
- Cast
A documentary that closely follows the Emergency and Rescue Centre at the Nagoya Kaisaikai Hospital in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Produced by Abuno Katsuhiko and Hijikata Hiroshi (Yakuza and the Constitution & Goodbye TV), and directed by first time di...
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Dearest Viet (2024)
- Director
- KAWABATA Kohei
- Cast
- NGUYEN Duc
This documentary film captures the life of Duc Nguyen, who was born as part of conjoined twins due to the effects of defoliants used in the Vietnam War, and now lives as an ambassador of peace. It has been 35 years since the separation surgery from ...
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A History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970)
- Director
- IMAMURA Shohei
- Cast
- AKAZA Tami, AKAZA Etsuko, AKAZA Akemi
Etsuko, the hostess of a Yokosuka drinking establishment catering to foreigners, reflects on her past for the camera. Encouraged by the results of his experimental pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes (Ningen johatsu, 1967), Imamura was only too happy t...
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The World of Dementia (1985)
- Director
- HANEDA Sumiko
- Cast
Conceived with the purpose of conveying the everyday reality of elderly dementia patients, Haneda's film painstakingly documents the lives of residents in a care facility, turning the camera on their interactions and support for one another. The film...
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Into the Picture Scroll‐THE TALE OF YAMANAKA TOKIWA (2004)
- Director
- HANEDA Sumiko
- Cast
- KATAOKA Kyoko
An adaptation of the 12-volume, 150-meter-long picture scroll of the same name by early-Edo period painter IWASA Matabei, which was in turn based on a popular bunraku puppet play. Panning slowly sideways, the camera captures in rigorous detail the ac...
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A Big Home (2024)
- Director
- TAKEBAYASHI Ryo
- Cast
This documentary film records the daily lives of children living apart from their parents for various reasons and the staff of a children's home in Tokyo. The film shows the true feelings of children growing up in a relationship that cannot be descri...
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Gifts from the kitchen (2024)
- Director
- KIKUCHI Hisashi
- Cast
- SAI Fumi
This documentary tells the story of Qi Furui (Fumin Mama), who was born and raised in Japan by her Taiwanese parents, and her small Chinese-style home-cooking restaurant, "Fumin". It follows Qi Furui's family in Japan and Taiwan over a period of thre...
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Life is Climbing (2023)
- Director
- NAKAHARA Sokichi
- Cast
- KOBAYASHI Koichiro, SUZUKI Naoya, NISHIYAMA Kiyofumi
A documentary that follows Kobayashi Koichiro, a climber who lost his sight, and the challenges of his visual guide. Directed by Nakahara Sokichi, who interviewed Kobayashi closely for the TV program "The Nonfiction" in 2016. Kobayashi Koichiro, als...
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No election, no life (2023)
- Director
- MAEDA Aki
- Cast
- HATAKEYAMA Michiyoshi
Documentary about the ardor and anguish of freelance writer Hatakeyama Michiyoshi, who has covered elections for 25 years. Directed by Maeda Aki, producer of Why You Can't Be Prime Minister and Kagawa District 1. Hatakeyama throws himself into pursu...
