Movies
804 Results
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My Story,The Buraku Story (2022)
- Director
- MITSUWAKA Yusaku
- Cast
Mitsuwaka Yusaku's heartfelt documentary grabbed the top spot in Kinema Jumpo's Best Ten list for documentaries in 2022. Produced by Oshima Arata, who directed Why You Can't Be Prime Minister. The "burakumin" cast was legally abolished in 1871, but ...
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The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)
- Director
- HARA Kazuo
- Cast
- OKUZAKI Kenzo
Electrifying documentary from world-renowned director Hara Kazuo about Okuzaki Kenzo, an anarchist who used radical means to doggedly confront the Emperor's wartime responsibility. Okuzaki Kenzo runs a battery and used car repair shop with his wife ...
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TOKYO POLTERGEIST (2023)
- Director
- GOTO Tsuyoshi
- Cast
- GOTO Tsuyoshi, SUMI Yukiko, TERADA Kokoro
Tsuyoshi, who produced the "Tales of Terror from Tokyo and All Over Japan" series. A team of reporters goes undercover in a building in Sangenjaya, Tokyo, where psychic phenomena occur frequently. The film shows inexplicable psychic phenomena such a...
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Grandson of Yôkai (2023)
- Director
- UCHIYAMA Yuto
- Cast
Political documentary helmed by Uchiyama Yuto, who made his directorial debut with Tasting the Pancake for Poison, in collaboration with Star Sands, the production company behind biting social commentaries including The Journalist. The late Abe Shin...
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Alone Together (2023)
- Director
- MISHIMA Yukiko
- Cast
The first documentary film by Mishima Yukiko, known for her films Dear Etranger and Red. A "state of emergency" was declared on April 7, 2020 as a countermeasure against the new coronavirus, and life changed completely. At dawn on 22 April, Mishima'...
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THE FOOLS prison and babylon (2022)
- Director
- TAKAHASHI Shinichi
- Cast
- ITO Ko, KAWADA Ryo, FUKUSHIMA Seiji
A spectacular documentary that closely examines "ten years" of the solitary rock band THE FOOLS. Directed by Takahashi Shinichi of Cu-Bop fame. Since its formation in 1980, THE FOOLS, led by vocalist Ito Ko and guitarist Kawada Ryo, has undergone se...
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Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side B (2022)
- Director
- KAWASE Naomi
- Cast
Official documentary film for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This two-part project weaves together the "truth" of the Games that were delayed a year and faced numerous COVID-19 related issues, including the unprecedented step of holding competitions withou...
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Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Side A (2022)
- Director
- KAWASE Naomi
- Cast
Documentary produced as the official film for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were held a year later due to COVID-19. This two-part project uses a massive 5,000 hours of footage shot over 750 days to weave together the "truth" of the Olympics from two...
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Only I Can Hear (2022)
- Director
- MATSUI Itaru
- Cast
- Nyla, Jessica, MJ
The first feature-length documentary about CODA, or Children of Deaf Adults. Director Matsui Itaru earned acclaim for "Tokyo Little Nero", which was aired on NHK, and spent three years documenting Children of Deaf Adults at the sensitive age of 15. ...
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Arthouse vs.COVID-19 (2022)
- Director
- SUGAWARA Ryuta
- Cast
- KIMATA Junji, TSUBOI Atsushi
A documentary following Kimata Junji, the manager of the arthouse Cinema Skhole in Nagoya. Re-edited into movie from the Nagoya TV program "Me-Tele Documentary Theater reborn: Cinema and Covid-19", which was broadcast in March 2021. Founded in 1983 ...
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Chronicle in the Ruins - Our Own Ethnographic Film (2022)
- Director
- HARA Maori
- Cast
- HARA Masato, HARA Kobo, HARA Mamiya
A documentary that shows the love and bond within a family as they face the consequences of a fire that destroyed their home by making a film. Hara Masato made his debut as a high school student in the 1960s and was praised as a genius film director...
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Shiver (2021)
- Director
- TOYODA Toshiaki
- Cast
- SHIBUKAWA Kiyohiko
First film featuring Kodo, the taiko drum group based in Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture. In 2021 they celebrated four decades of sharing traditional performing arts from Japan with the world. The project began when one of Kodo's members emailed mus...
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AKAI (2022)
- Director
- AKAI Eigoro
- Cast
- AKAI Hidekazu
A documentary that unravels the charm of Akai Hidekazu, a highly talented boxer who caused a frenzy throughout Japan, through his fight footage and interviews at the time. Director Sakamoto Junji, who directed Akai's acting debut, Knockout, fully coo...
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Kids Konference (2022)
- Director
- GODA Tomo
- Cast
Documentary covering a year at a nursery school where kids hold "conferences." The film explores the essence of dialogue through the lives of children and reunites Goda Tomo with the main staff from the Being Born series about life and family. "Kids...
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Transform! (2020)
- Director
- ISHIDA Tomoya
- Cast
- ISHIDA Tomoya, JAREO Osamu, SAZAWA (NOZAKI) Shizue
Ishida Tomoya, who uses an electric wheelchair, helmed this documentary bursting with the joy of artistic expression. Won the Pia Film Festival Award 2020, the grand prize at the 42nd Pia Film Festival. Ishida visits people with a wide array of "dif...
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Kagawa District 1 (2022)
- Director
- OSHIMA Arata
- Cast
- OGAWA Junya, HIRAI Takuya, MACHIKAWA Junko
Sequel arriving a year and a half after the release of Why You Can't Be Prime Minister, which boasted remarkable attendance figures. Director Oshima Arata focused on Lower House lawmaker Ogawa Junya in the previous film and turns his attention to the...
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Ushiku (2021)
- Director
- Thomas ASH
- Cast
Documentary featuring testimonies by people applying for refugee status at the East Japan Immigration Center known as "Ushiku". Director Thomas Ash shot the film with hidden cameras, a controversial technique. Winner of the Asian Perspective Award in...
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Rhapsody Of Colors (2020)
- Director
- SATO Takayuki
- Cast
- ISHIKAWA Riri, NAKAMURA Kazutoshi, Joplin
Documentary about the activities of Colors, a barrier-free social club. Directed by Sato Takayuki, who brought a fresh perspective to individuals within their tribe in Kaput and Apappo: A Tale of Ainu Sisters. Located in Nishikamata, Tokyo, Colors i...
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Maigo ni natta kobushi (2020)
- Director
- IMADA Satoshi
- Cast
- KANEKO Daiki, TOKESHI Kohei
Documentary exploring the reasons why people fight through the stories of Japanese people trying their hand at lethwei, the Myanmar traditional martial art. Imada Tetsushi last directed a documentary 16 years ago with Kumazasa no igon. Lethwei is sa...
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Fishmans (2021)
- Director
- TESHIMA Yuki
- Cast
Teshima Yuki makes his feature film directorial debut with this documentary about the history of the internationally acclaimed band Fishmans. Slumping record sales, label hopping, rotating cast of band members, and vocalist Sato Shinji's sudden deat...
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HONOKA (2021)
- Director
- KUNITOMO Yugo
- Cast
Documentary that touches on life itself through looking at the activities surrounding a girl who was pronounced nearly brain dead upon birth. Haru wo tsugeru machi director Shimada Ryuichi serves as producer, and the same film's assistant director Ku...
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TOKYO KURDS (2021)
- Director
- HYUGA Fumiari
- Cast
This documentary covers five-plus years in the lives of two young Turkish Kurds who are trying to get refugee status and exposes the plight of Kurdish refugees in Japan. 18-year-old Ozan and 19-year-old Ramazan arrived in Japan while still in elemen...
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JAKUCHO: An Extraordinary Life of a Japanese Nun (2022)
- Director
- NAKAMURA Yu
- Cast
- SETOUCHI Jakucho
Documentary about the Buddhist nun Setouchi Jakucho, who continued writing until her death in November 2021 at the age of 99. Features words of wisdom and personal revelations in never-seen-before footage captured by Nakamura Yu over a 17-year period...
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Tokyo Uber Blues (2021)
- Director
- AOYAGI Taku
- Cast
- AOYAGI Taku
Documentary capturing vignettes of Tokyo's "new normal" under COVID-19 from Aoyagi Taku, who made his directorial debut with Hiikun no aruku machi. March 2020. When COVID-19 wipes out work as a designated driver in Yamanashi, director Aoyagi ignores...
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I'll never forget Cowra (2021)
- Director
- MITSUDA Yasuhiro
- Cast
The Rainbow Over The River Kwai director Mitsuda Yasuhiro uncovers the truth about the group of Japanese war prisoners who tried to escape from a POW camp in Australia. During World War II the Cowra 12th Prisoner of War Camp granted the POWs a certa...
