Movies
815 Results
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Battle of Okinawa: Unknown Sad Memories (2019)
- Director
- OTA Takafumi
- Cast
Documentary that delves into memories of the horrific combat in Okinawa, the site of Japan's only land warfare during World War II. Ota Takafumi helmed the feature film The House of Rising Suns about a tragic nuclear power plant accident. A third of...
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RESONANCE (2020)
- Director
- TANAKA Toshinori
- Cast
- AOYAGI Takuji
Tokyo-born Takuji was raised by his mother and guitarist grandfather. He becomes a musician himself and father of two daughters. He leaves the ever-changing modern metropolis where people are divorced from nature and relocates to Okinawa. There, an i...
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Tank Sit-In Protest:Japanese Citizen VS.U.S. Military (2020)
- Director
- TSUJI Toyofumi
- Cast
In 1972 toward the final stages of the Vietnam War, a protest movement arose against the U.S. military's repair of tanks at the Sagami General Supply Depot in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture and their transport to the Yokohama north docks. This ...
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I quit, being "friends" (2020)
- Director
- IMAMURA Ayako
- Cast
Film director Imamura Ayako who filmed herself wrestling with communication barriers in Start Line points the camera at her relationship with her friend in this documentary. Full of discontent "me" (Imamura), the film director, and my friend "Ma-cha...
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Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975)
- Director
- SHINDO Kaneto
- Cast
- TANAKA Kinuyo, KYO Machiko, YAMADA Isuzu
This is a documentary on the life and films of Kenji Mizoguchi, the great Japanese film director who died in 1956, directed by the now well-known creator of films who was once assistant director to Mizoguchi. Beginning in the hospital where Mizoguch...
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AKIRA Shimada (2021)
- Director
- SAKO Tadahiko
- Cast
Feature-length documentary that sheds light on the overlooked wartime history of Okinawa, helmed by Sako Tadahiko of Kamejiro: The U.S. Military's Most Feared Man. Draws on newly uncovered materials to piece together the full picture of the epic Okin...
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Songs of Triumph (2020)
- Director
- SAKAGUCHI Katsumi
- Cast
- YAMAUCHI Kimie, YAMAUCHI Sadamu, NAKAMURA Kenichi
Documentary capturing nine years in the lives of ex-Hansen's disease patients. Sakaguchi Katsumi has helmed seven feature films to date including Walking with My Mother, which won the 2015 Agency for Cultural Affairs Film Award. Yamauchi Kimie was p...
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epok's Atelier (2020)
- Director
- NAMBU Michitoshi
- Cast
- SUGAYA Shinichi, THE CRO-MAGNONS, OKAMOTO'S
Documentary delving into the production process of designer Sugaya Shinichi, who creates record jackets for famous Japanese musicians. Sugaya's quirky resume includes studying architecture in college and working at a family-run factory after graduat...
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SUMODO ~The Successors of Samurai~ (2020)
- Director
- SAKATA Eiji
- Cast
- SAKAIGAWA Hideaki, TAKADAGAWA Katsumi, GOEIDO Gotaro
This documentary puts on display the allure of Japan's national sport of sumo wrestling. Closely shadowing for nearly half a year the training halls of the Sakaigawa and Takadagawa dojos, the film describes the unknown world of sumo wrestling which h...
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A DownTown Doctor (2020)
- Director
- MOHRI Yasutaka
- Cast
- NAGAO Kazuhiro
Documentary about the everyday experiences of town physician Nagao Kazuhiro, who provided the inspiration for Peaceful Death (dir. Takahashi Banmei). In 1995 Dr. Nagao Kazuhiro opened his clinic in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, and he sees patie...
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Indelible (2019)
- Director
- TSUNODA Ryuichi
- Cast
Documentary woven together as the universal story of father and son, focusing on the ethnic Chinese Koreans who live outside the Korean Peninsula. A boy who was born in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China moves to Japan at age 10. Now ...
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The Investigator's Love Letter (2019)
- Director
- IMAI Iori
- Cast
- SATO Mao, SATO Nuiko
Sato Mao, known as "Investigator Mao", and his wife who is showing signs of dementia, are the subjects of this documentary which chronicles their daily life. In the director's chair is Imai Iori, an Osaka-based filmmaker who works both in television ...
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Silence on that Day (2021)
- Director
- IMAMURA Ayako
- Cast
- KATO Enao, KOIZUMI Shoju, KIKUCHI Tokichi
The Connecting Bridge director Imamura Ayako spent ten years covering people who cannot hear and disasters for this documentary film. When Imamura visited the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster area immediately after the catastrophe, she was seize...
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Mottainai Kitchen - Don’t waste it, cook it! (2020)
- Director
- David GROSS
- Cast
- David GROSS, TSUKAMOTO Nikki, IDE Rumi
Australia-born David Gross who produced Wastecooking among others, travels the world as a film director and food activist. In this documentary, he searches for hints to solve "food waste" as he travels through various areas in Japan, one the countrie...
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Tagore Songs (2019)
- Director
- SASAKI Mika
- Cast
Documentary exploring the appeal of "Tagore songs" about nature and devotion in Bengal from poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first non-Western Nobel laureate in literature. Debut film from 26-year-old Sasaki Mika, who learned about Bengali cultu...
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HARIBOTE (2020)
- Director
- IOKIBE Yukio, SUNAZAWA Satoshi
- Cast
- SAKUTA Osamu
Documentary about a small local TV station uncovering improprieties at a city council in Toyama Prefecture, a conservative area known for having the highest percentage of LDP voters in Japan for ten years running. Exposes human cunning and absurdity....
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CENOTE (2019)
- Director
- ODA Kaori
- Cast
Documentary about "cenotes", cave water pits that are found throughout the northern part of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Cenotes were the sole water source during the Maya civilization period, and they were also sites of sacrificial ceremonies prayin...
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Listening to the air (2018)
- Director
- KOMORI Haruka
- Cast
- ABE Hiromi
Radio personality Abe Hiromi, who worked at Rikuzentakata Saigai FM for three-and-a-half years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, is the focus of this documentary. Director Komori Haruka, who moved to the Tohoku region when she was a volunteer af...
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Okaeri Tadaima (2020)
- Director
- SAITO Junichi
- Cast
- SAITO Yuki, SATSUKAWA Aimi
Produced by Tokai Television Broadcasting, this true-to-life drama probes into the heart of a crime using actual footage of news coverage at the time the crime occurred. It is written and directed by Saito Junichi who has continued to sharply questio...
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TOBISHIMA (2019)
- Director
- OMIYA Koichi, TANAKA Kei
- Cast
Out in the Sea of Japan rises the populated island of Tobishima. This documentary chronicles the day-to-day life of the people living there. It is co-directed by Omiya Koichi of TAIDAMA–I'm home, a place for everyone and Tanaka Kei of Under the Cher...
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Documentary of Keyakizaka 46 (2020)
- Director
- TAKAHASHI Eiki
- Cast
- KEYAKIZAKA46
Takahashi Eiki, who is known from the "Documentary of AKB48" series, directs this first documentary which tracks the trajectory of the idol group Keyakizaka46 as it lowers the curtain on its 5 year history. It compiles re-edits of various live perfor...
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KOSHIEN: JAPAN'S FIELD OF DREAMS (2020)
- Director
- Ema Ryan YAMAZAKI
- Cast
- MIZUTANI Tetsuya, SASAKI Hiroshi, OHTANI Shohei
Documentary helmed by New York-based filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki with a crew from the US, which did long-term coverage leading up to the 100th year of the summer Koshien tournament. Broadcast nationwide in the US on the sports network ESPN in June 20...
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Ii-chan's White Cane (2018)
- Director
- HASHIMOTO Mariko
- Cast
- KONAGAYA Iori, KONAGAYA Ibuki
Iori Konagaya was born blind. Going by the nickname Ii-chan, she learned how to live as a visually impaired person at the Shizuoka School for the Blind 20 years ago. She was desperate to become independent. But as she was growing up, she ran into man...
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WHY YOU CAN'T BE PRIME MINISTER (2020)
- Director
- OSHIMA Arata
- Cast
- OGAWA Junya
Documentary following politician Ogawa Junya over a seventeen-year period. Director Oshima Arata's Theatrical - Kara Juro to Gekidan Karagumi no Kiroku won the 17th Japan Movie Critics Award for documentary film. Lower house lawmaker Ogawa Junya gra...
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The Past is Always New, The Future is Always Nostalgic Photographer Daido Moriyama (2021)
- Director
- IWAMA Gen
- Cast
- MORIYAMA Daido, KANBAYASHI Yutaka, MACHIGUCHI Satoshi
This documentary is a close-up portrait of photographer Moriyama Daido who won the 2019 Hasselblad Award, referred to as the "Nobel Prize of photography", and is still active as a photographer even at over 80 years of age. Serving as director, cinema...
