Rinko Kikuchi

A road movie about Yoko, a frustrated part-time worker who hitchhikes to her hometown of Hirosaki, Aomori, where she has not returned for 24 years, after hearing the news of her father's death.

A large monster attacks Japan, but dies suddenly. While the people rejoice and bask in relief, the giant corpse left behind begins to slowly rot and bloat. If it explodes, the nation will be destroyed.

A mysterious package arrives, shape shifting ensues and rescuer is rewarded her kindness

Their parents are dead. They should be sad, but they can't cry. So they form a kick-ass band. This is the story of four 13-year-olds in search of their emotions.

Wpc. 15th anniversary short movie

It has been ten years since The Battle of the Breach and the oceans are still, but restless. Vindicated by the victory at the Breach, the Jaeger program has evolved into the most powerful global defense force in human history. The PPDC now calls upon the best and brightest to rise up and become the next generation of heroes when the Kaiju threat returns.

In a distant future, humans make the switch to android life. They abolish 'flaws' such as complicated human needs and traits such as the ability to possess and express emotion. However, a system glitch causes 'desire' to resurface in some, including Kai (Rinko Kikuchi; Pacific Rim, Babel), an android shoe-maker. Kai begins to feel an obsession with her craft, like what human beings used to have. One day, an android customer orders Kai to create a special pair of heels. Shut in the atelier, Kai remakes the shoes over and over again until it's perfect. When the customer returns, Kai finds out that one shoe doesn't quite fit. But just as Kai promised to put more work into the pair of shoes, another customer comes to demand her own special pair too.

Etsuko (Rinko Kikuchi) was given the post to take charge in the launch of a web media site which specifically deals with the theme “the streets and the town of Tokyo”. So her recent daily routine was to walk around town searching for materials that may be suitable for the plan. One day she runs into a sake barrel stacked in a shrine in Kagurazaka (Shinjuku District, Tokyo), and she finds herself immediately interested in sake and it’s history with the Kagurazaka area. She decides to do a research, and calls photographer and long time friend Ikeda (Yota Kawase), and starts her quest for the secret of the fascinating sake and the historical town. For Etsuko, who had been stressed out by her busy work, her idea of gathering interesting informations and meeting people for her job turned out becoming an exciting journey which eventually leads Etsuko to reconcile with her peaceful heart and mind, which had always been her nature.

With the space program attempting to travel to Mars, 21st century scientists were tasked with warming up the planet so that humans could survive on its surface. They came up with an efficient and cost effective plan of sending cockroaches and mold to the surface so that the mold would absorb the sunlight and the insect corpses would serve as a food source for the mold. It is now the year 2577 and the first manned ship to Mars has landed on the planet and the six crew members are ready for their mission. But what they find are giant mutated humanoid cockroaches with incredible physical strength. The crew members are easily wiped out, but not before sending a transmission back to Earth. Now, humanity will send elite warriors to exterminate the mutated bugs and claim back Mars.

Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 1908. Josephine, a brave but naive woman, embarks on a dangerous journey through inhospitable regions in search of her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, who tries to find a route to the North Pole.

When Fujio, Yoshio and Akiko were children, they saw a fantastic "Ryoumou Deer," but nobody believed them. The three siblings lived in a mountain village.

Frustrated with her mundane life, a Tokyo office worker becomes obsessed with a fictional movie that she mistakes for a documentary. Fixating on a scene where stolen cash is buried in North Dakota, she travels to America to find it.

Frustrated with her mundane life, a Tokyo office worker becomes obsessed with a fictional movie that she mistakes for a documentary. Fixating on a scene where stolen cash is buried in North Dakota, she travels to America to find it.

A yacht lies at anchor in a bay off the Sicilian coast. Naomi, a young Japanese woman, has four days to leave her son with a lasting memory of her before she loses custody of him forever. In this hostile environment, Naomi faces the difficulty of approaching Ken under the controlling glare of the crew. When Naomi's hopes seem lost Ken starts to take an interest in her. Timeless days magnify the weight of their last goodbye.

Kai—an outcast—joins Oishi, the leader of 47 outcast samurai. Together they seek vengeance upon the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished their kind. To restore honour to their homeland, the warriors embark upon a quest that challenges them with a series of trials that would destroy ordinary warriors.

As war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world.

In the translucent LA dusk we discover four women living very different lives. The camera follows each as they wind down their working days, their four stories weaving together as each prepares for their evening.

Settle into your chair and be transported to a place both familiar and alien; where a giant shop-girl can barely fit in her store, there's a weird green pod in every bedroom, and terrifying wood nymphs provide a heartbroken woman with the anatomically correct fruit everyone seems to covet. In the end we are left, like Alice, with the Red King's conundrum: are we dreaming them or are they dreaming us?

Set one year after the drama series "Moteki." 31-year-old Yukiyo Fujimoto (Mirai Moriyama) doesn't have money, dreams or a girlfriend. He has left his job at a staffing firm and is attempting to start a new life by working as a writer for a news site. Suddenly, Yukiyo experiences "moteki" - a period when a man becomes suddenly popular with woman. Cute magazine editor Miyuki (Masami Nagasawa), pure and naive office worker Rumiko (Kumiko Aso), beautiful shop assistant Ai (Riisa Naka) and beautiful, but tough co-worker named Motoko (Yoko Maki) all become interested in Yukiyo. He tries to calm down, but is shaken by the interests of these women.

A samurai Sakunosuke gets an order from clan chamberlain to kill another samurai who is married with his own younger sister. As a loyal samurai he has to accept the mission even though he has inner conflicts.

Toru recalls his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, and another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori.

An omnibus of 42 short films by auteur directors based on Dreams.

An omnibus of 42 short films by auteur directors based on Dreams.

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.

Three women and one man - with an assortment of weaponry - wage war against giant mutant sandwhales in a barren digital landscape, all to achieve points within the virtual reality video game called Avalon.

A Japanese assassin falls in love with the Spanish wine seller she was hired to kill.

A struggling writer and his engaged buddy hit the road for California wine country. Remake of the 2004 film 'Sideways'.

Four segments by four different Directors. Kiriko (Takanori Tsujimoto), The Children’s Samurai (Kenta Fukasaku), The Firing Range (Makoto Tahara), and Assault Girl 2 (Mamoru Oshii). Kiriko: the spirit of a murdered assassin takes revenge on the gang that killed her and her sister. Children's Samurai: an educational film narrates the like of a modern grade-school samurai dealing with bullies. Firing Range: the rifle of a Meiji Era soldier and the pistol of a modern police officer are transformed into powerful new weapons when they face off. Assault Girl 2: two guardian angels duel in a wheat field.

The Brothers Bloom are the best con men in the world, swindling millionaires with complex scenarios of lust and intrigue. Now they've decided to take on one last job – showing a beautiful and eccentric heiress the time of her life with a romantic adventure that takes them around the world.

Youngsters called Kildren, who are destined to live eternally in their adolescence. The Kildren are conscious that every day could be the last, because they fight a war as entertainment, organized and operated by adults. But as they embrace the reality they are faced with, they live their day-to-day lives to the full.

Yui, a college student, moves in to her first own apartment, where she begins her new independent life in a big city. Soon after, the upstairs neighbor Takashi sparks her interest.

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

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.

The most ambitious portfolio in the 13-year history of Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue, this year's homage to noir had its own dramatic imperatives.

Kaede's life is changed when she discovers that she is the product of her father's affair. She tries to confide in Dr. Nishijima, a lecturer that she has feelings for.

In Babel, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world. In the struggle to overcome isolation, fear, and displacement, each character discovers that it is family that ultimately provides solace. In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couples 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. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief.

Every high school has its misfits, its square pegs, its rebels. St. Michael's Academy, nestled on an impossibly pretty and strangely remote Japanese island, is no exception. In fact, given the atmosphere of strictness, propriety and even subtle menace looming over the elite, aristocratic, Catholic boarding school, it's no wonder Fumio, Kazune and Yuzuko quickly bond over their dislike of the place. With rumors of rich girls being kidnapped in the region, and even more so, their legal guardians, including the school's enigmatic headmaster, Mr. Lawrence, and Fumio's brother are suspicious and on alert. Then an accidental and inexplicable unleashing of magic power infuses the girls with spectacular abilities. When the truth about the kidnappings is revealed, they're going to need them.

An outrageous collection of surreal, short attention span non-sequiturs largely revolving around Guitar Brother, his randy older sibling, and the pair's portly Caucasian brother.

Portrait of the Wind centers on Tamio Murase, a world-traveling photographer who came home to take over the family business after his father’s fatal heart attack. One day at the family photo studio, he finds a kindred spirit in Ayako and the requisite sparks fly between them. The initial portions of the film deal with their budding romance, and it isn’t long before the two become a serious couple, and Ayako is pregnant with Tamio’s child.

Four people are discovered brutally murdered in an up-scale high-rise apartment. All the victims appear to be family, but as the investigation deepens it is discovered that one of the victims isn't related to the family.

Five bizarre stories with no apparent connection to one and other eventually become intertwined, resulting in surreal circumstances.

Hoping to catch a girl's attention, high school students Ken and Adama cook up an ambitious plan. They plan a festival that combines film, theater, and rock music, and develop their project into a school road block. This plan however catches the attention of television stations and newspapers, and soon even the cops became involved in this teenage adventure.

Japanese film directed by Tadanobu Asano.

Seventeen-year-old Ako works part-time in a cabaret club late at night. Because of this, she falls asleep in school every day. In the new semester, she becomes enamored with her classmate Ryou, who is repeating a year despite her good grades.

Private detective Mike takes on an assignment to return a girl, who is set to marry into a prestigious family, from a mysterious commune in the forest.

Mamoru works as an illustrator in Tokyo. He and his girlfriend decide to visit his hometown of Onomichi. It is a bitter-sweet homecoming, for Mamoru has not been home in eight years. Upon his return, he experiences flashbacks of his ex-girlfriend, who died eight years ago. Feeling a sense of vulnerability, he visits the temple that he used to frequent in the past. There he sees a vision of Megumi, his ex-girlfriend...

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, which finally leads to the somehow sad but also optimistically interpretable ending.

The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.

It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.

Behind-the-scenes footage of Houka Kinoshita's film １７才 (Age 17).