Takaharu Yasuoka

A documentary series of interviews with elderly Japanese men, former soldiers in Thailand or Burma, who hid from the departing Japanese troops at the end of WWII and made their lives with native families.

The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the foundation of Israel. It marks also the beginning of 60 years of the suffering for the Palestinian people. This tragedy is referred to as the “Nakba,” meaning catastrophe in Arabic. Since 1948 at least 420 Palestinian villages have vanished. The photo journalist Ryuichi Hirokawa has filmed over 1,000 hours of footage and has taken thousands of photographs of the Palestinian people and their vanished villages. This film is a distillation of this footage

The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the foundation of Israel. It marks also the beginning of 60 years of the suffering for the Palestinian people. This tragedy is referred to as the “Nakba,” meaning catastrophe in Arabic. Since 1948 at least 420 Palestinian villages have vanished. The photo journalist Ryuichi Hirokawa has filmed over 1,000 hours of footage and has taken thousands of photographs of the Palestinian people and their vanished villages. This film is a distillation of this footage

In July 1988, Mizue Furui was in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with her camera as a rookie freelance journalist. Covering the Palestinian condition, she became acquainted with Ghada Ageel, a 23-year-old teacher at an elementary school, in November 1993 and started shooting her life up to when she turned 35. The 12 years Furui spent shooting still and video images has borne fruit in a documentary titled "Ghada -- Songs of Palestine," which will be released in Uplink Theater in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, in May as a rare report on women in the traditionally male-oriented Palestinian society.

In July 1988, Mizue Furui was in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with her camera as a rookie freelance journalist. Covering the Palestinian condition, she became acquainted with Ghada Ageel, a 23-year-old teacher at an elementary school, in November 1993 and started shooting her life up to when she turned 35. The 12 years Furui spent shooting still and video images has borne fruit in a documentary titled "Ghada -- Songs of Palestine," which will be released in Uplink Theater in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, in May as a rare report on women in the traditionally male-oriented Palestinian society.

A2 is a continuation of director Tatsuya Mori's film A (1998), an incredible view inside the compound of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult after its leaders carried out the deadly sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Most followers had no idea that the attacks were being planned, or even that their new religion had violent aspirations. After the attacks, these followers were left to rebuild the religion where they had once found peace in the face of overwhelming, and understandable, condemnation from the rest of Japan. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

A2 is a continuation of director Tatsuya Mori's film A (1998), an incredible view inside the compound of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult after its leaders carried out the deadly sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Most followers had no idea that the attacks were being planned, or even that their new religion had violent aspirations. After the attacks, these followers were left to rebuild the religion where they had once found peace in the face of overwhelming, and understandable, condemnation from the rest of Japan. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

A2 is a continuation of director Tatsuya Mori's film A (1998), an incredible view inside the compound of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult after its leaders carried out the deadly sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Most followers had no idea that the attacks were being planned, or even that their new religion had violent aspirations. After the attacks, these followers were left to rebuild the religion where they had once found peace in the face of overwhelming, and understandable, condemnation from the rest of Japan. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

December 1989, director Katsuyuki Hirano took on the journey of biking across Hokkaido under extreme weather. This is the documentary about that journey.

Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.

In the slums of Osaka, various marginalized misfits have their own interpretations of love. Completely alienated from the outside world, they commit sexual perversions, violence and cannibalism.

'극사적 에로스' 등의 작품을 통해 충격적인 영상으로 주목 받은 하라 카즈오 감독의 다큐멘터리. 천황에게 빠징코 구슬을 발사하는 등 과격한 수단을 동원해 전쟁책임을 추궁해 나가는 아나키스트 오쿠자키 켄조라는 인물의 행보를 추적한 작품. 2차 대전 당시 뉴기니전선 병사들 사이에 일어난 식인사건에 대한 의혹을, 당시 군인들을 찾아다니며 집요하게 추궁하여 증언을 듣는 등 무서울 정도의 집념으로 진상을 밝혀가는 과정이 이 다큐멘터리의 중심이다. 전쟁이 끝났음에도 불법으로 자행되었던 사살사건에 대해서도 당시 사살 집행자들을 찾아다니며 추궁하는 장면이 긴박감 넘치는 영상과 함께 강렬한 여운을 남긴다. 평화로운 일상의 틈을 비집고 들어가 찍는 행위 자체가 뜻밖의 진실을 발굴하는 무기가 된다는 사실을 다시 일깨우는 수작. (한국시네마테크)