Japanese Watchlist

'We have to kill him', the wife and her lover thought. When three childhood friends reunite, it doesn't take long before two of them feel the woman's husband is in their way. They push him into a lake, but the boat capsizes and all three are thrown into the water. The lovers reach the shore, but the husband is nowhere. Has he drowned? They decide to wait at a lakeside hotel for his body to be found. Based on Emile Zola's masterpiece 'Therese Raquin', mismatched emotions of women and men are conveyed via 16mm film. Coarse sensuality.

Kae Horii (Erika Sawajiri) moves into her new flat in an undisclosed area of Kyoto. While unpacking her belongings, she discovers a hidden compartment behind a inconspicuous mirror. In that compartment, Kae finds a notebook, that turns out to be a diary belonging to the previous tenant. Later that evening Kae starts to read the diary. The writer of the diary is Ibuki Mano (Yuko Takeuchi), a young lady about to embark on her first year as an elementary school teacher. Ibuki is also in love with a man named Takashi, who may or may not hold similar feelings for Ibuki. The diary immediately resonates with Kae, as she plans to become an elementary school teacher herself. Ibuki's experiences also works as an inspirational instructional guide for Kae's own personal life. Kae is also in love with an aloof illustrator/artist (Yusuke Iseya), who may or may not hold similar feelings for Kae.

This enticing period melodrama depicts a long-suffering woman's relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive writer husband in postwar Tokyo. Based on a semi-autobiographical 1947 novel by Osamu Dazai, the story centers less on the womanizing, heavy-drinking, suicidal hero than on the wife who loves him.

One of the handyman duo finds himself in a jam when he ends up being the caretaker of the other's daughter, and gets caught up in the dealings of a mysterious cult.

Four women, who have their own different sorrows, embark on a road trip. They look back at their past and restart their lives.

Tsuyako turns the rooftop of her shabby love hotel into a park and opens it up to the lonely women of various ages who rent rooms.

A documentary movie that portrays the final months of a Japanese "salaryman" (business man) in his fight against cancer and his reconnection with his family (wife, children, granddaughter and mother) . His youngest daughter recorded and narrates the film through her father's perspective.

When bento shop owner Hikaru Oshiro learns that a group of high school students have no place to practice music he takes it upon himself to build a studio beneath his store. The only stipulations he placed upon the students were that they be respectful to others, do well in school, and empathetic towards others.

Two twin girls are separated at birth. One grows up in a loving family. The other one doesn't. They finally meet by complete accident on a town fair. No one ever told them about the other one so they begin familiarizing with each other.

Two holes appear suddenly on the walls of a cheap apartment where a piddling fiction writer, Makiguri, lives. What he wrote fiercely after that was his own death.

Video artist Ryosuke visits the suburb of Furano in Hokkaido, where his friend lives, in order to shoot a video. His car breaks down and Ryosuke decides to walk to a house and ask for a phone. The person that opens the door is his former girlfriend and first love Haruka. They meet for the first time in 23 years. Even though Ryosuke knows that she is married, he takes her to his video shooting and they get close. Ryosuke leaves Hokkaido in 2 days and he asks Haruka to spend one more day with him.

An introverted schoolgirl falls in love and starts a relationship with one of her classmates. Set in a small seaside town in Japan, the love of her life eventually leaves her for her boyfriend in Tokyo.

Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima. The film takes place during 4 days in the summer of 1948, as the ghost of her father visits Mitsué (Rié Miyama). He had somehow learned that she has fallen in love, and tries to convince her to start her new life. But Mitsué obstinately refuses his warm and humorous encouragements : « People were killed in my place. I do not have the right to find happiness », she says.

Twenty-something lesbian Chinatsu shares a one-bedroom apartment with heterosexual Kyoko. Although they have a passing attraction, Kyoko is mostly interested in men, especially one who work in a pet store.

A porn fanatic, a drifter, a jobless man and a magic-mushroom farmer are drawn together at an orgy.

On the day when a fireworks display is planned, Norimichi, Yusuke, and their friends at school in a Japanese seaside town cannot agree whether or not fireworks are "flat" or "round" when they explode in the sky. With her parents divorcing, the young teenager Nazuna has more serious matters on her mind. Although unknown to the others, Nazuna's mother intends to take her away after the summer break. When Norimichi and Yusuke race 50 meters in the swimming pool, Nazuna secretly decides that the winner will accompany her when she runs away from home. Meanwhile the gang from school decides that the best way to figure out the shape of fireworks is to view them from the side, and they set out for a lighthouse above the beach from which the fireworks display will be fired.

Akane moves from Tokyo to a small island where she works as a waitress serving the fishermen. People like her and glad she has made the move. Satsuki, however, is a local having grown up, married and given birth in the area. She has a foster son and after obtaining her man's permission decides to adopt him legally. Unfortunately it is the son's biological mother who has arrived on the island and is living nearby now.

The story of the relationship between a college student whose relationship with her boyfriend is going nowhere and a bisexual medical artist who makes prosthetic body parts.

After meeting a handsome truck driver (Nao Omori) in the midst of an urban mini-mart, a 30-something freelance writer (Shinobu Terajima) embarks on a life-changing emotional journey of sexual self-discovery.

Wakana is a daughter of a husband and wife comedy act, who have worked for 20 years without big success. Her parents quarrel constantly, and mother often threatens to leave. When one day her father disappears, Wakana sets out to find him.

Having a crush on someone, including a neighbour, may not be considered unusual, but there is a line that is crossed when the infatuation includes going through the loved one's trash. Miyuki has crossed the line and cannot stop herself. Her reality, at least, allows her to be more understanding and available when a stalker, in turn, craves her.

Yuko is 35 years old, single, out of work, and on medication from her psychiatrist to combat her manic depression. Living in Kamata Town, Yuko divides her time between a variety of men friends, each with his own peculiarities. Her university classmate, Homma, suffers from impotence. "K", whom she meets on the net, is a self-confessed pervert. Then, there is a young gangster, Yasuda, who is a fellow manic depressive. Her cousin, Shoichi, is also on the scene, having left his family to pursue his mistress, only to be given the cold shoulder by her, too. Yuko seems to create a different persona depending on whom she is talking to at the time. Human contact is just as important for her as for anyone else, but sometimes her condition makes it difficult for others to relate to her for as long as she would like.

Also called Candy House, this drama revolves around Taro's (OdagiriJoe) candy shop named "Sakuraya" and the lives of the four people who frequent this place as the shop, despite turning in no profit, holds treasured memories of their childhood days and all the guys including Taro spends their days chatting about the mundane topics and just being content with no aspiration. The story is simple and about day to day life of these characters and each episode is a lesson about life and happiness.

Boy & girl meet; boy & girl lose each other; boy & girl find each other. Except the boy & girl are 40ish, he a classical guitarist & she an international news reporter.

Following World War II, a retired professor approaching his autumn years finds his quality of life drastically reduced in war-torn Tokyo. Denying despair, he pursues writing and celebrates his birthday with his adoring students.