Category Archives: Film Reviews
A Man With Style – Review
Junichi Miyata works as a driver for a parcel delivery company. He lives with his two kids, unemployed 19-year-old Toshiya & 18-year-old Momoko. Junichi’s wife passed away from stomach cancer several years earlier. Junichi now finds it difficult to communicate with his kids and he’s worried that he has cancer like his late wife. READ MORE
Ace Attorney – Review
Set sometime in the near future, Attorney Phoenix Wright goes up against childhood friend and now top prosector Miles Edgeworth over the guilt or innocence of client Maya Fey. The legal system allows for only 3 days of trial before the judge makes a decision. Intense pressure mounts on both sides, as both men must use their power of persuasion and presentation to sway the judge. READ MORE
Afro Tanaka – Review
Hiroshi Tanaka sports an intense perm that looks like the Afro hairstyle favored by some African-Americans back in the 1970′s. He doesn’t get his hair done at a hair shop; he was actually born with his hair like that. READ MORE
Akihabara Geeks – Review
Akihabara is a neighborhood of Tokyo, Japan known as “Electric Town” for its rows of one-meter wide discount computer and electronics stores. In more recent years Akihabara has evolved into a full-blown Mecca for computer enthusiasts anime and manga fans doll or “figure” collectors video gamers and “Otaku” of all kinds. Because Akihabara caters to interests outside of mainstream Japanese society it captivates an entire subculture of devotees. Join us as we peruse the shops streets and Maid Cafes to present an engrossing day in the life view of Akihabara and focus on the unique people who are passionately plugged into this town. READ MORE
Audition – Review
Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training. On the day of the audition, she’s the last person they see. Aoyama is hooked. He notes her number from her file, calls her and takes her to dinner. He hesitates to call again, worried that he’ll seem too eager. When he does, Asami knowingly lets the phone ring for some time before answering. She’s alone in her darkened room – alone, that is, apart from the writhing victim she has tied up in a sack on the floor… READ MORE
Bandage – Review
One day, high school student Asako is invited by her friends to attend a concert by indie band Lands. She immediately becomes infatuated with both the band and its lead singer Natsu. By mere coincidence, she becomes the band’s co-manager, and she quickly discovers the hardships that exist within the music industry, despite developing a friendship with Natsu. When the band contemplates whether to leave artistic integrity behind for fortune and fame, will Asako’s loyalty to the band—and especially Natsu—be put to the test? READ MORE
Bashing – Review
Yuko volunteered to be an aid worker in Iraq and was taken hostage there. When freed she returned to Japan, but after being home six months she is still the ongoing object of harassment from her own countrymen. READ MORE
Battles Without Honor and Humanity – Review
Kinji Fukusaku’s epic five part Yakuza Papers series starts with Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a movie spanning the years 1946 to 1956 and going from the post-atomic bomb chaos of Hiroshima to a reindustrializing Tokyo during the Korean War. READ MORE
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima – Review
Time traveling back into the years 1950 – 1953, we enter the same world through a separate door by focusing on the Yakuza from the perspective of two rivals, Shoji Yamanaka playing protagonist as the ex-convict brought into the Muraoka family, foiled by Katsutoshi, the sadistic son of the Otomo family. READ MORE
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode – Review
The Yakuza Papers: Final Episode is hardly final. It opens with the conglomeration of several families into the Tensei Coalition, registered with the nation as a political organization, and headed by Shozo Hirono’s compatriot Takeda. READ MORE
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics – Review
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima. READ MORE
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War – Review
In 1960, 15 years after the end of the end of World War II, Shozo Hirono, the protagonist of the first film in the trilogy, has managed to separate from the Yamamori family, and create his own small family and to extend his circle of acquaintances. READ MORE
Be Sure To Share – Review
Shiro’s struggle with his father’s cancer and impending death leads to a realization that he must communicate his love and admiration for him before it’s too late. A series of flashbacks reveals their relationship over time, and the trouble Shiro faced connecting to his strict father who was also his teacher and soccer coach. With a consuming secret of his own, Shiro, now in his late twenties and about to get engaged, must eventually learn how to share it with his loved ones. READ MORE
Before Sunrise – Review
By chance, Watabe meets subordinate worker Nakanishi at a batting center. A friendship occurs which leads to a heated love affair. Watabe then learns that Nakanishi is the prime suspect of a murder case that occurred 15 years – the murder of her father’s ex-lover. READ MORE
Big Man Japan – Review
Daisato lives a mundane life in a rundown house tagged with insulting and obscenity-riddled graffiti. This middle-aged slacker seems a puzzling subject to be followed by the documentary crew that films his banal daily routine. That is, until he prepares for his “job.” READ MORE
Black Rain – Review
Mr. and Mrs. Shizuma and their niece Yasuko make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, devastated by the atomic bomb. Five years later, Yasuko is living with her aunt and uncle, and her senile grandmother, in a village containing many survivors of the bombing. Yasuko does not appear to be affected, but the Shizumas are worried about her marriage prospects, fearing that she might succumb to radiation sickness at any time. READ MORE
Blood and Bones – Review
In 1923, the young Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees. He makes fortune, abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family, having many mistresses and children and showing no respect to anybody. Later he closes the factory, lending the money with high interests and becoming a loan shark. The film is told from the perspective of Masao, his legitimate son by his abused and degraded wife, who knows nothing about his father other than to fear him. READ MORE
Bunny Drop – Review
27-year-old Daikichi is a single young man who is trusted by his peers at work. Daikichi then attends his grandfather’s funeral. At the funeral the attendees learn that Daikichi’s grandfather bore an illegitimate daughter with an unknown mother. The girl’s name is Rin and she is just six years old. READ MORE
Cast Me If You Can – Review
Forever supporting actor Hiroshi’s real life seems to mimic his minor acting career. When he walks out on the street he is often mistaken for a shop clerk, staff member, security guard or even a kidnapper. At home, his famous play-writer father Kenta Matsuzaki treats him like an idiot. One day, Hiroshi’s life turns upside down when he meets the woman of his dreams, aspiring actress Aya. While attempting to court Aya, Hiroshi also tries to play the lead in his own life. READ MORE
Cheers From Heaven – Review
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 respectfully greet others, do well in school, and be empathetic towards people in their community. READ MORE
Chips – Review
Set in Sendai, Japan, two men live completely different lives. One is a star professional baseball player and the other burglarizes empty homes. Their fate connects with unseeable connections when Tadashi Imamura and a suicidal woman enter the home of the professional baseball player. READ MORE
Cold Fish – Review
Shamoto is the nerdy proprietor of a store dealing in tropical fish. Shamoto’s home life isn’t especially happy — his second wife, Taeko, has a sharp tongue and an eye for other men, while his teenage daughter, Mitsuko, has little use for either of them. One night, Mitsuko is picked up for shoplifting at a supermarket, but another customer, Murata, unexpectedly steps in to help. Murata, who owns a much larger fish store, offers to give Mitsuko a job, and Shamoto is grateful for his help. READ MORE
Confessions – Review
On her final day as the teacher of her middle school class, Moriguchi makes a startling confession in front of them—that two students from her class were responsible for the murder of her young daughter. Contemplating the boundaries of the legal system and their handling of underage child suspects, she explains that it doesn’t allow for true justice to be served. Knowing full well the consequences of her confession though, the remainder of the class begins to exact vengeance upon the two young killers through the act bullying, with the killers own personal confessions coming to light as they deteriorate mentally and physically from the systematic abuse. Slowly revealing their crushing agony, Moriguchi plots her next move to initiate her final plan for ultimate revenge. READ MORE
Dead Sushi – Review
Keiko, the daughter of an overbearing sushi chef, runs away from home only to find a job at an inn. When the members of Komatsu Pharmaceuticals Company come for a trip, Keiko develops a scathing relationship with the president. READ MORE
Death Tube – Review
One day, Inoue Satoshi stumbles upon a supposedly popular video site named “Death Tube”. The site apparently showcases real people playing games in order to survive, and if they fail, certain death is the outcome. Viewers of the site can also comment on the atrocities seen onscreen in real time. After viewing one such situation, Inoue thinks nothing of it and passes it off as simply a fake. The next day, Inoue wakes up to find himself within the very game he viewed earlier, this time vying for his own life. He meets other contestants as well, and they must cooperate to escape the game or die trying. READ MORE
Densha Otoko – Review
Computer engineer Otaku (the Japanese term for “geek”) is an average young man, dressed in unstylish clothes and dorky glasses. But as luck would have it, he encounters a pretty young woman on a commuter train and saves her from a lecherous molester, falling in love with her at first sight. A few days later he receives a thank-you message from the woman along with a set of Hermes teacups. Having never had a girlfriend or received a gift from a girl in his life, Otaku seeks out his pals on his BBS website for advice using his codename Densha Otoko (Train Man): “How should I ask her out?” READ MORE
Departures – Review
Departures follows Kobayashi Daigo, a man unsure of what to do with his life. Having lost his job as cellist in an orchestra, Daigo and his wife leave Tokyo and move back to his hometown in order to restart their lives. Daigo answers an ad for what he believes is a travel agency, but turns out to be an encoffinment agency. Taking the job anyway, he begins a new life as an encoffinment specialist under the austere owner Sasaki. READ MORE
Detroit Metal City – Review
Soichi Negishi is a sweet and shy young man who dreams of becoming a trendy singer songwriter. But for some reason, he is forced into joining the worshipping death metal band “Detroit Metal City”. In full stage make-up, he transforms into his alter-ego “Johannes Krauser II”, the vulgar-mouthed lead vocalist, and against Negishi’s will, DMC rises to stardom. The band is adored by their head-thrashing fans, but Soichi himself is too embarrassed to admit he’s in the band and even worse, the girl of his dreams hates DMC even more than he does. Even worse for Soichi, the now the legendary king of death Jack II Dark himself is challenging DMC to a duel. What is the fate of the innocent Negishi as he climbs to the top of the death metal world? READ MORE
DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 to be continued – Review
From theater performances to the national stage, AKB48 has become one of the most recognizable and popular idol groups in Japan. With over 1000 tapes used to capture the super-sized idol group’s road to success over 2010, the best footage used was compiled to make the film DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 to be continued. READ MORE
Documentary of AKB48: Show Must Go On – Review
Yasushi Akimoto created and produced theater idol group “AKB48″ in 2005. The group has gone on to become national idols. When the group held 3 concerts at the Seibu Dome, a total of 90,000 fans came to see their performances. Documentary of AKB48: Show Must Go On shows up and close the group and problems they face as idols. READ MORE
Dreams for Sale – Review
A married couple finds themselves in a dire financial situation after they lose their restaurant in a fire. The couple determined to run a restaurant again turn to crime. READ MORE
Fireworks from the Heart – Review
On September 9th, the day of the Katakai Fireworks Festival, high school student Hana comes home from the hospital after six months of treatment for leukemia. She then discovers that her older brother Taro has become a social recluse. Taro used to be tender, smart and proud of his younger sister, but now he even turns his back on her and stays in his room. READ MORE
Flowing – Review
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn’t see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers. READ MORE
For Love’s Sake – Review
Troubled high school student Makoto arrives in Tokyo to exact revenge from a past incident. He then falls in love at first sight with Ai, a daughter raised in a wholesome family. Around Makoto and Ai are Iwashimizu, who has feelings for Ai and Gamuko, a gang member who eyes Makoto. READ MORE
Fourteen – Review
Fukatsu Ryo stabbed a teacher to death when she was 14 who treated her as an arsonist. Twelve years later, Fukatsu is a teacher at a middle school whilst remaining traumatized by the incident. One day Fukatsu is reunited with Sugino who was a classmate at middle school. READ MORE
Frog River – Review
Tsutomu has it rough when it comes to his masculinity. Shamed when he was younger due to an unlikely dare that he couldn’t commit to, he has always lived under the shadow if his peers and never fully stands up for what he believes in. He has since become an aspiring DJ and works as a clerk at a record store where he can play all the music he wants too without being bothered. This all changes though when he meets up with his peer from the past, the ever oppressive and bullying Shiba. READ MORE
Gantz – Review
The last thing Kei remembers is the train running over his body. Now he is in a room filled with strangers, all resurrected by the featureless black sphere known only as the Gantz. But their reprieve from death may only be temporary, for unless they undertake the brutal missions that the Gantz assigns, none of them will live long enough to leave the room. Is it a game? A nightmare? All Kei knows is that if they fail, they will die again. READ MORE
Gantz: Perfect Answer – Review
Beginning several months after the events of the first film, Kurono is still fighting aliens under the order of Gantz, a mysterious giant black orb, and he is close to reaching the score he needs to resurrect his deceased friend Kato. Outside his nighttime missions, Kurono continues to live his normal life, spending time with his new girlfriend Tae. READ MORE
Go Find a Psychic! – Review
Once a year, on Christmas Eve, Cafe Telekinesis holds a real psychic party. At the party, psychics gather together to show off their abilities while for the rest of the year they hide their abilities. Yone Sakurai is a program director for a psychic variety TV show called “Asunaro Psychic”. Yone actually believes in psychic abilities, and by an audience request, a new plan is set out for the program—a plan that requires the show to uncover real psychics. Yone is selected to find these people throughout the nation, but ends up empty handed each time. Before Yone ends her search she makes one last stop at Cafe Psychic on Christmas Eve. Can the true psychics there, who all despise Yone’s TV show, hide their abilities from Yone? READ MORE
Halfway – Review
Popular high-school basketball player Shu overhears Hiro rehearsing declaring her love to him and decides to ask her out on a date. However, his plans to move away to attend Waseda University after high school soon put a strain on their developing relationship, and the conflicting choice to stay with her or go is put to the test. READ MORE
Hard Romanticker – Review
Gu is a hard-nosed Korean-Japanese hoodlum living in Shimonoseki, Japan. When friends “accidentally” kill the grandmother of a ruthless North Korean-Japanese thug, a whirlwind of violence and revenge is set to explode. READ MORE
Helter Skelter – Review
Known for her gorgeous looks, supermodel LiLiCo is the absolute standard in which beauty is measured. But LiLiCo is also a conceited, narcissistic woman who makes everyone around her – including her long-suffering manager–incredibly miserable. READ MORE
Henge – Review
Set in a quiet Japanese town, Keiko is at a loss when her husband starts to have terrible seizures, and slowly transforms into a flesh-hungry beast. Worried of what Yoshiaki is capable of, scientist Minoru Sakashita kidnaps him with the intention of testing. READ MORE
High School Debut – Review
Haruna Nagashima gave her all to softball in middle school, now that she has made her high school debut, she has decided to give her all for a new goal: getting a boyfriend and falling in love. However, she has one small problem—since she never paid any attention to fashion or trends in middle school, she has no idea how to go about attracting her yet-to-be-found love. READ MORE
Himizu – Review
Set after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, all 14-year-old Yuichi Sumida wants to become is a regular boy and live a decent life. His environment though repeatedly drags him into the mud. READ MORE
I Just Didn’t Do It – Review
Kaneko Teppei catches the commuter train one day on his way to a job interview. With the train being over capacity, he is unwillingly forced into a crowded spot. As he gets off the crowded train, a high school girl runs up to him and accuses him of sexual harassment, in which the police apprehend him. At the police station, the police and his court-appointed attorney advise him to simply confess, in which then he would be released after settling compensation with the victim. Teppei rejects this offer stating he is entirely innocent of the crime he’s accused of, therein beginning a battle within the court system to prove his innocence. READ MORE
Isn’t Anyone Alive? – Review
Set in an university campus attached to hospital, the story revolves around a strange cast of characters as they face the end of the world. READ MORE
Jiro Dreams of Sushi – Review
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. READ MORE
Kakera: A Piece of Our Life – Review
Haru is a college student ignored by her boyfriend yet believes she is still in love with him. One day at a café, Haru meets Riko, a medical artist (prosthetist) who creates body parts in order to disguise clients’ missing pieces, lost due to accident or disease. Both were alone, but struck up an immediate friendship and closeness. Riko doesn’t care about gender when it comes to relationships, and believes that love itself is the most important thing a human can achieve. Haru struggles in her life between friendship and a deeper relationship with Riko. READ MORE
Kimi ni Todoke – Review
Well-meaning, but socially awkward, Sawako Kuronuma is nicknamed “Sadako” by her classmates because of her similar hair cut with the main character from the horror movie “Ringu”. Her life then takes a turn when Shota Kazehaya, the most popular boy in school, falls for her. Shota Kazehaya is classmates with Sawako. Unlike Sawako, he is outgoing and popular with all the students. READ MORE
Lesson of the Evil – Review
High school teacher Seiji Hasumi is the most popular teacher at his school with an attractive smile. He is loved by all his students for his charisma and charming behavior. Yet, Seiji Hasumi is also completely psychotic. READ MORE
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx – Review
The second installment of the Lone Wolf and Cub series starts right off with the battle as Ogami and Daigoro’s path are crossed by some more Yagyu Shadow Clan swordsmen to establish that the hunt is on. READ MORE
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril – Review
Ogami is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin. Gunbei Yagyu, an enemy samurai, happens upon Ogami’s son, and sees his chance for revenge. READ MORE
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons – Review
In the fifth installment of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami must assassinate a traitorous priest before he reveals the sordid secrets of the Kuroda clan to the conspiratorial Yagyu. READ MORE
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades – Review
In the third film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto volunteers to be tortured by Yakuza to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader to kill an evil chamberlain. READ MORE
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance – Review
The story of a Ronin who wanders the countryside of Japan with his small child, having various adventures. READ MORE
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell – Review
In White Heaven to Hell, Retsudo conscripts his remaining children, most notably his estranged son Hyoei of the Tsuchigumo, to aide in his attempts to kill Ogami and Daigoro as the two head on their way to the Shogunate. READ MORE
Love & Pop – Review
With his first foray into live-action cinema, director Hideaki Anno delivers an exposé on the Japanese practice of compensated dating and the culture that surrounds it. Based on the novel Tokyo Decadence by author Ryu Muramaki, Love & Pop presents an intimate vision concerning a subject that is ripe with social controversy within Japan. READ MORE
Love Fight – Review
Minoru and Aki have grown up together from a young age. Contrary to easily scared Minoru, Aki, who normally looks ladylike, is very strong at fighting; hence Aki has always protected Minoru from being bullied. Their dynamics remains the same into their high school years. Wanting to break out of this situation, Minoru starts going to a boxing gym run by Oki, whom he met by chance. However, Aki, who gets wind of it, is fascinated with boxing as well, and joins the same boxing club. Minoru feels depressed, as he is again unable to break free of Aki’s influence. Through boxing, however, Minoru realizes that he has been running away from Aki and not facing her properly until now. READ MORE
Love on Sunday 2: Last Words – Review
Nagisa is a high school girl who has been given three months to live. Without telling her widowed father where she is going, she sets out from the city to the small town of Chiba where she was born—as well as had her first love. She recalls her youthful memories as well as her rekindled love for childhood friend Satoshi. However, she is shocked to discover that Satoshi is having an affair with Eriko, a married woman. With the limited time Nagisa has left, she contemplates whether to tell Satoshi her true feelings concerning her longstanding love for him. READ MORE
Love Strikes! – Review
Set one year after the conclusion of the Japanese drama series Moteki, the film Love Strikes! continues to follow 31-year-old Yukiyo Fujimoto, a man who 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. READ MORE
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac – Review
Based on the novel by author Gabrielle Zevin, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac tells the story of Naomi Sukuse, an ordinary high school student who goes to an international school in Tokyo, Japan. One day, she falls down a staircase and ends up losing her memory concerning the past 4 years. The only thing she can remember during that period is one boy kissing her, but can’t put her finger on the exact individual. Gradually she begins to search for her own identity, and even when her memory returns, she keeps on looking for her real self, and what she truly loves in life. READ MORE
Mitsuko Delivers – Review
From an outsider’s perspective, Mitsuko is in trouble. She was impregnated by an American who dumped her, and now she’s living penniless in Japan while her parents believe she is still in California. READ MORE
Moshidora – Review
Minami Kawashima, a female high school student, unexpectedly becomes the manager of Tokyo’s Hodokubo High School baseball team to help her best friend, Yuki Miyata. READ MORE
My Darling is a Foreigner – Review
When aspiring manga artist Saori and writer Tony decide to go out with one another, things apparently seem to be on the right path. In love, moving in with each other, and considering the notion of getting married, the two feel as though they are on the right path towards happiness. This suddenly changes when Saori’s father expresses his distaste for their relationship, with the primary motive being that Tony is a gaijin—a foreigner within Japan. This in turn creates an uneasy foundation between Saori and Tony, both who want to love one another, but are in dispute over their cultural backgrounds. How will this relationship development if Saori’s father doesn’t approve of Tony, and even worse, will it last? READ MORE
My SO Has Got Depression – Review
Mikio is a married man and works hard for the company where he is employed. Then one day Mikio is diagnosed with depression. Mikio’s wife is Haruko. They have been married for 5 years. Haruko draws comics for work, but they do not sell well. She mainly relied on Mikio for support. READ MORE
Nobody to Watch Over Me – Review
When two children are found murdered, an eighteen-year-old high school student becomes the prime suspect, and the case quickly becomes a media sensation. As both the press and an angry public descend on the home of the accused, his family finds themselves at the mercy of strangers unconcerned with their welfare. Takumi Katsuyoshi is a veteran police detective who is assigned to look after Saori, the fifteen-year-old sister of the accused; while he initially regards the assignment as frivolous, it isn’t long before he sees what kind of toll the attention has taken on the family, and he becomes all the more concerned when he witnesses the reckless behavior of the paparazzi. READ MORE
Norwegian Wood – Review
Set in Japan in the 1960′s, high school student Toru Watanabe loses his dear friend Kizuki, who suddenly commits suicide for no apparent reason. Toru, now looking to rebuild his life, enters a university in Tokyo. By sheer chance, Watanabe meets Kizuki’s ex-girlfriend Naoko. They begin to hang out and grow increasingly close as they share the same loss. As Toru and Naoko grow even more intimate, Naoko’s sense of loss for Kizuki also grows as well. After Naoko’s 20th birthday, she leaves for a sanitarium in Kyoto to better her psychological state. Watanabe, devastated by her sudden departure, meets pure-hearted Midori during the spring semester. Watanabe begins to ponder his relationship to both women as he ultimately decides the direction of his life. READ MORE
Outrage – Review
In the Tokyo underworld, dominated by the Sanno-kai crime organization & ruled by Chairman Sekuichi, rival clans clash for dominance while temporal alliances and betrayals become indistinguishable. Kato, the underboss of the Sanno-kai group, warns regional crime boss Ikemoto about his increasingly friendly dealings with rival regional crime boss Murase. In order to appease Chairman Sekuichi’s suspicions of any type of planned coup, Ikemoto orders Otomo, crime boss for the smaller Otomo group, to take action against the Murase group. What follows is a brutal game of retaliation as the three rival clans battle each other for control over territory. READ MORE
Outrage Beyond – Review
As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war. READ MORE
Parade – Review
Based on the novel by Shuichi Yoashida, Parade follows four roommates: Naoki, who works in a movie distribution company, Mirai, a illustrator, Ryosuke, a college student and Kotomi, who is unemployed. With four of them sharing an apartment together, they see one another everyday but know little of each other’s personal life. Never something to consider important, the four seemingly believe they know each other on a personal level. This is called into question though when a stranger by the name of Satoru mysteriously begins sleeping and using the apartment all of a sudden, which prompts the four roommates to question why he’s there. When the truth is discovered, they decide let him stay with them, but disturbing reports of local murders around the vicinity of their apartment brings into the question who Satoru truly is—as well as their own relationships with one another. READ MORE
Paradise Kiss – Review
Yukari Hayasaka is a high school student who has become tired of her life of constant schooling. She then comes across a group of student fashion designers in need of a model for their “Paradise Kiss” clothing label. Yukari knows nothing about the fashion world and is taken back by the group’s eccentric ways, but she soon comes to admire their free thinking ways and ability to pursue their dreams with a one track mind. READ MORE
Patisserie Coin de rue – Review
Natsume is a young woman who travels from Kagoshima to Tokyo to find her boyfriend. Natsume fins a job at “Patisserie Coin de rue”, a pastry shop run by husband and wife tandem Yuriko and Julian. At “Patisserie Coin de rue” Natsume works with talented patissier Mariko and her fascinating creations. READ MORE
Permanent Nobara – Review
Naoko has returned home with her daughter Momo after separating from her first husband. She now lives with her mother Masako, helping out at her salon; the only salon in the village and a resting ground for the local ladies, whose tongues are as barbed as their wire-brush perms. READ MORE
Piecing Me Back Together – Review
A young woman named Izumi suffers the loss of her boyfriend Junichi, who died from a fatal motorcycle accident. The shock from her boyfriend’s sudden death causes Izumi to lose her memory from the time of the accident. To reclaim her memories, Izumi goes to a mental facility for therapy. There, Izumi meets the lawyer Makiko to help her make an inquiry into the accident. They work together to remember the final moments of her boyfriend’s life. READ MORE
Pigs and Battleships – Review
In post-war Japan, people are working hard, but never so much more than the Yakuza. In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together. Though her family has agreed to sell her to the highest bidding Yank in Japan. READ MORE
Pornostar – Review
A man walks down a crowded street. He stands out from the rest, an outcast so to speak. From a single look at him, you can tell something just isn’t right. It appears to be he defies society; seemly walking past it like it doesn’t even matter. This is a man who is on his own; a rebel that has a cause, a man is taking matters into his own hands no matter what the cost is. READ MORE
Ranma 1/2 – Review
Tendo Akane is a boyish girl of martial arts who is fervently determined to inherit her father’s dojo. However, her father makes a unilateral decision that his successor should be a man. Moreover, he has already chosen Saotome Ranma as Akane’s husband-to-be, unaware of Ranma’s one strange habitude…he changes into a girl when splashed with water! READ MORE
Rebirth – Review
A woman named Kiwako abducts a baby from a man whom she has had an affair with. For four years Kiwako raises the child as her own, traveling and attempting to live a normal life, until one day she is arrested. The child named Erina is then returned to her birth parents, but she can’t find peace. READ MORE
Rent-a-Cat – Review
An odd woman named Sayoko rents cats to lonely people. Some of the renters include an old woman who lost her husband and her cat, a middle-aged man who moved away from his family for work, a woman at a reception desk who questions her existence and a man who has a connection with Sayoko. READ MORE
Resident Evil: Damnation – Review
U.S. Federal agent Leon S. Kennedy sneaks into the “East Slavic Republic” to verify rumors that Bio-Organic Weapons (BOWs) are being used in the country’s civil war, which the U.S. and Russia are making preparations to jointly intervene in. READ MORE
Ringu – Review
The highest grossing horror film in Japan, Hideo Nakata’s 1998 film Ringu is what many consider the advocate for the Japanese horror boom. It’s a film, through all its subjectivity, that is considered the most frightening horror film in Japan and has received worldwide recognition for being so, eventually leading to the 2002 American remake, The Ring. READ MORE
River – Review
Hikari lost her boyfriend after a random killing that took place in Akihabara. Afterwards, Hikari feels a great sense of loss and shuts herself off from the world. She doesn’t leave her home. Finally, with the help of those around her, Hikari is able to regain stability in her life bit by bit READ MORE
Robo-G – Review
When three fruitless scientists from Kimura Appliances are forced to enter a robotics competition they are at a loss for what to do, as their test robot has defenestrated itself. They decide they need to hire someone to sport the robot outfit (which goes by the name of New Shiokaze.) READ MORE
Runway Beat – Review
Based on the mobile phone novel by author Maha Harada, Runway Beat tells the story of transfer student Biito “Beat” Mizorogi, a troubled youth who lost his mother when he was younger and has a conflicted relationship with his fashion mogul father. Believing that his father abandoned his ailing mother to concentrate on his own career, Beat holds a grudge against him for not being there when he needed him the most. READ MORE
Rurouni Kenshin – Review
Former legendary assassin Kenshin Himura has now become a wandering samurai, offering aid and protecting those in need as atonement for his destructive past deeds. READ MORE
Sankaku – Review
Momose, a 30-year-old who is somewhat of a deadbeat, is currently living with his girlfriend Kayo. Their relationship is not exactly where they would like it to be though, and they find themselves growing distant from one another as the days pass. Things suddenly change when Kayo’s 15-year-old sister Momo comes to stay with them during her summer vacation. While exciting for everyone at first, Momose and Momo slowly begin to express feelings for one another without the knowledge of Kayo. What soon develops is a love triangle that will put to the test their relationships with one another and question the boundaries of family and love. READ MORE
Sawako Decides – Review
Sawako has lived in Tokyo for five years, is working her fifth office job, and is dating her fifth boyfriend, who is also her boss at the office. Her life with Kenichi, her boyfriend, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Kayoko, feels like a “compromise,” and she endures each day feeling distressed about her career and love life. One day, she receives word that her father, Tadao, who runs a freshwater clam processing business in her hometown, has fallen ill. READ MORE
Sayaka: The Cute & Careless Girl – Review
Sayaka Tsuzumi is a pure and dainty girl with a big H-cup bust. Being a virgin but curious about sex, she’s so into daydreaming that she even moans over a hotdog. She adores Yuki Ito, the handsome athlete and school idol, but she’s almost given up on him thinking he’s totally out of her league. But one day he comes to her and says, “Would you tutor math for me before the exam?” READ MORE
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – Review
Scott Pilgrim’s life is so awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, “between jobs,” and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, roller blading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn’t covered in rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil exes stand between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott defeat all seven of the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down, before the game is over? READ MORE
Scrap Heaven – Review
Pharmacist Saki, timid policeman Shingo and toilet-cleaner Tetsu find their lives turned upside down when their bus is hijacked by a crazed businessman. When the ride turns violent, the three strangers are forever linked by the incident. Months later, Tetsu talks Shingo into collaborating on a most unique business venture: revenge-for-hire. Anyone with a problem can come to them and they’ll take appropriate, vengeful measures. Meanwhile, Saki, disillusioned and increasingly anti-social, also wishes to take out her own revenge on society. READ MORE
Shibyo Osen – Dead Rising – Review
Viewed as a side-story to the Dead Rising 2 video game, Shibyo Osen – Dead Rising takes place within a world where a destructive virus has infected a majority of the population. Areas of extreme infection are sectioned off from the remainder of the world, leaving the uninfected residents to battle the vicious hordes of the infected—otherwise known as zombies. The story follows two brothers by the name of George and Shin who happen to find themselves within one of the infected areas within Japan. As they plan their escape, they deal with both the dead and undead in a reluctant game for survival in a chaotic world. READ MORE
Shodo Girls!! Watashitachi no koshien – Review
Satoko is the granddaughter of a calligraphy master living in an old factory town. A talented calligrapher, she’s only interested in getting the individual prize in the annual inter-school calligraphy tournament rather than getting the glory for her school with the fellow members of the school club. Her philosophy changes with the arrival of the club’s new advisor Ikezawa, who comes up with the idea of turning calligraphy into extravagant performance in order to gather popularity. Finding this suggestion rather informal considering the craft, Satoko is slowly inspired by Ikezawa and her club mates, especially Kiyomi who wants to utilize this new approach towards calligraphy to rejuvenate her family’s stationary shop. READ MORE
Shojotachi no Rashinban – Review
An actress arrives on the set of her new film and is recognized by the director as being a former member of a female theatre group called the “Rashinban” (“The Compass”). It is revealed that the group disbanded after the death of one of its members, and soon after talking with the director, the actress receives an anonymous message implicating her as the killer of the girl. READ MORE
Smuggler – Review
Ryosuke Kinuta is a failed actor who falls into debt to the mob and must now work for them. His job is to smuggle or dispose of bodies and for that he makes a 50,000 Yen a day. He works with Jo and his assistant. When Ryosuke takes part in transporting an assassin, he soon finds himself having to use all of his acting skills to stay alive. READ MORE
Star Watching Dog – Review
An unidentified middle aged man is found dead in his car near a camping ground on a mountain in Hokkaido. His dead dog, an Akita, lays next to him. The dog died approximately six months after the man’s death. There isn’t any identification found on the deceased man. READ MORE
Strawberry Shortcakes – Review
Based off the manga of the same name, Strawberry Shortcakes follows four women and their lives within Tokyo. One woman is Satoko, who just got dumped by her boyfriend and works at a local call girl service as a receptionist. One of Satoko’s friends—and a call girl herself—is Akiyo, who sleeps in a coffin and is saving up money in order to commit suicide. We then have artist named Toko, who is angry to find out her ex-boyfriend is going to be married to another woman soon, and suppresses displaying her emotions by creating artwork. Her roommate Chihiro, is an office worker who has a boyfriend, but is still finding herself lonelier than Toko is. These four women strive to find happiness within their lives all the while attempting to deal with their insecurities amidst the bustling city life. READ MORE
Sway – Review
Takeru returns from Tokyo for his mother’s funeral in Hikawa, where he reunites with his former girlfriend Chieko, who is currently working with Takeru’s brother Minoru in the brothers’ father’s newly incorporated petrol station. READ MORE
Sweet Little Lies – Review
Satoshi and Ruriko have been a married couple for roughly three years, remaining childless over this period. Despite living together without interference from their in-laws and friends, their relationship remains empty as they distance themselves from one another, both emotionally and physically. Extending their physical desires to other individuals, their relationship secretly begins to unravel as they each begin to have separate affairs, eventually affecting their marriage as well as their outlook on love. READ MORE
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance – Review
Unable to afford proper care for his sister dying from kidney failure, Ryu turns to the black market to sell his own organs only to end up cheated of his life savings. His girlfriend urges Ryu to kidnap the daughter of wealthy industrialist Dong-jin, who recently laid him off. Ryu agrees, but unforeseen tragedies turn an innocent con into a merciless quest for revenge. Bound by their personal losses and deep-seated anger, the two men are thrust into a spiral of destruction. READ MORE
Teke Teke – Review
Yuko Oshima stars as Kana, a schoolgirl whose normal life is turned upside-down when her best friend is found brutally murdered, having been cut completely in half at the waist. Soon, Kana hears about the urban legend of “Teke Teke,” the ghost of a legless woman who was found dismembered years ago and now haunts the railway station. If you see her, in three days you will be killed. In a race against time, Kana must search for the truth in order to escape the horrific fate that awaits her. READ MORE
Tenshi no Koi – Review
17-year-old high school student Rio is always the center of attention due to her beauty. Yet, Rio has never cared about anyone but herself due to her traumatic past. Her friends and boyfriends exist only so she can use them for her gains and she is only interested in attaining money. Then one day she meets 32-year college professor Ozawa Kouki and falls in love for the first time. Intrigued by his personality and demeanor, Rio becomes attracted to Kouki and learns what it means to cherish a fragile life and how important it is to treat others the way one wants to be treated. Although Kouki becomes interested in Rio as well, there is a reason he can’t pursue the relationship. He learns that he is diagnosed with malignant brain tumor, and it leaves him with only a few years to live. READ MORE
The Drudgery Train – Review
Kanta is a 19-year-old labor worker who only went far as middle school. He’s now hooked on alcohol while playing around. Kanta develops feelings for Yasuko, who works in a used bookstore, but he has never had a girlfriend or, currently, any friends. READ MORE
The Kirishima Thing – Review
The Kirishima Thing tells the story of two high school students who cross social boundaries between the elite and lower class at their school. READ MORE
The Land Of Hope – Review
An elderly couple, their only son, the son’s wife, a young man and his lover live peacefully in a small residential area. Then, a terrifying earthquake strikes that causes a nearby nuclear station to explode. READ MORE
The Man Who Stole The Sun – Review
Makoto, a high school science and chemistry teacher, has decided to build his own atomic bomb. Before stealing plutonium isotopes from a nearby nuclear power plant, he is involved in the botched hijacking of one of his school’s buses during a field trip. Along with a police detective, Yamashita he is able to overcome the hijacker and is publicly hailed as a hero. READ MORE
The Social Network – Review
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history…but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. READ MORE
The Suicide Manual – Review
After the group suicide of four people, journalists Yuu and Rie investigate the reasons behind an endless cycle of suicides, blamed on an infamous Suicide Manual, hidden in a tag-less DVD disk. Said manual is shot in an infomercial fashion, with examples of the best methods to kill yourself and demonstrations by real people. When investigating further, Yuu and Rie find out that in Buddhist beliefs, when a person kills himself, he or she is sent to a certain hell, from which they induce other people to commit suicide. But is this what is really happening? READ MORE
The Woodsman and the Rain – Review
Rookie movie director Koichi and his crew travel to the mountain village of Yamamura to film his next movie. The villagers are eventually enlisted to help film the movie and, in particular, 60-year-old lumberjack Katsuhiko helps against his will. READ MORE
Thermae Romae – Review
Based on the seinen manga series by the same title, this story follows Roman architect Lucius living in AD 135. Having lost his job, Lucius goes to the bathhouse, only once he falls into the water he is teleported to a contemporary Japanese bathhouse. READ MORE
This World of Ours – Review
Director Ryo Nakajima wrote the script for this film at only 19 years of age, and filmed it when he was 23. Previous to his experience in film-making, he was what the Japanese call a “hikkimori”—a reclusive individual who have chosen to withdraw from social life—and spent numerous years in a self-imposed isolated state. READ MORE
Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – Review
It’s been roughly 30 years since Yoshiyama Kazuko, the heroine of the original novel, had her time traveling adventure. She has since grown up to become a researcher, still looking for a formula that will enable her to travel back in time. However, a tragic car accident sends her into a coma. Hearing a story about her mother’s first love in 1972, Kazuko’s daughter Akari believes that discovering and bringing back her mother’s first love will make her awake from her coma. Following the formula prescribe by her mother, Akari accidentally time travels back to the year 1974, a full two years after her mother’s first love. READ MORE
Tokyo Playboy Club – Review
Set within the Tokyo underworld, Katsutoshi finds trouble at work and hides out at his friend Sekichi’s nightclub “Tokyo Playboy Club.” Kasutoshi’s run in with a waiter at the club and the waiter’s girlfriend Eriko leads to far bigger troubles and then unexpected consequences. READ MORE
Tokyo Sonata – Review
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been one of Japan’s rising directors within the last decade. With many surprising and memorable titles already under his belt, he’s always been an advocate of promoting social issues through the medium of his films. His latest being Tokyo Sonata, is perhaps his most direct confrontation with the societal ills that persist within the modern age of Japan. READ MORE
Tomie Unlimited – Review
Tsukiko is a member of the photography club in high school. On her way home with friend Kae, Tsukiko runs into older sister Tomie who goes to the same high school. Tomie is also with Toshio—a guy Tsukiko has a secret crush on. Tsukiko is consumed with fierce jealousy over her sister, but at the same time is intoxicated with Tomie’s beauty. READ MORE
Topless – Review
The ever-lively and upbeat Natsuko tries to mend a broken heart by carrying on with a string of short-lived affairs after her break-up with Tomomi. But when Tomomi announces her plans to marry – a man – Natsuko becomes inconsolable. While all this is taking place, Natsuko’s straight male roommate is grappling with his own feelings for her, and a young high school girl comes to Tokyo searching for the mother that long ago left her for a female lover. READ MORE
Tormented (Rabbit Horror 3D) – Review
A young woman searches for her younger brother who was dragged away into an alternate world by a rabbit. 10-year-old Daigo kills a sick rabbit on the school playground that he adored. The other kids call him “rabbit killer.” Since then the boy has stayed at home and has been tutored by his sister Kiriko. READ MORE
Villain – Review
Raised by his grandparents, loner Yuichi Shimizu is a young man working as a civil employee in a decaying fishing village in Nagasaki. One day, Yuichi meets Yoshino Ishibashi through an online dating site and the two become very close. When Yoshino unexpectedly decides to end their relationship, Yuichi tragically murders Yoshino, but not all is what it seems. READ MORE
We Were There: Part 1 – Review
During their high school days, Motoharu Yano was the most popular boy in school—he’s a top student, great at sports, and has countless girls confessing their love to him. But he can’t get over the death of his girlfriend from a car crash. READ MORE
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald – Review
A radio play is going to go on air at a Tokyo radio station. It is a weepy melodrama written by housewife Miyako, who is the winner of the competition run by the station. Suddenly, the hot-tempered lead actress Nokko decides she wants the name of her character to be Mary Jane and not Ritsuko. That leads to the chain of events will change the play completely. READ MORE
Where Are You? – Review
A sixteen-year-old boy, Ryo, experiences the painful ordeal of his mother being hospitalized and then dying. The boy turns to crime, but doesn’t find success. He then seeks out his remarried father, but the pain still exists READ MORE
Wild 7 – Review
Seven wily ex-cons, complete with high-tech motorcycles, are commissioned to debunk a series of terrorists’ acts in Japan, in this chromatic adaptation of perhaps one of the slickest manga series ever, Wild 7. READ MORE
Yakuza Weapon – Review
Shozo Ikawa is a ruthless mercenary who discovers that a disloyal cohort, Kurawaki, has murdered his father Kenzo. Shozo must fight off not only Kurawaki, but also his friend Tetsuo who has been hired to take him down. After an extreme battle Shozo loses an arm, but thanks to technology it is transformed into an M61 Vulcan cannon. READ MORE
Yuriko’s Aroma – Review
Yuriko is a 30-something aromatherapy masseuse. Her specialty is healing tired souls with her exquisite choice of aromas and her sensitive touch, but she has a dark secret—it’s a 17-year-old high school boy named Tetsuya. Drawn to his special aroma, Yuriko and Tetsuya begin to form an awkward relationship. As Yuriko struggles with her dilemma over Tetsuya, their secret relationship is steadily becoming unraveled. READ MORE
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