Writing
Japanese film director and screenwriter.
High school senior Shiho reminisces about her first love.
Kenji Nakagami, one of the most notable Japanese writers of the post-war, died in 1992. His work reveals a strong connection to his homeland, Kishu: a mountainous region that connects to the Pacific Ocean through a river. "To The Alley" (alternative title) is a documentary about Kenji's life. Incorporating 16 mm images from the writer's personal archive and adding new footage, director Shinji Aoyama travels through the paths of the life and art of the Japanese writer.
A lesbian teacher (Kanako Kishi) comes to Tokyo in search of her student (Ichiko Kamata), who has dropped out of high school and started living with a bomb-making terrorist (Takeshi Ito).
What if an unknown stranger somewhere impersonates you and lives life? 24-year-old TAKIGAWA Misaki (TODO Umi) aspiring to be a non-fiction writer, receives a strange phone call saying TAKIGAWA Misaki is in a coma in a hospital. Learning that someone has posed as Misaki, she visits the hospital and finds an unexpected person. She begins to discover the woman's real name and the reason why she had to be someone else.
A convicted rapist, Ikuo is released from prison and goes in pursuit of the woman he raped, Mieko. So obsessed is he with revenge he sees her in every woman he meets. After carrying out vicious attacks on a prostitute and a young girl he finally comes face to face with her.
Murakami's partner Mayumi has gone missing. He fears that she could have run off with another guy or gotten into difficulty by involving by herself with a 'telephone relationship club', a solution which hooks up strangers trying to find easy, anonymous sex, no concerns asked.
Schoolgirls on the verge of adulthood know that boys can be feckless and girls treacherous. Three friends gather around a Ouija board to call forth the spirit of Kokkuri. Masami has a boyfriend, Akira; Hiroko, who is nervous about the séance, wonders if she should take the plunge into sex; Mio is haunted by her mother's suicide. She also has a secret life as the voice of a midnight talk show host, the sexually-charged Midori. Mio must explore her past and her new feelings. Can she hold off the power and predictions of Kokkuri to enter adulthood, or will the destructive and romantic side of teen spirit be too powerful?
"The origin of Spiritual Movies."
Junko, who has precognition, predicted her senior's death and disappeared from her fiancé's life. Five years later, Junko, who works in a peep-shop, reunites with Kazuki and rekindles their love, but tragedy soon ensues. Hotaru Hatsuki, one of the most popular actresses of the 1990s, gives a strong performance in this poignant tale of a woman's attempt to escape her fate.
In this startling psychological thriller from Japan, Mami (Hijiri Kojima) is a teacher who meets Tomo (Koji Chihara), a psychotic criminal with a short temper and no visible means of support. Amour fou blooms between them, and a year later they're living together, with Mami taking part as Tomo abducts, tortures, and kills one of their neighbors. Eventually the cycle of crime goes too far for Mami and she leaves Tomo, but several years later, he arrives at her home to disrupt her life with her new husband. Hysteric was directed by Takahisa Zeze, who previously received critical acclaim for the film Kokkuri. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Sonoko, a bored married woman, falls for a fellow art student, the young and beautiful Mitsuko. The relationship develops and starts to affect and involve their partners.