Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.
In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.
A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.
Wada, a salary man, is enlisted to venture off to China to investigate a potential Jade mine. After his arrival, Wada encounters a violent, yet sentimental, yakuza, who takes the liberty of joining his adventure through China. Led on their long and disastrous journey to the mine by Shen, the three men come across something even more magical and enticing.
The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear.
A school was built on one of the Gates of Hell, behind which hordes of demons await the moment they will be free to roam the Earth. Hiruko is a goblin sent to Earth on a reconnaissance mission. He beheads students in order to assemble their heads on the demons' spider-like bodies. Hieda, an archaeology professor, and Masao, a haunted student, investigate the gory deaths and eventually battle Hiruko.
In the year 2220 A.D., the Earth Federation launches a plan to evacuate Earth when discovering that a travelling black hole capable of destroying anything in its path is on course towards the solar system. As the people on Earth prepare to relocate to planet Amare, whose ruler offers refuge, the tyrants known as the "S.U.S. Empire" attack the first Earth evacuation fleet. After learning that his wife Capt. Yuki Mori-Kodai disappeared in the battle and that legendary space battleship Yamato has been fully rebuilt, Susumu Kodai accepts command of the ship as he intends to not only help humanity once again, but also find Yuki in the hope of helping his relationship with his daughter Miyuki, who puts the blame on him for her mother's disappearance. But in order to fullfil the mission, the Yamato must go through battles against the SUS Empire, who intend to spoil humanity's hopes of finding a new place to live in and turn Earth into energy for their own selfish needs.
In the aftermath of a major earthquake, scientists predict that Japan will sink into the sea. As further disasters follow, politicians plead with other countries to take refugees, while scientists struggle to save Japan itself.
Ayano, a middle-aged female director met Aoi, young attractive actor at the audition for her new film. Ayano soon felt something different in Aoi and the audition goes far beyond the moral.
Young Thugs: Innocent Blood follows three friends through their first year after leaving high school. Having robbed their teacher on their last day, Ryoko gets a job in a hair salon, while the two boys settle down into a career of enforcement and protection.
A blind master swordsman attempts to lead a quiet life with his wife but he is provoked back into battle.
Shotaro and Minako are arguing. Minako has confessed her infidelity to her husband and informs him of her intention to leave him. She has ceased to enjoy living with a submissive husband. Minako, who works for a construction company, loves her job and is progressing in her successful career, while her husband eagerly takes care of the house and the kids. He buys groceries, he cooks, he does the laundry – constantly. The couple’s arguing intensifies until Minaka files for divorce. Their older daughter Mari isn’t that upset by her parent’s problems as she’s more interested in the piano piece she’s got to play with her mother at a concert organised by her music school; admittedly, she’s also rather interested in her music teacher. But her younger brother Toru feels betrayed by his mother and can’t manage to reconcile himself to his father’s role as a housewife. A partial reconciliation occurs at Minako and Mari’s concert, where their entrance on stage is met with loud applause.
A hard-working section chief, fast approaching retirement and beset by stress from all directions, joins a jazz band and reignites his youthful passion for the music, giving him a chance to set things right in his life.
Seiji and Yoshifumi are the only members of the Muto branch of the Date Family. The two respect and love their leader, Mr. Muto, like a father and the three share a firm bond. But their fate is sealed when the Family is involved in a conflict. Muto is unable to pay his share of funds for the oncoming battle but tells executives of the Family that he would fight at the front line instead. In the wish to protect Muto, Seiji has him arrested by the police. Ignoring the Family executives' mocks of "Muto escaped to prison", Seiji prepares for the battle and attacks like a demon on behalf of his boss...
Famed onnagata (a man who plays women's parts in Kabuki) Tamasaburo Bando follows up on the success of his directorial debut, Gekashitsu, with this soft-focused romance about love and obligation, based on a novel by Kafu Nagai. Set during the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kaede (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is the former mistress of a wealthy merchant. When he dies, she is forced out on the street and forced to give up her young daughter to the merchant's family. The film opens with her working in a high-class brothel abutting Tokyo Bay. Though she has passionate affection for a drug wholesaler, whom she loves as well, Kaede is swamped with not only debts to the bordello and family obligations -- she is expected to support her parents and her sister -- but also guilt over losing her child. This pain is only increased when Kaede learns that her daughter is being abused. She does the only thing she can: She buys back her child by signing on at the brothel for a longer stint.
Tatsuya Ichihashi kills a British woman who taught English in Japan. Ichihashi escapes the police dragnet to Aomori, 550 kilometres away. Learning that he is wanted by the law, he cuts his own lips to change his features. Burdened by guilt, he continues to avoid the law enforcement. He travels 1000 kilometres to Shikoku to participate in a pilgrimage in hope of resurrecting his murder victim. Obviously it fails and he remains a fugitive. As if to escape his own guilt he changes his identity and has cosmetic surgery to further alter his features. He works at construction sites and when people get suspicious of him he flees to a far-off island in Okinawa where he relies on survival skills.
An anthology film based on the works of manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge. The main character in all four segments is a fledgling cartoonist named Tsube . In the first segment, Tsube encounters a dotty old man named Ri after renting a tumble-down cottage in the country. The following day, Ri, his equally weird wife, and his two squalid children move into his house. Soon the wife is stealing the cucumbers in his garden while the two kids devour all the food in the house.
A documentary about the making and shooting of Yojiro Takita’s ‘Departures’ (2008)
