Takayo Mimura

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Thirteen years afterward, I wonder if those who bombed Hiroshima are looking at me and saying: 'We did it! We were able to kill another person!' They should be," murmurs Minami (played by Kumiko Aso), one of the two leading female characters in Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni, as she lies dying in 1958, her life brought to a premature end by sickness resulting from her exposure to atomic bomb radiation. This is a story about those who at least initially survived the first U.S. atomic bombing of 1945 and their descendants in contemporary times. The film, based on a comic by Fumiyo Kono, jumps between the two time frames and quietly depicts the sorrow and mortification experienced through the everyday lives of laid-back and soft-spoken Hiroshima people. Only a few scenes of the bombing and the ensuing devastation are featured.

Only three days before the school festival, a newly formed high school band rushes to put together a set for their big show — including a hit single by '80s by the Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts.

Tadano is assigned by the chairman Kurokawa to protect and check the personal affairs of a young idol, Sylvia , who is the main character at the "Flower Earth Festival 2008" organized by Denodo. Sylvia has been threatened by someone to resign from the main character role. Tadano starts investigating while supporting Yamanishi, the event organizer. However, Tadano is struck down by a mysterious giant of a man. Yamanishi, who has obtained important information, is murdered, and Sylvia is kidnapped. Tadano realizes that Anzai, Yamanishi's right-hand man who has been eyeing the chairmanship, is the mastermind behind this. Tadano rescues Sylvia and brings her to the event venue.

13-year-old Sachiko is about to encounter the most difficult moments in her young life. Her father abandons her and her mother attempts to commit suicide by slashing her wrist. Her teacher, whom she relies on heavily, leaves for northern Japan to take another job. Other students start to gossip about Sachiko and her former teacher. Sachiko then drops out of school and attempts to find herself.

A young woman is surprised to see that there is a bounty on her head on the Internet... A big reward is promised to anyone who would end her life before midnight. It is eleven o'clock in the evening when she sees the message. Does she have only one hour to live?

Chirusoku Summer, the film set in the sister cities of Pusan, South Korea and the city of Shimonoseki-shi, Yamaguchi. During the Summer of 2003, four girls from Shimonoseki-shi, Yamaguchi travels to Pusan, South Korea for a sports festival and one of them fall in love...

Based on four early novellas by Noble Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata, this omnibus of four short films are by emerging directors from the second graduating class of the new Graduate School of Film and New Media at Japan’s top art school, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Tokyo Geidai), where famed directors Takeshi Kitano and Kiyoshi Kurosawa teach.

After the unexpected death of her husband a new life begins for Toshiko. 30 years of a happy marriage seem to suddenly vanish as she finds out that her husband had lived a double life. Struggling between her anger and the chance to begin a new chapter for herself, she finds her life moving into unchartered waters as she faces her 60th birthday.

Jun, Bunji, Kido and Maki spend their days wandering aimlessly in the city of Kisarazu where sense of dread rules the streets while the adults around them desperately wish them to change. One day,they find a kite caught up in electric wires. A coming of age story about wandering days of suburban slackers.

Mari lives a comfortable life as a single woman. She has a nice job at a company and resides in an apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo. A couple lives next to door to her. Mari can hear them argue or making happy conversations everyday. One night, when Mari comes back home, she sees her next door neighbor sitting in front of his door and shivering from the cold. He locked himself out.

Yuri, Moeko, and Ai are best friends from high school. Though their twenties were about to end, they believed their eternal world would remain forever. In spite of their will, some misfortunate events such as love, betrayal, memory, regret, and one book with its secret exam their friendship. Those girls get lost in the unveiled story, which is filled with meeting and parting. Scattered life = scattered story will move on any further? A little journey begins now.

Yoshinaga, a real-estate agent, has a young female customer one day. She asks him to take her to the apartment where she used to live. When he plays a videotape left in that cavant room which shows some signs of its ex-resident, Yoshinaga gets lost in another fantastic world. After a while, Yoshinaga and the girl come back to their respective daily lives... A pop, colorful, yet at times a heartaching road movie, which leads to elsewhere.