HANA
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu
MARKET PREMEIRE |
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Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu (Nobody Knows)
Starring: Junichi Okada, Rie Miyazawa, Tadanobu Asano
Director Kore-eda Hirokazu, brings out his first samurai film, after his internationally praised "Nobody Knows".
The story follows a young samurai, fated to avenge his father's death. Will he choose vengeance and honor, or will he choose life? |
Genre: DRAMA / Samurai
Running time: 127min |
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"HANA"
Screening schedule |
Nov 2 (Thu) 17:00 at Broadway Cineplex 2
Nov 5 (Sun) 8:45 at Broadway Cineplex 2 |
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SEA WITHOUT EXIT
Directed by Kiyoshi Sasabe
MARKET PREMEIRE |
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Director: Kyoshi Sasabe (Half a Confession - Han ochi)
Writer: Yoji Yamada (director / writer for The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade)
Starring: Ebizo Ichikawa, Yusuke Iseya, Juri Ueno
A strong drama written by two of the most talented writers in the Japanese film industry. Koji Namiki, a talented young pitcher, injures his elbow, but keeps his hope to get back on the field with his teammates. However, the outbreak of WWII wipes out all the baseball ambitions. The teammates join the navy and undergo the severe training that prepares them for death. Fate awaits them in 'kaiten' (special attack submarine) within the gloomy ocean depths, but Koji never gives up his dream of playing baseball again. |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 121min |
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"SEA WITHOUT EXIT"
Screening schedule |
Nov 1 (Wed) 8:45 at Laemmle Monica 2
Nov 4 (Sat) 17:00 at Laemmle Monica 1 |
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Love and Honor
Directed by Yoji Yamada |
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Director: YOJI YAMADA (The Twilight Samurai)
Starring: Takuya Kimura (2046, Howel's Moving Castle-voice)
The third of the Samurai Trilogy.
A follow up to the two very successful samurai dramas, "The Twilight Samurai" and "The Hidden Blade", Oscar nominated director Yoji Yamada brings another strong story of a samurai, who fights for his faith.
The story follows a young samurai who loses eyesight through a mission. To save his name and position, his wife sacrifices herself, and is deceived by his sly superior. The blind samurai fights back in order to regain his honor and love. |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 121min |
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"Love and Honor"
Screening schedule |
| Please contact for details. |
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GHOST TRAIN
Directed by Takeshi Furusawa
MARKET PREMEIRE |
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Director/Writer: Takeshi Furusawa (writer credit forDoppelganger)
Starring: Erika Sawajiri (SHINOBI, Pacchigi!)
"Do not board the haunted train..." A series of mysterious incidents happen on a commuter train. People who find the same railway pass disappear one after another. A young train operator always spots a body laying on the tracks. Victims are pulled into the tracks as the speeding train arrives... This all seems to be happening around the same tunnel, where it seems to be the nest of all the nightmares. Evil lurks in everyday life, awaiting to take in the next victim! |
Genre: HORROR
Running time: 93min |
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"GHOST TRAIN"
Screening schedule |
Nov 1 (Wed) 11:00 at Laemmle Monica 1
Nov 4 (Sat) 13:00 at Laemmle Monica 4 |
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Angel's Egg
Directed by Shin Togashi
MARKET PREMEIRE |
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Director: Shin Togashi
Starring: Hayato Ichihara, Manami Konishi, Erika Sawajiri
The film follows a young aspiring art university student, who falls in love with the older sister of his girlfriend. The heartrending longing and the true love that the three characters pursue, is pure, but almost painful. Is the person who stands next to you, is the person that gives you true comfort and love? Can you say that you love him/her from the bottom of your heart? |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 114min |
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"Angel's Egg "
Screening schedule |
| Nov 2 (Thu) 19:00 at Fairmont 5 |
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TOKYO FRIENDS
- The Movie
Directed by Kozo Nagayama
MARKET PREMEIRE |
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Director: Kozo Nagayama
Starring: Ai Otsuka, Rio Matsumoto, Yoko Maki
A very ordinary young girl heads to the metropolis, Tokyo, leaving her hometown in the countryside. There, she becomes a rather unwelcomed guest at her childhood friend's flat, and must find a place for her own. She starts working at a bar called "Treasury of Dreams", somewhat an ironic name for a place full of youth not being able to find dreams. A story of love, friendship, laughter and tears, a hip portrayal of group of youth in Tokyo. |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 115min |
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"TOKYO FRIENDS - The Movie"
Screening schedule |
| Nov 3 (Fri) 19:00 at Fairmont 5 |
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MIDNIGHT SUN
Directed by Norihiro Koizumi |
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Director: Norihiro Koizumi (debut)
Starring: YUI, Takashi Tsukamoto (About Love, Battle Royal), Goro Kishitani (One Missed Call, Returner, All Under the Moon)
A young high school girl Kaoru, has a serious disease which prevents her to walk outside under the sun, or go to school. Her only relation to the world is her music which she performs on the streets at night, until she falls in love with Koji, a high school boy who passes her house every morning to go surfing at sunrise.
Directed by a 25 year old director, new talents create a passionate and lively drama that lingers in your heart. |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 119min |
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"MIDNIGHT SUN"
Screening schedule |
| Nov 5 (Sun) 19:00 at Fairmont 5 |
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KITARO
Directed by Katsuhide Motoki |
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Director: Katsuhide Motoki
Starring: Eiji Wentz (voice - Brave Sroty), Yo Oizumi (voice - Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away)
A popular animation series and comic book is finally adapted into a live-action film for the first time using cutting edge CGI companies all over the world including Centro Digital Pictures (Kill Bill vol.1, vol. 2, Kung Fu Hustle,Shaolin Soccer) based in Hong Kong.
"Gegege No Kitaro" (original title) is directed by Katsuhide Motoki (Free & Easy series, Drugstore Girl) and stars Eiji Wentz (voice - Brave Story) from the popular duo, WaT, and renowned actor Yo Oizumi (voice - Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away).
Kitaro is a young specter (yokai) who lost his parents at birth. His father's soul lives in one of his eyeball. Raised within the specter clan, Kitaro also keeps an eye on the human society, and fights the evil monsters in order to save the human beings from the threats from another world. |
Genre: ACTION / FANTASY
Running time: TBC |
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KABEI
Directed by Yoji Yamada |
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A story of a family's struggles through a dark time, taking place in Tokyo in 1940.
Yamada comments, "You can say this film is a half of a period drama, but in a sense, this is more difficult than a period film as a historical investigation. Therefore, the staff has been studying so hard. I would like to make this film with homage to all of the tender mothers who held her family in her arms and lived through hard time like a raging roller storm." |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: TBC |
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THE COUNTRY DOCTOR
Directed by Koji Yamamura |
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Director: Koji Yamamura (Mr.Head)
Koji Yamamura, who's film Mr. Head (original title is "Atama Yama") received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film and won the coveted short film grand prize at the 27th International Festival of Animated Film at Annecy.
Based on famed Jewish-Czech writer Franz Kafka's short prose of the same name from 1919.
A hapless country doctor describes with breathless urgency a night-time summons to attend a young patient. Events soon take on a surreal aspect as "unearthly horses" transport him instantaneously to the bedside. The doctor, preoccupied with personal distractions and grievances against those he is employed to care for, fails to find what is revealed to be a vile, fatal wound. He is humiliated by the villagers, who are "always expecting the impossible from the doctor," and doomed to an endless return trip, losing everything. |
Genre: ANIMATION
Running time: TBC |
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KAPPA NO KURETA OKURIMONO
Directed by Keiichi Hara |
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Director: Keiichi Hara ("Clayon Shin-chan" movie series)
Based on popular picture books "Kappa, Oosawagi" and "Kappa, Bikkuri-tabi" written by Masao Kogure. Kouichi Uehara, a forth grade student in elementary school lives in a suburb of Tokyo. One day, he picks up a large stone which looked like a fossil by the river on the way back from school. It turned out that he picked up a baby "Kappa" (=A Japanese mythical water creature) called "Quu" which was sleeping underground for the past 300 years. Kouichi and Quu become good friends and starts living with Kouichi and his family. However, Quu could not adjust to the life style in Tokyo and starts to miss his peers. On a hot summer day, Kouichi and Quu decide to go on an adventurous road trip to find his peers. |
Genre: ANIMATION
Running time: TBC |
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Six sensual and luscious episodes that will take you to the sexual desire of ordinary people's un-eventful everyday life. |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 60 - 75min X 6 episodes |
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Autumn Relics - Homage to Ozu
Directed by Keiichi Nomura |
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Director: Keiichi Nomura
Newspaper reporter Akiko Sasaki (30) had come to the Tateshina plateau with an item left by her deceased father. Although she intended to do research on the ancient earthen figurines found around this area, in fact she also had a hunch that she might meet someone that she was searching for - the woman that her deceased father had always loved, until that last days of his life. |
Genre: DRAMA
Running time: 92min |
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