Ask This of Rikyu(2013)

Castle Under Fiery Skies(ja)

The year is 1575 in feudal Japan. Oda Nobunaga's (Kippei Shiina) forces defeat Takeda Katsuyori, when Nagashino Castle was besieged during the Battle of Nagashino. The next year Oda Nobunada decides to build a lavish new castle symbolizing his unification of various factions. The castle named Azuchi Castle will be built near water and high enough to be seen from the capital city of Kyoto. Director Mitsutoshi Tanaka's adaptation of Kenichi Yamamoto's novel of the same name received the 33rd Japan Academy Film Prize for Excellent Art Direction.

Godai - The Wunderkind(ja)

A biographical story of Tomoatsu Godai, the influential entrepreneur of the Meiji era who laid the foundation of the modern Japanese economy.

The Face of Birth(en)

An inspiring look at how wonderful birth can be when your right to choose how, where and with whom you give birth is respected & protected. Every woman has the right to be informed about their options in childbirth. Through an exploration of home birth, this 87 min film looks at what natural, physiological childbirth really is. Is birth a medical emergency waiting to happen or a profound, natural and physiological event that women are designed for? The most comprehensive film ever made on home birth and a voice of reason in the debate, The Face of Birth outlines the importance of education in birthing and the right of a woman to choose the best and safest birth method for her and her baby.

Mama(ko)

The first story is about a mother who devotes her life to taking care of her son, who suffers from a chronic disease. When the son, who can barely walk, realizes his mother has also fallen ill, he decides to care for her as she has done for him. The second story depicts the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. The mother, the top soprano in the nation, is far from a typical devoted Korean mother and always wants to be pampered. Her daughter, a high school dropout whose experience has been the opposite of her mother’s, works as her manager. The two are always fighting and struggle to find a way to navigate their relationship. The third episode centers upon a gangster. When he hears that his mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer, he strives to fulfill his mother’s wish to reunite with her first love before she dies.

Ms J Contemplates Her Choice(en)

Jo Yang, a celebrity radio guest, receives a phone call while on air and sets in motion a series of events that threaten her life and her family. Forced to choose between saving a prostitute or a loan-shark, her choice is confronted by public outcry. This film is loosely inspired by real-life events in Singapore, and explores how it is more choice rather than chance that shapes our lives.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz(es)

Banal o Makasalanan?(tl)

Salome, a seductive and alluring daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter to King Herodes, discovers faith and Christianity through her love for a Roman centurion named Cornelius.

Lucia in Limbo(es)

Sixteen-year-old Lucia wants to get rid of two things more than anything: her lice & her virginity.

Ihr und eure Welt(de)

Short film about family relations.

人间世(zh)

She's in the Army Now(en)

Akin to Private Benjamin, this comedy deals with the tough life of female army recruits going through basic training. Through their training they come to realize that there is more to being tough than having muscles.

Libby, Montana(en)

Nestled below the rugged peaks of the Northern Rockies and along the crystal-clear Kootenai River lies the small logging town of Libby, Montana - an ironic setting for a town where many hundreds of people are sick or have already died from asbestos exposure.

Sodoma y Gomorra(es)

Saturday(es)

One more Saturday in a desolate Buenos Aires hard to recognize. Six young people that try to avoid their solitude by complicating their daily routes, unsuccessfully looking for a glance that changes something or a new sensation that reveals them some sense. A couple used to their common tediousness, a girl who has already decided she wants to be alone, his boyfriend who does not know how to deal with that, a famous actor who does not seem to feel comfortable anywhere and a girl who pretends to get fun without realizing she's always bored.

Vertigo(cs)

Psychological study of country girl Jitka and her blossoming love for an older man afraid of her youth and spontaneity.

Infracktion(en)

Forced to take shelter, a father and daughter break into a farmhouse concealing a twisted monster. Set in the 1970s, Infracktion follows two drifters – Laura and her father, John. Trekking across the moorland late into the night, the two seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned farm house. In the gloom of the house, a twisted horror stirs.

Mata(tl)

Kurt sells burgers to earn a living. When he tried to catch the perpetrator of a crime committed in front of his burger stand, he made a decision that he will regret for the rest of his life.

Rimfire(en)

An undercover Army captain links missing gold and murder to a gambler's ghost.

Memoirs of a Geisha(en)

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Battle Royale(ja)

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.

Onihei's Detective Records(ja)

A criminal syndicate wants detective Onihei dead, but the resolute hero proves to be hard to kill.

Museum(ja)

In Tokyo, Japan, several grotesque murders take place on rainy days. Detective Sawamura, who is in charge of the case, soon discovers that his own family is connected to the crimes.

Night's Tightrope(ja)

Yuki is a 2nd year high school student. She volunteers at a paediatrics ward for her summer vacation, because she wants to witness the moment a person dies. She got that thought after feeling envious of a transfer student's story of seeing a friend's dead body. Yuki has friend named Atsuko. She was bullied in the past and has anxiety issues. She volunteers at a nursing home for her summer vacation, hoping that she will gain courage if she sees the moment a person dies.

The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma(ja)

The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma is a movie about a haunted blood-thirsty Bakufu officer who might have killed Ryoma Sakamoto.

Egoist(ja)

After losing his mother at the age of 14, Kōsuke spent his depressed adolescence hiding his gay identity in a rural town. Now working as a fashion magazine editor, he spends his free time with his close friends. One day, he meets Ryūta, a personal trainer who works in part to support his aging mother.

Impossible to Imagine(ja)

The story of a traditional Kyoto woman who runs a failing kimono business and the entrepreneurial, biracial, business consultant who comes to help keep it solvent. Along the way they fall in love, but his need for change clashes with her desire for the world to stay the same. In the end, can they change enough for each other?

Bushido(ja)

1732, in the era of Yoshimune Tokugawa. West Japan suffers from a severe famine. Three years after wards, it appeared as though calm had been restored to the domain, but there is word that Jyuzo Matsumiya, the sword fighting instructor sent by the shogunate, is taking some suspicious actions.

Penelope(en)

Forlorn heiress Penelope Wilhern is cursed, and the only way out is to fall in love with someone of suitable stock. But how can she find her soul mate when she's sequestered inside her family's estate with only her parents to keep her company. This untraditional fairy tale about a girl who bucks convention to create her own happy ending.

Swallowtail Butterfly(ja)

The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.

John Rabe(de)

A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.

Minamoto Yoshitsune(ja)

A historical scroll depicting the story of the tragic fate of the young samurai Minamoto Yoshitsune, based on the novel by Genzo Murakami. The action of the first part takes place in the late Heian period, when the Taira clan came to power, and Genji was oppressed. The great dream and ambitions of Genkuro Yoshitsune in his youth are depicted, he joins forces with his older brother Yoritomo to raise an army to defeat the Taira clan, and the second part depicts the fall of the clan, persecution and murder.

Flags of Our Fathers(en)

There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen - John 'Doc' Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes - who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.

Throne of Blood(ja)

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Red Beard(ja)

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

Ikiru(ja)

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

A Naive History of the Bakumatsu Era(ja)

In the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, there was a cute warrior, Souji Okita, who belonged to the armed police of the shogunate in Kyoto. Very few knew that Souji was not a boy, but a woman. Souji loved the vice-leader of the armed police, Toshizou Hijikata. Souji suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis and coughed up blood during a battle. Toshizou helped her but said that he did not care for the girl with a smell of blood. Souji had a real talent for swordsmanship and no one but Ryouma Sakamoto could compete with her. Ryouma was a liberal intellectual and tried to carry out a revolution without blood. However, the bloody Meiji Restoration broke out and Souji killed Ryouma who lost his dream. Because a friendship had sprung up between Toshizou and Ryouma, Toshizou got angry and slashed at Souji with a sword. Unwillingly, she unsheathed her sword and thought that she might get love if she was killed by the man she loved.

Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie(ja)

At the end of the TV series of the same name, it is revealed that the husband works for the Public Security Bureau, and their marriage is a cover to keep her under surveillance. In spite of his mission, he falls in love with Nami and tries to convince her not to get involved in other people’s affairs. She is being monitored as a state-level security risk, and the bureau is unwilling to tolerate any more trouble from her. However, to save a friend, Nami runs out of the house and risks everything she has to confront the enemy. When she comes home, she finds her husband pointing a gun at her! A gunshot echoes through the quiet, upscale neighborhood…The movie picks up where the controversial ending of the drama series left off!!

Death in Venice(it)

Composer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.