My Voiceless Friends(1972)

Cemetery of the Elephants(es)

An allegorical story about a young writer who leaves home with his manuscript determined to conquer the world, then returns home after years of struggle as an old man with the world still unconquered.

Gate of Flesh(ja)

The background is Yuraku-cho in Tokyo and the film shows how desperately the women, who had led sheltered lives before the war, struggled to keep alive and the innate strength of post-war women.

Barefoot Gen(ja)

A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.

Barefoot Gen 2(ja)

Three years after the Hiroshima bombing, a teenager helps a group of orphans to survive and find their new life.

Madadayo(ja)

In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.

Dead Angle(ja)

Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the 1950s.

Five Fingers for Marseilles(en)

Years ago, the young Five Fingers fought for the rural town of Marseilles against brutal police oppression. Now, after fleeing in disgrace, Tau, one of them, returns to Marseilles, seeking only a peaceful life. When he finds the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it.

Wenn die Heide blüht(de)

Pigs and Battleships(ja)

In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.

Akitsu Hot Springs(ja)

Just after WW2, a romance between an innkeeper and a man with tuberculosis unravels near a thermal spring.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain(fr)

The world is a perplexing, peaceful mystery to Amélie until a miraculous encounter with chocolate ignites her wild sense of curiosity. As she develops a deep attachment to her family's housekeeper, Nishio-san, Amélie discovers the wonders of nature as well as the emotional truths hidden beneath the surface of her family's idyllic life as foreigners in post-war Japan.

Stray Dog(ja)

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Shadow of Fire(ja)

In the black market, a war orphan is confronted with the struggles of people living in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

Remember the Night(en)

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

The Idiot(ja)

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

Kabei: Our Mother(ja)

Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.

The Return of the Native(en)

Eustacia Vye, an exquisite beauty despairing at her boring life on an English moor, sets up a fateful lovers' triangle when she uses her wiles to entice two men, a dashing suitor and a successful man who made his name abroad and returned to his home on the heath.

August Without Emperor(ja)

Taking the Chilean coup as an example, a group of young officers plan to overthrow the Japanese government on V-J Day. They aim to abolish the post-war constitution, restore the national army and revive the traditional spirit of Japan. As the conspiracy is exposed, the coup squadrons are wiped out one by one. The remaining squadron takes over a night train bound for Tokyo.

Mother(en)

A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems.

Medicine River(en)

When photographer Will returns home for his mother's funeral he gets more than he bargained for from a strange cast of characters on the reservation.