Shishido Joe

Shishido Joe was a Japanese actor most recognizable for his intense, eccentric yakuza film roles and his artificially enlarged cheekbones. He appeared in some 300 films but is best known in the West for his performance in the cult film Branded to Kill (1967). In Japan, he is also known by the nickname…

Matsukaze Masaya

Masaya Matsukaze (松風雅也 Matsukaze Masaya?, born Masaya Watanabe (渡邉政也 Watanabe Masaya?), September 9, 1976) is a Japanese actor, voice actor, and radio personality. He was formerly affiliated with Big Apple, Radix Mobanimation Multicye Division and Varoque Works, and is currently affiliated…

Izawa Hiroshi

Toshihisa Izawa (伊澤 俊久 Izawa Toshihisa?, born September 4, 1955), better known by his stage name Hiroshi Izawa (伊沢 弘 Izawa Hiroshi?), is a Japanese actor, voice actor and director. Izawa was born in Tokyo, Japan and is the director of the theatrical troupe Big Face, and a member of Theater…

Otaki Hideji

Hideji Otaki was a Japanese actor. After serving in World War II, he became interested in the theater and helped found the Gekidan Mingei troupe in 1950. He gained fame for his television work from the 1970s, but he also appeared in many films, especially those of Juzo Itami. His last film, Anata e,…

Kodama Kiyoshi

Kiyoshi Kodama was a Japanese TV personality and actor. He hosted the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation quiz show Panel Quiz Attack 25 continuously for thirty-six years from its start in April 1975 until he was forced to step down due to poor health at the end of March 2011. His signature catchphrase on…

Abe Maria

Abe Maria is a Japanese idol singer. She was part of AKB48's Team K until October 19, 2019. Originally a 10th generation Kenkyuusei, she was promoted to Team 4 on July 23, 2011. She was a member of Team 4 until the team shuffle at the 2012 Tokyo Dome concert, where she was transferred to Team K. Her…

Kinoshita Keisuke

Kinoshita Keisuke was a Japanese film director. Kinoshita was highly prolific, turning out some 42 films in the first 23 years of his career. For this, Kinoshita explained that he "can’t help it. Ideas for films have always just popped into my head like scraps of paper into a wastebasket. Although…

Suzuki Ami

Suzuki Ami is a Japanese singer, actress and songwriter. Having been discovered at the talent TV show Asayan, she was one of the most popular female teen idols in the late 1990s. In 1998 Sony Music signed her to the label, and producer Tetsuya Komuro sponsored her career producing all of her material,…

Tsuruta Mayu

Tsuruta Mayu, born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, is a Japanese actress. In 1996, she was nominated by the Award of the Japanese Academy for Best Supporting Actress in the film Kike Wadatsumi no Koe Last Friends. Following the chaos of Kenya's 2007 presidential election, on March 30, 2008, she visited…

Minamida Yoko

Yoko Minamida was a Japanese actress. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in November 2008, and a TV documentary was made about her condition and the efforts of her husband, actor Hiroyuki Nagato, to care for her. She died in Tokyo.

The Place Where the Sun Sits

6.3

Former high school classmates, now adults, hold jealous thoughts, hidden intentions and lust for revenge. Graduates from a high school have held reunions since they graduated 10 years ago. The high school itself is…

Dragon Head

6.3

Based on the manga of the same name by Mochizuki Minetaro. On the way home from a school trip, a tragic accident traps Aoki Teru's express train in a collapsed tunnel. The only other survivors of the catastrophe are…

Techno Brothers

6.3

In the desolate Kanto plain, the thunderous sound of techno music reverberates. The performers are the mysterious trio known as "Techno Brothers". One day, with the cold-hearted manager, Himuro, they embark on a journey…

Higanjima

6.4

At midnight, a middle-aged man desperately tries to run away from a police officer. He enters an abandoned house with the cop right behind him. The police officer grabs the middle-aged man and bites his neck with his…

Kyoto Story

6.4

Higashide Kyoko is a university librarian who also helps her parents with their drycleaning company. She is involved with a childhood friend from the neighborhood, Yanase Kota, the son of the local tofu maker, who…

Mitsu no Tsuki

6.4

Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture is a beautiful town in the mountains where nothing – the mountains, river and the greenery – ever changes. Though beautiful, it also gets boring. Kosaka Mayu is a wife, mother and…

Ultra Miracle Lovestory

6.4

Yojin is a quirky young man living in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Yojin has a difficult time sitting still and can't focus on extended conversations. His life revolves around farming his grandmother's vegetable garden.…

After the Quake

6.3

In 1995, Komura, who is distraught over his wife's sudden disappearance, visits Kushiro. There, he hears about a mysterious UFO. In 2011, a runaway girl named Junko begins to reflect on herself through exchanges with…

IZO

6.3

Almost defying description, Miike's film opens with found documentary footage about sperm-production in young males and then turns to a graphically violent recreation of the execution in 1865 of the 28-year-old Okada…

Burst City

6.5

The plot is not very complex, as much of the action and drama of the film relies on musical interludes, character interactions, and commentary on the class system in the film's fictional universe. What plot there is…