Tadanobu Asano
1) Vital
Language
日本語
Description
Hiroshi Takagi (played by the fantastic Tadanobu Asano - Zatoichi, Ichi the Killer), a young man in his 20s, awakens in a hospital bed to find an auto accident has completely wiped his memory away. Back home with his parents and attempting to rebuild his life, he comes across a medical textbook full of detailed drawings of dissection. Utterly fascinated by the subject, Hiroshi is drawn to the medical school to which he was once accepted, but refused...
2) Maborosi
Language
日本語
Description
After the sudden, self-inflicted death of her husband, a young mother (Makiko Esumi) remarries and moves to a remote village on the Sea of Japan with her infant son. She finds herself haunted by the many tragedies of her life, but time begins to heal her wounds as she rediscovers love, understanding, and a sense of peace. One of the finest pieces of Japanese cinema ever made with elegant camerawork, striking visuals and almost entirely natural lighting,...
Language
日本語
Description
On the last night of its existence, a small movie theater in Onomichi—the seaside town of Obayashi’s youth where he shot nearly a dozen films—screens an all-night marathon of Japanese war films. When lightning strikes the theater, three young men are transported into the world onscreen where they experience the violent battles of several wars leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima
Language
日本語
Description
One of Japan's most beloved characters returns in this bold tale of Zatoichi—the blind, nomadic samurai whose sword made him a hero and whose courage made him a legend. His appearance may be humble, but his gift for lightning-fast draw and strokes of breathtaking precision makes him the perfect weapon. After Zatoichi wanders into a town run by sinister gangs and a powerful assailant, he discovers two geishas avenging their parents' murder.
Language
日本語
Description
Takashi Miike’s ICHI THE KILLER has endured as one of the most influential pieces of genre filmmaking of the last two decades, and now it returns in a stunning all-new digitally restored special edition approved by Miike himself. This visceral, bloody, and often hilarious film follows Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a notoriously sadistic yakuza enforcer whose search for his boss’ killer brings him into the orbit of a demented costumed assassin known...
7) Ruined Heart
Language
English
Description
A hitman falls in love with the crime boss’s girl. Now the pair must run for their lives as the boss brings down the full fury of his mob upon them. Nominated for the Tokyo Grand Prix at the **Tokyo International Film Festival**. Official Selection at the **London Film Festival**.
Language
English
Description
Three-time Academy Award® nominee Johnny Depp plays celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith in a real life David vs Goliath story, pitting Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse. Between an impassioned Japanese translator called Aileen (Minami) urging him to go and a much needed commission from "Life" Magazine...
9) 47 ronin
Language
English
Description
"After a treacherous warlord kills their master and banishes their kind, 47 leaderless samurai vow to seek vengeance and reclaim their honor. This band of ronin must seek help from Kai ... an enslaved half-breed they once rejected--in their ultimate fight for redemption"--Container.
Language
Mongolian
Formats
Description
Delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. Follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny. Shows the future conqueror and revealing him not as the evil brute, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader.
Language
Thai
Description
Kenji is a mysterious, obsessive-compulsive, suicidal Japanese man living in Bangkok, Thailand who gets thrown together with Noi, a Thai woman, through a tragic chain of events. Noi is everything Kenji is not. He is a neat freak who keeps his dishes washed and his books neatly stacked and organized. She dresses like a slob, smokes pot and never picks up after herself. It's a match that somehow seems to work. Slowly, as Noi begins to seduce Kenji back...
13) 47 Ronin
Language
English
Formats
Description
Kai is an outcast who joins Oishi, the leader of 47 outcast samurai. Together they seek vengeance upon the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished their kind. They embark upon a quest that challenges them with a series of trials that would destroy ordinary warriors.
Language
日本語
Description
The Harunos are a rather unconventional, but happy and loving family. Eight-year-old Sachiko is bothered by her own giant-sized double, who hangs around sitting on buildings staring at her. Her older brother, Hajime, privately wrestles with raging hormones and a love-struck crush on a pretty new classmate. Mom struggles to come out of retirement as an animator and Dad is a professional hypnotist who occasionally plies his trade on his own family....
17) Maborosi
Language
日本語
Description
Haunted by the mysterious loss of her grandmother many years before, a beautiful young mother (Makiko Esumi as Yumiko) struggles to come to terms with the sudden loss of her husband. Yumiko remarries and with her young son moves to her new husband's home in a remote village on the wild, untamed Sea of Japan. There, with time, she awakens to find love, understanding, happiness and a sense of peace.
Language
日本語
Description
Yoko, a freelance writer, becomes pregnant and chooses, against tradition and her parents' wishes, to raise the baby alone. In her loneliness and confusion, Yoko befriends the owner of a second-hand bookstore, who silently falls in love with her as she contemplates the choice she has made.
19) Maborosi
Series
Language
日本語
Description
Yumiko is a vibrant and happy young wife and mother who is haunted by the childhood memory of watching her grandmother walk away from the family home, never to be seen again. When her husband dies a mysterious suicide, Yumiko is devastated by shock and grief. She struggles to care for her toddler son in the couple's cramped Osaka apartment.