FILM GUIDE

This short documentary follows the aftermath and survivors of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami as they look for hope and recovery while preparing for the cherry blossoms.

A documentary about the concern for suicide in Japan. It follows a Buddhist monk who asks us what we owe each other and counsels those who contemplating between life and death. Quiet, sad and touching, this monk guides people in finding answers.

In this documentary, filmmaker Mami Sunada is granted special access to the world renowned Studio Ghibli and follows their employees including Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki while they are trying to produce two films: The wind Rises and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Considered by critics to be one of the greatest films ever created, Tokyo Story is a 1953 film that centers around an aging couple and their daughter who visit their doctor son and wife in Tokyo. The insensitive doctor, too busy for them, send them off to a resort where they are unable to enjoy themselves in a noisy place filled with tourists.

This film is the third installment in The Fast and the Furious series which is set in Tokyo. It follows the story of Sean Boswell, a car enthusiast who moves to Japan to live with his dad and joins the city’s drifting and racing community. However, being a foreigner in Tokyo, he struggles to find a spot in the community.

Based off of the novel by the same name, this film is set in Nagasaki during the 17th century (Edo Period) when Japan was isolated from the rest of the world. It follows the story of two Jesuit priests from Portugal who come to Japan to find their missing mentor and attempt to spread Catholic Christianity in a largely untouched Buddhist country.

Based on the biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, this film follows the true story of Louis Zamperini an Olympian and Captain in the Army Air Force who survived on a life raft for 47 days after his B-24 bomber went down over the Pacific during the Second World War.

Considered by critics to be one of the greatest films ever created, Tokyo Story is a 1953 film that centers around an aging couple and their daughter who visit their doctor son and wife in Tokyo. The insensitive doctor, too busy for them, send them off to a resort where they are unable to enjoy themselves in a noisy place filled with tourists.

Ring is a 1998 film based on the novel with the same name by Koji Suzuki. A horror film following a reporter who is rushing to solve a strange mystery behind a cursed video where someone dies within a week of watching the video. The film was a huge box office success and even inspired American remakes of the film.

The film features a quirky opening scene where a low budget zombie film is being filmed in an abandoned water filtration plant when a real zombie apocalypse breaks out. The director insists on continuously filming and the camera doesn’t stop for 37 minutes straight.

Tom Cruise stars in this American period action drama set in 19th century Japan - a time for modernization and change in Japan - as a Civil War veteran named Nathan Algren who is hired by Emperor Meiji to train an army capable of defeating a Samurai-headed rebellion. But, Nathan is captured by Samurais and learns about their lifestyle and the way of the warrior and soon begins to question which side he should be fighting for.

This Japanese language-American war film portrays the campaign of Iwo Jima from the Japanese soldiers perspective, which acts as the companion to Flags of our Fathers which is from the American perspective. Private First Class Saigo, who was just an ordinary baker, experiences the horrors of war and looks to General Kuribayashi to lead them into battle.

With the atomic bomb droppings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still fresh in Japans mind, Godzilla is about a kaiju that has evolved from an ancient sea creature that was disturbed by underwater hydrogen bomb tests. Japan must find a way to stop this enormous, destructive sea monster from destroying Tokyo.

Shoplifters is a Japanese drama that revolves around a non-biological family that shoplifts to cope with their poverty. After a routine shoplifting run, Osamu, the father, and his son come across a little girl who is left outside in cold and decide to bring her into the “family”.

This comedy drama presents a story of love and friendship in an unlikely bond between middle aged actor Bob Harris and neglected college graduate Charlotte in the middle of Tokyo. Both Bob and Charlotte, unused to the culture of Japan, also share a common dissatisfaction in their lives which quickly forms into a new friendship as they explore the sights and sounds of Tokyo.

Departures is a drama film that reveals the strange but unique occupation of being a nokanshi - a Japanese ritual mortician. A young man, Daigo, returns back to his hometown after failing as a cellist when he accidentally stumbles across a nokanshi job when he mistakes the job advertisements wording of “assisting departures” for a travel agency.

Battle Royale is based on the novel from 1999 which follows a class of junior high school students who are gassed and forced on an island by the totalitarian government to fight until the last survivor. Each student is given food, water, a map of the island, flashlight and a random weapon and is told to have one emerging victor in three days.

This film is set in a thousand years after an apocalyptic war that destroyed civilization and created a vast toxic jungle filled with poisonous forests and giant mutant creatures. Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind, is a young woman who explores the jungle and communicates with the creatures in hopes to understand them and bring peace between humans and the creatures until she gets entangled with Tolmekia, a kingdom trying to eradicate these creatures.

This film is set in a thousand years after an apocalyptic war that destroyed civilization and created a vast toxic jungle filled with poisonous forests and giant mutant creatures. Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind, is a young woman who explores the jungle and communicates with the creatures in hopes to understand them and bring peace between humans and the creatures until she gets entangled with Tolmekia, a kingdom trying to eradicate these creatures.

Set in a dystopian 2019, Shotaro Kaneda leads a gang of bikers who finds himself in trouble after his childhood friend Tetsuo Shima crashes his bike and gains telekinetic abilities. With this power, he eventually threatens an entire military complex in the middle of a chaotic, rebellious and futuristic Neo-Tokyo.

During the final months of World War II, Suzu, a young, innocent and cheerful woman living near Hiroshima is trying to lead a normal life and keep her family safe. The film clearly describes the nature, traditional cultures and regular civilian life of Japan that is heavily contrasted with the destruction of war.

This heartbreaking tale discovers the true horrors of war through Seita, a 9th grade teenager and his younger sister Setsuko. Seita desperately struggles to fight for him and his younger sisters life during the final months of World War II. A film to surely make you shed a tear, Grave of the Fireflies has received a lot of praise for it’s compelling story

Your Name follows the story of Taki a high school student in Tokyo and Mitsuha, a high school student in the country side who begin to randomly and suddenly swap bodies. These two complete strangers begin to unravel the mystery and find themselves linked in some bizarre way.

Spirited Away is considered one of Japan’s most famous and popular films being the highest grossing film in Japan. The movie tells a story about a young 10 year old girl named Chihiro, who enters the world of kami (deity), but soon finds herself trapped there after her parents are turned into pigs by the evil witch Yubaba who rules this world.

My Neighbor Totoro follows the story of two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) of a professor who have moved to the countryside to locate closer to their ailing mother in postwar Japan. Satsuki and Mei encounter a friendly forest spirit named Totoro along with his friends and embark on adventures with their new furry companions.