Movies: Jun Murakami

From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who ...

Set in 2020 in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo, the story revolves around Hachi, a boy who fled to the Japanese capital from his hometown of Fukushima and now lives away from society as an illegal drug dealer....

A sect is threatened to fall apart, when its leader, a young Korean woman, develops doubts regarding her alleged psychic powers....

In consequence of his professional mistakes and declining career, Shuji and his family, the Sasaya’s, are forced to leave the wealthy suburb of Tokyo. The move is slow, long and heartbreaking, and the two Sasaya children, an old teenager and a young ...

Low-profile theater troop actor Mutsugoro Suzuki begins an oneiric journey back to his hometown, marked by his quest to find the one responsible of infecting him with a STD....

Compilation film featuring short works from directors Hitoshi Yasaki ("Short Cakes"), Yuki Tanada (scriptwriter "Sakuran," "Tsuki to Cherry"), Hiroyuki Nakano ("Stereo Future," "Samurai Fiction"), Masahiko Nagasawa ("Yoru no Picnic"), Masaya Kakehi (...

Eiso Tsubaki, a former aristocrat, was suspected in a murder case in Ginza and committed suicide. Detective Kindaichi Kosuke, who is commissioned by Tsubaki's daughter, Mineko, and believes in her father's innocence, witnesses a bizarre fortune-telli...

A successful businessman and his alcoholic wife attempt to piece together their unhappy lives and shattered marriage. Little do Nagai and Akira know that their precarious relationship will soon be transformed by a stranger, the enigmatic Keechie....

Modeled on Setouchi Jakucho, Inoue Mitsuharu, and his wife, 2 women depicts the special relationship between a man and two women, based on the novel by Inoue Areno, the eldest daughter of Inoue....

Thirteen years after abandoning his wife and two sons by stepping out for a pack of cigarettes and never returning, deadbeat gambler Masato dies of stomach cancer. At his funeral, a motley crew of fellow mahjong players, pachinko parlor employees and...

The fourth instalment of LDH Pictures, Cinema Fighters project. This time with all the main characters of the six short stories being portrayed by the members of Generations from Exile Tribe....

Professional killer Ken (Hirofumi Arai) is trying to break away from the yakuza. Taking up work at a local motorcycle shop, he forges a new life under the motherly eye of Yoko (Jun Fubuki), an older woman who owns the shop. However, Ken's dark past i...

Set at the edge of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, with its beautiful scenic views, the film revolves around two women from different backgrounds who develop a friendship, and how they begin to influence and change each other’s live...

One day, a boy's body is found again under the same bridge. The case is eerily similar to Masaki's case from 22 years ago. Haru has a connection with the deceased boy. Akira meets Haru while investigating the boy's death. By meeting each other again,...

After his parents die, a teenager goes to live with his older brother. As his loneliness grows, he becomes engrossed in practicing modern dance with his classmate....

A woman from rural Japan marries a struggling cartoonist in Tokyo. Their life is difficult before he finds success, but at least they're together....

Hotel Hibiscus is the story of one very young energetic girl named Mieko and her internatioanl family who live in Okinawa. They live in a run down old hotel called Hotel Hibiscus with only one room for rent....

Kageko, a teacher in a small mountain village with a thriving Japanese paper industry, is visited by a former student, who proposes a plan to manufacture counterfeit money. She initially refuses, but eventually decides to join the project for the sak...

In her brother's apartment where he died, Yuki finds a vacuum cleaner with its cord still hooked up to the outlet. She discovers that the circumstances surrounding her brother's supposed suicide are sketchy at best, yet no one has any answers. When s...

Former childhood friends Kadoya Kaneo and Tochino Masatatsu cross paths again. Kaneo is now a yakuza member, while Masatatsu is a nightclub owner with a distaste for crime gangs. When a yakuza boss dies, a struggle for his position takes place betwee...