Kumiko Ito

Ishikawa Ango is a very capable detective that lives only for his job. One day, while investigating a crime scene, he gets shot in the head by the criminal that was still lurking about. Ango gets thrown over that line that divides life and death but, though he dies, doctor's are able to reanimate him and he pulls through. Yet, the bullet remains stuck in his head as the operation to remove it is very dangerous. Shortly after, he goes back to work and soon realizes that he's now able to see and talk with the recently departed.

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A singular deadpan comedy, The Passion tells a story of a young woman raised in a convent named Frances-ko (Mayuko Iwasa), after Saint Francesco. Distressed by not knowing about love and sex, she calls out for a sign from above, but instead hears a voice from below. A human-faced growth speaks to her from between her legs, constantly berating her, calling out "Woman, you are worthless!" Mr. Koga, as she names it, continues the verbal abuse, yet Frances-ko somehow adapts, forming an adversarial yet symbiotic relationship. This bizarre film, based on Kaoruko Himeno's acclaimed 1997 novel of the same name, is skillfully directed by Ryoko Yoshida, lensed by veteran cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa, grounded by Iwasa's show-stopping performance and enlivened by the hilarious Kanji Furutachi, who lends his voice to the chauvinistic Koga. The soundtrack boasts an unmissable eclectic score by legendary experimental musician and composer Otomo Yoshihide.

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Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds.

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Takahiko Tokito is a doctor at a big medical corporation. He has decided to run away with his lover, the wife of the president of his company. But before he is able to leave, he has to kill her husband and make it look like suicide.

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A variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They have only one mission: to secure the safety of the passengers.

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Four young physicians are assigned to the “Doctor Helicopter” system, the latest medical system where a medical team is dispatched to the patients via helicopter to provide medical care in the field as soon as possible. The doctors experience traumatic medical situations, deal with personal ambitions, and witness the fragility of life, all while growing personally and professionally.

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Sakura is a 20-year-old college student who has sex for money to fund her shopping addiction. After her customers leave her apartment, she spends her time spying on Leo, a young, beautiful, and (dyed) blond-haired boy, who works at a male escort service across the street. One day, Leo pays her a visit, and so starts an unlikely friendship. But Leo has a troubled past. He is the son of a prostitute who worked for his current pimp and died before she could repay money that she owed. He himself entered the business when he graduated from junior high school. Though Leo refuses to make love to Sakura (he has a policy of not having sex outside of work), the two fall in love and become inseparable until Leo gets into a fight with Sakura's boyfriend and gets him into a car accident. Leo turns himself in, and Sakura moves to Okinawa to wait for him at their dream destination.

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Steel-worker Saito Tetsuo, driven by an unexplained anxiety, steals bike after bike to move away from his hometown to Tokyo. Through snow-storms and empty landscapes, the breathtaking photography allows us to look deep into the mindscape of a man searching for an answer - although the question itself is never quite articulated.

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Shinji (Shinichi Tsutsumi) steps out of a train station to find himself transported back to 1964.

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