Masahiro Kobayashi

The minimalistically staged Strangers When We Meet displays similarities with Kobayashi's The Rebirth (2007) and provides a sensitive observation of a couple who, tormented by loss, blame and guilt, adhere rigidly to their daily routine. Will they ever find each other again?

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Mixing interviews, rare archival footage and film extracts, the film shows how Melville's works were impacted by what he experienced in his youth during WWII, and how it structured his whole approach to cinema, not only in its thematic but also in its aesthetics.

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A sixteen year old boy, Ryo, experiences the painful ordeal of his mother being hospitalized and then dying. The boy turns to crime, but doesn't find success. He then seeks out his remarried father, but the pain still exists.

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A widower who’s daughter has been murdered at high school meets the mother of the murderer by coincidence after moving to a small town in Hokkaido.

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Tatsuya Nakadai, the world’s greatest living actor, returns to the screen in a brilliant adaptation of a story by novelist Shuhei Fujisawa. A traveling gambler known as “Funeral Uno” he is now 86 years old and returning to his hometown for the first time in 30 years. Partly told in flashbacks, he is forced to face his lifelong nemesis, Boss Kyuzo, a vile yakuza portrayed by another superstar of samurai cinema, Atsuo Nakamura! Before the two old gamblers can settle a 30-year-old score they must put their lives on the line in a game of dice that can only lead to a bloody sword duel the likes of which has never before been seen! Superb performances all around in a film loaded with surprises and exciting swordplay!

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Chokichi Kuwahata was once a leading actor, but he is ravaged by dementia and old age now. His daughter and the men in her life go against his wishes and place him in a retirement home. He slips away one day and meets another offspring from a different union.

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Nakadai Tatsuya, Japan’s greatest living actor, gives the performance of a lifetime as Shoji Sanosuke, and elderly samurai forced to pick up his sword to protect those he loves in this adaptation of a Fujisawa Shuhei novel. As a ”Heya-zumi” (essentially a freeloader living off his family) Sanosuke has one last chance to help his grandniece escape from the cruel samurai of an arranged marriage. Nakadai proves he ”still has it,” when fate forces him into a deadly duel. This award winning samurai drama from the pen of noted author Fujisawa Shuhei is a tribute to one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen!

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In 2010, 31,560 people ended their own lives and about 20,000 people died or went missing with the earthquake. Unemployed widower Fujio Murai’s family tragedy contains instances of both; diagnosed with lung cancer, Fujio refuses surgery and returns home with his son Yoshio.

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Following the 2011 tsunami, three women reunite in the family home only to rekindle tense, ruinous relationships.

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Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.

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A sixteen year old boy, Ryo, experiences the painful ordeal of his mother being hospitalized and then dying. The boy turns to crime, but doesn't find success. He then seeks out his remarried father, but the pain still exists.

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Fate brings a man and woman together in Lyon, France. They fall in love, but time is set to run out on them ...

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A widower who’s daughter has been murdered at high school meets the mother of the murderer by coincidence after moving to a small town in Hokkaido.

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Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed.

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Kazuo Murata is a detective who has lost his wife and eventually the meaning of his existence.

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Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps her. His concern about her and his boundless worship probably help, too. Something strange and beautiful blossoms between the kidnapper and his victim, but can this be the basis of a long and happy encounter?

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A mysterious street-painter, Jouji, wanders aimlessly, homeless. Together with his homeless pals, he makes his living by selling his paintings on the street. His paintings, dynamically exploding on pieces of cardboard, catch the eyes of Kyoko, an art dealer. He can feel alive only if he keeps painting, but unable to find something to fill his void inside, he tries to drown himself in alcohol. Drawn to Jouji, Kyoko commissions him to paint for her. The two travel to a secluded mountain-side, and there Jouji becomes inspired both by the natural surroundings and Kyoko herself.

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Yuji and Akiko are newlyweds. Yuji dreams of being a movie star. He lands the lead role in a Pink Eiga soft-core sex film. The director requires him to have sex with the actress. Akiko goes to her high school reunion and is raped by a drunken guy, and then hooks up with her ex-high school love. A dark and comedic look at contemporary relationships and the pitfalls of married life. The story was written by Locarno International Film Festival, Golden Leopard Prize Winner, Masahiro Kobayashi. (Pink Eiga)

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A young-at-heart widower leads an independent life in a quiet fishing town in northern Japan. He eases his loneliness by walking in the snow and studying the growth of fish at a breeding center.

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Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete (パーfectブルー 夢なら醒めて, Pāfekuto Burū: Yume Nara Samete) is a 2002 Japanese psychological thriller film directed by Toshiki Satō and adapted from the novel of the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The story centers on Ai, a teen pop idol transitioning to a recording career, whose life unravels amid fixation from a obsessive convenience store clerk, leading to themes of distorted self-perception, narcissistic delusions, and violent events.

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Megumi’s every thought pulses with desire as she pours her loyalty—and her body—into supporting her struggling actor husband, Kazuo. Their modest home brims with unspoken yearning, each tender kiss at night a reminder of passion simmering beneath routine. When Kazuo’s dazzling star brother Ryōji arrives, Megumi feels his evil gaze tracing her curves, his breath hot at her ear. Left alone together, Ryōji’s hand drifts along Megumi’s arm, igniting a wildfire of forbidden heat that surges through her veins. Their stolen glances become urgent kisses; his fingers map the soft valley between her breasts as her sighs echo in the silent room. Caught in the throes of decadent temptation, Megumi teeters on the edge of a choice that could shatter her vows—and unleash every secret craving she’s ever held and become a pure sexual beast.

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The movie is absurd, and a thoroughly original take on the morale in Japanese society. The images are beautiful, and the people are as cold as the snow that surrounds them. The take on Melville's "Samoraï" from -67 is obvious, but Kobayashi turns the image around and portrays the killer as the weakest person in the movie - haunted by his demanding wife and the moaning contractor, who is one of the most mysterious characters ever portrayed in a movie.

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Junichi is a drug dealer who has no place in society and wanders the streets. The only thing that makes him feel alive is running and sex. Kumiko is raped by the misanthropic Junichi, but for some reason she is attracted to him and falls in love with him. However, after being chased by the detectives, Junichi disappears from Kumiko's life and starts working at a factory in the town where she washed up...

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Pink film directed by Toshiya Ueno.

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Two wives who leave their husbands behind and go on a hot spring trip, and two husbands who play homosexual games because it's not fair for them to be the only ones enjoying it. In contrast to the wives, who warm each other's bodies with hot water and lesbian play, the husbands cool each other's bodies by facing each other naked on a dark table with a bottle of sugar. There is another couple in danger of getting married because their parents disapprove of their relationship, but these two also change their mind, saying that marriage is between them. The story focuses on the liberation and change of consciousness of these three couples, who audaciously kiss on the street to get warm, and rethink their love and freedom.

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Michiko and Yukio meet at a bar and spend the night together at Yukio's apartment. As Michiko continues to skip work by faking illness and Yukio doesn't even contact his part-time job, a strange love begins to grow between them as they indulge in their love affair.

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Two best friends—Tatsuo, a retiring Yakuza member, and Kiyoshi, a cop—travel to the funeral of a woman they both loved.

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This is the second installment in the so-called "stupid brothers" series, which depicts the end of a female-loving and selfish sibling and a brother-wife. Directed by the genius of the genius, Toshiya Ueno, and the screenwriter Masahiro Kobayashi continues to follow, and a good work that comically spells out a night where a man and a woman with a personality full of desire are confused, centered on his brother, wife, and younger brother. After finishing his mother's funeral, his brother Ryosuke (Honda Kikuo) and younger brother Kenji (Ebata Hidehisa) go out into the city at night, remembering the emptiness and loneliness. On the other hand, Haruyo (Hazuki Tae) is his wife, Haruyo (Hazuki Tae), who is a man-oriented Ryosuke, who is a man-oriented woman, who is out of the house, reunites with her high school boyfriend at a hot spring inn where she works and warms up old friendships.

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Kiriko is a beautiful woman working in a quiet hot spring town. The owner of the inn, Goro, is attracted to her beauty and asks her out, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Imai, a detective staying at the inn, recognizes Kiriko's face and investigates her past on his own.

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Ito, a film director with no money and no woman, is agonizing every night over a violent love affair he hears from a neighbor who has recently moved in. One day, his neighbor, Honda, comes to visit Ito. He had apparently eloped with the daughter of a yakuza and was asking Ito to hide her for him. Ito tried to say no to the dangerous offer, but the 300,000 yen was too much to resist, and he ended up accepting the offer...

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Asako and Tomoko, who live next door to each other in a certain apartment complex, are housewives who frequently chat with each other. Asako, who is on good terms with her husband, Keiji, tells Tomoko about their nightly activities, and Tomoko, who is in a lull with her husband, Shinpei, envies her for it. One day, Keiji and Shinpei, who had never even exchanged greetings before, happen to hit it off and go out for a drink together. There they meet a pair of office workers...

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Kenji breaks up with his girlfriend and goes to stay with his brother, Ryosuke, who is married but is having an affair with a local waitress. It becomes clear quickly that Ryosuke is unhappy with his marriage to Haruyo, who desperately tries to get them to reconnect. One night Kenji goes out alone, to see the mistress of his brother...and they fool around.

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As a newspaper reporter listens to the confession of a wife who murdered her husband, the film shockingly depicts the process by which she discovers why she killed her husband, why she started working on street corners, and how she became deeply immersed in an affair that began as prostitution to relieve boredom...

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Asako, who has been married for eight years and has no children, is dissatisfied with her husband who comes home late every night, but she lives peacefully with him after he stops his unfaithful habit. However, a man she meets at a bowling alley with her neighbor Michiko and a beautiful woman who Asako's husband is interested in, cause changes in their lives.

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Pink film directed by Toshiya Ueno.

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A sexual tale of an erotic film depicting the love, lust and sex of a traumatized new young nurse. Akemi is a nurse who drags her leg due to a past injury and hates sex due to rape. One night, she passes by a sound engineer, Ikuo, working hard on a recording on a bridge. One day, she meets Ikuo when he's hospitalized with a broken leg, Akemi become attracted to him, but is troubled by her feud and affairs with doctor Kubo. Will her hidden past secrets stop her from pursuing love, lust and sex?

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Hosono, a film director who continues to make adult videos to make a living, spends his days desperately trying to realize his own project. However, one day, driven by anxiety and impatience, he steals a script from the screenwriter's home...

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Kumiko, who goes to a culture center with her husband's permission, has fallen prey to the instructor, Oikawa. Akiko, who also attends the same class, is single but also has a physical relationship with Oikawa. When Akiko finds out that Oikawa is also having an affair with Kumiko, she quits the class and starts a relationship with Kumiko's husband...

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Rokuro Saito was hired as a gardener for the Kawarazaki family. The beautiful mistress of the house, Kyoko, who greeted Rokuro, was a widow with two daughters, Sachiko and Rei. Also living there were Rei's tutor, Kaori, a creepy male servant named Nanbara, and the maid, Misako. Rokuro was eager to take on the job, but Misako was cold and distant.

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