Strangers in Kyoto (2025)

Lady Maiko

Country bumpkin Haruko only ever wanted to become a maiko, an apprentice geisha. Initially rebuffed for lack of references, Haruko's strong accent intrigues a linguistics professor, who undertakes to coach her.

I Lived in Kyoto For A While

27-year-old Eto Kana lives in Tokyo and has never been out of the city before. She used to work as a designer and stay in a company dormitory but moved back to her family home after resigning due to the stress from interpersonal relationships. Meanwhile, Kana’s family gets a call about an elderly granduncle who got injured. She goes to Kyoto where he lives at the request of her worried mother and stays there for several days to take care of him.

Chikamatsu Monogatari

When the wife of a 17th century Kyoto scroll-maker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves falling for one another.

The End of Summer

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

No Regrets for Our Youth

After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.

Sisters of the Gion

Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting her time and money on a loser. She thinks that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. Omocha therefore tries various schemes to get rid of Furusawa, and set themselves up with better patrons.

Norwegian Wood

Toru recalls his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, and another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori.

The 47 Ronin

In 1701, Lord Takuminokami Asano has a feud with Lord Kira and he tries to kill Kira in the corridors of the Shogun's palace. The Shogun sentences Lord Asano to commit suppuku and deprives the palace and lands from his clan, but does not punish Lord Kira. Lord Asano's vassals leave the land and his samurais become ronin and want to seek revenge against the dishonor of their Lord. But their leader Kuranosuke Oishi asks the Shogun to restore the Asano clan with his brother Daigaku Asano. One year later, the Shogun refuses his request and Oishi and forty-six ronin revenge their Lord.

Taira Clan Saga

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.

A Geisha

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people.

The Woman in the Rumor

After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much.

Lights of Kyoto

Born and raised in Kyoto, 17 years old Takatoyo spends all his summer holidays in his hometown. However, this time will be different. Takatoyo will experience his first love and first challenges, creating memories that will take him out of his ordinary life.

Wonderwall: The Movie

A university orders that old, decrepit Konoe Dormitory be rebuilt, to the opposition of the students who still occupy and maintain it. Movie version with additional scenes of the 2018 NHK's drama show.

Yasuko, Songs of Days Past

In the early 1920s, Yasuko, a budding actress, crosses paths with Chūya Nakahara, a young poet destined to be revered as a genius. Drawn to each other by their shared pretentiousness, they begin living together and quickly fall into a complex relationship. Their lives take a dramatic turn when they move to Tokyo and are visited by Hideo Kobayashi, a friend of Chūya’s who would later emerge as one of Japan's foremost literary critics. This seemingly chance encounter not only alters Yasuko's fate but also entwines the three of them in an intense and inescapable destiny.

Mother Water

Set with three central figures, "Mother Water" describes the daily lives of people near the Kamo River in Kyoto, Japan.

Strong Women, Weak Men

After the closure of a coal mine leaves her husband unemployed, Fumiko travels from Kyushu to Kyoto with her daughter Kimiko, and they become hostesses at a cabaret.

Rurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno

Kenshin has settled into his new life with Kaoru and his other friends when he is approached with a request from the Meiji government. Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin, was betrayed, set on fire and left for dead. He survived, and is now in Kyoto, plotting with his gathered warriors to overthrow the new government. Against Kaoru's wishes, Kenshin reluctantly agrees to go to Kyoto and help keep his country from falling back into civil war.

The Old Capital

Chieko Sanda has operated a dry goods store in Kyoto for the past 20 years. Her family has owned the store for generations. Chieko is conflicted on whether her daughter Mai will take over her position with the changing of times. Mai is a college student and has not decided whether to take another job or take over the dry goods store. Meanwhile, Mitsuko Nakata runs a forestry in the outskirts of Kyoto. Mitsuko is Chieko Sanda’s twin sister, but they were separated at an early age. Mitsuko is in serious financial difficulties. Mituko's daughter, Yui, has talent in art and she goes to France. There, Yui feels a sense of powerlessness. Mitsuko notices and goes to Paris to see her daughter. Mai travels to Paris to take part in an event to show Japanese culture.

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

As a group of university students go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as "The Girl with Black Hair" experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife – all the while unaware of the romantic longings of "Senpai", a senior student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her in an effort to win her heart.

Flower and Sword

In the late 16th century, after the death of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes power. The age of war is about to end, but Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rule makes life difficult for the people. Monk Senko Ikenobo is a master of flower arrangement. He prays for peace in the world and tries to give hope to the people with flower arrangement. He becomes good friends with Rikyu. Rikyu is a monk and a politician. He has the most profound influence on chanoyu. Rikyu is forced to commit hara-kiri by Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s order. Monk Senko Ikenobo challenges Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

Memoirs of a Geisha

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

When the Last Sword Is Drawn

Kanichiro Yoshimura is a Samurai and Family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan, he is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them.

Girl Boss Guerilla

Sachiko is the leader of a girl gang from Shinjuku who wind up in Kyoto and make a bid to take over the local girl gangs there.

Impossible to Imagine

The story of a traditional Kyoto woman who runs a failing kimono business and the entrepreneurial, biracial, business consultant who comes to help keep it solvent. Along the way they fall in love, but his need for change clashes with her desire for the world to stay the same. In the end, can they change enough for each other?

Uji Has Many Stories

The protagonist visits Uji and tours the town, which has been shaped by the accumulation of history and culture from various eras, including the Heian period.

GREAT PRETENDER razbliuto

Presumed dead, master con artist and recovering amnesiac Dorothy is discovered by Shanghai Longu-bang, a mob who wants payback for her conning them. With no memories and nowhere to go, she must rely on a local crime underboss to elude Taipei's criminal underworld all while tracking down leads to her mysterious past.

Waking Up

Waking Up is a quietly introspective short film shot entirely on location in Japan during Devereaux's first tour in the country in September and October of 2024. Filmed across Tokyo (Nakano, Ekoda, Shinjuku, Chiyoda, and along the Chuo Line), Matsumoto in Nagano, and Ukyo in Kyoto, the film captures fleeting, seemingly mundane moments that held deep personal significance for the filmmaker. Each shot captures a distinct moment when Devereaux felt his nervous system decompress just enough to be inclined to film — moments of stillness and clarity amid the motion of travel and creative exploration. Waking Up is both a poetic travelogue and a personal awakening. Echoing his own words — "When I arrived in Japan, it felt like I had finally woken up from a bad dream" — the film offers a meditative window into moments of quiet revelation, captured not for spectacle but for memory.

To Bury a Dragon

In a small Bulgarian town an aging homophobic wood-carver receives a tragic news which awakens his buried shame and anger.

Gönül Garip Bir Kuştur

The film tells the story of the love between a female university student and a painter. Ayşe, who has come to Istanbul to attend university, is staying in a student dormitory. However, since she wants to move out of the dorm, she and her roommate Hatice start looking for a rental apartment. The two happen to rent Reşit Bey's house. One day, Ayşe and Hatice are invited by Reşit Bey to his nephew's art exhibition. Ayşe meets and befriends Reşit Bey's nephew Bedri there. As the two begin spending time together, their relationship gradually turns into love.

O Palco dos Rebeldes

Plot unavailable

Vera

Vera lives solely on the problems of her family: her eternally ill husband Kostya and her fifteen-year-old son Romka. In fact, Vera is happy with everything, until her husband's first love suddenly appears on the horizon - the beautiful Lyudmila and her daughter Yulya. There is nothing special about the latter, but, as luck would have it, it is this girl that Romka is interested in. Now she is seriously thinking about divorce and exchanging an apartment, trying to force her son to move away from Yulka.

Harvey Greenfield Is Running Late

When an indecisive people pleaser is running late for the world’s busiest day, his misguided decisions escalate towards a single choice that risks everything he holds dear.

Double Jeu

Infatuated with her crush Owen, Isabelle devises a plan with her best friend Jasmine to get his attention.

Vanished in Death Valley

A teenage girl goes missing when her family’s car breaks down in Death Valley and her parents will need to make unlikely allies if they are to find their daughter before she disappears forever.

Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story

Marcela Borges and her growing family’s idyllic weekend quickly turn into every family’s worst nightmare when masked gunmen barge into their Florida suburban home. With gunshots piercing their walls, a newly pregnant Marcela, her husband, and their young son are left with no choice but to comply with their captors’ demands: surrender $200,000 or their lives. But with no means of accessing that sort of money, Marcela faces insurmountable odds to protect her family from their violent captors and must make the life and death decisions to keep her family safe.

Kamal Kharmach: Mag ik even?

A new year, and with it the start of Kamal Kharmach's sixth end-of-year conference. With no fewer than 1.3 million viewers on TV last year, Kamal is back this year, with a tongue sharper than the knives politicians stick in each other's backs.

Desvíos

Andrés and Joaquin embark on an odyssey that leads them to visit various clinics in the city of Buenos Aires and puts their relationship to the test.

Tomten och bocken - rider igen

Tomten och Bocken - rider igen is a Christmas show with the radar couple Måns Zelmerlöw and Per Andersson. Here we get to experience a magnificent show with Christmas brilliance.

What's in My Bag?

Hyun is deeply in love with Ju-yeong. In a solo struggle to win Ju-yeong's heart, Hyun ends up resorting to a wish doll. The plan seemed perfect, at least until Ju-yeong discovered it.

Alex Vizorek : Ad vitam

A stand-up comedy special about death by Belgian comedian Alex Vizorek.

The Master of Supine Armor

The film "The Master of the Supine Armor" tells the strange case of Wushan Town caused by the four major evils. Jiang Yingluo, the head constable of the patrol division, and Du Fengbo, the heir of the Supine Armor Sect, are involved in this case and conspiracy that has been hidden for decades.

La moglie di mio marito

Plot unavailable

Woman Who Killed a Lion

When Yoonseul's mother returns home from abroad, she tells Yoonseul about a dream she had when she was pregnant with Yoonseul.

La muta di Portici

Plot unavailable

La ragazza sotto il lenzuolo

Plot unavailable

Food Love

With "FOOD LOVE" (2023), Mayr and Hase present their second short film and the follow-up to their debut film "CAR LOVE" (2022). Here, the themes of food and sexuality are negotiated; more specifically, it's about French "haute cuisine," which is brought into a sexually charged context during the film. The boundaries between the art of cooking, food consumption and sex become blurred in FOOD LOVE; the food that the protagonist creates is consumed in a multiple sense and serves physical gratification in an ambiguous sense. In the order of a French menu, sexual acts are performed with and on the dishes. After the climax, however, a surprise awaits: it is an inconspicuous fast-food burger that is finally eaten by the protagonist.