Inner Loop Couple (2018)

Lala Pipo: A Lot of People

Adapted from a sex-stuffed cult novel, LALAPIPO (a play on the phrase “A Lot of People”) follows divergent seedy strands of sexual and narrative spaghetti through the sticky Tokyo night. There’s a chubby freelance writer who’s so obsessed with masturbating to the sound of his upstairs neighbors going at it that he forgets to deal with his own love life and when he finally does have sex he is immediately filled with self-loathing. The upstairs neighbor’s story then splits off like an amoeba: she’s an office lady seduced by a “talent scout” who is falling down the sex industry ladder, moving from hostess, to massage girl, to private karaoke attendant. The talent scout’s story then splits off and runs in its own direction, revealing the sorry state of this young pimp’s soul. From there, the movie takes more and more time to consider the lives of more and more characters until the entire Japanese sex industry is filled with the wailing of lost souls.

Dead Fishes

Shun Miyata's new life in Tokyo takes a dark turn when he and coworker Yuka discover their boss Yuriko is involved in insurance fraud and murder. As they grapple with the betrayal, their bond deepens, contrasting youthful hope against a backdrop of adult corruption.

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

A Dutch company's owner bankrupts his own company, burns the incriminating ledgers and plans to run to Paris with the company funds but he is caught in the act by his accountant who challenges his actions, leading to a reversal of roles.

Late Chrysanthemums

With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geishas contemplating their troubles with men and money.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.

The Pit of Death

Kuramoto, who works for a large trading company, is a skilled employee who is well-liked by the company president. He is engaged to an employee named Nishino Etsuko, but he used her for his own career advancement and kills her so that he can marry the company president's daughter. When Kuramoto returns from his honeymoon with his new wife, Etsuko's brother shows up in search of the whereabouts of his missing sister.

5 Centimeters per Second

Three moments in Takaki's life: his relationship with Akari and their forced separation; his friendship with Kanae, who is secretly in love with him; the demands and disappointments of adulthood, an unhappy life in a cold city.

Tokyo Towers: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

A Geisha's Diary

A young girl is rigorously trained in the feminine arts so that she can become a geisha. As she struggles through life, she learns to live not just as a woman but as a complete person.

Our Ten Years

Throughout ten years of a key era in Chinese and Hong Kong history, a girl becomes fixated on a fellow commuter who she observes regularly. While the two never speak to one another, the girl captures her appearance and life changes during the years through various means such as photos and drawings.

Anthony Zimmer

François, an ordinary Joe, falls hard for the sublimely beautiful woman who has just picked him up on the train and invited him to spend the weekend with her on the Riviera. But when the lady disappears the next morning and the police drag him in for questioning, François discovers he's been set up to pass for her notorious outlaw husband on the run, Anthony Zimmer. Even though he's been lied to and manipulated, François' life is changed forever and he's ready to give anything - maybe even his life - to hold this mysterious beauty in his arms again.

After Hours

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

Naked Weapon

A mysterious woman, known as Madame M, kidnaps forty pre-teen girls and transports them to a remote island to train them as the most deadly assassins. CIA operative Jack Chen follows the case for 6 years with no leads, but when a series of assassinations begin to occur, Jack suspects that Madame M is back in business.

Tokyo Godfathers

On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.

Always - Sunset on Third Street

Teenage Mutsuko comes to Tokyo for work but ends up at a repair shop. She befriends the owner's family. Neighbors Hiromi, writer Chagawa with admirer Junnosuke strive alongside them in postwar Tokyo's evolution.

Last Holiday

The discovery that she has a terminal illness prompts introverted department store saleswoman Georgia Byrd to reflect on what she realizes has been an overly cautious life. With weeks to live, she withdraws her life savings, sells all her possessions and jets off to Europe where she lives it up at a posh hotel. Upbeat and passionate, Georgia charms everybody she meets, including renowned Chef Didier. The only one missing from her new life is her longtime crush Sean Matthews.

Catarina and the others

Outside, the first sun rays break the dawn. Sixteen years old Catarina can't fall asleep. Inconsequently, in the big city adults are moved by desire... Catarina found she is HIV positive. She wants to drag everyone else along.

The Desolate Beach

A writer meets five widows on a train to Puri. As the six lives begin to intertwine, the theme of the taboos of widowhood emerge; but so, too, does a philosophy of life and hope for the future. The performers collectively won Best Actress at India's National Film Awards in 1964.

Sakuran

Anna Tsuchiya blasts back in time playing an oiran, a top-notched geisha of the Edo period’s Yoshiwara District, navigating brothel politics while trying to cling to the man she loves.

Early Spring

A young Tokyo salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital affair.

Rolling Marbles

Shibuya in Tokyo, a city that continues to change due to redevelopment. At a house in the corner of Shibuya, Ai dreaming of a model, Mizuho working for the editorial department of a magazine, and musician Erika live together. This story is about the modest cohabitation of the three.

Spiral

A reclusive telemarketer has only one semblance of a friend: His telecommuter boss. But the telemarketer's social circle seems to improve greatly when a whimsical co-worker enters his life. Only, as he begins to sketch his new friend's portrait, disturbing "voices" from the phone man's past threaten to lead him into a network of destruction.

The Ramen Girl

An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a ramen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.

The Grifters

A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.

Tokyo Story

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Night on Earth

A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

Nobody Knows

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

Lost Way

Collective experimental film by Team 8mm TENGOKU.

Miss Hokusai

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.

My Blueberry Nights

Elizabeth has just been through a particularly nasty breakup, and now she's ready to leave her friends and memories behind as she chases her dreams across the country. In order to support herself on her journey, Elizabeth picks up a series of waitress jobs along the way. As Elizabeth crosses paths with a series of lost souls whose yearnings are even greater than her own, their emotional turmoil ultimately helps her gain a greater understanding of her own problems...

Murder on the Orient Express

In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before.

Izo

Izo is an assassin in the service of a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified. Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine.

Strawberries in the Throat

A story about partly miserable lives of middle aged men and unfulfilled dreams of youth.

Emperor of the North

Hobos encounter a sadistic railway conductor that will not let anyone "ride the rails" for free.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Former yakuza underling Kazuma Kiryū has recently been released from prison after a lengthy incarceration and is trying to piece his life together and distance himself from his yakuza past. Unfortunately, Kiryū's problems slowly escalate as he is pursued by a former associate, the baseball-bat-wielding psycho Gorō Majima, who has a grudge to settle with Kiryū.

Stray Dog

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

La Cadena

Introverted Ricardo Perez likes to approach the world in a very subtle manner, trying not to upset anyone or cause any problems for himself. But to his surprise, he is the prime candidate for accomplishing God's will due to the neglect of others. This presents an internal spiritual conflict within himself. Will he take the challenge by standing up for himself, his family and his faith or will he succumb to the fears of the flesh?—Alfred Castillo Jr. & LaMarcus Tinker

The Castle of Sand

Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.

Lost Girls & Love Hotels

Searching for escape in Tokyo's back alleys, a haunted English teacher explores love and lust with a dashing Yakuza, as their tumultuous affair takes her on a journey through the city's dive bars and three-hour love hotels.

The Man from London

A switchman at a seaside railway witnesses a murder but does not report it after he finds a suitcase full of money at the scene of the crime.

Fear and Trembling

Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and tries to integrate in the Japanese society. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her year contract runs out, though it precisely this determination that is incompatable with Japanese humility. Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural norms results in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adulates her, her immediate supervisor takes sadistic pleasure in belittling her all along. She finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her the she will not renew her contract. Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which could only be possible because her determination was broken by Miss Fubuki's systematic torture.

Tokyo Refugees

When his father flees from debt, carefree college student Osamu sees his life turn upside-down. Expelled from school and evicted from his apartment, he becomes one of Japan’s many ‘net cafe refugees’, barely scraping by each day with temporary and part-time work. Even though he’s still in Tokyo, his circumstances drive him to see and experience his home city in new ways. Trying to survive, Osamu gradually acquaints himself with the ‘invisible’ spaces occupied by the wanderers and homeless of Tokyo… people just like himself.

Birth/Rebirth

A single mother and a childless morgue technician are bound together by their relationship to a little girl they have reanimated from the dead.

Roujin Z

Mr. Takazawa, an elderly invalid who is cared for at his home by Haruko, a young nursing student, is chosen by the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare to test the Z-001, a computerized hospital bed with robotic features that allegedly displays more efficiency and skills than any human nurse, but Haruko mistrusts a machine unable to consider human feelings.

Enter the Void

This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar, a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda. When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.

The Apartment

Max is a former playboy who has decided to settle down by marrying his current love, Muriel. However, when Max catches a glimpse of the great lost love of his life, he becomes obsessed with rekindling their relationship.

Lassie

A family in financial crisis is forced to sell Lassie, their beloved dog. Hundreds of miles away from her true family, Lassie escapes and sets out on a journey home.

Natural City

Two cops, R and Noma, hunt down renegade cyborgs. Cyborgs are used as commandos by the military, as lust objects and for companionship. Normaly they have a limited lifespan of three years but black market technology is being developed to be able to transfer a cyborg's artificial intelligence into human host. This drives R to find a suitable host for his expiring cyborg Ria.

Tricycle Thief

After discovering his eviction notice, a tricycle driver goes on a desperate hunt for money.

One Wonderful Sunday

Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope.

Always: Sunset on Third Street 2

Would-be writer Ryunosuke Chagawa is still living across the street from Norifumi Suzuki and his auto repair shop, though now he shares his home with Junnosuke, an orphan he's taken under his wing at the urging of pretty Hiroi, who continues to manage a nearby tavern. Chagawa dreams of publishing a successful novel and settling down with Hiroi and Junnosuke, but his day job running the candy store keeps him busy, and Hiroi mistakes his tight schedule for a lack of interest in her. Hiroi has also embarked on a secret career as a burlesque dancer, which isn't doing much to improve her opinion of men. At the Suzuki household, seven-year-old Ippei isn't happy to be sharing the house with a guest, his distant cousin Mika who is the same age but far more demanding. Mutsuko, the apprentice female auto mechanic, is still staying with the Suzukis, and she's becomes the object of the affections of Takeo, a downbeat young man who is studying cooking.

Street of Shame

The lives of five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

Berlin Express

In post-war Europe, a diverse group of passengers aboard a U.S. Army train to bombed-out Frankfurt becomes involved in a Nazi assassination plot.

Midnight Diner

A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.

Man Push Cart

Every night while the city sleeps, Ahmad, a former Pakistani rock star turned immigrant, drags his heavy cart along the streets of New York. And every morning, he sells coffee and donuts to a city he cannot call his own. One day, however, the pattern of this harsh existence is broken by a glimmer of hope for a better life.