Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old veteran of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, sets out to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives to find the truth behind atrocities committed by Japanese military, in particular the unexplained killing of two Japanese privates in his unit.

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) designed some of the world's most astonishing buildings, interiors, and parks; Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara constructed some of the most aesthetically audacious films ever made. With camera work as bold and sensual as the curves of his subject's organic structures, Teshigahara immortalizes Gaudí on film.

An intimate chronicle of the shooting of Ran (1985), a film directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

A documentary about the lives of actors in the Sakura-tai theatrical troupe, which had arrived in the island of Hiroshima to begin preparations for the staging of a play just before the atomic bombing.

A partially-animated documentary about the preservation and restoration of the canal system in Yanagawa, Fukuoka

A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind Juzo Itami's "Marusa no Onna" a.k.a. "A Taxing Woman".

A documentary on the making of the Japanese animated science fiction film, Akira, created by Katsuhiro Otomo from his popular graphic novel series of the same title; shows Japanese animators at work and discusses their state-of-the-art animation techniques.

A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind Juzo Itami's "Marusa no Onna 2" a.k.a. "A Taxing Woman's Return".

German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.

A collection of deleted scenes and bloopers from the library of Toho Studios films, including several films from the famous Godzilla franchise.

A Japanese TV documentary, NHK Tokushu Tezuka Osamu: Sosaku no Himitsu (Secrets of Creation.), was originally released as a book-mounted DVD, with cooperation from Tezuka Productions. Screened in Japan in 1986, it was filmed as Tezuka prepared for the Hiroshima International Animation Festival in 1985. It shows him working in his private studio and with his team, and gives glimpses of his wife, colleagues and old friends.

An in-depth and stylish look at the hardcore punk scene in Japan at the late half of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's. Features bands such as GASTUNK, THE EXECUTE, GAUZE among others.

A visual documentary of Einstürzende Neubauten, the German underground band, by Japanese cult director Sogo Ishii, made during their 1985 tour of Japan. The band makes an elaborate and remarkably choreographed appearance in the ruins of an old ironworks which was scheduled for demolition; footage of same was incorporated into the movie and a brief appearance on stage.

The movie compiles footage taken by Ogawa Production for a period of more than ten years after the collective moved to Magino village. Unique to this film are fictional reenactments of the history of the village in the sections titled "The Tale of Horikiri Goddess" and "The Origins of Itsutsudomoe Shrine". Ogawa combines all the techniques that were developed in his previous films to simultaneously express multiple layers of time—the temporality of rice growing and of human life, personal life histories, the history of the village, the time of the Gods, and new time created through theatrical reenactment—bring them into a unified whole. The faces of the Magino villagers appear in numerous roles transcending time and space—sometimes as individuals, sometimes as people who carry the history of the village in their memories, sometimes as storytellers reciting myths, and even as members of the crowd in the fictional sequences.

Japanese dance and musical film presenting Toshihiko Tahara, a singer then noted for his abilities as a dancer, with a large supporting cast of singers and dancers – mainly drawn from the roster of the Johnny & Associates talent agency of Johnny Kitagawa. The film was shot in the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre Tokyo and Yurakucho on January 29–30.

A biographical documentary produced as part of the 20th anniversary project of the silent film appreciation society led by Shunsui Matsuda, who was known as a silent film narrator, film collector and exhibitor. The film features interviews with directors and related parties involved in the production while inserting scenes from period dramas starring Tsumasanburo Bando throughout from Matsuda’s extensive collection. Completed in 1980 but not released to the general public until 1993 on the 40th anniversary of Bando’s death and Matsuda’s seventh anniversary.

A documentary profiling a Japanese taiko drumming group based in the remote Sado Island, Japan. The film blurs the line between real-life documentary footage of the troupe's training and practice regimes, and staged performances of their varied musical acts, with sets designed by artist Tadanori Yokoo and an additional experimental electronic music score by Toshi Ichiyanagi.

Film director Shunichi Nagasaki reflects on a near-fatal motorcycle accident that occurred while shooting his commercial feature debut The Lonely Hearts Club Band in September.

In 1945, the second- and third-year students of a Hiroshima girls' school are taken away to work in war factories. The remaining 220 girls of the first year try to make the best of their new-found status as the only teenagers in an almost deserted town, even amid the deprivations of wartime. On the seventh of August, an American bomber changes their lives forever. Broadcast on the 43rd anniversary of Hiroshima in memory of "the girls who lost their lives to the atom bomb." (Source: Anime Encyclopedia)

Aiko Juuroku Sai making-of documentary.

Sono's first film, 30 minutes long and shot on 8mm. A free-wheeling intimate cinematic journal in which the artist contemplates his life as he approaches his birthday.

Akina Nakamori's second video work "Hajimemashite" consists of 12 songs (including three singles "Slow Motion," "Girl A," and "Second Love") from her debut year (1982), filmed at Santa Monica Beach in Los Angeles and other locations where Akina Nakamori visited to record and interview for "Slow Motion" from March 11 to 17, 1982, just before her debut. It also includes the recording of her debut song "Slow Motion," and is full of valuable memorial footage from before her debut!

This one proves that it's all a big fake, and the myth of the Guinea Pig movies being actual snuff is not true. The girl from "Devil's Experiment" laughs while her flesh gets twisted. The guy from "He Never Dies" longs to take the latex applications off.

This remarkable compilation follows an exchange of video letters that took place between Shuji Terayama and Shuntaro Tanikawa in the months immediately preceding Terayama's death. It can be thought of as a home video produced by two preeminent poets and inter-laid with highly abstract philosophizing, slightly aberrant behavior and occasionally flamboyant visuals.

This Japanese documentary follows Michael Jackson during his 1987 visit to Japan as part of the Bad World Tour. The program’s title, “1440 Hours,” refers to the length of his stay in the country. Broadcast on Nippon TV, the special offers unprecedented access to Jackson’s daily life and activities, capturing not only concert footage but also behind-the-scenes moments and his interactions with Japanese culture and fans.

Documentary on Japan-Korea relations

A behind-the-scenes TV special, introducing the Kamen Rider Black series.

This rare documentary is one of the very last efforts from preeminent documentarist/activist Susumu Hani best known for his feature films. This one is a short documentary about the 1945 atomic bombing and its devastating consequences. The film came out of the "10 Foot Movement". A movement organized by the Japan Peace Museum, which mobilized Japanese citizen activists to buy back small segments of film footage of the effects of the atomic bomb from the U.S. National Archives. The film combines recent footage of survivors of the atomic bomb with American archival footage, portraying the sorrow of atomic bomb survivors in the Cold War period.

Documentary featuring Nagisa Ōshima and Masuaki Kiyota, a Uri Geller-esque psychic medium

Documentary about the making of Juzo Itami's film "Tampopo" (1985).

A Visit to Ogawa Productions offers a rare insight into the social and cinematic philosophy of one of Japan's best-known documentary film collectives. As the film reveals, Ogawa Productions' in-depth portraits of Japanese society - whether of protest movements or traditional agricultural life - grew out of an unusual commitment to integrate themselves with the communities they filmed, to the extent that their film-making literally became an alternative lifestyle.

A look at the trial of Japanese militarists accused of war crimes; from the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal (May 1946–November 1948). It took two days to read the charges against the 100 alleged war criminals in the docket (only 28 top officials are actually in the small courtroom), and the final judgment took one week to read.

Shot in a retirement home over a period of two years, this film raises the question of "how to take care". The director films with great tenderness, not only the daily life of patients with senile dementia, but also the work of caregivers. Widely broadcast, the film sparked lively debate on the care and support society in Japan.

Documentary about the eclectic Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto during the recording sessions for his 1984 album "Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia".

Behind the scenes of Akira Kurosawa's Ran, produced by Kurosawa Productions.

This is a short special on Twinkle NORA Rock Me!. Where staff members and NORA's VA are interviewed, The band Vigilante is interviewed and performs the NORA theme. Plus we see the adventures of a live action NORA.

A promotional video showcasing behind-the-scenes footage of the film "Project A-Ko", complete with interviews with the film's cast and crew.

Early drift VHS featuring "Dorikin" Keiichi Tsuchiya.

Mariko Miyagi is back documenting the activities of disabled children from her own school, Nemunoki. This time, the whole documentary focuses itself on the powers of creativity and drawing.

A compilation of avant-garde artwork and talent of the mid to late 20th century hosted by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

A MAKING OF 愛情物語/ Curtain Call, narrated by Harada Tomoyo.

"BLOW THE NIGHT!" Let's Spend the Night Together is a 1983 Japanese docu-drama shot on 16mm film starring actual Yanki gang members as many of the main characters.

Actor Takakura Ken visits Santa Cruz in Portugal and traces the footsteps of the writer Dan Kazuo, who spent his last years living there.

Wim Wenders talks with Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto about the creative process and ponders the relationship between cities, identity and the cinema in the digital age.

A stop-motion adaptation of the 1981 novel by geologist Dougal Dixon of the same name, which explores the speculative paths of evolution of modern animals into the far future.

This ambitious live satellite link-up of Japan, Korea and the United States features interviews with Keith Haring and architect Arata Isozaki, and performances and works by Philip Glass and the Kodo Drummers, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, and Lou Reed. In an extraordinary section, a performance in Japan of classical Western music is accompanied by a group of Kabuki dancers.

A documentary about French illustrator Georges Bigot, who lived in Japan for 17 years and left behind many drawings depicting life and social conditions in the Meiji period.

After working as a reporter and an assistant at a radio station, Watanabe Yoshimitsu, former leader of the bosozoku gang Black Emperor, returned to his old stomping grounds and began to make a film about bosozoku. At the time, he was 21. The teenage members of the bosozoku group, also known as " Thunder " would get into their revamped motorbikes and cars and race around the city. With the police as their enemies, they ran from patrol cars and did other defiant acts. They would put on outlandish clothing and, as a result of fights with rival groups, were very loyal to other members of their own gang. Every Saturday, they would cruise around, vanish and reappear throughout the entire night with no particular goal. However on 1 December 1978, because of provisions in the new highway transport law, the end was at hand for their " season of running wild. " The film shows them simply continuing to run wild on this last night before the law is to take effect.

Animation using photos and copies. The double image on the left and right makes the woman's face change rapidly.

Japan, 1986. At the tail end of the world tour promoting their latest album Revenge, Eurythmics tops the charts. Between concerts, pop duo Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart survey Japan's cultural soundscape with the help of Conny Plank: A world of sounds both brutally technological and highly refined by tradition.

“I have three tasks in my life: to dance, to teach dance, and to create dance,” says the pioneering Japanese performer Akiko Kanda in this intimate portrait of creativity and individuality, After seeing a Martha Graham performance in college, Kanda left her family behind in Japan and arrived in New York City, where she studied under the legendary Graham and became a principal dancer with the troupe. Following the wiry artist as she moves from practice floor to performance hall, and from the cramped single-room apartment she lives in to a trip home to see her aging mother, director Sumiko Haneda reveals a woman who has rebelled against traditional ideals of marriage and motherhood, and who nearly single-handedly brought modern dance to Japan-and kept it alive. “When I die,” Kanda tells the director, “I will be content if I can just say, ‘I danced.'”

Japanese Documentary

Yellow Magic Orchestra concert recorded in late December 1981 at the Shinjuku Koma Theater.

Shot in the foothills of Iwate Prefecture’s mystical Mt. Hayachine, the film records a year in the life of the area’s villages.

A film essay about nuclear energy in Japan, composed of newspaper clippings collected in scrapbooks

10-Feet Movement anti-nuclear documentary film

Having spent her childhood in Dalian and Harbin in the former state of Manchukuo, Taeko Tomiyama carried within her the conviction: “As an Asian, as a woman, I will begin from the margins of beauty.” Noriaki Tsuchimoto, on the other hand, directed numerous films related to Minamata disease. He confronted the suffering of pollution victims head-on, continuing to convey the harshness of life with unflinching clarity. In an interview, Tsuchimoto once remarked: “Within Tomiyama’s narrative world lies something that could be called her eros, her utopia, her aesthetics of liberation. Why does she persist in creating such dark lithographs on the themes of Chikuho and Korea? And how is it that, while doing so, she can also simultaneously depict a world of such beauty?” This film not only reveals the allure of the lithographs themselves, but also centers on the dialogue between Tsuchimoto and Tomiyama. It is a portrait of two comrades, earnestly pursuing the meaning of artistic expression.