Joe Butterfly

Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.

An America director tries to shoot a comedy film about the 2011 earthquake and devastating tsunami. Is he out of his mind or could his film bring hope and catharsis to those still struggling to recover?

Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the dwindling number of passengers when her job and the bus company itself are at stake.

This military service comedy chronicles the misadventures of the U.S.S. Bustard in Japan. The crew has stolen a Buddha statue from a Japanese village, which if discovered missing, would threaten Japanese/American relations. Doc Willoughby is the ship's petty officer, whose antics are constantly getting him into trouble with his captain. On shore leave, Willoughby falls for a seemingly demure Japanese girl in a kimono shop, who actually turns out to be a Japanese/American nurse in the US Navy, Lt. Tomiko Momoyama. However, it turns out she was betrothed as a child to a traditional Japanese man named Toshi, who fully intends on enforcing tradition. Willoughby divides his time between trying to return the Buddha statue back to the Japanese village it rightfully belongs to, and trying to woo Tomiko from the traditional Japanese man she rightfully belongs to.

Following a near-death experience France's leading chef throws himself into a quest seeking the flavor that has confounded his life since he was defeated by a Japanese chef's bowl of noodles as a young man.

Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

Senichi was born in 1964, when the entire nation was excited about the Tokyo Olympics. As an elementary student, Senichi won a footrace and got a taste of what winning felt like. Since then, Senichi takes part in various competitions including drawing and usually wins. He keeps struggling to win gold medals at competitions.

Stories depicting ordinary people revolving around ceremonial occasions. Without knowing that the funeral is for a yakuza member, an undertaker holds the funeral service. Relatives bicker over the deceased's last will. A son insists on wearing a long jacket normally worn by bousouzoku biker gang to a coming of age ceremony. His parents try to stop him. A husband heads over to his pregnant wife. She got pregnant before they got married and his father-in-law is angry at him. A freeter man challenges a professional baseball player over a woman.

An ordinary and somewhat unpopular high school boy joins a surfing club in a nowhere near ocean Tochigi Prefecture, while being oblivious to the fact that him leading a peaceful, ordinary life equals world peace being preserved.

A hero called the legendary third baseman in the former prestigious grass baseball team "Peanuts", will start to rebuild the peanuts that have now turned into weak teams from the outset. Peanuts are going to fight against the team of strong teams, taking advantage of the redevelopment of the city where Captain Sagara lives.

Five years have passed since Japan's Great Zombie Panic. The confusion of those days is gone and people have finally regained their ordinary, peaceful lives. One day, out of nowhere, a zombie appears and becomes trapped in a house. Six people have spotted the zombie, including the home-owner couple, a cheeky high school boy, a boring small-factory owner, a suspicious young intern and a woman who insists she is the zombie's wife.

Three sketches each from a different director: (1) a dancer who is attracted to lesbians; (2) a call girl who is accosted by a cruel man; (3) a male transvestite - the hentai of the title - exposed at a sunny place.

Chiba appears seven days before a person dies an unexpected death. His job is to observe the person for seven days then decide either to ‘execute’ or ‘pass over’. Today, again, in the rain, he waits. His subject, her death due in seven days, is Kazue Fujiki. She works for a manufacturing company in the complaints department. Exhausted after her day, she emerges from her office. It’s time for the Reaper to go to work.

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

A thug offers to pay a law student's gambling debt if the student will accompany him on a trip across Tokyo.