Free and Easy 4

First Love

One night in Tokyo, Leo, a young boxer, meets his first love, Monica, an imprisoned sex worker. Caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, they find themselves pursued by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin.

6.9

1962

King Kong vs. Godzilla

The advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, frustrated with the low ratings of their sponsored TV program, seeks a more sensationalist approach. He orders his staff to Faro Island to capture King Kong for exploitation. As Godzilla re-emerges, a media frenzy generates with Pacific looking to capitalize off of the ultimate battle.

5.1

1938

Mr. Boggs Steps Out

A dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number of beans in a barrel. He decides to do something novel with the prize and ends up buying a barrel factory. He encounters trouble when the nearby pickle factory is threatened by a shyster attempting to close it.

6.1

2014

Crows Explode

A month after Genji Takiya graduates, a new battle for supremacy at Suzuran All-Boys High School begins. Transfer student Kaburagi Kazeo combats Kagami Ryohei for the coveted top spot, amidst a brewing inter-school conflict with Kurosaki Industrial High.

2017

Dead Janitor

Bill discovers the office Janitor is dead on the bullpen floor, but no one is upset besides him.

7.4

1962

The Trial

Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.

6.1

2000

Ring 0

Taking place thirty years before the events of Ringu, Ringu 0 provides the shocking background story of how the girl on the video became a deadly, vengeful spirit.

5.9

Hot Gimmick: Girl Meets Boy

A quiet teen's life is shaken up when she's forced to be her arrogant neighbor's slave. He loves her, but they both have a lot to learn about trust.

6.0

2002

Tattoo

Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.

6.8

2017

Gintama

In an era where aliens have invaded and taken over feudal Tokyo, a young samurai finds work however he can.

7.8

2002

The Twilight Samurai

Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?

1974

Sandakan No. 8

A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.

6.8

2003

Gozu

Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.

7.4

1962

The Mad Fox

A court fortune-teller loses his mind after a conspiracy leads to the death of his lover. Hope appears to be on the horizon after he becomes romantically involved with his dead lover's twin sister, but more complications arise thanks to a chance encounter with a clan of shape-shifters.

2022

Sabakan

Nagasaki in 1986. Young friends Hisada and Takemoto decide to go to Boomerang Island to "see the dolphins". The friendship between the two deepens as a result of this adventure.

6.4

2001

Suicide Club

When the bizarre mass suicide of 54 high school girls throwing themselves in front of a subway train appears to instigate a string of suicides around the country, Detective Kuroda strives to find the answer, which isn't as simple as he had hoped.

7.2

1989

Violent Cop

A detective breaks all rules of ethical conduct while investigating a colleague’s involvement in drug pushing and Yakuza activities.

2005

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.

7.1

2008

Sweet Rain: Accuracy of Death

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.

5.7

1971

Patience Has An End

Young coal miner Takeda leaves Kyushu in search of a better job in Tokyo, only to fall into the lucrative yet dangerous life of a yakuza.

Recommended Movies

7.1

2014

Clover

Saya Suzuki is an ordinary employee working at a hotel. She falls in love with her elite boss Susumu Tsuge. Through their romance, Saya Suzuki grows as a person.

1960

Late Autumn

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

6.9

1969

Double Suicide

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

6.3

2007

Glory to the Filmmaker!

Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.

7.8

2006

Memories of Matsuko

While combing through the belongings of his recently deceased aunt, Matsuko, nephew Sho pieces together the crucial events that sank Matsuko's life into a despairing tragedy.

7.5

1956

Early Spring

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

7.0

2008

Achilles and the Tortoise

Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks.

7.4

2014

Wood Job!

After failing his university entrance exam, Yuki Hirano sets his eyes on the role of a forestry trainee. Setting off for training he doubts his decision many times, but eventually after passing the training course, he is sent to Kamusari Village for a year of work experience - where he becomes assimilated with the beauty of nature and the warm-hearted people of the village.

7.2

1966

The Pornographers

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.

7.6

2011

Love Strikes!

Set one year after the drama series "Moteki." 31-year-old Yukiyo Fujimoto doesn't have money, dreams or a girlfriend. He has left his job at a staffing firm and is attempting to start a new life by working as a writer for a news site. Suddenly, Yukiyo experiences "moteki" - a period when a man becomes suddenly popular with woman. Cute magazine editor Miyuki, pure and naive office worker Rumiko, beautiful shop assistant Ai and beautiful, but tough co-worker named Motoko all become interested in Yukiyo. He tries to calm down, but is shaken by the interests of these women.

2005

Always - Sunset on Third Street

6.5

It Feels So Good

When it rains it pours. Kenji divorced his wife, lost his job and his old squeeze Naoko is getting married back home in the north of Japan, specifically in Akita. He returns there in order to attend her wedding. Naoko surprises him by proposing that they have sex again. The one night stand is the new beginning.

7.3

2013

Tokyo Family

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

6.6

Feast of the Seven Fishes

A slice of life story that follows a large Italian family on Christmas Eve as they prepare for the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, reminisce about the past and seek love in the future.

6.6

2021

A California Christmas: City Lights

Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.

6.6

2016

Harmonium

Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio's family life.

6.3

2020

Hold Me Back

Mitsuko Kuroda is 31 years old and single. She enjoys her life as a single woman. A big reason why she enjoys her single life is that she has counsellor "A" in her mind, which is her other self. Whenever she does not know what to do, "A" gives her the right answers. She believes her happy and peaceful single life with "A" will continue, but she falls in love with Tada-kun. He is a salesperson and younger than her.

5.9

2011

Hospitalité

In this black comedy the lives of a timid small-time printer and his young wife are turned inside out by the arrival of a stranger who moves in and takes over their world. Set in a village-like outpost in the heart of Tokyo, this is a wry commentary on Japanese xenophobia. Kiki Sugino heads a spritely ensemble cast.

7.5

1952

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice

The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet and rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.

6.3

2008

Nothing Like the Holidays

It’s Christmastime and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parents’ home in Chicago to celebrate the season and rejoice in their youngest brother’s safe return from combat overseas.