Aoba Kawai

Unreachable (2025)

Three young women live together in an old house in a corner of Tokyo. They are not related by blood, but they have been bound together by a strong bond for 12 years. They care about each other and spend their own ordinary days together. The matter of unreq ...

Kisspeptin Chronicles (2025)

Can we ever be freed from the "curse of love" that dictates "women must be pretty and fall in love"? A humorous and at times affecting chronicle of an artistic girl's life and loves from elementary school, through university, into young adulthood. ...

Route29 (2024)

Adapted from a book of poems by poet Taichi Nakao, the film is a road story set in beautiful nature and tranquil landscapes about a lonely janitor who doesn't communicate well and Haru, a teenage girl who is different, who travels on Route 29, which connec ...

A Girl Named Ann (2024)

A drug-addicted girl from an abusive family finds hope through kind people but her grim reality strikes back just as she sees a glimmer of light. ...

Stay Mum (2024)

Chisako Satoya, a writer, and her father, Kozo, had a long-standing feud and had been living apart for a long time. However now that Kozo, who lives alone, has dementia, she returns to her hometown to begin taking care of him. ...

The Ex-idol, Stuck in Life, Decided to Live with a Complete Stranger (2023)

Akiko (Mai Fukagawa) is a former idol, but now lives an ordinary life. She works at a company and keeps reminding herself that she is happy and to have a fulfilling day. One day, she walks to work and falls down. She becomes stuck and unable to move. Akiko ...

Brats, Be Ambitious! (2023)

A countryside in 1988. Shun is crazy about fooling around with his best friends. Facing up with their family environment or bullying in school, they struggle against the problems in their adolescents. ...

CRANK (2023)

MARU runs around Tokyo.MARU hears from his fellow messenger HIDE that he might be leaving Tokyo. ...

Shukatsu Time Capsule (2022)

Asai Takuma is a fourth year college student who is having a hard time finding a job and is desperate for the sake of his future with girlfriend, Shintani Risa. One day, he was asked out by his childhood friends Eiichi and Mamiko to dig out a time capsule ...

Far, Far Away (2022)

Sara is 21 years old and works at a family restaurant. She wasn't able to hide her upset at first sight when Takeuchi came to the family restaurant to have an interview. Going back home by bicycle, Yuto, Sara's boyfriend and also her colleague, told her a ...

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets. ...

Horimiya (2021)

Miyamura is quiet and keeps to himself, and honors student Kyoko is cheerful and popular. They are polar opposites but both have a secret persona that no one knows about. They get to know each other after randomly discovering each other's secret side. ...

Petto (2021)

Haruno, a second-year high school student, is aiming to go to a national university as her parents wish, but she really wants to be a groomer. However, she has been unable to confess her true feelings. Another worry for Haruno is the rumor that her childho ...

Underdog: Part One (2020)

Tells the story of three bottom-dog boxers who gets used as punching bags. Pro boxer Suenaga Akira fell off the path to greatness but still tries to crawl his way to the top. Omura Ryuta is a youngster who grew up in foster care. Miyagi Shun, a TV celebri ...

Come On Irene (2018)

Iwao Shishido has found a wife. After paying three million yen for a bridal tour to the Philippines, he comes home with Irene, who is promptly confronted by Tsuru—Iwao's freshly widowed mother, who's infuriated her loser son has married a woman she's nev ...

Reon (2018)

Dumped, fired from her job, Reon's day couldn't get any worse. Then a freak accident causes her to swap bodies with her old company's womanizing CEO. ...

The Last Reunion (2017)

After Isao has reached retirement, he receives a phone call from an ex- elementary school classmate Norio inviting him to a reunion. During the reunion, none of them can claim to have had a wonderful life since graduating from primary school and have their ...

Wilderness: Part 2 (2017)

Set in the near future around Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinji got out from a youth detention center. Barikan suffers from stuttering and extreme shyness. These two men meet in a boxing gym. Shinji and Barikan become friends and pursue boxing under a hopeless situ ...

Wilderness: Part 1 (2017)

Set in the near future around Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinji got out from a youth detention center. Barikan suffers from stuttering and extreme shyness. These two men meet in a boxing gym. Shinji and Barikan become friends and pursue boxing under a hopeless situ ...

Innocent Curse (2017)

A suburban town is faced with a series of bizarre incidents in which children disappear and three days later an adult in their life dies. A mysterious "child whisperer" phantom appears before journalist Shunya, who is investigating the incidents, and his g ...

Midnight Diner 2 (2016)

The Master's late-night diner welcomes a woman troubled by funeral fans, an elderly scam victim, and a noodle delivery man struggling with love. ...

Somebody's Xylophone (2016)

A married woman obsesses over a hairstylist she becomes involved with. ...

Double Life (2016)

Tama is a graduate student. She lives with her boyfriend Takuya. She becomes influenced by lectures about French writer Sophie Calle and begins to follow her neighbor Ishizaka. Tama soon discovers that her neighbor Ishizaka is having an affair. She becomes ...

Obon Brothers (2015)

A failed director is trying to get his next movie off the ground, while dealing with his cranky brother and his estranged wife. ...

Born with It (2015)

Living in Tokyo, Keisuke Fujii never really considered the colour of his skin; but when he and his mother move to rural Japan, the other kids assume that he is of African descent and therefore must have AIDS. Unsure of how to address these prejudices, Keis ...

Maestro! (2015)

Due to the economic recession, the orchestra is shut down. The members hear later that the orchestra will be reformed. Only some of the members, who have not yet been rehired, gather for the orchestra. For the first time since they disbanded the orchestra ...

Kabukicho Love Hotel (2014)

This erotically charged drama traces the intersecting stories of a group of employees and visitors at a notorious "love hotel" in Tokyo's red-light district. ...

My Man (2014)

As a young child, Hana loses her family to a devastating tsunami that wipes out her town. At a shelter, distant relative Jungo sees her wandering and adopts her as his daughter. ...

Touching the Skin of Eeriness (2013)

After his parents die, a teenager goes to live with his older brother. As his loneliness grows, he becomes engrossed in practicing modern dance with his classmate. ...

MORE (2012)

Yuri, Moeko, and Ai are best friends from high school. Though their twenties were about to end, they believed their eternal world would remain forever. In spite of their will, some misfortunate events such as love, betrayal, memory, regret, and one book wi ...

Wakusei no Kakera (2011)

Kaidan Horror Classics (2010)

Four short films based on ghost stories written by award winning modern Japanese writers. ...

Onobori monogatari (2010)

A young man moves from the countryside to Tokyo, while experiencing hardships and happiness, in his pursuit to become a comics artist. ...

I Love Thee for Good (2009)

While the wedding day should be blissful for the bride, Eiko, there is a secret that she can't tell her fiance... ...

Passion (2008)

A young couple's announcement of their engagement to their friends is followed by a series of interactions and conflicts that forces everyone to reflect on their lives. ...

A Bao A Qu (2007)

Hasegawa is writing a sequel to his previous novel, based on a true character who murdered 9 people on the street, with the premise that the killer had a brother. The main character in his new novel, Harumi, drops out of high school and leads a quiet life, ...

Meatball Machine (2006)

Capable of making bio-mechanical weapons out of human flesh, alien parasites grotesquely invade the Earth, turning their hosts into maniacal killers who seek and destroy each other to the bloody death! And yes, it s also a human love story, even though the ...

Reawaken (2006)

A lonely accountant adjusting to big city life, a struggling manga artist forced to conclude her series and a millennial convenience store clerk without direction; three women decades apart all bound by one inescapable fate. ...

Love Twisted (2004)

Yuko Yajima works at a library. To her co-workers she appears as an extremely shy and introverted person who hardly lets anyone know her true feelings and never smiles. However her interest in a man living in room 202, Mamoru Kosino, leads Yuko into some r ...

Girlfriend: Someone Please Stop the World (2004)

Despite the fact that Kyoko's a girl herself, approaching women on the streets and asking them to pose nude for her proves to be quite a chore. At first she accosts every pretty girl that walks by, until Miho catches her eye. Feeling that she has that cert ...