Movies: Kaoru Kobayashi

In a time when the main source of energy was still coal, there was a man who saw the future in oil. Young Tetsuzo Kunioka who hails from Moji, Kitakyushu, rides out into the oil business, but is faced with numerous challenges and competitors who stan...

A five-part comedy and horror anthology...

The story, set in the heady post-war 50s into the early 60s , revolves around a love triangle between Tomoko, long playing the mistress to married older writer Shitto and the new stud who comes into her life, Ryota Kinoshita. Tomoko is sick and tired...

Chokichi Kuwahata was once a leading actor, but he is ravaged by dementia and old age now. His daughter and the men in her life go against his wishes and place him in a retirement home. He slips away one day and meets another offspring from a differe...

Kazumi - whose sensitivity does not undermine her strength when she handles her second husband's emotional conflicts with the wisdom of an adult. Kazumi's younger and more inexperienced husband Hideo is continually suspicious of her fidelity....

Set in Kyokuhoku Citizen Hospital in Hokkaido, Japan. "Kyokuhoku Rhapsody" follows the life of a young doctor for a one year period. Yoshio Imanaka works at the Kyokuhoku Hospital that is losing staff members and facing bankruptcy. During this diffic...

Two TV salarymen uphold their duty by taking on a rival talent agency during the late-'80s bubble economy....

Daikichi is a 70-year-old man and lives on a small island. Since his wife died, he has lived with his cat Tama. Daikichi was born and raised on the small island and enjoys relaxing days with his childhood friends including Iwao and his cat Tama. Dai...

Keiko Inagawa (Asami Kobayashi) pays a visit to neurologist Aizawa about her fiancé Tatsuo Tamura (Kaoru Kobayashi). A mysterious case involving the disappearance of Tatsuo’s three brothers, one after the other, is yet to be resolved and now Tatsuo, ...

Ghiblies (pronounced with a hard "g" as in "gallop") is a short film aired during a TV special about Ghibli. It's about a fictional animation studio named "Ghibli" and the people who work there. This rare Ghibli Comedy is a look into who the people ...

Daisuke is supposed to be out looking for a respectable job and equally respectable wife. He is 30 years old and devotes his attention to music and literature; his family is wealthy and can support his interests. When his friend Hiraoka returns with ...

Based on the novel of the same name by Shizuka Ijûin. Played as a double feature with Crepe (1993)....

Yoshinori sells plots of land in a cemetery, and is involved in a stale ten-year-old marriage with bored housewife Atsuko. When Atsuko makes a male friend at her leather-working class, Yoshinori has a fit. This is on top of the myriad of odd clients ...

The prison guards working in penitentiaries where death row inmates are locked up are forced to spend their daily lives constantly facing death....

When a young student shows signs of trauma, his parents act swiftly against his middle school teacher. But all may not be as it seems, leading the scales of justice to tip in fascinating, heartbreaking ways....

Based on the novel of the same name by Yoshio Kataoka....

Middle-aged widower Tetsuro finds an unconscious, homeless young man on the riverbank in his small seaside town. Offering him room in his home, Tetsuro and the man who calls himself Shinichi develop a father-son dynamic, despite the secrets that ling...

A drama depicting the conflict between a man that ran to an old lover suffering from advanced leukemia, his wife and child that were left behind, and the friendship that develops between his wife and his former lover....

A woman who has not seen her father for several years and does not have a good relationship with him. An unsociable man who lives near her father's house. Slowly the relationship between the woman, her father, and the man changes....

Keiko Tsuruoka’s film is at once traditional and contemporary: it gently mixes present-day gender and sexuality politics with the old-fashioned Japanese domestic drama. Traditional lacquerwork kitchenware is the Aoki family’s legacy, handed down to p...