Masashi Minami

Hatsuko's World

15-year-old Hatsuko (Higashi Ayu) lives with her elder brother in a humble town house. Their mother died when they were young, and the father disappeared. The brother (Shioya Shun) left high school before graduation to work at a factory, but spends their meager house-keeping money on adult entertainment. Hatsuko, who is poor and has no friends, finds emotional support in Mishima (Sano Kazuma), a boy in her class, who helps her with her study to go to a high school together. However, Hatsuko's brother causes trouble at the factory and gets the sack. Hatsuko gives up her dream of going to high school. In spring, the modest relationship continues between Mishima, now a high school student, and Hatsuko who works at a biscuit factory. One day, Hatsuko's long-gone father reappears. In a drunken frenzy, he sets fire to the house to go and rejoin the mother, leaving Hatsuko without a place to live. Hatsuko leaves the town on her own, drawing strength from the promise of marriage with Mishima.

Dead or Alive

Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.

The Line

Fuyuko, a magazine reporter, receives information of a "Curse Dial". If you enter your name and phone number into the "Cursed Message Dial," and when you get an answer, tell the name of the person you want to kill within 10 seconds, and that person will die.

Young Thugs: Innocent Blood

Young Thugs: Innocent Blood follows three friends through their first year after leaving high school. Having robbed their teacher on their last day, Ryoko gets a job in a hair salon, while the two boys settle down into a career of enforcement and protection.

Onibi: The Fire Within

After spending over half his life in prison, ex-hitman Kunihiro is determined to go straight. But the shortcomings of the new gangs mean that he is soon having to call on his old-school yakuza talents. And when he falls for Asako, a beautiful piano player, she unknowingly ignites a fire within Kuni that will immolate everything and everybody around him. Regarded by many as his masterpiece, Onibi has all the hallmarks of a Mochizuki film, with the gangster elements tightly compressed and controlled to allow space in which a subdued romance can bloom. Coming from a background in porno cinema, this master of sexual relations injects a fresh passion and tension into the macho world of the yakuza film.