Michio Morioka

River Returns

In 1958, as a deadly typhoon approaches, a young boy embarks on a perilous journey to a haunted mountain pool, determined to calm a sorrowful spirit whose grief has cursed the village with devastating floods.

Beijing Watermelon

Shunzo is a popular greengrocer in a town near Tokyo. His life, and the lives of his wife Michi, and their two children, undergoes a dramatic change when he encounters Li, a poor college student from China.

Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast

During the fervently nationalist months leading up to World War II, a rebellious teenager is transferred to a new primary school in a small Inland Sea town. He vies with the school’s reigning bully, who takes a romantic interest in his older stepsister. When they learn she’s going to be sold to a brothel to pay off her father’s debts, they form an uneasy alliance to free her.

April Fish

A Francophile filmmaker in a creative rut tries to pass off a free-spirited young actress as his movie-star wife in order to fool a chief from the South Seas.

His Motorbike, Her Island

After a series of chance meetings a shiftless motorbike enthusiast Ko begins a romance with a carefree girl Miyo, after teaching her to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy Ko begins to fear that she is destined to crash.

Miss Lonely

Lonely and love-stricken high-school student Hiroki pursues a girl, but another one mysteriously appears in his life. Is she a figment of his psyche, or is she real?

The Longest Tunnel

After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this project Akutsu becomes involved with Tae Makimura leading to his estrangement from his wife.

Techno Police 21C

The year is 2001 and the criminals have taken over Centinel City. The Police have lost control. The citizens are terrified... and no one can stop the madness. Even the Techno Police, a special anti-crime squad, find the situation hopeless until a wise cracking cop with an uncanny knack for out-guessing the criminals joins the force. When a powerful experiment tank is hijacked, the Techno Police and their newest recruit go to work. Equipped with an ultra-sonic car and crime-fighting Technoids, the rookie cop sets out on a death defying high-speed chase through the streets... trying to capture the crooks and trying to stay alive. But no one is aware of the awesome powers about to be unleashed.

I Are You, You Am Me

9th-graders Kazuo and Kazumi take a tumble at a temple in a small seacoast town in Japan. Through supernatural intervention, their minds and bodies are switched, and the result is a touching and hilarious coming-of-age comedy as they attempt to survive the pressures of junior high school life.

I Am a Cat

Nakadai is an English teacher at a local school. He’s put-upon like the patron figure of dozens of films and televisions shows. Viewers who are especially fans of Nakadai will appreciate how the actor comically rants about here. His home life is almost disastrous, with a ditzy (but attractive) wife, three young children, a loud school nearby that’s controlled by a corrupt businessman he loathes, and frequent visits from layabout friends. And the grey-furred, green-eyed cat!

Without Complaint

Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.

The Family

Set in the post-World War II climate of the 1960s in Kobe, the movie explores the struggle for power within the powerful Manpyo family.

The Golden Bat Shows Up

A comedy featuring The Golden Bat

I Hear the Whistle

Tells of the feelings and sufferings of a young girl with an incurable paralytic disease.