Movies: Atsuro Watabe

A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety....

The story of a teenage boy named Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an "up-skirt" photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko t...

Ruthless dominatrixes pursue a mild-mannered salesman who wants to get out of his unbreakable contract with a secret bondage club....

An Asian cross-cultural trilogy of horror films from accomplished indie directors: "Dumplings", directed by Fruit Chan of Hong Kong; "Cut", directed by Park Chan-Wook of Korea; "Box", directed by Miike Takashi of Japan. The first film "Dumplings" was...

Archeologist and avid puzzle solver Professor Layton and his assistant Luke are caught up in an adventure when a masked figure steals an entire opera house and forces those in attendance to play a high-stakes game. The winner will receive eternal lif...

The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan....

A failure as a teacher and a familyman, Shinichi tries to escape everyday live by dressing up as the superhero "Zebraman". Although the TV series was canceled after only 6 episodes, this cannot stop him from acting out his escapist fantasy in a self ...

There is a man who divorced his wife. He moved to rural Hokkaido from Tokyo where he lived with his family without running water or electricity. He has his son and daughter in tow and works hard for them. The folk in the area try to help. A couple of...

Futakotamagawa High School had a Baseball Club, but because of a fight during one of their games, they were suspended for a year from all games. Composed of student delinquents, Futakotamagawa High's new Literature teacher Kawato Koichi inspires the ...

Three murder cases take place in Tokyo. Numbers are left at the murder scenes, possibly hinting at where the next murder will take place. An investigation begins of the serial killer and Detective Kosuke Nitta works on the case. He believes the next ...

Akira, a teacher from Tokyo, has just arrived in a small rural town to begin his new job. Soon after arriving, he meets, and begins to fall for, Miki, a papermaker and part of a large and unusual family. When he learns of an ancient legend that the f...

A melodrama about the life of a mentally disabled young man and his devoted sister after their famous novelist father and housewife mother go to Australia on a business trip....

Adapted from the successful play, the film takes place in 19th-century Japan, where a war between demons and their slayers is fought. Izumo, a kabuki actor with a demon-slaying past, meets and falls in love with Tsubaki. However, something is not ri...

Graduating at the top of her class, elite detective candidate Jun Shibata is transferred to the section that handles cases deemed "unsolvable" by the department. Her partner, though a well-respected and experienced detective, has grown complacent aft...

A friend of the detective has been is murdered. During the investigation, he comes across a source which tells him that his friend was murdered for involvement with the dark side of the political world. On top of that, a woman approaches the detectiv...

On the outset, the Okunos seem like a normal happy family with father Tadashi and his two bright sons, genetics researcher Izumi and artsy Haru. When a series of arson attacks strike the neighborhood, clues left at the crime scenes seem to be somehow...

Writer-director Gu Su-yeon's new film draws on his own semiautobiographical account of growing up as a delinquent zainichi Korean (Japanese-born, but of Korean ancestry) in the seaside city of Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture, a working-class hell...

A widow and her two sons, Seitaro and Koji, live in the small town of Komori, where Buraku people are forced to reside. The two boys are continuously harassed by their teachers and classmates through their childhood as a result of their Buraku herit...

Chacha, the woman of the blood of Nobunaga, who loved with Hideyoshi, and feared Tokugawa....

Am I really the daughter of a thieves family? Hana Mikumo, daughter of the "L family", a family of thieves, unexpectedly falls in love with Kazuma Sakuraba, the son of a family of police officers. She spends her days dreaming of a normal life whilst ...