Movies: Ako

A molecular biologist's study of the human eye has far-reaching implications about humanity's scientific and spiritual beliefs....

In the 1950s, a Japanese-American fisherman is suspected of killing his neighbour at sea. For Ishmael, a local reporter, the trial strikes a deep emotional chord when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case. As he investigates the killing, he unc...

Junko Miyashita plays a mysterious hitchhiker picked up by a brute of a construction worker named Kenzo who takes her back to his run-down and cramped apartment in a not so good part of town. Claiming that she is running away from an abusive husband,...

A young drug dealer watches as his high-rolling life is dismantled in the wake of his cousin's murder, which sees his best friend arrested for the crime....

The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminate...

Ritsuko is a popular madame of a nightclub but, ever since her gangster husband got caught and imprisoned, her life has taken a turn for the worst. Now, in order to pay off his debts to a yakuza loan shark, Ritsuko is forced to engage in private sex ...

A junior high school student spends his nights hanging out at the disco. At home his parents are more interested in swapping partners with willing couples than spending time with their son. One evening, while shoplifting, a young woman gives him a ha...

Isamu, a star athlete in high school, becomes a race cyclist. He wins his debut races, but soon his opponents see through his lack of strategy and beat him easily. Isamu's maths teacher, a race cycling freak, says he knows the solution to Isamu's pro...

When Nicole, a young copy-shop employee, is hired to translate an ancient Chinese manuscript, she soon finds that the document has strange powers that little by little begin to exert an eerie influence over her life....

Yuko's boyfriend dumps her just after they have her first sexual experience, so she runs away from her Tokyo home to the western coast of Japan in order to straighten out her feelings. Following behind her on her journey is her friend Rena, who is tr...

Toshihiko, a high school boy, hates Kozo, his father, enough to kill him. His mother had lived in terror of him and, at last, broken in spirit, she had left and her pitiful departing figure is still seared in Toshihiko's mind. Soon, Kozo marries Asak...

Based on the comic book series of the same name by Yûsuke Aoyagi....

Rena and Yuko, the two sexually-adventurous high school girl friends from Pink Tush Girl (1978) get part-time jobs at a hostess bar in order to earn money for an abortion for Yuko. At the end of the school year the two must part as Yuko prepares to d...

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realizatio...

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The mysterious relationship between a breast-sick sister who lives in a warehouse and the younger brother who longs for her....

TBS Wednesday Drama Special about a young assistant in love with an older man who works as a photographer....

Two high school girls graduate and one of them goes off to a rural town to join an underground dance troupe. The other decides to visit and she stays with a troubled family....

A film by Akiyoshi Imazeki. Emi is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Enoshima. An adolescent movie depicting teenagers' outlook on life, values, and lifestyle....

A bored office clerk is having an affair with her married boss. Since he refuses to leave his wife, she and another couple plan to kidnap his daughter to collect a ransom....