Director Miho Niikura examines the modern practice of tee (Okinawan karate), and its attractiveness to Westerners—some of whom travel thousands of miles to study the venerable martial art in its birthplace, Okinawa.
Social & External
ONE OK ROCK with Orchestra Japan Tour 2018 features the final performance of the special concert held at Osaka-jo Hall in October 2018, where the band performed with a 53-member orchestra, alongside footage from the Saitama Super Arena show. The release also includes a 100-page booklet packed with newly shot member photos, commentary, live reports, and interviews with the production team, offering a deeply engaging read.
The protagonists of the film are the Zainichi Korean women living in Kawasaki. They were tossed about by the war, and after many trips to and fro across the sea in search of a place to live, they finally arrived in Kawasaki, where they have lived modestly and vigorously.
A journey into the unique, often bizarre, world of Japanese cat culture. Cat themed cafes, bars, temples, cat islands, cats with human jobs, cat friendly businesses, and the origins of the iconic beckoning cat statue.
A short documentary about the former judoka Marina and her Judo Club for People with Disabilities - "Fuji". Its brave members cope with all things Judo and real-life challenges, but always with a smile and the heart of a true judoka.
Megumi Odaka (小高恵美) idol VHS tape, Megumi the Campaign - Idol Roke Zenkoku Jyuudan, 1989. She is best known for the role of Miki Saegusa in six Godzilla films from 1989 to 1995.
Documentary about two boys and a girl who travel to surfing spots around the world.
In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.
A documentary film that includes footage of past Olympics held in different countries with an particular emphasis on the activities and successes of Japanese athletes and how they are currently (circa 1963) improving themselves.
Actual footage by the United States Signal Corps of the landing and attack on Arawe Beach, Cape Glouster, New Britain island in 1943 in the South Pacific theatre of World War Two, and the handicaps of the wild jungle in addition to the Japanese snipers and pill-box emplacements.
This is the story of Kaori Kawabuchi, a samurai sword performer, singer and motion capture actor. An inspiring woman keeping alive ancient traditions and spirituality in modern Japan.
Let the sun shine in! Ramel Rones gently guides you through the morning with a series of powerful mind/body exercises that awaken the senses, stimulate the mind, and fill your body and spirit with abundant energy. This simplified, short t'ai chi ch'uan sequence is practiced to both the left and right for balance. This video is intended to be a comprehensive introduction to tai chi. Rones also offers suggestions to intermediate and advanced students.
A profile on martial artist John Liu and the making of his "lost" U.S. directorial debut, 'New York Ninja'.
30 years of the band, 30 years of Japanese rock. The story of passion toward the band and music.
A sports documentary that follows the former world champion of viking fights, Christoffer Cold, in his battle to win back his status as The Worlds Greatest Viking.
Made in Japan, Last Room is both fiction and documentary. The occupants of the love-hotels and capsule-hotels tell their own intimate, dreamlike stories, interspersed with journeys through the archipelago's landscapes. Soon, these personal stories resonate with a collective history: that of Gunkanjima, the abandoned ghost island of Nagasaki, and then that of Japan as a whole.
The war in the South Pacific, a country doctor in Colorado, victims of industrial pollution in a Japanese village — all were captured in unforgettable photographs by the legendary W. Eugene Smith. This program showcases over 600 of Smith’s stunning photographs and includes a dramatic recreation in which actor Peter Riegert (Crossing Delancey, Local Hero) portrays the artist using dialogue take from Smith’s diaries and letters. Interwoven through the program are archival footage and interviews with family and friends of this brilliant, complicated man, whose work developed from twin themes of common humanity and social responsibility.
This film is about Japanese women, escape, glamour and dreams. The Takarazuka Revue is an enormously successful spectacular where the all-women cast create fantasies of erotic love and sensitive men. It is also a world for young girls desperate to do something different with their lives. In return for living a highly disciplined and reclusive existence, they will be adored and envied by many thousands of Japanese women. They will look, act and behave like young men while having no real men in their lives. Dream Girls explores the nature of sexual identity and the contradictory tensions that face young women in Japan today.
Suh, whose favorite Packer will always be Mason Crosby; Omi and Ayaka, whose infant daughter already sports a green and gold onesie, and Ryuta aka “fatdragon08” who briefly lived in Milwaukee in 1990, studying English, where he was teased for wearing a San Fancisco 49ers jacket, and subsequently converted to the Pack Life. Benzine’s film lets us spend quality time with these super fans, and then follows them as they make plans to cross the sea to see their beloved Packers in-person at Lambeau! As director Benzine says, “No Packers, No Life is a story about a sports team and their fans, but more than that it illustrates how people from all over the world can come together and unite over a common passion. Also, the Japanese fans arrive in Green Bay and get to ride the Zippin Pippin and party a lot. It’s a very good time.”
Using never-before-seen footage, Japan's War In Colour tells a previously untold story. It recounts the history of the Second World War from a Japanese perspective, combining original colour film with letters and diaries written by Japanese people. It tells the story of a nation at war from the diverse perspectives of those who lived through it: the leaders and the ordinary people, the oppressors and the victims, the guilty and the innocent. Until recently, it was believed that no colour film of Japan existed prior to 1945. But specialist research has now unearthed a remarkable colour record from as early as the 1930s. For eight years the Japanese fought what they believed was a Holy War that became a fight to the death. Japan's War In Colour shows how militarism took hold of the Japanese people; describes why Japan felt compelled to attack the West; explains what drove the Japanese to resist the Allies for so long; and, finally, reveals how they dealt with the shame of defeat.