Movies Like Our Town

This Greedy Old Skin

1960

A kind of modern dress "Donzoko" "The Lower Depths", about slum life in Osaka, where a greedy widow (Mimasu) takes advantage of her poor roomers, including her own son, who makes a meagre living stripping taxicabs.

New World

2011

Coco, a Beijing modern girl wants to spend a romantic and fancy Christmas vacation in Osaka. However the place where she gets in is Shinsekai ( "New World" in English, is an old neighbourhood located next to south Osaka city's downtown "Minami " area, as known as one of the most poorest and dangerous area in Osaka.)When she arrives there, she starts feeling regret and frustrated by the encounters and the landscapes which are far beyond her expectation. Suddenly she is involved in an incident surrounds a Chinese family there, meanwhile she starts fascinated by Shinsekai through her wondering. In this short and unusual Christmas vacation, Coco discovers a "Japan " she never knows and a "China" that she is not familiar with.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

1939

In late 19th-century Tokyo, Kikunosuke Onoue, the adopted son of a legendary actor, himself an actor specializing in female roles, discovers that the praise he receives is only due to his status as his father's heir. Devastated, he turns to Otoku, a servant of his family, for comfort, and they fall in love. Kikunosuke becomes determined to leave home and develop as an actor on his own merits, and Otoku faithfully joins him.

7th & Union

2021

Ex-fighter Raymundo forms an unlikely bond with a disgruntled man whose life and relationship with his daughter are unraveling. The men join forces to win a fight that could very well save Raymundo, his wife and their child.

Repast

1951

In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.

The Makioka Sisters

1983

This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.

The Round Table

2014

Kokko is a third grade elementary school student. Even though she has a family who loves her, Kokko is full of dissatisfaction and she admires loneliness.

Tokyo Family

2013

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

The Pornographers

1966

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.

Women of the Night

1948

In early post-war Osaka, three women—war widow Fusako, her Korean expat sister Natsuko, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law—descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

1972

After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.

Intentions of Murder

1964

The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.

Haitoku no mesu

1961

This Is I

2026

Bullied for wanting to be an idol, Kenji finds belonging in a cabaret and help from a trailblazing doctor, emerging onstage as her true self, Ai Haruna.

Asako I & II

2018

Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.

ナニワ金融道 2発目〜銭と泪と権利と女〜

2022

Tokyo Fist

1995

A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Kojima, on the subway. Kojima is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Kojima might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.

Café Lumière

2004

In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.