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Experience a ground-breaking two-week program and market from November 26 to December 10, 2024, showcasing Japan’s finest video content to the world! The platform brings together a vibrant mix of innovative, creative, and unique films, delivering laughter, tears, nostalgia, and fresh perspectives. From captivating storylines to unexpected twists, it offers something for everyone and meets the growing global demand for exceptional Japanese entertainment. Don’t miss it!

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Here are all the titles:

A Samurai in Time

Junichi Yasuda : Third Window Films

2024 | 131min | comedy, fantasy, period drama

Nobutora-Samurai Tiger

Shusuke Kaneko, Harumasa Miyashita : Miyaobi Pictures

2021 | 135min | period drama, history, Japanese traditional

Esports!! Real-Time Battle Shogi Edition

Tomari Seiya: Amarrar Inc

2024 | 100min | comedy, drama, family

“Hideyoshi” Works for a Start-up Company

Keisuke Yoshimura: Aichi Television Broadcasting Co.,Ltd.

2023 | 30min×3 | fantasy, drama

Traverse

Yuuki Okda: movie「Traverse」Produchtion Committee

2019 | 96min | action, japanese traditional, kangfoo

Ghost Bugs

Saku Sakamoto: zelicofilm,...

Within the vast landscape of Asian cinema, the works by Takeshi Kitano, as director and actor, have always been highly anticipated by many. However, when news spread he would retire from filmmaking after making one more feature, fans already thought this one might be the samurai epic he had been developing ever since “Sonatine”. Based on the infamous Honno-ji incident, the story portrays a time of political and social upheaval in Japan and is following the footsteps of directors such as Akira Kurosawa who made countless classics and established the historical samurai movie. “Kubi”, which translates to “neck”, also features a cast of many renowned actors, for example, Ryo Kase, Tadanobu Asano, Susumu Terajima and Kitano himself in one of the leading roles.

Kubi is screening at Nippon Connection

The story begins in 1582 after the uprising by lord Araki Murashige (Kenichi Endo) has been brutally beaten down by the forces...

A project that’s reportedly been in gestation for 30 years, so long that Akira Kurosawa once expressed huge hopes for its success before he died, Kubi is a labor of love.

Billed in its press materials as “the latest film by Takeshi Kitano” but hopefully not the veteran director’s last, it marks Kitano’s return to the samurai genre for the first time since 2003’s Zatoichi (a.k.a. The Blind Swordsman). The latter did modestly solid business in its day for an international film, and it will be interesting to see if Kitano, practically a national treasure in Japan, still has the same pull across Asian territories as he used to, let alone across the Pacific and beyond.

But regardless of any box-office performance, this challenging, extremely violent, ravishing-looking, intricately plotted adaptation by Kitano of his novel is of interest for its fresh take on a musty genre.

For all their grisly mayhem, the earliest films by Takeshi Kitano all demonstrated a keen grasp of negation. Violence was an omnipresent fixture of his first crime capers––from Violent Cop (1989) to Fireworks (1997)––but it unfolded in hiccups. The director enjoyed trading in tantalizing elisions, and his most gruesome scenes would often leave the action offscreen, offering a set-up and aftermath while cutting the most dramatic moments––an approach that would become more frequent after A Scene at the Sea (1991), the first feature he’d edit himself. It was as if Kitano had realized the most visceral shots were those left on the cutting room floor and proceeded to fashion those early projects on an iceberg principle: prodding one to imagine the bloodletting without ever displaying it in full. It was a style predicated on absence; it made the violence all the more vivid, the films all the more original.

Kadokawa has revealed the first look teaser for a movie called Kubi, a historical epic from iconic Japanese actor Beat Takeshi. This will be premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival later this month in the Cannes Premiere section. This film was conceived by director Takeshi Kitano around the same time as Sonatine, one of his early masterpieces, and has been in the works for 30 years. It depicts the "Honnoji Incident" along with the ambitions, betrayals, and fates of various characters, including warlords, ninja, comedians, and peasants. The ambitious new film has assembled a splendid and unique cast! Takeshi plays Hideyoshi Hashiba, who plots the "Honnoji Incident," and Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Mitsuhide Akechi. Ryo Kase gives a dubious performance as the mad genius Nobunaga Oda, while Tadanobu Asano and Nao Omori play the military strategist Kanpei Kuroda, who supports Hideyoshi, and his brother Hidenaga Hashiba with a great sense of humor.