Presents the stories of six Japanese mail-order brides whose new lives in early twentieth-century San Francisco are marked by backbreaking migrant work, cultural struggles, children who reject their heritage, and the prospect of wartime internment.

When four young orphans—Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi, and Takemura—first meet, their parents’ bodies are being turned into dust, like fine Parmesan atop a plate of spaghetti Bolognese, and yet none of them can shed a tear. They are like zombies; devoid of all emotion. With no family, no future, no dreams, and no way to move forward, the young teens decide that the first level of this new existence involves salvaging a gaming console, an old electric...

Affluent architects Ryota and his wife Midori face a terrible dilemma when they learn that their six-year-old son, Keita, was accidentally switched at birth and is not their biological child. In the wake of this revelation, Ryota's sense of fatherhood is shaken to the core as he witnesses both his wife's enduring devotion to Keita and his own conflicting feelings of nature versus nurture. Now his decision on which boy is truly his son will change...

The manager of a pancake stall finds himself confronted with an odd but sympathetic elderly woman looking for work. A taste of her homemade bean jelly convinces him to hire her, which starts a relationship that is about much more than just street food. Nominated for an Un Certain Regard Award at the **Cannes Film Festival.** Official Selection at the **Toronto Film Festival.** *"Its sentimentality is tempered by the elegant restraint of the fine lead...

Phillip Hutton lives on a Malaysian island and befriends Endo-san, a Japanese Zen master, who teaches him akido, but when World War II breaks out and the Japanese invade the island, he is torn between saving the lives of his countrymen and his loyalty to his master.

From groundbreaking animation outfit STUDIO 4°C, creators of MFKZ and the upcoming Children of the Sea, comes an extraordinary project with a simple vision: to take an all-star team of some of the best animators working in Japanese animation today, and give each free reign to tell a unique short story. The results are GENIUS PARTY and GENIUS PARTY BEYOND, two animated anthology films full of boundless imagination, fantastic worlds, and unique visual...

Zenji Watanabe, seventeen, is sent from Hawaii to the Philippines to spy on the Japanese during World War II and, after he is captured and tortured, must find a way to survive months of being lost in the jungle behind enemy lines.

Cheng Liang is a young Chinese immigrant living illegally in Japan. Desperate for work, he feigns his identity in order to get a job in a traditional Japanese soba restaurant. He starts his new life living and working with the elderly soba master (Tatsuya Fuji, In The Realm of the Senses), but always fearing to have his real identity disclosed at any moment.

After a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant, Satoko and her husband decide to adopt a baby. Years later, an unknown girl who claims to be the child's birth mother disrupts their lives. Satoko decides to confront Hikari directly.

Akiko Takakura is one of the last survivors of the atomic bomb explosion of Hiroshima. During Obon, she receives the spirits of her parents and is haunted by memories. Her father is an authoritarian and traditional man. Akiko's childhood consists of constant rejections and beatings. But the horrors of the atomic bomb and Japan's subsequent capitulation change everything. Finally Akiko experiences fatherly love in the midst of Hiroshima's ruins. Official...