Movies: Saki Takaoka

Japan around 1860: popular courtesan Asagiri will be freed soon from her service, yet she cannot imagine any other existence. Until one day at a local festival, Asagiri meets the young artisan Hanjiro by chance – an encounter that changes her destiny...

On a massive luxury cruise ship while at sea, the loyal butler and a mysterious woman cross paths as they try to uncover a murder-mystery that occurs on the ship....

A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo....

Former yakuza underling Kazuma Kiryū has recently been released from prison after a lengthy incarceration and is trying to piece his life together and distance himself from his yakuza past. Unfortunately, Kiryū's problems slowly escalate as he is pur...

'Female' is comprised of five short films adapted from five novels by female authors. Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, Tetsuo Shinohara, Ryuichi Hiroki, Miwa Nishikawa, and Suzuki Matsuo....

Hibino Tsubaki is a young teenage girl with a talent for styling other people's hair. Yet, Tsubaki suffers from low self-esteem and isn't very comfortable styling her own hair. She also has a tendency to dress old-fashioned. She's teased at high scho...

Weaving two storylines together: the first is the story of 18th-century shogunate intrigue and loyalty, and the second is a ghost story about a beautiful woman who falls victim to passion and evil....

Years after the events of Megazone 23 II, the only city on Earth is the supposedly idyllic Eden. There lives Eiji Takanaka, a B Level hacker who has just been accepted into EX, the organization that controls Eden. However, before his first day on the...

An anonymous letter is delivered to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The letter states that a criminal of a murder case will appear at the countdown party Masquerade Night that will be held at Hotel Cortesia Tokyo. Detective Kosuke Nitta mus...

Based on a 2016 novel by Mana Sakura, “The Lowlife” shows the stories of three women who work in Japan’s adult video industry....

A former couple remembers their most intimate days, only to part once again. A bittersweet love story inspired by a Jim Jarmusch masterpiece, set in times of the COVID-19 pandemic....

A terminally ill girl, who dreams of going to Finland to see the northern lights, falls in love...

Jirocho (Kiichi Nakai), a fledgling bakuto who left his wife, goes on a year-long training with his minions: right-hand man and military master Ohmasa (Kishibe Ittoku); stinky priest Daigoro (Takashi Sasano); well-known stranger Ishimatsu Mori (Yoich...

A woman has an ugly face. She has been called 'monster' since childhood. A case occurs in her town that leads to her being ejected and a relocation to Tokyo. She obtains plastic surgery and begins working as a prostitute. She makes some dough and ext...

A university student has the usual dreams and aspirations. It turns out to be a pipe dream and so she murders her own flesh and blood. The usual media heads seek an answer in order to sell copy. A psychologist is writing a book about the character an...

Nostalgia is Takashi Miike’s favorite film of his considerable body of work. Including biographical elements, Nostalgia centers around the home and school of a young boy, whose family mix the violent and dysfunctional with the comic and the loveable....

Follows high school teacher Seiji Hasumi's background history and in the process depicts the horror inherent in daily life....

Yokubo from director Tetsuo Shinohara is based off of the award-winning love story by Mariko Koike. A young man searching for physical comfort and dumb lust, and the world-weary woman drowning in a sea of men that works with him. This is a fantastic ...

As a young man returns home after his first year away at college he recalls his senior year of high school and the iron-willed, big city girl that turned his world upside down....

Nagisa, a high school girl who has been given three months to live. Without telling her widowed father where she is going, she sets out from the city to the small town where she was born. She recalls her childhood memories, and her love for Satoshi b...