The best Michitaka Tsutsui’s movies

The time: 1814. The place: Edo, now known as Tokyo. A much accomplished artist of his time and now in his mid-fifties, Tetsuzo can boast clients from all over Japan, and tirelessly works in the garbage-loaded chaos of his house-atelier. He spends his days creating astounding pieces of art, from a giant-size Bodhidharma portrayed on a 180 square meter-wide sheet of paper, to a pair of sparrows painted on a tiny rice grain. Third of Tetsuzo's four daughters and born out of his second marriage, outspoken 23-year-old O-Ei has inherited her father's talent and stubbornness, and very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. Her art is so powerful that sometimes leads to trouble. "We're father and daughter; with two brushes and four chopsticks, I guess we can always manage, in a way or another."

Every night, Master (Kaoru Kobayashi) is busy with customers at the restaurant he runs. He has a worried face, looking at the funerary urn which someone left at his restaurant. His customers also talk about the funerary urn.

College student Sota picks up a cassette tape left behind by musician Aki when he died a year ago. When the tape is played back, Aki takes over Sota's body for just 30 minutes. They share the same body and rush to reunite a band that split up and bring a smile to Aki's girlfriend Kana's face.

Two sets of parents divorce and marry each other, while their children Miki and Yuu are caught in the middle and start falling for each other.

A young girl named Kiki (Fuka Koshiba) must leave her home for a year to begin training in witchcraft. She leaves on her broom, but first says goodbye to her friends and family. Kiki then begins her new life with her trusted cat Jiji.

Based on the plot of an award-winning Crayon Shin-chan animated movie from 2002, a boy named Shinichi (Takei) does the time-traveling and meets a feared general named Ijiri Matabei (Kusanagi). Ijiri is in love with Princess Ren (Aragaki) who subsequently rejects an arranged marriage to Okura Itakatora (Osawa), a powerful daimyo of northern Kanto. Enraged by the rejection, Okura sends a large army to Ijiri's smaller state and it's up to Shinichi to change their destiny.

1989 is the 64 Shouwa year in the Japanese calendar, thus the unsolved girl kidnapping-murder case is called "64(rokuyon)" that got up in this year in Criminal Investigation Department in the Prefectural Police Department. And 14 years were over as the prefecture's police to be unsolved greatest stain, and statute of limitations approached it. In 2002, Yoshinobu Mikami, an ex-detective who was assigned as the investigator of the "Rokuyon" case 14years ago, moves as a Public Relations Officer in the Police Affairs Department against his will. As a newly assigned Public Relations Officer, he was troubled with the relation between the reporters, new case has occurred. And that new case traced "Rokuyon" case exactly.

This movie is a political/espionage thriller, based on a real kidnapping incident of Korean politician, Kim Dae-Jun.

In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.

"A world" - After graduating from a university, close friends Takashi Tsurug and Tomohiko Miwa begin work at a company which does brain research. One day, Tomohiko introduces Mayuko Tsuno as his girlfriend. Takashi is stunned. When he was a university student, Takashi saw Mayuko Tsuno every day on the train opposite from the one he rode. He became attracted to her back then. "B world" - When Takashi Tsurug wakes up, his girlfriend Mayuko Tsuno makes breakfast as usual at his apartment. His friend Tomohiko Miwa introduced him to Mayuko and they have lived happily as a couple. Everything seems to be going smoothly, but Takashi begins to have doubts. Tomohiko, who worked with him at the same company, disappears and he can't discern if his memory is real or imaginary.

Shoko and Mutsuki get married to satisfy their worried parents, but she is well past the age at which a 'good' Japanese woman should marry, and he is in love with a young male college student. The film is less a realistic exploration of gay life than a fairy tale of three young Japanese trying to construct an alternative to the sexual and familial roles given to them by a society turning increasingly emotionally barren.L.

Years after moving to Tokyo with her parents, Hinako returns to her hometown in rural Shikoku. She soon learns that her childhood friend, Sayuri, died several years ago and that Sayuri's mother, who used to perform seances and exorcisms, has gone almost insane with grief. After seeing Sayuri's ghost several times during the night, Hinako consults with some local experts on the paranormal and discovers that Sayuri's mother has something planned for her daughter...

Bem, Bela and Belo arrive at a new town plagued by a series of mysterious, unsolved cases which, as they discover, are caused by another youkai, one more powerful than they have ever encountered. The story will also focus on Belo's first love, and his increasing desire to become human. In the meantime, Bem and Bela have found a way to become human, but are conflicted about whether to let just Belo turn human, or along with Belo, become humans themselves.

Kosuke Mikado, who works at a bookstore, has been suffering from a peculiar constitution that ghosts can see from an early age. One day, Kosuke was invited by a exorcist, Rihito Hiyakawa, who came to the bookstore and decided to work with him. The two men, who were requested by the detective Hanzawa to investigate the serial murder case that occurred a year ago, eventually found a body, but the body was cursed. While searching for the truth, they often hear the voice of the murderer who committed suicide...

A visibly pregnant Yuko returns home to find her family still grappling with the recent passing of her mother, Emiko, while her father becomes increasingly withdrawn and her older brother hopelessly combative.