Date

Films

December

Thursday, December 21

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "New Movies" - Vol. 3

Mameshiba

One day Jiro, a 35-year old unemployed male who has never stepped out of his town, runs into Ichiro, a Mameshiba puppy with a red scarf around its neck. Ichiro turns out to be a puppy Jiro's runaway mother had sent for her family to come looking for her.

 

Directed by Kamei Toru / Production Year: 2009 / Running Time: 106 min.

November

Wednesday, November 22

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "New Movies" - Vol. 2

A Tale of Samurai Cooking - A True Love Story

Set within the Kaga Domain of the Edo Period.
Oharu (Aya Ueto) is an excellent cook and recognized for her skills. Due to her cooking talents, she marries Yasunobu (Kengo Kora), who is an heir in the Funaki family. The Funaki family serves as the cook for the Kaga Domain. Nevertheless, Yasunobu himself is a terrible cook. With the help of Oharu's mother-in-law Mitsuru (Kimiko Yo), she begins to teach Yasunobu how to cook.

 

Directed by Yuzo Asahara / Production Year: 2013 / Running Time: 121 min.

October

Wednesday, October 18

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "New Movies" - Vol. 1

Thermae Romae

Lucius (Abe), an architect of spa baths for the Roman Empire, inadvertently travels through time and finds himself in a modern Japanese bathhouse. He takes elements of Japanese culture that he learns there back with him to Rome and is hugely successful, which leads the Emperor to command him to build a massive spa.
 

Directed by Takeuchi Hideki / Production Year: 2012 / Running Time: 108 min.

September

Wednesday, September 20

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Anime Movies" - Vol. 1

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Makoto is a high school girl who gained the gift to slip back into time and retrace her steps. And once she learns the way to make use of the ability, she exerts it to satisfy her day-to-day desire and discontent of everyday life with no hesitation. You can gobble up plenty of your favorite meal or settle tiresome troubles right away!

Directed by Mamoru Hosoda / Production Year: 2006 / Running Time: 98 min.

August

Wednesday, August 23

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Horror Movies" - Vol. 2

Haunted School

It's the last day of school before the summer vacation, traditional season for Japanese ghost tales. The children scare each other with tales of haunting as they walk to school. After the school day ends, the children go home, but 2nd grader Mika returns to collect the drawing materials she left in the classroom. Fascinated by an uncannily bouncing soccer ball that she finds, she is tempted into the old school building where she is abducted by an unseen presence.

Directed by Hirayama Hideyuki / Production Year: 1995 / Running Time: 100 min.

July

Wednesday, July 19

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Horror Movies" - Vol. 1

Ghost Pub

Sotaro runs a small Japanese style drinking establishment called Kazusaya in Yokohama. A kind and loving man, he sincerely promises his wife Shizuko on her deathbed that he will never marry again. But left to run his busy business alone, he soon buckles under his insistent brother's pressure to consider an arranged marriage with a lovely woman named Satoko. When it is clear that Satoko is also interested in him, Sotaro soon agrees to the marriage. Satoko is immediately popular with the Kazusaya regulars, but no sooner does she moves in than Shizuko returns as a ghost to haunt the scared new couple.

Directed by Takayoshi Watanabe / Production Year: 1994 / Running Time: 110 min.

May

Wednesday, May 17

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Life Journey" - Vol. 2

Moving

When sixth grader Urushiba Renko's parents Kenichi and Nazuna decide to separate, Renko is at first happy about the turn of events. The reality that they might divorce not having really sunk in, Renko is simply pleased that she now has two homes. She starts feeling uneasy when Nazuna draws a strict "contract" for their life together which asserts their independence from from Kenichi. She then becomes concerned about what will happen at school if people find out, given that her classmates already tease another girl, Sally, whose parents have divorced.

Renko draws up a plan to bring her parents back together, so she buys tickets and makes reservations for a trip for three to Lake Biwa, where she and her parents spent summer vacation last year. Renko and an unsuspecting Nazuna arrive at the hotel and come across Kenichi, who proposes that the three live together as they once did. But when Nazuna gets upset at the thought, Renko runs away from a chasing Kenichi, and she runs into a strange old man, Sunahara...

Directed by Somai Shinji / Production Year: 1993 / Running Time: 124 min.

April

Wednesday, April 19

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Life Journey" - Vol. 1

One Million Yen and Girl

Suzuko is 21 years old and already tired of people. She begins a journey and promises herself to stick with one rule: once she saves up a million yen, she must leave for another town. When people get too close, she packs her bags and departs for another destination. Encouraged by the letters from her brother, who is the target of hazing at school, she begins to discover ways to open up through the interaction with people she meets on the road, and slowly but surely nurture courage to move on.

Suzuko has been let down by other people. Disappointed and hurt, she embarks on the road to self-rediscovery. It is a journey to face who she is and learn how to trust others once again. Suzuko is a manifestation of distrust and fear of others, which exist in all of us living in a modern society. By the end of the journey, Suzuko accepts herself as she is and smiles as she takes a step toward future inciting hope for all of us.

Directed by Yuki TANADA / Production Year: 2008 / Running Time: 121 min.

March

Wednesday, March 15

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Emotional Movies" - Vol. 4

Poppya

Otomatsu's father told him the railways would help rebuild Japan after WW2 and he urged his son to take a job in the national railways. Being a conscientious son, Otomatsu did so and he became a poppoya or railroad man, working first as an engineer, then as stationmaster in the small town of Horomai. He has attended neither the deathbed of his wife or his infant daughter because he will not leave the station during his shift.

Japan was built and the days of rail travel have declined to the point where Otomatsu finds himself obsolete, since the train line he has run for so many years with unwavering dedication will soon be closed down. Otomatsu's longtime friend and coworker is planning to work at a new resort hotel in the mountains and tries to convince Otomatsu to work with him, but Otomatsu has never contemplated doing anything else but working on the railroad. Now, as the station's last days roll around, Otomatsu reflects on the past...

　
Directed by Yasuo Furuhata / Production Year: 1999 / Running Time: 112 min

February

Wednesday, February 15

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Studio Ghibli Animation"

When Marnie Was There

Anna is a twelve year old girl who lives in the city. Having lost her parents at an early age, she lives with her foster parents, shutting herself away from those around her. When her asthma worsens, she is sent to live with her foster mother Yoriko’s relatives, the Owias, in a village by the sea. Thus begins a summer of adventure for Anna as she sees a mysterious blonde girl trapped behind a blue window...

　
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi / Production Year: 2014 / Running Time: 103 min

January

Wednesday, January 18

From 6 P.M.

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Special Feature "Emotional Movies" - Vol. 3

First Love

The hospitalization of her mother for cancer comes as a great shock to 17-year-old high school student, Satoka Aida, and disturbs the comfortable harmony of her home life. One day, Satoka discovers an unsent lover letter written by her mother long ago to her first live. Satoka sets out to fulfill her mother's long lost wish to meet her first live under the "Cherry Tree of Wishes" in her mother's hometown.

　
Directed by Tetsuo Shinohara / Production Year: 1999 / Running Time: 115 min