Movies: Shinji Aoyama

Aoyama Shinji’s Film History—and simultaneously a chronicle of modern Japanese history—layers together images of present-day landscapes, newsreels, and photographs of Emperor Shōwa as well as of Kōtoku Shūsui and Sugako Kanno, who were executed in th...

Yasuo is a gangster just released from jail. Believing his boss double-crossed him, enraged Yasuo is on his way to find the boss. But before setting out for the dangerous trip, Yasuo asks Kenji to take care of his mentally challenged sister, Yuri, an...

A.D. 2015: A virus has been spreading in many cities worldwide. It is a suicidal disease and the virus is infected by pictures. People, once infected, come down with the disease, which leads to death. They have no way of fighting against this infecti...

Toma lives in a small riverside town with his brutish father and his father's girlfriend. Witnessing his father's predilections for abuse, Toma becomes anxious that he will have inherited those urges....

An ex-boxer working for a game parlor owner gets caught up in a complex blackmail operation he doesn't understand. Before long he's caught between two yakuza bosses and a mysterious thief who motivation is unknown. Add in the boss' daughter who has a...

Yutaka was fourteen years old when he was run over by a car and fell into a coma. Now, ten years later, he wakes up and realizes that his family is not intact anymore: father, mother and sister live at different places. Yutaka decides to re-open the ...

In the time after Naomi's parents suddenly die, she happens to meet and bond with the popular actor Morinori Tokito who lives in the same apartment building....

A former sumo wrestler, now working as a security guard, goes on a murderous rampage....

Kotaro and Kuroe marry almost immediately in a Christian ceremony and move into an apartment. Life is completely joyous until, one day, Kuroe falls ill....

Young female embalmer Miyako is called in to restore the body of a young man who has committed suicide, before the funeral. While performing the embalming process she finds herself pricks by a needle buried deep in the boy’s flesh where it should not...

Centering on a young drifter almost casually drawn into violence--a crime drama about a boy and a man equally ill-equipped for criminal life and straight society. Neither wants to be a Yakuza, but normal life presents problems....

In rural Japan, the survivors of a tragedy converge and attempt to overcome their damaged selves, all while a serial killer is on the loose....

TRUNK, also known as WebCINEMA TRUNK, is a three-part short film directed by Shinji Aoyama. Released online as part of an experimental web cinema project and a marketing campaign, it follows an office worker who becomes entangled in a series of unexp...

Set towards the end of World War II, Nomura (Masatoshi Nagase) is a writer who is in despair. A woman works in bar and is a former prostitute. Many years ago, her father sold her to a brothel due to the family's severe financial hardships. The writer...

A convicted rapist, Ikuo is released from prison and goes in pursuit of the woman he raped, Mieko. So obsessed is he with revenge he sees her in every woman he meets. After carrying out vicious attacks on a prostitute and a young girl he finally come...

Two brothers start working as benshi narrators of silent films in a cinema in the early 20th century. This premise is the jumping-off point for an epic family saga that follows the protagonists and their descendants through wars and technological dev...

Private detective Mike takes on an assignment to return a girl, who is set to marry into a prestigious family, from a mysterious commune in the forest....

Koji, a university student and budding photographer, is asked by a man to secretly take pictures of his wife Yurika. As a result, his relationships with a girl who visits his part-time workplace called Tominaga and his step-sister Misaki begin to cha...

Three couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has...

Kaoru, a wealthy woman whose youth is fading, abandons the hustle and bustle of the city to live a peaceful life in a house on the coast. There she takes care of an old deaf, dumb and blind man as if he were an insect, a child or a pet. He can’t do a...