What a Wonderful Family!

2016

Japanese

6.8

♡ 10

Yôji Yamada Director

Yuriko Hirooka as

Takashi Sasano as Custodian

Jun Fubuki as Kayo Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Noriko Mamiya

A husband and wife have been married for 50 years. For her birthday, the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday present. She replies that she wants a divorce. The wife's divorce announcement sends the entire family into chaos.

What a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life

2018

Japanese

6.8

♡ 8

96%

friends vs. family interment

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as

Jun Fubuki as

Masahiko Nishimura as Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as

At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.

Mix

2017

Japanese

6.5

♡ 10

Jun'ichi Ishikawa Director

Anne Nakamura as Fuka Sato

Sayaka Yamaguchi as Seiko Sano

Yui Aragaki as Tamiko Tomita Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Yang

Tamiko used to be a very good ping pong player as a child, but she is now twenty-eight years old and left the sport behind. Her mother Hanako had taught her how to play imposing discipline and regimen, but following the former's death the daughter had felt free by quitting the sport and instead leading an ordinary life. One of her co-workers Akihiko asks her to go steady one day, but soon sleeps with a pretty co-worker called Airi. Having lost her chance with this man she quits her job and returns to her hometown. Here her mother once owned a ping pong club. At the same time, the man she lost has joined the company's ping pong club prompting her to want to beat him. She begins to practice again.—aghaemi

Tokyo!

2008

Japanese

♡ 14

76%

Michel Gondry Director

Ayumi Itô as Akemi

Ryô Kase as Akira Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as La livreuse de pizza

Yutaka Matsushige as (segment "Shaking Tokyo")

Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.

Yamato

2005

Japanese

6.4

♡ 9

Jun'ya Satô Director

Shinobu Terajima as Ayako

Kimiko Yo as Sayo Nishi Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Taeko

Atsuko Takahata as Tsune Tamaki

Directed by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the present day and uses flashbacks to tell the story of the crew of the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato. The film was never released in the United States, where reviewers who have seen it have compared the military epic to "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan."

Mushi-Shi: The Movie

2006

Japanese

5.9

♡ 3

Katsuhiro Ôtomo Director

Travis Willingham as Ginko

Joe Odagiri as Ginko Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Tanyu

Christopher Sabat as (voice)

Mushi are beings in touch with the essence of life, far more basic and pure than normal living things. Most humans are incapable of perceiving Mushi and are oblivious to their existence, but there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with Mushi. One such person is Ginko who travels from place to place to research Mushi and aid people suffering from problems caused by them.

Flowers

2010

Japanese

6.6

♡ 2

60%

Action

Drama

Norihiro Koizumi Director

Yûko Takeuchi as Kaoru

Tarô Suruga as Kei's husband Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Rin

Yukie Nakama as Sato

Flowers examines the lives of six women across three generations, from the Show period all the way through to the present day.

Honey & Clover

2006

Japanese

6.4

♡ 2

56%

Action

Drama

Romance

Masahiro Takada Director Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Hagu

Ryô Kase as Mayama

Yûsuke Iseya as Morita

Masato Sakai as Shuji Hanamoto

Adapted from the popular manga of the same name, director Masahiro Takada's coming of age drama follows five Hama Art College students as they prepare to venture out into the real world on a great voyage of self-discovery.

Tokyo Family

2013

Japanese

7.5

♡ 4

91%

Yôji Yamada Director

Taiki Matsuno as

Teiyû Ichiryûsai as (as Mie Suzuki) Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Noriko Mamiya

Jun Fubuki as Woman at the bar

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

Vampire

2011

English

5.2

♡ 5

32%

Shunji Iwai Director

Amanda Plummer as Helga

Katharine Isabelle as Lapis Lazuli

Kristin Kreuk as Maria Lucas Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Mina

An outwardly normal schoolteacher preys on suicidal women to slake his overwhelming thirst for human blood.

About Her Brother

2010

Japanese

7.0

69%

Drama

Yôji Yamada Director

Yuriko Ishida as Chiyaki Komiyana

Sayuri Yoshinaga as Ginko Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Koharu Takano

Ryô Kase as Toru Nagata

Ginko's younger brother Tetsuro, a failed comedian, is the oddball of the family. Embarrassing, loud and plain inappropriate at times causes Ginko to disown him. The two reunite when she discovers Tetsuro is terminally ill. Tetsuro’s impending death marks the beginning of love and toleration.

Killing

2018

Japanese

6.5

♡ 5

100%

Shin'ya Tsukamoto Director

Shûji Ôtsuki as Kahei

Sôsuke Ikematsu as Mokunoshin

Masahiro Kobayashi as Villager Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Yu

In Edo period Japan, a lone ronin lives in a village helping the farmers tend to their land. One day, a group of outlaw swordsmen enter the village.

Haruko Azumi Is Missing

2016

Japanese

6.1

♡ 3

100%

Daigo Matsui Director

Maho Yamada as Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Haruko Azumi

Motoki Ochiai as Kawamoto

Ryô Kase as Sawai

While a gang of high school girls randomly beats lone men at night, the photo of a young woman who has been declared missing is used to design a template which is painted on each wall of a small suburban town.

Hito no sekkusu o warauna

2007

Japanese

6.2

♡ 4

Action

artist

based on novel or book

Comedy

infidelity

older woman younger man relationship

Romance

teacher student relationship

university

Nami Iguchi Director

Shûgo Oshinari as Domoto / Mirume's friend Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as En / Mirume's friend

Miwako Ichikawa as Student

Yôichi Nukumizu as Yamada / teacher

Mirume is a 19 year old college student who falls in love with Yuri, an almost 40 year old art teacher at his university. Yuri isn't your typical college professor, having a quirky sense of humor and unpredictable personality. When Yuri invites Murume to her studio, she playfully seduces the still naive 19 year old student. Things become more complicated when Mirume discovers that Yuri is married to a much older man....

Honokaa bôi

2009

Japanese

6.6

♡ 2

Action

based on novel or book

Atsushi Sanada Director

Eri Fukatsu as Chako

Keiko Matsuzaka as Edeli Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Kaoru

Masaki Okada as Leo

Leo, a young Japanese college student, travels to Hawaii and eventually falls in love with Maray, an older Japanese-Caucasion woman.

The Lightning Tree

2010

Japanese

5.8

♡ 2

Action

based on novel or book

Ryuichi Hiroki Director

Hiroshi Yamamoto as Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Rai / Yu

Sôkô Wada as Suketarou Seta

Kengo Kôra as Tomozou

Set during the Edo Period, a young man from a noble family meets a young woman under a special tree called "Raiou" (the tree was struck by lightning at one time with the broken part eventually sprouting out cherry blossoms). The young woman lived freely in the mountains after she was abducted as a young child. The couple soon fall in love under the Raiou tree, but become acutely aware of their different social positions & the ramifications it has on their relationship.

Children of the Sea

2019

Japanese

6.5

♡ 12

62%

Ayumu Watanabe Director Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Azumi Kanako

Gorô Inagaki as Azumi Masaaki

Mana Ashida as Azumi Ruka

Marie Ôi as Fuyuko

Ruka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora's special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys' power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.

What a Wonderful Family

2017

Japanese

7.0

♡ 10

Yôji Yamada Director

Takashi Sasano as Custodian

Gekidan Hitori as Detective

Jun Fubuki as Kayo Yû Aoi

Yû Aoi as Noriko Mamiya

Several years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin after carousing. Soon, a new disturbance arises for the Hirata family. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his comedy about the “perfect“ Japanese family turned upside down in chaos, laughters and understanding. This time, with an additional taste of death.