Best movies like A
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like A Starring Hiroshi Araki, and more. If you liked A then you may also like: Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion, Nightmare Detective, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, Bullet Ballet, Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie: Black Dream Hole and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
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Nightmare Detective
Three people in Tokyo take a surreal voyage of self-discovery through memory and nightmares. "O" intends suicide while talking on a cell-phone with a stranger he meets on line who plans a simultaneous suicide. Events take a horrifying turn. Keiko Kirishima is a cool, seemingly emotionless police detective, brilliant but off-putting. She's faced with two mutilated corpses who appear to have killed themselves, but she's not sure. A cell-phone number links the deaths. She calls on Akumu Tantei, a poor and suicidal young man who has the ability to enter people's dreams. He's reluctant to help. His past haunts him. A subconscious duel of terror and blood awaits the three.
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.
Bullet Ballet
After his girlfriend commits suicide, a man becomes embroiled in gang warfare attempting to obtain a gun in hopes to kill himself.
Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie: Black Dream Hole
The wicked Badiyanu has come to capture all Earth's children to gain enough power to absorb the planet in her Black Dream Hole. The Black Dream Hole is in Badiyanu's castle and absorbs the dream energy from children. The more children Badiyanu kidnaps, the larger the dream hole gets. The Sailor Team must save Earth's children and prevent the Black Dream Hole from enveloping the entire planet!
Drawing Restraint 9
The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto
End of the Line
Karen, a young psychiatric nurse, boards the last subway train of the night only to have it stop in the middle of the tunnel. Suddenly, her nightmare begins: a mysterious cult has decided that it's the end of the world and the only way to save the souls of the living is to kill them in cold blood. As those around her are brutally murdered, Karen and a handful of survivors must face the homicidal cult, supernatural forces and their own fears of Armageddon in order to survive.
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
A ship runs aground on a mysterious atoll leading to an investigation by insurance representative Kusanagi, who discovers an ancient bead that he gives to his daughter Asagi. Meanwhile, ornithologist Nagamine investigates reports of a new species of large bird named Gyaos. As the Gyaos begin to attack, an ancient guardian with a bond to Asagi emerges.
Savage Messiah
Savage Messiah is a docudrama about Roch "Moïse" Thériault, the charismatic former leader of a small religious group based near Burnt River, Ontario, Canada. Between 1977 and 1989 he held sway over as many as 12 adults and 26 children. He used all of the nine women as concubines, and probably fathered most of the children in the group. During his reign, Thériault mutilated several members. His major crime was to kill Solange Boilard, his legal wife, by disembowelment while trying to perform surgery on her. He was arrested for assault in 1989, and convicted of murder in 1993. Along with Clifford Olsen and Paul Bernardo, Thériault is considered one of Canada's most notorious criminals.
Angel Dust
A police psychologist suspects her former lover of serial murders on the Tokyo subway.
Japanese Hell
From the king of the Japanese cult movie, Teruo Ishii! A controversial film in which actual cases that rocked modern-day Japan—including the sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo Cult—are dramatized with gruesome detail as their perpetrators stand trial in Hell. An angst-ridden girl, Rika, is carried off to Hell by an old woman she meets in a neighborhood park. There she gets a first-hand look at the excruciating agony of those found guilty—by Lucifer himself—of committing heinous crimes during their time on Earth.
The Family
Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.
A2
A2 is a continuation of director Tatsuya Mori's film A (1998), an incredible view inside the compound of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult after its leaders carried out the deadly sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Most followers had no idea that the attacks were being planned, or even that their new religion had violent aspirations. After the attacks, these followers were left to rebuild the religion where they had once found peace in the face of overwhelming, and understandable, condemnation from the rest of Japan. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
Twilight of the Dogs
One upon a time in the future... a man and his cow fight against an evil cult leader.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
A Japanese salaryman finds his body transforming into a weapon through sheer rage after his son is kidnapped by a gang of violent thugs.
Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis
The reincarnation of a 10th century Japanese general haunts 1920's Tokyo.
The Dragon Painter
A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.
Cult Killer
On January 7th 2005, 29 year old Rick Rodriguez murdered his former nanny and then killed himself on a lonely desert highway. Hours earlier he had videoed his suicide note and this final message provided a remarkable insight into a deeply damaged life. It also lifted the lid on one of the most notorious religious cults to emerge out of the 1960s counter culture: The Children of God sect.
20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighbourhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?
Me and the Cult Leader
Atsushi Sakahara, a victim of the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo's subway system, travels with Hiroshi Araki, an executive of Aleph (formerly Aum Shinrikyo), the attack's perpetrators, visiting their respective hometowns and the university they both attended. Conversations unfold, building intimacy: we learn why Araki joined the infamous organization led by Shoko Asahara and why, still, Araki remains an executive member of the cult, even though he was not directly involved in any of the crimes.The beginning of a friendship, a trip for redemption, or the confirmation that each human has to go their own way.
Tokyo Mafia: Yakuza Wars
After being excommunicated from the yakuza, Ginya Yabuki returns from the shadows as leader of his own crime syndicate known as the Tokyo Mafia.
Flying Phantom Ship
Hayato's home city is under attack from a gigantic robot. His parents are lying dead in the rubble and the only remaining friend is his dog. His only thought now is revenge against the owner of the Phantom Ship (from where the robot said he was sent). He ends up in the house of Kuroshio, the leader of the fight against the Phantom Ship and the most important person in the city. By complete accident, Hayato finds his way to an underground passageway where he realises that the true nature of events does not mesh with what Kuroshio has told him. His life is now in great danger, and only he can stop the plans of the evildoers.
Tokyo Biyori
This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
Akihabara Geeks
Akihabara is a neighborhood of Tokyo, Japan known as "Electric Town" for its rows of one-meter wide discount computer and electronics stores. In more recent years, Akihabara has evolved into a full-blown Mecca for computer enthusiasts, anime and manga fans, doll or "figure" collectors, video gamers and "Otaku" of all kinds. Because Akihabara caters to interests outside of mainstream Japanese society, it captivates an entire subculture of devotees. Join us as we peruse the shops, streets and Maid Cafes to present an engrossing day in the life view of Akihabara, and focus on the unique people who are passionately plugged into this town.
Unsilenced
When the Chinese Communist Party launches a brutal crackdown on its citizens, a team of innocent students risk everything to expose the deadly propaganda and fight for freedom.
Flame of My Love
A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government.
Tokyo Vampire Hotel
Manami is captured by blood thirsty trigger happy vampires, and taken to their hotel, where they keep prisoners as future meals. They are all instructed to find a partner to survive, when a vampire clan from Transylvania interferes.
The Crimes That Bind
Michiko Oshitani, who lived in Shiga Prefecture, is found dead at an apartment in Tokyo. She was strangled to death. Mutsuo Koshikawa is the owner of the apartment and he goes missing. Detectives including Yuhei Matsumiya who is a cousin of Detective Kyoichiro Kaga , have difficulties in solving the case. They can't find a connection between Michiko Oshitani and Mutsuo Koshikawa. They soon learn that Michiko Oshitani came to Tokyo to visit Hiromi Asai . They graduated from the same school, but there isn't a connection between Hiromi Asai and Mutsuo Koshikawa. Detective Yuhei Matsumiya finds something near Michiko Oshitani's body. That something has the names of 12 bridges surrounding the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Detective Kyoichiro Kaga learns of the clue and becomes agitated. There's a connection with his late mother
Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion
During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government supporters and is persecuted. Can Nichiren persevere before the Mogol fleet reaches Japanese shores?