Best movies like Tales of the Bizarre: 2003 Spring Special

From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.

Three apparently unrelated suicides occur on the same day in Tokyo. One involves a young athlete, one a groom at his wedding reception, and the third an elderly man celebrating his wife's birthday. A middle aged detective investigating one of the cases begins to suspect a connection between the three when he discovers that each person mentioned a "green monkey" before they died. With the help of a young psychiatrist he formulates the theory that hypnosis is somehow involved. In the mean time other bizarre "suicides" are reported and the mystery intensifies. Who will be next? What is the truth? Can more deaths be prevented?

A rumbunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki theatre with strip shows.

Roman Porno from 1977. One day, school student named Jun, suffering from exam hell, meets a dazzling woman named Naoko...

A young doujinshi writer doesn't win the literary prize award, and ends up killing the selection committee.

Confusingly, this is actually the first “Stop the…” movie of what (to date) has been a trilogy. Kuni (Kenichi Endo) runs a Phone Sex service, where middle-aged men talk too, and arrange to meet, schoolgirls for “Compensated Dating” (enjo kosai) – the men provide gifts in return for “dating” the schoolgirl (although no money changes hands, this is effectively teenage prostitution). Kuni discovers that one group of schoolgirls are using his service to ambush (and then blackmail) his clients and decides to embark on a moral crusade against them (hence the title, Stop the Bitch…). Unfortunately, this crusade takes the form of arranging to meet the schoolgirls, having (kinky and degrading) sex with them and then running off without paying. The logic goes that if these girls are not making money from their “dating”, they will give it up, making the world a safer place for everyone. Unfortunately for Kuni, these schoolgirls decide to fight back….

With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. Three-time Seijun Suzuki collaborator Goro Tanada wrote a gangsterized adaptation of Ozaki’s story for Uchida at a time when the yakuza had eclipsed the samurai genre as Toei's main cash crop. Protagonist Hishakaku murders a man in a quarrel over a barmaid and goes to jail. In his temporary absence, his girlfriend Otoyo, a former geisha, falls for Hishakaku’s brother, inciting a dangerous love triangle that, in typical yakuza fashion, ends tragically.

Story of a bandit king.

Naomi Shimizu is a young career woman working for Enrico Dandolo, an Italian fashion house. That is until one day the company declares bankruptcy. Accustomed to living in luxury she tries to make a run for it with the last remaining company asset, a red Alpha Romeo sports car. Unfortunately she recklessly collides with an bicycle messenger. Lacking any funds to pay for a settlement, she end up having to work as a bicycle messenger.

This suspense drama set in the mid 1700's depicts the plan of the Tokugawa rulers to send a number of homeless men to a remote island Sado to perform forced labor. Living conditions on the island are terrible and the men soon become rebellious. Based on a short story by Seichō Matsumoto.

A four-part anthology in the spirit of The Twilight Zone, this film starts off with a group of commuters stranded at a train station in the rain, listening to stories told by one of the group. These include tales of a group stranded in the mountains and haunted by guilt over a death they inadvertantly caused, an emotionally broken chessmaster pressed into playing a real-life game for an eccentric millionaire, a wandering medieval samurai who finds a modern-day cell phone on the ground and a person on the other end asking questions about the past, and a young couple who agree to try a computer simulation of what their future as husband and wife would be like.

An erotic drama. Yuki has a part-time job called "self-rental" for customer complaints and consultations. One day, Yuki invites Teruo, who she knows since college, to the work on "self rental".

Once a year, on Christmas Eve, Cafe Telekinesis holds a real psychic party. At the party, psychics gather together to show off their abilities while for the rest of the year they hide their abilities. Yone Sakurai is a program director for a psychic variety TV show called "Asunaro Psychic". She is stressed out and tired from her work, but proud of what she is doing. Yone actually believes in psychic abilities. By an audience request a new plan is set out for the program, a plan which requires the show to uncover real psychics or psychic events.

Inagaki Goro plays a freelance writer married to his editor wife (Nakamura Yuri), who he discovers is having an affair with the popular novelist she is responsible for at work. Although troubled, he can’t bring himself to confront his wife. He later meets a high school novelist at a literary award ceremony, and–drawn to the award-winning book–he inquires about the model it’s based on, thinking he’d like to meet that person…

The Bastard and the Beautiful World is an omnibus film consisting of four episodes. Fujiko is running as fast as she can, being chased after by a creepy masked man called Mad Dog. They meet a talented pianist on the way. A mysterious relationship develops between Utagui, a little girl who eats songs to live and an artist who can't sing anymore. A married couple sets off on a journey to find the right arm of their dead son. As they finally reach a beach in Okinawa, they find? Bastards come together on a night dancefloor for a show.

A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.

Barbara is an adult-orientated fantasy tale filled with love and the occult from Osamu Tezuka's reimagining of "The Tales of Hoffmann". Its story deals with the erotic and bizarre experiences of a famous novelist called Yosuke Mikura whose life is tossed upside down by a mysterious girl named "Barbara".

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2003 Fall Special" presents five tales. 1. *Kagi (The Key) - starring Eguchi Yosuke. 2. Perfect Couple - starring Yada Akiko. 3. Toosugita Otoko (The Man Who Was Too Far Away) - starring Nakamura Shido. 4. Meiro (The Maze)- starring Tanihara Shosuke. 5. Kage ga Omonaru Toki (When Shadows Accumulate) - starring Yashima Norito. * Adapted from a novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka.

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2004 Spring Special" presents five tales. 1. Koroshiya desu no yo (It's a Hitman, You Know) - starring Mizuki Alisa. 2. Jibun-counsellor (Self-counsellor) - starring Inohara Yoshihiko. 3. Be Silent - starring Watabe Atsuro. 4. Sasoimizu (Pump-priming) - starring Harada Taizo. 5. Saigo no Hitotoki (The Last Moment) - starring Nagasaku Hiromi.

Hosted by veteran comedian Tamori, "Bizarre Tales 2002 Spring Special" presents five tales. 1. Mushi Game (Ignore the Game) - starring Uchiyama Rina 2. Okashina Machi (Funny Town) - starring Yanagiba Toshiro 3. Tokage no Shippo (Lizard's Tail) - starring Kashiwabara Takashi 4. Yogisha no Otoko (Man's Night Train) - starring Osugi Ren 5. Manhole - starring Kagawa Teruyuki

A former TV presenter is murdered. On the same day, two police officers from the Metropolitan police Special Mission Task Force, Sugishita Ukyo (Yutaka Mizutani) and Kameyama Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki), are guarding a female Diet member, Katayama Hinako (Yoshino Kimura). The pair identifies explosives and saves her life. From the clues left at the scene, Sugishita builds up his case and finds a connection between the murder of the TV presenter and the attempted murder of the Diet member. During a painstaking investigation, the savage murder case of a young overseas volunteer five years earlier emerges in the background, and the pair prevents indiscriminate murder at the Tokyo Big City Marathon event by suppressing the perpetrator.

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the series. In this work, we collaborate with five popular manga artists such as Go Nagai, Junji Ito, Eiichiro Oda, Kazuo Umezu and Masayuki Ishikawa.

Hajime finds it difficult to graduate to the next grade at school. His friend Miyuki tells Hajime to study at a private school which is famous for its strictness. At that school, Hajime uncovers a death caused by non-natural reasons. He's challenged by a genius crime producer. ~~ Based on the manga series "Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo Gokumon Juku Satsujin Jiken" by Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Sato.

For this 17th Anniversary Special, Inagaki Goro is our host once again for 6 spooky tales based on tales from real people and performed here by an all-star cast. A young man trying to become a hairstylist finds the run-down apartment he's in may have a troubled past; A new nurse finds work with an old hospital where her young patient moves a coin around pointing to who will die next; clumsy businessman finds his clumsiness being transmitted to others when he's given a cursed votive tablet; several high school girls visit a friend at the hospital only to find "something" may have gotten on the elevator with them; a pond out in the country sends a strange call out to a man on vacation with his family and finally a young woman having difficulty at her job worries she's seeing images of her dead father everywhere.

Based on a mystery by Taiwanese-Japanese author Chin Shun-shin. After two elderly men in Yokohama quarrel over a Yang dynasty artifact, one of the men turns up dead with mysterious claw marks across his face. A detective takes up the case, and uncovers secrets dating back to war crimes committed during Japan’s invasion of China in WWII.

"Don of the entertainment world" Wada Akiko was killed by someone's hand! The Japanese archipelago swaying in shocking news! And the entertainment world .... Those who are "motivated to kill" are field managers, talents, singers, cultural men, program staff, pachinko parlor staff ... more than 1,000 suspects!