The Shape of Night

Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Basco) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.

Born in a small town in Japan, a young girl named Ai is sent to a cult commune by her religious maniac mother and lives there for seven long years. After the cult is exposed by the police, Ai starts a new stage of life, going to a normal school for the first time, but she can’t find her place to fit in there. Ai drops out from the school and society, spending her life living with a rock-bottom delinquent family full of gangsters and call girls. In a strange twist of fate she finds herself back in a new and normal life, living with a middle-class family, but her troubled life continues to follow her into more deep and seedy paths.

A young girl from a small parochial country village is raped and ravaged at the hands of local roughnecks, escapes to a new life in the big city of Tokyo, and finds a pretty similar fate awaiting her there.

Joe, Okita, and Serizawa hear of the armed robbery of a truck carrying one billion eighty million yen's worth of Mint paper. Knowing that the thugs will now need a counterfeiter to make the bogus bills, they each decide to cash in on it by selling them the idea that they need Sakamoto, the best counterfeiter in Japan. A seesaw game unfolds between the three men as each tries to outdo the other two in handing over Sakamoto for one million yen to Hijikata, the big boss, who intends to make counterfeit money with the stolen paper. A little belatedly, they realize it needs their combined forces to outwit Hijikata and they raid his place together. Outnumbered, however, they are thrown into a basement room and the gas is turned on. Certain death stares them in the face, but the three men are not ones to take things lying down....

Fresh out of jail, a smart-mouth wise guy Goro takes the name “Big Brother Katsumata.” Not fitting in well with established gangs, he forms a rag-tag gang called “the Shinjuku Brothers.” The members of their gang are thugs who only wish they were traditional yakuza. When they turn up at the funeral for a gangster, they are not welcomed, but a senior boss intervenes to keep things calm. The boss of bosses invites them to join a respected local council of warlords. Katsumata is suspicious of why such powerful men would extend an invitation to lowlife like himself.

Arikawa runs a transport company. But this is only a front for his gambling house. Yuriko is a regular on the scene, and she is fascinated by the dice and the one who throws them. A year before, Yuriko's father died in mysterious circumstances; she decides to go in search of the truth.

Around Ginza there is a night-city of bars and cabarets, hostesses, customers. Assisting to keep order here is Kagari (Akira Kobayashi) who specializes in the women, their problems and troubles. He has saved many a girl from blandishments of pimps, makes customers pay up and women play straight. So he is called 'the woman's police-man' and he takes his job seriously. One day, Chiyoko (Yukiyo Toake), a former hostess, comes to him. Her husband has been murdered and she wants help. The man had been a college classmate and Kagari decides to do what he can. In his investigation he overturns a whole nest of intrigue. Men he had thought irreproachable turn out to be corrupt; solid citizens are seen as the worst kind of scoundrels. Until now, Kagari has specialized in women and their problems. But, realizing the real state of affairs, he rolls up his sleeves for a good cleaning- up-at the same time discovering the murderer of his friend.

A beautiful hostess of a small restaurant moonlights as a well-trained assassin tasked with taking the life of a wealthy businessman...

The local yakuza gangs dominating the port of Yokohama do not take well the invasion of their territory by a daring biker gang, led by a girl in black leather outfit and cowboy hat - reminiscent of the earlier war victors. Old and new grudges lead the two girl gangs to clash in several fights. However, when one of the leaders dies, the girls end up by uniting against the male gangsters that had been using them as puppets - and it all ends in a great finale mixed battle by the seashore.

Seiji (played by Battle Royale’s Tatsuya Fujiwara) struggles to look after his younger brother Michio, who suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum – a rare disease that is fatal if exposed to sunlight. Matters are even more complicated due to Michio’s state of mind, which is equivalent to that of a six year old child. In order to support his younger brother, Seiji is forced to join the local Yakuza and work through the ranks to become a respected member. One night, Seiji saves a woman named Keiko (Aya Okamoto) from a drunken pervert. By sheer coincidence, she is also Michio’s nurse and falls in love with Seiji thanks to his courageous act. Whilst Seiji continues to see his new girlfriend, the activities of the Yakuza begin to affect their lives…

Barbara, a dancer, is coming home to Nagoya after a long absence. She lives above a bar in an area whose inhabitants are mainly from Okinawa. Upon her return, Barbara faces problems beyond her control. Her brother and two friends take one of their teachers hostage to extort money to go on a school trip. Miyazato, the man who loves Barbara is there, but not Aiko, her best friend. Miyazato, a yakuza and manager in a nuclear power plant has forced Aiko into prostitution for the workers of the plant. Barbara plans to help her escape from this hell. Aiko has been sent to Mihama. Without even thinking for a moment, Barbara decided to go see her friend.

Akira Yamazaki and Akira Kaido are new employees at Industrial Central Bank. They are both outstanding at their jobs and fierce rivals, but they come from totally different backgrounds. When Akira Yamazaki was a child, his father's factory went bankrupt and his family ran away in the middle of the night. Because of that experience, Akira Yamazaki wants to work as a banker to save people. On the other hand, Akira Kaido was born into a family that runs a large company. He works with a calm demeanor. Due to a case, Akira Yamazaki receives a demotion. Akira Kaido continues to be successful at work, but his family's company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to their family-oriented management style. The employees there and their families are all in a crisis situation. With this desperate situation unfolding, the reversal of fate of these two men begin.

A 16-year-old girl works in a factory to pay her late father’s debt. When she makes up her mind to become a hostess, a boy approaches her with kind and gentle manners...(Also occasionally known in English as “Play”)

Yuko has a rendezvous with her old boyfriend who has just returned to Tokyo. Blackmailers with evidence of this transgression force Yuko to work as a call girl to pay them. Yuko becomes the client of a foreigner who is in the employ of her husband, a prominent businessman.

In order to support her son, single-mother works at a bar that operates an undisclosed adult entertainment business. One day, Ishioka Kazuya comes into the store as a customer, but Ishioka never sleeps with her, and instead just looks at the scenery outside the window.

Maria is in need of money. Because her day-time job doesn't pay enough, she works at night at a cabaret. She needs the money so that she can pay for her sister, Nana's eyes operation. When both Maria and Nana were younger, Maria burned down the home, causing her sister's blindness and killing their father (mother survived.) Shiro is a famous concert pianist. However, he isn't happy with his marriage or his life in general. Maria and Shiro are united through a traffic accident, causing Shiro to be hospitalized. Faking amnesia and his identity, he stays at Maria's place and eventually starts to work at the cabaret as a piano player. As you will find out later on, life was not meant for Maria and Shiro to find one another.

Hikoichi is the boss of a yakuza family, "Tsubasa-kai". One day he receives a sudden order from the main branch of his family...only to become a helper at a senior care home. Regardless of this unbearable order, he reluctantly obeys to keep his chance of becoming an executive in the future. But he soon finds out that he was not the only yakuza working there. The yakuza helpers soon realize that the senior care home is full of flaws; the yakuzas confront a female president of the care house.

Murder in Paradise recounts the stories of American couples who go on dream vacations that end in violence. Only one of them comes back alive, and it’s never an accident. From a boxing champ found dead in his hotel room, to a vicious pirate attack on a luxury yacht, to a passionate affair that ends in bloodshed, each episode tells how an idyllic trip in paradise turned deadly.

Fujisaki Aya is a young college student whose family is 150 million yen in debt after her father's corporation went bankrupt. To earn the money, she enters the Hostess Grand Prix.

A boy and a girl were destined to be together since birth. A long time ago, two best friends each had a child. One named his son Li Zheng, which means “attention,” and the other named his daughter Shao Xi, which means “at ease” in military terminology. The two kids grew up to embody their names, with Li Zheng being diligent and paying extra attention to everything he wants to achieve in life and Shao Xi being more laid back and lazy in her approach to life and school. When Li Zheng returns to Taiwan after growing up in Japan, he meets Shao Xi for the first time in high school. Despite their polar opposite personalities, the strong pull of their fates bring them together. Can they each adapt to be with each other or will the strong forces of life keep the two apart?

Dako is a con woman. She stays at a suite in a luxury hotel and schemes to take money from vicious wealthy people like yakuza bosses and evil businessmen. She works with Boku-chan and Richard. Boku-chan is a sincere and timid young con man. Richard is a veteran con man. Dako is able to master knowledge from various professions in a short period of time and disguises herself as someone working in that field. Along with Boku-chan and Richard, they carry their plans using fantastic teamwork.

A group of modern women are going back in time to the 60s, 70s and 80s to work and live through three decades of British factory life and learn how an unsung army of female workers took on the fight for equality at work and at home - how will these 21st-century women adapt to a period of rampant sexism, huge gender pay gaps and tough working conditions?

45-year-old Mitsuo Komae works for an advertising company. He gets demoted from the head office in Tokyo to a branch office in the province. He has to leave his wife and daughter in Tokyo to work at the branch office. There, Mitsuo Komae begins work as the branch office manager which only has 2 employees. Needing to pay for the mortgage on his house and support his student daughter, he seeks ways to increase sales. One day, Mitsuo Komae receives a phone call from a client. The client is CEO Ryuzaki. Mitsuo Komae’s branch office made leaflets for CEO Ryuzaki's company, but a silly mistake was done in the leaflets. CEO Ryuzaki is furious. Making things even worse, CEO Ryuzaki is a yakuza. Mitsuo Komae is in big trouble.

While still a virgin at the age of 30, Kiyoshi Adachi gains a magical power that allows him to read other people's mind by touching them. Things change when he accidentally touches Yuichi Kurosawa and reads his mind.

Three years ago, a disappearance case, known as the "Joker Case," was suddenly closed without being solved. Ichiro Kunishita, an investigator from the Public Security Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department who was called for a reunion of the investigation, is ordered to take on a completely different mission. He is assigned to spy on and monitor Shiro Hanabusa, the young head of a designated gang clan. He is said to be a man of many mysteries who has risen to the rank of Wakagashira (young leading subordinate in yakuza group) since he joined the gang three years ago. In the course of his mission to get close to Shiro, Ichirou learns a shocking fact, and decides to make a fake "lover's contract" with him. Their secret investigation into the case gradually leads them to an incident that will shake the nation and their destiny.

A male escort's life begins to unravel when he gets involved in a client's family affairs and breaks the cardinal rule of his work: Don't fall in love.

When feisty college student Yuri is attacked at a party, she's saved by Oya Toshiomi, the underboss of a yakuza syndicate. Despite her obvious attraction to him, she convinces herself that she's not in the market for a bad boy type. But when they meet again, she finds herself irresistibly drawn to him—kicking off a steamy and dangerous love affair that threatens to consume her, body and soul.

Takako Meguro, a typical office worker known to her friends as Medaka, starts a new career as a night school teacher when her company restructures. At first, she's not so crazy about her new job and gets by with a minimum of effort. But as she continues, she finds out it's quite a challenge after all. Her students range from a high school dropout to a salaried worker, and also include a self-employed fellow, and a cabaret hostess, in short, a motley crew! What's more, half of them are older than her and, to make matters worse, one of them is a elementary school classmate. But a certain turn of events results in Medaka's becoming a really dedicated teacher! Although she's surprised herself at this change of character, her trials are just about to begin.

Erick Quintana and his team at Limos By Moonlight transform cars into luxury limousines that are sold worldwide. With the help of his team comprised of his dad Jaime, right-hand man Jesus, creative seamstress Paola, and vivacious assistant Vivian - these guys and all the other employees, turn regular cars into works of stretched metal art on wheels.

Asai Michiko is a 28-year old housewife. Her husband is 38-year old Yoshio, who works at an advertisement agency. Five years into their marriage, Michiko finds out that Yoshio has been having an affair. Michiko visits the woman and begs her to break up with Yoshio. "Yoshio mentioned that he doesn't see his wife as a woman," she says, bringing Michiko to tears. Nogami Machiko is a 31-year old woman who works at a luxurious nightclub in Ginza. She is told by her lover whose child she bears, "Get an abortion." She too, is brought to tears. Three years later... Since her husband's affair, Michiko, now 31, has put every effort forward to become the adorable wife by studying the latest trends and fashion. Machiko, now 34, is an employed owner of a Ginza nightclub. One day, Okinaka Kazuko moves in across from the Asai family. She is there to take care of the house while her sister and her family are living in Osaka. Alone and lonely, she hopes to become close friends with Michiko. Koyanagi Shingo, Yoshio's client and president of a middle-sized company, takes Shingo to a luxurious Ginza nightclub after dinner. It's Machiko's club. Machiko has had feelings for Yoshio since he started visiting her establishment. When Shingo rises from his seat to leave, Yoshio does the same. But Machiko holds him back. "There's an annoying customer at another table. Can you stay a little longer for me?" After leaving the club, Shingo heads downtown to visit 18-year old Ito Mayumi who sings and plays the guitar. Although Shingo has a wife and a nearly adult-age son, all he can think about is his young lover. After finishing work, Machiko takes a taxi home with Yoshio. Machiko's apartment is just a station away from Yoshio's. In the taxi, Machiko spills coffee on Yoshio's suit. "We should clean this up immediately" she says and invites Yoshio in. Yoshio can't hold back his feelings as Machiko seduces him. Meanwhile, Michiko has reunited with Kondo Kei, a 26-year old calligrapher who was formerly a student of Michiko's father, a master in calligraphy...