Top 250 Movies Like Begin Japanology

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.

A fashionable contemporary art gallerist in Chelsea, New York falls for a brooding new music composer in this comic satire of the state of contemporary art.

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan.

Revered sushi chef Jiro Ono strives for perfection in his work, while his eldest son, Yoshikazu, has trouble living up to his father's legacy.

Based on the journal of Knud Rasmussen's "Great Sled Journey" of 1922 across arctic Canada. The film is shot from the perspective of the Inuit, showing their traditional beliefs and lifestyle. It tells the story of the last great Inuit shaman and his beautiful and headstrong daughter; the shaman must decide whether to accept the Christian religion that is converting the Inuit across Greenland.

On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her, and meets Masako, a formal and ethereal middle-aged woman whose luggage has gone missing. The three women work in the diner, interact, and serve customers. A somewhat brusque man teaches Sachie to make delicious coffee, then he returns under other circumstances. Three neighborhood women inspect the empty diner every day; will anything bring them inside? We learn why Sachie serves rice balls; but why Finland?

After discovering that his father is at death's door, Mr. Miyagi sets out to Japan, to see him with Daniel. Upon arriving, Miyagi must confront an old rival. Meanwhile, Daniel encounters a new love, and some new enemies.

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.

In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.

Two isolated families meet for a summertime celebration. Food is abundant and the future seems bright, but Ningiuq, a wise old woman, sees her world as fragile and moves through it with a pervasive sense of dread. Ningiuq and her grandson Maniq are dropped off on a remote island, where, every year, the family dries the catch and stores it for winter. The task is soon finished. As summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up. Written by Anonymous (IMDb.com)

Young ballad singer Ruadhan watches in distress as the traditional fabric of life in his small Scottish village is inexorably eroded. With fish dying and no jobs on land, the young people are escaping to the cities. Meanwhile, the old people of the town, to whom Ruadhan feels closest and whose traditions he wants to preserve, are dying off.

When she was a middle school student, Futaba Yoshioka liked Kou Tanaka who was unlike the other boys and quite gentle. Kou Tanaka then moved away and they lost contact. At the end of Futaba Yoshioka's first year as a high school student she meets Kou Tanaka again. Kou Tanaka’s name has changed to Kou Mabuchi and his personality seems different from his middle school days.

A Japanese businessman travels to Iceland and has a series of misadventures while venturing to a remote area to perform a traditional burial ritual where his parents died several years back.

Wounded Civil War soldier, John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.

War photographer W. Eugene Smith travels back to Japan where he documents the devastating effect of mercury poisoning in coastal communities.

Jess Robin dreams of a career in popular music, but his father, Cantor Rabinovitch, forbids it, insisting Jess live as a traditional Jew and inherit his position at the synagogue. With the help of friend and professional musician Bubba, Jess gets a chance to go to Los Angeles and have famous singer Keith Lennox record one of his songs. Defying both his father and his wife, Jess leaves New York to pursue his dreams.

The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.

Pinkerton marries Cho-Cho San in Japan, whilst on shore leave. When he leaves, she keeps his Japanese home as he left it. He returns three years later, having married again in America, and tells Cho-Cho that their affair is over. She has had a child in his absence, who is sent to her family, before she kills herself.

The latest discovery by a blind shell collector puts the relationship between man and nature on edge: a rare mollusc that is extremely poisonous, but has a healing and hallucinogenic effect on some people. Can people resist the creature’s temptation, or will they put their lives at risk for a heavenly trip?

A fictional account of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, combining dramatizations of three of his novels and a depiction of the events of November 25th, 1970.

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

Eve is a precocious nine year-old girl with a wild imagination growing up in a traditional Chinese immigrant family in Vancouver where Confucian doctrines, superstitious obsessions and divine visions abound. When Buddhism and Catholicism are thrown into the mix, life for Eve and her 11-year-old prim and authoritative sister, Karena, escalates into a fantasia of catastrophe, sainthood and cultural confusion. The journey of a young girl and her sister striving to grow up in world where childhood is lonely and the world is full of wonder.

In late 60s Tokyo, Eddie, a young drag queen, is the favourite of Gonda, the owner of the bar where she works. This relationship provokes the jealousy of Gonda's mistress, Leda, the bar's matron. Eddie and Gonda decide to get rid of her...

Unsure of what to do next, 23-year-old Marnie tries her best to navigate life after college. Still partying like there's no tomorrow, Marnie drags herself out of bed for her miserable temp job and can't decide whether she's wasting her time going after best buddy Alex, who doesn't seem to be interested.

In the post-war Gion district of Kyoto, the geisha Miyoharu agrees to apprentice the 16 year-old Eiko, whose mother was a former geisha who had just died. After a year of training they have to find a large sum of money before Eiko can debut. Miyoharu borrows the money from the tea-house owner, Okimi, who in turn obtains the money from the businessman Kusuda. Kusuda fancies Eiko himself and wants to give Miyoharu to Kanzaki in order to close a large business deal. However both geishas have minds of their own and, going against tradition, want to be able to say no to clients.

Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver (Marlon Brando) is reassigned to a Japanese air base, and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically involved with Japanese women, in defiance of US military policy. Ordinarily an officer who is by-the-book, Gruver must take a position when a buddy of his, an enlisted man Joe Kelly (Red Buttons) falls in love with a Japanese woman Katsumi (Miyoshi Umeki) and marries her. Gruver risks his position by serving as best man at the wedding ceremony.

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.

The rigorous city life of China, while bustling and unforgiving, contains the everlasting memories of days past. Three stories told in three different cities, follow the loss of youth and the daunting realization of adulthood. Though reality may seem ever changing, unchangeable are the short-lived moments of one's childhood days. A plentiful bowl of noodles, the beauty of family and the trials of first love endure the inevitable flow of time, as three different characters explore the strength of bonds and the warmth of cherished memories. Within the disorder of the present world, witness these quaint stories recognize the comfort of the past, and attempt to revive the neglected flavors of youth.

A blind man's master told him that after he has broken 1000 strings on his Banjo, he can open the Banjo to get a script for his eyes. After 60 years he broke the 1000th string.

Unhappy after his new baby sister displaces him, four-year-old Kun begins meeting people and pets from his family's history in their unique house in order to help him become the big brother he was meant to be.

Jack Elliot, a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees is now on the down side of his baseball career. With a falling batting average, does he have one good year left and can the manager of the Chunichi Dragons, a Japanese Central baseball league find it in him?

Famed movie director Paul Robaix breaks with tradition by not casting his actress-comedienne wife, Lucy Dell, in his latest film production, a version of Madame Butterfly. Undaunted, the resourceful Lucy wings her way to Tokyo and, masquerading as a Japanese geisha, lands the coveted role from her unsuspecting husband! But in front of the cameras (and behind the pancake makeup), Lucy faces greater challenges: her lecherous leading man - and a husband who is beginning to realize that his talented new "discovery" seems vaguely familiar...

Riyo, an orphaned 17-year old, sails from Yokohama to Hawaii in 1918 to marry Matsuji, a man she has never met. Hoping to escape a troubled past and start anew, Riyo is bitterly disappointed upon her arrival: her husband is twice her age. The miserable girl finds solace with her new friend Kana, a young mother who helps Riyo accept her new life.

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Mr. Chu is an elderly widower who teaches tai chi chuan in Beijing. He moves to America to live with his son's family, but finds the cultural adjustment difficult. Since his daughter-in-law is a white woman who does not speak Chinese, Mr. Chu's son, Alex, must mediate.

Beijing, 1902: an enterprising young portrait photographer named Liu Jinglun, keen on new technology, befriends a newly-arrived Englishman who's brought projector, camera, and Lumière-brothers' shorts to open the Shadow Magic theater. Liu's work with Wallace brings him conflict with tradition and his father's authority, complicated by his falling in love with Ling, daughter of Lord Tan, star of Beijing's traditional opera. Liu sees movies as his chance to become wealthy and worthy of Ling. When the Shadow Magic pair are invited to show the films to the Empress Dowager, things look good. But, is disaster in the script? And, can movies preserve tradition even as they bring change?

A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.

A university student attends a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin. There she has the Japanese tea ceremony in her life and it's there for her during moments when she is sad or happy.

This exploration of Japan's fascination with girl bands and their music follows an aspiring pop singer and her fans, delving into the cultural obsession with young female sexuality and the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.

Throughout the three years of high school, Midori ate the bento lunch her dad made for her every single day. And in the very last bento of high school, Midori finds a photo of "the first high school bento" along with a hand written letter from her Dad.

A sweet-natured young Irish woman is courted by a romantic poet and a local country gentleman. Which man will she choose?

Jimi (Chris Bisson), the Chopra family's only son, gets caught off guard when his high-handed parents (Saeed Jaffrey and Jamila Massey) announce an arranged marriage to Simran (Jinder Mahal), a lovely girl from a respectable family. Problem is, Jimi's gay, so to hide his homosexuality, he spins an ever-more elaborate web of deceit -- but how long can he conceal the truth?

Filmed over twenty years, Tibetan Buddhist Master Choogyal Namkhai Norbu watches as his western-born son, Yeshi, who was recognized at birth as the reincarnation of a famous spiritual master, considers departing from tradition to embrace the modern world.

A Documentary on Nakamura brothers.

Wada, a salary man, is enlisted to venture off to China to investigate a potential Jade mine. After his arrival, Wada encounters a violent, yet sentimental, yakuza, who takes the liberty of joining his adventure through China. Led on their long and disastrous journey to the mine by Shen, the three men come across something even more magical and enticing.

In 1990, thieves absconded with 13 masterpieces -- including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer -- from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, pulling off the greatest art heist in U.S. history. Rebecca Dreyfus's investigative documentary delves into this modern mystery, piecing together clues gleaned from archival documents, art critics, historians, collectors and informants (both credible and dubious) to shed light on the as-yet unsolved case. Instant QueuePlay Trailer

Nick Hart is a struggling American artist who lives amongst the expatriate community in 1920s Paris. He spends most of his time drinking and socializing in local café's and pestering gallery owner Libby Valentin to sell his paintings. He becomes involved in a plot by wealthy art patroness Nathalie de Ville to forge three paintings. This leads to several run-ins with American rubber magnate Bertram Stone, who happens to be married to Hart's ex-wife Rachel.

Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu to marry so that she can remain close to Shinnosuke.

Follow several talented members of the ensemble as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution.

This film is about Japanese women, escape, glamour and dreams. The Takarazuka Revue is an enormously successful spectacular where the all-women cast create fantasies of erotic love and sensitive men. It is also a world for young girls desperate to do something different with their lives. In return for living a highly disciplined and reclusive existence, they will be adored and envied by many thousands of Japanese women. They will look, act and behave like young men while having no real men in their lives. Dream Girls explores the nature of sexual identity and the contradictory tensions that face young women in Japan today.

Has the famed Egyptian beauty, Queen Nefertiti, been found in a secret chamber deep in the Valley of the Kings? A Discovery Channel Quest expedition led by Dr. Joann Fletcher and a team of internationally renowned scientists from the University of York Mummy Research Team hopes to find out. If they find her, it will be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries since Nefertiti's stepson, King Tutankhamen, was discovered in 1922. The "Great Royal Wife" of the renegade Akhenaten, Nefertiti was a mother of six who helped lead a religious revolution that changed Egypt and the world forever. Yet after her death, her enemies destroyed all evidence of her life. Now, drawing on 13 years of research, Fletcher and her team bring Nefertiti's turbulent reign to life like never before with cutting-edge computer animations to recreate ancient Egypt's great temples, x-rays to reveal the telltale signs of foul play on her mummy, and forensic graphics to recreate the mummy's face.

German director Wim Wenders made this documentary in which he tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. When Wenders visits Tokyo for the first time, he finds a very different city, one with a booming fascination with technology that often clashes with the traditional elements of Japanese culture. Wenders also interviews Ozu's cinematographer, Yuharu Atsuta, and Chishu Ryu, an actor who frequently collaborated with Ozu.

"Found" is the story of an innocent teenage boy raised up in the Appalachian Mountains on a small old fashioned homestead devoid of modern conveniences and tucked away from the broader culture at large. Through a sudden tragedy, he suddenly finds himself cast out, alone and adrift into our high-speed, hi-tech modern world until he meets a troubled family who takes him into their home for better or for worse. What he learns about himself and what others around him discover about themselves brings new meaning to the phrase "testing your faith" (James 1:2-4).

From IMDB: Angelo My Love delves into the little understood and fascinating world of New York gypsies. Using real gypsies playing fictional versions of themselves. This critically acclaimed film explores the lifestyle, rites, myths and passions of the tight-knit urban subculture. Twelve year-old Angelo Evans is the street-wise. Charmingly precocious son of a fortune teller. When the boy accuses a sleazy gypsy, Steve "Patalay" Tsigonoff, and his foul-mouthed wife, Millie, of stealing an ancestral ring, he chases them to Canada. Angelo wants the ring for his future bride, Patricia, and nearly disgraces the family to get it back. Along the way, Duvall presents an extraordinary slice of gypsy life, highlighting there music and tribal customs, a wedding and a "kris" - the gypsies' court of justice. His film has a spontaneity and exuberance that make it a one-of-a-kind experience.

32nd generation Chinese Shaolin Fighting Monk Li Bao Xin must immigrate to New York City to look after young Janie, his six-year-old niece. Struggling to make a new life, Li Bao will face challenges that test his character more than his physical strength. Through it all, his mind remains filled with the heroic stories of the Shaolin Temple, a great tradition that defines him, but also makes his assimilation to western culture more difficult. While in China he was a venerated master, in America he is nobody. To make a life for him and Janie, Li Bao must contend with a modern society, where his great fighting skills and heroic lineage have little meaning. He will have to decide which is more important, his dreams or his family.

After inadvertently unleashing an ancient curse, a documentary crew of American exchange students is haunted by angry spirits in Japan's infamous Suicide Forest.

Matsuchiyo - Life of a Geisha’ is a documentary about one of the last surviving true geisha in Japan. The story begins with Matsuchiyo’s wartime childhood. She and her mother were the only two surviving members of the family. Matsuchiyo joins an “Okiya” (a traditional geisha agency), to pay the family debts and support her ageing mother. In her adulthood, Matsuchiyo becomes one of the top geisha in the city of Atami and experiences romance, tearful farewells, being a mistress of married men, motherhood and tragic deaths. Today, in her 80’s, Matsuchiyo the geisha, is as motivated and inspiring as ever. She still delivers a mesmerising performance on stage. ‘Matsuchiyo - Life of a Geisha’ is narrated by her own son and film director, Ken Nishikawa, and it is adorned by hundreds of beautiful pictures from Japan’s bygone era. This film illustrates the trials and tribulations of the ultimate Japanese cultural enigma that is - The Life of a Geisha.

In the year 2011 the greatest tectonic disaster in the history of mankind has occurred. As a result of the catastrophic earthquakes North and South America, Eurasia, Africa and Australia have sunken underwater while the Japanese islands remain untouched.

The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasunari.

An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a râmen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.

Action actor Tateishi Daisuke who struggles with loneliness after suffering a traumatic experience due to an accident during filming. One day, he comes across a senior high school girl Ayumi who is being harassed consistently by Chinese brokers and the local yakuza. He decides to protect her from them. However, after this incident, he comes to develop a mindset of seeing violence as a way to gain the affirmation and approval of others thus gradually loses himself and behaves in an extreme manner.

Even while having tremendous technology, now have a funeral shop walk picking up the car was retired in the desert Honma (Ken Takakura) is invited from the team DANKAI which declined to Paris-Dakar Rally, the team because of the publicity to supporting popular star had to join. Eventually Among the various speculation of various people, rally began ....

Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers on two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.

Late in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan’s most powerful warlord, unifying the country.

Confucius was one of history's most influential thinkers. He was a sage, philosopher and teacher who, with Socrates and Buddha, lived at an extraordinary time in the evolution of human civilization. This stunningly beautiful drama-documentary explores the life and times of Confucius, while reflecting on his influence on modern justice and morality. Today, Confucius is a window into China's rise.

The ever-lively and upbeat Natsuko tries to mend a broken heart by carrying on with a string of short-lived affairs after her break-up with Tomomi. But when Tomomi announces her plans to marry - a man - Natsuko becomes inconsolable.

Set in a Shinjuku bathhouse brothel, the film uncovers the sexual eccentricities of everyday people. Focusing on three female sex workers, the colorful, unpredictable look into the hidden underbelly of Japanese nightlife is playful but also unafraid to explore the darker sides of the business. The fleeting nature of relationships in such an environment and the consequences of toying with feelings are presented with a melancholy tinge.

When an American woman takes an impromptu journey to Mumbai too get away from her overbearing mother, she befriends an Indian woman striving to balance her family's culture with modern day demands. What ensues is an ethnic and generational mash-up that will leave audiences enthralled at the calamity of old-school traditions and contemporary lifestyle.

Christmas in the charming town of Briar Falls will be bittersweet this year when architect Nell goes back to her hometown having been given the job of turning the historic Majestic Playhouse into a modern multiplex, much to the town’s objections. The Playhouse has been home to their annual Christmas tableaux, which will now have to end after a long and historic tradition to the town. This job is Nell’s first promotion, and one she wishes she hadn’t been chosen for, especially when she meets the new owner of the theater, Connor, whose vision and ideas clash with Nell’s. Since Connor hasn’t had much experience celebrating Christmas, Nell hopes that if she can give him a crash course in Christmas during the town’s Twelve Day Festival, that he might just change his mind about modernizing the Majestic.

Ooejo Agricultural High School is located in Hokkaido. Most students are from families involved in agriculture and their dreams are to continue working in agriculture. Meanwhile, Yuugo (Kento Nakajima), who graduated from a prestigious middle school, applied to the Ooejo Agricultural High School just because the school has a dormitory. Yuugo, who grew up in the city, finds himself in an unfamiliar environment at Ooejo Agricultural High School, surrounded by nature and animals. Yuugo is also the only one who doesn't know what type of career he wants to pursue. Yuugo becomes impatient. He goes through struggles everyday, but he also gets to know the other students and rural life in general. He begins to grow as a person.

This down-to-earth story that takes place in the mountains of North Caucasus, between two adjacent villages – Ossetian Toli and Georgian Teli – tells us about simple and naïve people that governments try to divide today by an official state border. These people wish to live in peace and harmony, in spite of ethnic differences, as their ancestors lived for hundreds of years. They are accustomed to solve all the conflicts peacefully, following Caucasian customs – around a great table, with wine and songs…

This landmark film uses new evidence to investigate the truth behind Mona Lisa's identity and where she lived. It decodes centuries-old documents and uses state-of-the-art technology that could unlock the long-hidden truths of history's most iconic work of art.

Each home has a built in pool or water tank that lies partly inside, partly outside its’ walls… A continuous stream of spring water is piped right into a basin, so freshwater is always available. People rinse out pots in the tank and clean their freshly picked vegetables. If they simply pour the food scraps back in the water, they risk polluting the whole village supply. However, carp can scour out even the greasy or burnt pans. They do the washing up in Satoyama villages. This traditional arrangement is called the riverside method. It’s used all over Japan. Cleaned up by the carp, the tank water eventually rejoins the channel.

Heraldo Rial is the eighty-year-old cattle rancher in charge of one thousand hectares of Patagonian wilderness. He is one of the last 'gauchos': proud, self-reliant cowboys who have lived off the land for generations. But with civilisation encroaching on their traditions, the gauchos' way of life is dying out, and Rial has a lot of wisdom to impart as he prepares for what could be his last winter in the mountains.

Narrated by David McCullough, this program examines the infamous Entartete Kunst (degenerate art) exhibition mounted by the Nazis in Munich in 1937 and their far-reaching attacks on avant-garde art in Germany. Witness compelling footage of Nazi book burnings, and of the exhibition itself. Includes interviews with historians, art critics, and eyewitnesses to the events that dramatize this powerful story of the Nazis' assault on modern culture.

Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.

BBC's 1994 documentary on the manga and anime phenomenon that was just starting to hit the UK at the time, and its origins in Japan. Presented by Jonathan Ross.

In southern Peru lies one of mankind's greatest mysteries - 1000's of giant shapes etched into the desert sands. We reveal who made them and why. Etched, as if by giants, onto the arid moonscape of Peru's southern desert lies one of man's greatest mysteries; the Nasca Lines. More than 15,000 geometric and animal-like patterns have been discovered criss-crossing the pampas like a vast puzzle. Who built them and what was their purpose? Ancient racetracks, landing strips for aliens, or perhaps a giant astronomical calendar? And are the Lines connected to the gruesome discovery of large cache's of severed human heads. Now, after decades of misunderstanding, modern archaeology may finally have the answer. Excavations in the surrounding mountains are uncovering extraordinary clues about the people who made them and why. A long since vanished people, called the Nasca, flourished here between 200BC and 700AD. But the harsh environment led them to extreme measures in order to survive.

Did you know that the quaint custom of Christmas caroling actually began with drunk and rowdy revelers threatening people door to door looking for food and liquor? Early versions of the heartwarming legend of Santa Claus described him as a horrible devil named Krampus who beat and kidnapped naughty children. In America during the 17th and 18th Centuries, celebrating Christmas was against the law! There's a lot to tell about the history of Christmas, and a lot you may not know. Along the way, meet Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey, The Grinch and Rudolph, and learn the true origins of our Christmas traditions. So grab some eggnog and a slice of fruitcake as HISTORY unwraps THE REAL STORY OF CHRISTMAS.

Documentary telling the story of 14-year-old Rebecca Flint, an ordinary schoolgirl from the Isle of Man who in Japan becomes Beckii Cruel, a teen icon and an internet sensation.

Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.

When Casey, a dancer who is discovered on YouTube, gets thrust into the modern world of internet celebrity and culture, she must find a way to balance her true identity with her online persona, or risk losing everything she cares about.

Ichiko bakes a cake for an end-of-year party with her friends. In the depths of winter, making mochi and curry keeps the people of Komori warm. Later, spring brings thoughts of her absent mother as well as rice planting and sakura, and she begins to think of leaving Komori behind again.

Four sexually hungry high school students preparing for their university entrance exams meet up with an inebriated teacher singing bawdy drinking songs. This encounter sets them on a less than academic path.

A Chinese Singaporean chef, formerly working in Tokyo, finds himself in Okinawa begging a disgruntled old chef to teach him traditional Okinawan food. A top Japanese food critic finds herself in Singapore on an eye opening discovery of Southeast Asian cuisine. In reality both are looking for each other after an emotional breakup years ago. Emotionally crippled by their breakup he searches her home-town for her but discovers instead the art of traditional Okinawan food. Through it he learns the incredible balance of two cultures: Chinese and Japanese - a balance they never had in their relationship. When she suddenly appears in Okinawa looking to find closure he cooks and serves her their final meal. Through it she discovers what she had been yearning for all these years.

Majime, an eccentric man in publishing company, who has unique ability of words, joins the team that will compile a new dictionary, ‘The Great Passage.’ In the eclectic team, he becomes immersed in the world of dictionaries. But the team is overwhelmed with problems. Will ‘The Great Passage’ ever be completed?

Tetsuo (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) is a lowlife. A film director with a small indie hit many years back, yet he has never gotten any further as he refuses to go against his 'artistic integrity'.

Kenji Shiraishi is involved in the trafficking of illegal immigrants from China to Japan. One such case leaves an immigrant child to be an orphan. Instead of selling him along with others that arrived, Kenji flees with the boy to look after him and make an attempt at everyday life. The people after the boy, unexpected encounters with long-lost family members, and his vengeful nature are standing in the way of his future.

Set in the traditional city of Kyoto, Japan, this deeply poetic TV movie revolves around Chieko who becomes bewildered and troubled as she discovers the true facets of her past. With the harmony and time-honored customs of a Japanese backdrop, the story becomes poignant as Chieko’s longing and confusion develops.

Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omocha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house. Fukasaku's film is a work of great delicacy with moments of hypnotic beauty, and his tender direction, often touched with a sense of wonder, fills the screen with lovingly constructed scenes. At its heart is the poignant situation of the women who must sacrifice their normal relationships to live an ambiguous life in which they are a key part of society while being kept, for the most part, on its periphery, like perpetual mistresses.

High school student Takumi lives with his two mothers in a beautiful house in Tokyo. Moving into a house across the street is Sora and her two fathers. One day Takumi and Sora begin a quest to seek answers long hidden and silent in their unconventional families. Takumi sets out to determine the identity of his father, and Sora devises a plan to integrate herself fully into her family. The ordeals of these households stretch the traditional notions of family, convention and tradition.

When a Japanese family moves in next door, Per and Shin, the same age, instantly become friends. But after the boys cut school, each set of parents' blames the other, causing a rift between neighbors. What will it take for the two families to reconcile their differences?

In Edo-era Japan, a ukiyo-e artist languishes in his master’s shadow. Creatively stifled, he finds consolation in the company of a prostitute, and becomes entangled in a love triangle. A mystery emerges involving two portraits and the sudden disappearance of the artist Sharaku. Helmed by Cannes-selected director Tatsuji Yamazaki, the film employs kabuki-inspired sequences and stylised sets.

A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should re-think them in the light of the scientific and Industrial Revolution. Includes interviews with historian Simon Schama and artist Tracey Emin.

Via the New York Times: "The solemn, intent faces of the Japanese schoolboys playing video games in Jun Ichikawa's "No Life King" bespeak a new type of modern horror. Addicted to their favorite new game (from which the film takes its title), these children have become seriously estranged from the real world. The film's constant emphasis is on the ways in which this has been allowed to happen, and on how emblematic it is of larger attitudes in a technological society. When a young boy trying to converse with his mother must compete with a home computer for her attention, it's not hard to see why the boy has retreated into his own computer-dominated world."

Naoko Yamada (Yukie Nakama), a female magician, and Jiro Ueda (Hiroshi Abe), a genius physicist, are back again to solve the mystery of supernatural happenings. In a village where people are cured, a battle royale is held to find the successor for shamen Kamahaeri. Naoko attempts to gain big money by participating in the battle royale, while Jiro is invited to the village to stop this custom. Naoko and Ueda then challenges this amazing trick ..

Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.