Top 250 Movies Like Hitomi

A list of the best movies similar to Hitomi. If you liked Hitomi then you may also like: Wish I Was Here, The Land of Rain Trees, Nights in Rodanthe, On Golden Pond, Our Town and many more great movies featured on this list.

TV show

The 78th NHK Asadora is Hitomi. The series takes place in the old shitamachi area of Tokyo, and in these most recent episodes, 20-year old heroine Hitomi becomes the force around which her divorced mother, long estranged from her own father, is forced to reconcile and renew a sense of family camaraderie. This is not particularly easy, given the trifling issues and problems of modern day life that beset each of the characters, and the drama unfolds with a light comedic touch. Hitomi's upbringing is the issue that is constantly brought into focus. The family reconciliation is made possible, ironically through the death of Hitomi's grandmother. Hitomi seizes the opportunity to travel to her funeral from Sapporo. Once there, she sets out to realize her dream of becoming a dancer, all the while interfering with and disrupting her grandfather's life.

Wish I Was Here

Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor, father and husband, is 35 years old and still trying to find a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he'd always dreamed he'd be as a little kid. When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn't find.

The Land of Rain Trees

Nobuyuki Sakisaka (Yuta Tamamori) is a salaryman. When he was in middle school student, he read light novel "Fairy Game”. He still has that light novel, because he was so shocked by the ending. One day, Nobuyuki Sakisaka browses the internet and comes across the blog "Rein Tsuri no Kuni.” He learns that the blog writer, Rika Hitomi (Mariya Nishiuchi), also was shocked by the ending in light novel "Fairy Game." Nobuyuki and Rika soon begin to exchange emails. Nobuyuki wants to meet Rika, but she refuses due to her secret.

Nights in Rodanthe

Adrienne is trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not, and her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is travelling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn where she is staying.

On Golden Pond

For Norman and Ethel Thayer, this summer on golden pond is filled with conflict and resolution. When their daughter Chelsea arrives, the family is forced to renew the bonds of love and overcome the generational friction that has existed for years.

Our Town

Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives. Using metatheatrical devices, Wilder sets the play in a 1930s theater. He uses the actions of the Stage Manager to create the town of Grover's Corners for the audience. Scenes from its history between the years of 1901 and 1913 play out. Originally broadcast on the Showtime Network, then as part of the PBS series "Masterpiece Theatre" (season 33, episode 1).

Over the Top

Sylvester Stallone stars as hard-luck big-rig trucker Lincoln Hawk and takes us under the glaring Las Vegas lights for all the boisterous action of the World Armwrestling Championship. Relying on wits and willpower, Hawk tries to rebuild his life by capturing the first-place prize money, and the love of the son he abandoned years earlier into the keeping of his rich, ruthless father-in-law.

Passion's Way

Set in early 1900s France, a widow renews a former romantic interest until it is discovered that he has had a past fling with one of her new employees, a nanny. This sets the two women into many well-mannered accusations and conversations, but no modern brawling, and puts him in the middle or possibly on the outside.

Reservation Road

Two fathers' lives intersect when one of them is involved in a terrible and sudden hit-and-run car accident that leaves the other's son dead. In response, the two men react in unexpected ways as a reckoning looms in the near future.

Rhapsody in August

The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, whose husband was one of 80,000 human beings killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.

Killer of Sheep

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

Betsy's Wedding

Offbeat fashion student Betsy Hopper and her straight-laced investment-banker fiancé Jake Lovell just want an intimate little wedding reception, but Betsy's father Eddie, a Long Island construction contractor, feels so threatened by Jake's rich WASP parents that he blows the ceremony up into a bank-breaking showpiece, sending his wife Lola into a financial panic.

Bless the Child

When Maggie's sister Jenna saddles her with an autistic newborn named Cody she touches Maggie's heart and becomes the daughter she has always longed for. But six years later Jenna suddenly re-enters her life and, with her mysterious new husband, Eric Stark, abducts Cody. Despite the fact that Maggie has no legal rights to Cody, FBI agent John Travis takes up her cause when he realizes that Cody shares the same birth date as several other recently murdered children.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.

The Cake Eaters

The death of the Kimbrough family matriarch affects the three male survivors of the clan. Widower Easy tries to reconnect with his old flame, Marg. Eldest son and struggling musician Guy moves back to town, feeling guilty that he missed the funeral. His brother, Beagle, who was his mother's caretaker, falls for Marg's granddaughter, Georgia, a chronically ill girl who fears her time is growing short.

Fifteen and Pregnant

Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.

Terms of Endearment

Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues. Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.

Harold and Maude

The young Harold lives in his own world of suicide-attempts and funeral visits to avoid the misery of his current family and home environment. Harold meets an 80-year-old woman named Maude who also lives in her own world yet one in which she is having the time of her life. When the two opposites meet they realize that their differences don’t matter and they become best friends and love each other.

Hud

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

Diary of a Mad Black Woman

Charles, an attorney, and Helen, his devoted wife, seemed to have everything – money, a beautiful mansion – the American Dream. However, as Helen prepares to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary, her life takes an unexpected twist when she comes home to find her clothes packed up in a U-Haul van parked in the driveway. Charles is divorcing her and kicks her out. Helen moves in with her grandmother Madea, an old woman who doesn't take any lip from anyone. Madea helps Helen through these tough times by showing her what is really important in life. Helen is forced to rediscover love, life and religion on her pursuit for happiness.

Meet the Browns

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.

I Never Sang for My Father

Hackman plays a New York professor who wants a change in his life, and plans to get married to his girlfriend and move to California. His mother understands his need to get away, but warns him that moving so far away could be hard on his father. Just before the wedding, the mother dies. Hackman's sister (who has been disowned by their father for marrying a Jewish man) advises him to live his own life, and not let himself be controlled by their father.

My Neighbors the Yamadas

The Yamadas are a typical middle class Japanese family in urban Tokyo and this film shows us a variety of episodes of their lives. With tales that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking, we see this family cope with life's little conflicts, problems, and joys in their own way.

The Missing

When rancher and single mother of two Maggie Gilkeson sees her teenage daughter, Lily, kidnapped by Apache rebels, she reluctantly accepts the help of her estranged father, Samuel, in tracking down the kidnappers. Along the way, the two must learn to reconcile the past and work together if they are going to have any hope of getting Lily back before she is taken over the border and forced to become a prostitute.

Hope Floats

Birdee Pruitt has been humiliated on live television by her best friend, Connie, who's been sleeping with Birdee's husband, Bill. Birdee tries starting over with her daughter, Bernice, by returning to her small Texas hometown, but she's faced with petty old acquaintances who are thrilled to see Birdee unhappy -- except for her friend Justin. As he helps Birdee get back on her feet, love begins to blossom.

Dodes'ka-den

This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

This film is a glimpse into the life, love and the unconquerable spirit of the legendary Bruce Lee. From a childhood of rigorous martial arts training, Lee realizes his dream of opening his own kung-fu school in America. Before long, he is discovered by a Hollywood producer and begins a meteoric rise to fame and an all too short reign as one the most charismatic action heroes in cinema history.

Simon Birch

Simon Birch and Joe Wenteworth are boys who have a reputation for being oddballs. Joe never knew his father, and his mother, Rebecca, is keeping her lips sealed no matter how much he protests. Simon, meanwhile, is an 11-year-old dwarf whose outsize personality belies his small stature. Indeed, he often assails the local reverend with thorny theological questions and joins Joe on his quest to find his biological father.

Spencer's Mountain

Clay Spencer is a hard-working man who loves his wife and large family. He is respected by his neighbors and always ready to give them a helping hand. Although not a churchgoer, he even helps a newly arrived local minister regain his flock after he and Clay get into a bit of trouble. If he has one dream in life it's to build his wife Olivia a beautiful house on a piece of land he inherited on Spender's mountain. When his eldest son, Clayboy, graduates at the top of his high school class and has the opportunity to go to college, Clay has only one option left to him.

The Single Moms Club

A group of single moms are brought together in the aftermath of an incident at their children's school.

The Tender Bar

JR is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — JR begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

Gracie's Choice

For as long as she can remember, 16 year-old Gracie has been raising her four siblings, each of whom has a different, absent father and their mother is on the fast track to self-destruction. When these children's lives are about to be pulled apart, Gracie will have to do the impossible and make the ultimate sacrifices to keep her family together.

House of Cards

When Ruth Matthews's husband is killed in a fall at an archaeological dig, her daughter Sally handles her father's death in a very odd manner. As Sally's condition worsens, Ruth takes her to see Jake, an expert in childhood autism. Jake attempts to bring Sally out of her mental disarray through traditional therapy methods, but Ruth takes a different route. She risks her own sanity by attempting to enter her daughter's mind and make sense of the seemingly bizarre things that Sally does, including building a wondrous house of cards

Household X

The story takes place in a new residential area in the outskirts of Tokyo. A family photograph adorns the living room of the Hashimoto family. It is a heartwarming shot of the three family members from when they first moved here, finally having bought their own home that they had wanted for so long. Wife Michiko hangs the laundry everyday. Husband Ken-ichi leaves for work without a word. Son Hiroaki has a part-time job, returns home early and disappears into his room. The Hashimoto Family no longer eats meal together at the dining table or spends time together in the living room. Michiko yearns for a different relationship with her family and is gradually overcome by loneliness. While feeling pressured from the trifling matters that occur within the residential community, Michiko tries to fill the emptiness that she hides in her heart.

I Love You to Death

Joey Boca is the owner of a pizza parlour, and has been married to Rosalie for years. When Rosalie discovers that Joey is a womanizer and has been cheating on her for a long time, she goes to extreme lengths to punish him.

Isn't It Delicious

When Joan Weldon discovers she is dying of lung cancer, she sets out to reconcile her dysfunctional relationships with her three children, her husband, and along the way, her former best friend. The family's destructive ways are offset by messy and somewhat humorous attempts by Joan to set her children on the right course before she dies. In this big dysfunctional mix, they will all learn to connect in their own ways, and realize on their own terms what life is about.

It Runs in the Family

This is the story of a dysfunctional New York family, and their attempts to reconcile

Ley Lines

The story follows a trio of Japanese youths of Chinese descent who escape their semi-rural upbringing and relocate to Shinjuku, Tokyo, where they befriend a troubled Shanghai prostitute and fall foul of a local crime syndicate. Like many of Miike's works, the film examines the underbelly of respectable Japanese society and the problems of assimilation faced by non-ethnically Japanese people in Japan.

Life and Nothing More

Standing on the edge of adulthood, Andrew yearns to find his purpose as a young African-American in today's America. With his mother longing to find more to her life then parenting, Andrew is forced to take on the mounting pressure of family responsibility. His search for connection with an absent father, leads him to a dangerous crossroads.

Mama's Boy

A twenty-nine year-old slacker who lives with his mom realizes his sweet set-up is threatened when she hears wedding bells with her self-help guru beau.

Miami Rhapsody

Gwyn Marcus has always wanted a marriage like her parents. She has just accepted the proposal of her boyfriend Matt, but she has misgivings about their future together. Her fear of commitment grows as she learns of the various affairs that her family is having. With her sister getting married and her brother already married, her mother is growing concerned about Gwyn's being the last single person in the family. But the more she thinks about marriage, the more she must search for the balance between career, marriage and family.

Putty Hill

Friends and family of Cory, a young man who has died of an overdose, gather at a Baltimore-area karaoke bar for his wake and compare stories about him. Gradually, as it becomes clear that there are many holes in their recollections about Cory, they fill in the blanks by talking about things that reveal aspects of their own lives. Among those mourning him and searching for meaning are his cousin Jenny, his sister Zoe and his brother James.

Catfish in Black Bean Sauce

An African American couple (Winfield and Alice) adopt two orphans from a Vietnamese refugee camp. After twenty-two years, the children are reunited with their birth mother, bringing deeply submerged resentments and misconceptions to the surface and forcing the characters to reexamine their identity and relationships in both comical and poignant situations.

A Family Thing

Earl Pilcher Jr., runs an equipment rental outfit in Arkansas, lives with his wife and kids and parents, and rarely takes off his gimme cap. His mother dies, leaving a letter explaining he's not her natural son, but the son of a Black woman who died in childbirth; plus, he has a half brother Ray, in Chicago, she wants him to visit. Earl makes the trip, initially receiving a cold welcome from Ray and Ray's son, Virgil. His birth mother's sister, Aunt T., an aged and blind matriarch, takes Earl in tow and insists that the family open up to him.

Still Walking

Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger's life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion. Younger son Ryota still feels that his parents resent that he isn't the one who died; his new wife, Yukari, is awkwardly meeting the rest of the family for the first time. Daughter Chinami strains to fill the uncomfortable pauses with forced cheer.

Take Me Home

In New York City, Thom is broke and jobless, illegally working as a taxi driver. Claire is a successful business-woman, but personally she's in shambles - then comes the phone call that her estranged father is in the hospital. Not knowing what to do, Claire hops in Thom's cab and orders him to just drive and so he does. They find themselves in Pennsylvania and Claire makes the rash decision to drive across the country to California. On the road, there are many detours as the obstacles and secrets force them to learn about themselves and each other.

Tokyo Story

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams

Rita, a middle aged New York City homemaker, finds herself in an emotional crisis which forces her to re-examine her life, as well as her relationships with her mother, her eye doctor husband, her alienated daughter and estranged son.

Dirt

DIRT is a quirky comedy about two simple-hearted brothers who, when abandoned by the death of their mother, search to find a replacement Mom. Junior and Scooter find themselves ill-prepared for life on their own. To ease their suffering, they search the desert dregs of West Texas for a woman to take Mom's place. Due to their social disability, they are forced to kidnap a woman from a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. They soon realize that they have gotten more than they bargained for when their "victim," Dede, turns out to be the maltreated wife of an abusive Texas Ranger. She quickly turns her misfortune into theirs, convincing the brothers to steal her baby away from her sadistic husband. Life gets even more complicated for these simple-hearted boys when the vengeful Ranger tracks them down bent on keeping them from living happily ever after.

Spirits Among Us

Mark, Janice and their young daughter Julie have lived in their home about two months. Strange things begin to happen, first just annoying, then becoming terrifying. Television sets go on and off by themselves, strange noises in the attic, movement in the shadows, light bulbs bursting, unexplained voices, terrifying dreams, and dolls that seem to have a mind of their own. Being a self-sufficient independent do-it-yourself kind of man, Mark tries to "fix it" with his own resources. Only after being brought to near death does he realize he needs the power of the Holy Spirit through the authority of Jesus Christ to rid their home of this malevolent spirits.

Phantom

In Tokyo, a girl and her boyfriend spend a night talking about their life, their precarious condition and their difficulties to earn a living, their place in the world, if ever they have one...

Like Father

When a workaholic young executive, is left at the altar, she ends up on her Caribbean honeymoon cruise with the last person she ever expected: her estranged and equally workaholic father. The two depart as strangers, but over the course of a few hilarious adventures, a couple of umbrella-clad cocktails and a whole lot of soul-searching, they return with a renewed appreciation for family and life.

Tokyo Sonata

A young boy takes interest in piano while his family begins to disintegrate around him after his father loses his job.

Sophie & Sheba

Growing up at a zoo, young ballet dancer Sophie always loved animals - but none as much as her pet elephant Sheba. When her parents are forced to sell Sheba to a travelling circus, Sophie has no choice but to runaway and join him on the road to get him back.

his

Shun and Nagisa first meet and fall in love during their first year of high school. While Shun is graduating from university, Nagisa tells him that he doesn't see a future for them. Despite Shun's strong feelings, they go their separate ways. Years later, Shun is now a store owner, living alone in a rural area. Out of the blue, Nagisa arrives with his six-year-old daughter, Sora. Spending time together, Shun realizes he still harbors feelings for Nagisa. Can Nagisa reconcile with his feelings for Shun, which have been there all along?

Donkeys

Alfred is 64. He's lost touch with his family and a threat to his health makes him realise he wants to make amends. The more he tries to do right, the more he does wrong, and as his past comes back to haunt him, he is forced to face up to what his life means to him. Rounding Up Donkeys is the second film in Sigma and Zentropa's three feature film concept 'Advance Party'.

Fair Haven

After a long stint in gay conversion therapy, James, a young piano prodigy, returns home to his family farm and his emotionally-distant father, Richard. After Richard pressures James to give up his music career and take over the farm, James agrees as a way to make up for his past. Soon, however, James finds himself face-to-face with a former lover, Charlie, who wants to help him turn away from his new beliefs and family expectations and follow his dreams of studying music.

Safelight

A teenage boy and girl discover a renewed sense of possibility as they go on a road trip to photograph lighthouses along the California coast.

All the Way Home

In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure the heartache of life following the tragedy, but slowly rise up from the ashes to face the hope of renewed life.

Generational Sins

Estranged brothers try to honor their mother's dying wish by reconciling with their abusive, alcoholic father and ultimately are forced to choose between a bitter existence or a life of faith and forgiveness.

Fathers & Sons

Fathers & Sons is a comedic exploration of a group of men and their relationships with their fathers. A middle-aged Jewish man meets his father for the first time at the funeral of his mother. A south-Asian accountant introduces his white fiance to his father - a gay, Bollywood choreographer. A recently bankrupted Wall-Street broker has come home to borrow money from his music teacher father, and four brothers gather at the paternal home to pay their last respects and to collect their inheritance.

Death Water

Newspaper correspondent Kyoko Togakure visits a nursing home in the outskirts of Tokyo. She finds the dead body of a resident. It was an apparent suicide. He's holding a piece of paper with the mystifying word "Death Water" written on it. Nearby are blood-stained scissors, and his eyes are squashed. She has no idea that this death is just the beginning of a horrendous nightmare.

Saving Sarah Cain

When Sarah Cain, a self-involved big-city newspaper columnist, travels to Pennsylvania for the funeral of her Amish sister, she soon discovers that she is the legal guardian of her five Amish nieces and nephews. Rather than choose to move to Lancaster County to finish raising them there herself, or let them be separated by the foster care system, Sarah decides to take them with her back to Portland where she believes she can make a new life for them. However, she soon realizes that the modern world has forced them to compromise who they are, and that she has moved them there for all the wrong reasons - a motive which is soon exposed - because secrets can really never be kept secret. In order to find her own redemption, she knows she must make a choice to give them back their lives in Amish Country. And whether she remains part of their lives will have a lot to do with how much she has grown to love them.

How to Train Your Husband

A marriage therapist attempts to fix her own marriage by focusing on how to change her husband.

Go Toward the Light

A young couple faces the realities of life with their child who is diagnosed with AIDS.

Raven's Touch

Blaming herself for a tragic accident, Raven Michaels secludes herself at a remote family cabin. She wanders the woods on the verge of a breakdown, seeking peace in isolation. In a last ditch attempt to save her family, Kate Royce takes her two teenagers camping far from the distractions of technology and young romance. When Raven and Kate's worlds collide they offer each other unexpected opportunities for intimacy and healing.

Naked as We Came

Love, loss and hope are tumultuously explored amidst a tranquil backdrop and asks us all the question: What is your dream? After an unexpected phone call, Laura and her brother Elliot rush to their family’s country estate to find Lilly their mother gravely ill and living with a handsome young stranger named Ted. Estranged for some time, their mother’s condition sets Laura and Elliot on a path to realizing where their own lives have gone wrong. Lilly, on the other hand, has mellowed from the controlling woman she was and is hoping to pass on some wisdom to her children. Now her kids find themselves dealing with their own feelings of resentment and broken dreams while trying to figure out how Ted fits into their mother’s life. Elliot even sleeps with Ted to break some barriers. But Ted has a secret of his own.

Family Squares

The Worth Family has been divided for years but when the matriarch, Grandma Mabel dies suddenly, the family has to come together. The story of Family Squares takes the Worth Family on a journey discovering that not only did Grandma Mabel keep some secrets, so did everyone else. They find their way back to each other and realize that while you can’t choose your family, you can choose to be friends with them.

Future Weather

Abandoned by her dreamer single mom, a teenage loner becomes obsessed with ecological disaster, forcing her and her grandmother, a functioning alcoholic, to rethink their futures.

The Three Madeleines

Three women who share a familial bond but little more come to know each other better in this beautifully-photographed drama. Marie-Madeleine (Sylvie Drapeau) is a photographer in her mid-30s who, for the first time, has come into contact with Mado (France Arbour), her biological mother, who put her up for adoption shortly after she was born. Marie-Madeleine is to take a long road trip for a magazine assignment, and she invites Mado along. Joining the two women is Marie-Madeleine's daughter (Isadora Galwey), who has yet to meet her German father. The three women share their thoughts and ideas as they travel through an idyllic setting to photograph birds. Les Fantomes des Trois Madeleine was shown at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors Fortnight series.

Brave New Girl

Holly has everything it takes to be a star; the voice, the dream and the dedication, but she lacks the means to break away from her humble Texas upbringing. Then she gets the chance to attend an art and music school on the East coast and her future suddenly looks bright. But the road to stardom is a bumpy one.

To Love and Die

A fun-loving 30-something (Shiri Appleby) with abandonment issues becomes convinced that her dating problems will be resolved if she can only track down the father she never knew. When she finds him (Tim Matheson), she discovers that he's an assassin and that she may have found her calling.

Tale of the Three Jewels

A Palestinian boy becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl and a fairy tale world she weaves amidst conflict in Gaza. The children explore nature, mysticism and what their future holds, while learning to live with the surrounding brutality c. 1990. Yusef's family scrapes by in a seaside camp while his father's in prison and his heavily-armed brother's on the run, parrying with Israeli troops. Salah, Yusef's schoolmate from a well-off Arab family strives faithfully to assist them, while Yusef helps an elderly, blind neighbor escape from his lonely abandonment into the North American dreamworld he's waited so long for.

Relative Stranger

After the death of his father, a former football star reunites with the family that he abandoned years earlier.

Patrick

A woman's chaotic life becomes more complicated when she inherits her grandmother's dog.

In Search of Mother

Period piece about a young man who, because of his hard life alone in the world, has become a yakuza. When he hears that his mother may be living in Edo (Tokyo), he travels there, intent on finding her and leaving the swordsman's life behind. But a team of rival gangsters is hot on his heels.

Living on Velvet

A lay-about falls for his best friend's fiancee. The two of them run away from a life of privilege to one of middle-class normalcy. When an influx of money enters their life, their differences come to light.

Amanogawa

High schooler Shiori lives with her education-minded mother. Struggling with her life in Tokyo, she travels on behalf of her grandmother to the mystical island Yakushima, where she meets a robot.

Mr. Long

Long is a Taiwanese killer known for his sword skills. After Long fails a Tokyo mission, he moves to a small town where no one knows about him.

Your Voice -KIMIKOE-

The story focuses on high school girl Nagisa Yukiai who lives in a seaside town. She has believed her grandmother's story that spirits dwell in words and they are called "kotodama" (word spirit). One day, she strays into a mini FM station that has not been used for years. As an impulse of the moment, she tries to talk like a DJ using the facility. But her voice accidentally broadcasted reaches someone she has never expected.

Mother Ghost

Keith Bennets mother passed away a year ago, and he feels like he has moved on with his life, until one morning his mothers jewelry shows up on Keiths bathroom sink. The same jewelry she was buried in. Keith tells his wife Karen, about the jewelry and that is the last straw. She claims he is distant and has shut her out. Now he thinks he is seeing things that aren't there and if things don't improve, she will take their only son and leave. Forced with the ultimatum, Keith launches himself on a day of reclamation. Keith winds up on the phone with a popular radio Psychiatrist who guides Keith through what he cannot see on his own. Keith discovers a new man and a new attitude. Several people are listening to Keith's plight on the radio and are making changes of their own. Is this dead visitor all in Keith's head or is she truly a Mother Ghost?

Everyday Mom

Rieko Saibara is a cartoonist and mother of a 6-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl. When she has a difficult time, she throws away her problems with laughter. Her husband Kamoshitda used to be a war camera man, but now he's addicted to alcohol. He struggles to overcome his problem, but keeps failing. Finally, they get divorced. After Kamoshida loses his family, he realizes how precious they are. He focuses on getting away from alcohol, but another disease comes to him. Even though Saibara knows that he can not make it for long, she accepts him back to her family again. Since then a happy, but short, time exists for the family of four.

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek

After a mass shooting at a police funeral, reclusive ex-cop Gannon finds himself unwittingly forced out of retirement when he realizes that the killer belongs to the same militia he joined after quitting the force. Understanding that the shooting could set off a chain reaction of copycat violence across the country, Gannon quarantines his fellow militiamen in the remote lumber mill they call their headquarters. There, he sets about a series of grueling interrogations, intent on ferreting out the killer and turning him over to the authorities to prevent further bloodshed.

The Girl with No Number

Phuong Ly, a poor, beautiful Vietnamese woman, falls in love with an attractive, kind and wealthy man who wants to take her hand in marriage. Her life is seemingly perfect until her boyfriend's mother purposefully sabotages their relationship. Heartbroken and fragile, Phuong Ly travels to Ho Chi Minh City to work as a cleaner at a marriage agency. There she meets Mitch, one of the men seeking an arranged marriage. He takes a strong interest in her, and coerces her to marry him with the promise that he'll support her family in Vietnam and that she'll receive a better life. However as soon as she arrives in America, Phuong Ly realizes she has been brought as a slave. She is violated and abused with no hope of escape. The only ray of light is the bond she develops with the American's young, autistic niece; both of them prisoners needing to escape.

Godzilla's Leading Ladies

An NHK documentary about the talented actresses who have portrayed the beautiful, intelligent and resourceful heroines of the long running series. Features interviews with Kumi Mizuno, Keiko Mari, Yumiko Shaku, and Megumi Odaka. Also featured are never before seen 8mm home movies shot by producer Tomoyuki Tanaka on the sets of classic Toho films.

Debbie Macomber's A Mrs. Miracle Christmas

When a family faces loneliness and loss of faith, Mrs. Miracle swoops in to renew their Christmas Spirit, and they experience a holiday of heavenly proportions.

Taken Away

A corrupt politician covers up his daughter Vicky's pregnancy by forcing her to give the baby up for adoption. The newborn is adopted by a loving couple unable to have children, but a year later Vicky, now in college, realizes she was forced into signing the papers and really wants her daughter back. After sneaking into the adoption agency to find out who the adoptive parents are, she takes them to court to fight for custody.

The Blackwater Lightship

A man in the final stages of AIDS is cared for by his sister and mother and grandmother.

Bebia, à mon seul désir

Returning home for the funeral of her grandmother, seventeen-year-old Ariadna must cross the unspoiled Georgian countryside to connect her grandmother’s soul with her resting body in an ancient burial custom. Traversing this exhausting and raw terrain, Ariadna is forced to confront the impact that the complex, sometimes cruel matriarch had on her not-so-distant childhood.

Crackie

Life on the Rock never seemed easy, but for Mitsy it is especially rough. The teenager has been abandoned by her mother, a particularly unfit parent prone to both the bottle and the sex trade. She is left to be brought up by her mercurial grandmother Bride, who is well-meaning but oppressively suffocating. Mitsy's dreams for the future hinge on her desire to be a hairdresser, but her current emotional well-being revolves around a wee dog named Sparky, an unwanted canine misfit to whom she becomes hopelessly attached. After Bride agrees to let Mitsy take the dog in as a pet, the teen tries desperately to create a happy, safe place for Sparky to thrive.

A Picture of You

Kyle and Jen, estranged siblings, travel from New York City to rural Pennsylvania to pack up the home of their recently deceased mother. While there, they make a discovery that turns their world upside-down. A Picture of You is a serious movie about life that gets sideswiped in the supermarket parking lot by a funny movie about death. It’s a story about family, loss, secrets, letting go, and starting anew.

Breakfast and Dinner

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.

Ghouls

Stefan invites his daughter, Jennifer, to travel to Romania for the funeral of his mother. His mystic girlfriend Liz travels with them to the cursed village of Pelosoara, where they are welcomed by Stefan's brother Vladimir, and Jennifer finds the locals are very peculiar people. Jennifer learns that she is the only woman from the bloodline of her father. At the funeral a stranger approaches and asks Jennifer to meet him in the square in one hour. When Jennifer arrives at the meeting place, she sees a creature devouring the man she was there to meet and is saved by Thomas. The man tells her that he is the last druid on Earth, protecting the world against the evil ancients. They were defeated by the druids in the past and banished to the spiritual world. That night, there was to be a reclamation ceremony where the evil queen possesses a vessel to open a vortex between the spiritual and the real world to bring the ancients back to Earth...

Jenifa

Jennifer is a European girl who speaks Japanese a little. She arrives to the funeral in temple in Japanese countryside and meets a boy there. The boy is a juvenile delinquent and works his punishment in temple. Jennifer likes this silent boy and she wants to help him overcome estrangement from the people. Also she helps daughter of the temple's father superior reconcile her parents.

Pride

Shio Asami (Stephanie) was brought up in a wealthy family whose mother is a prominent opera singer. However, the bankruptcy of her father’s business forced her to give up becoming an opera singer. Moe Midorikawa (Hikari Mitsushima) entrapped Shio and claimed a victory in an opera contest. A competition of two heroines ensues, placing their pride on the line.

A Lavish Invitation

The Tigers, a rock band, escape their parents and teachers trying to forcibly cut their long hair, but accidentally stow away on a train to Tokyo. In Tokyo they get in some trouble, but eventually get jobs as musical assistants. Can they make the stage debut they've always dreamed of, or will their dreams be cut short?

No Life King

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."

Gajimaru Restaurant's Love

Mizuho takes over a restaurant in Nago, Okinawa, which was left to her by her grandmother. She single-handedly runs “Gajimaru Diner”, named after the large, deeply-rooted Gajimaru (banyan) tree in the area. Eventually, circumstances lead to her being brought together with an unknown traveler named Hayato, her ex-boyfriend Shota who returns after living in Tokyo for the past seven years, and a woman named Riko who shares something with both of them. As they work at the diner together, their relationships reveal themselves differently than what they had in mind.

This Mystery is Excellent! ~ Challenge from Bestseller Writer

Kashiopea no Endo Roru A murder takes place on a luxury overnight train which runs from Sapporo to Ueno, Tokyo. The victim is a film director. The suspects are 4 women. Nokosareta Senritsu After a pianist concludes her best performance to date, she dies mysteriously in the waiting room. The cause of her death is potassium cyanide that was laced in her coffee. Kuroi Pan Teru A man works as a supervisor for a construction company. 30 years ago, he was a popular actor who played a hero character on TV. Now, he has a wife and a 20-year-old daughter. One day, the man learns that his daughter is kidnapped. Daiyamondo Dasuto A cold wave hits Tokyo. Two men, working for the same company, are unable to avoid overtime work that night. The snow storm then causes electrical outages. The two men must face difficult life or death decisions.

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