Japan in Cherry Blossom Time

A springtime Traveltalk visit to Japan.

1930-04-25 | en

Un samouraï au Vatican

Why do 600 inhabitants of the small southern Spanish town of Coria del Río bear the surname "Japón"? It is the legacy of an unusual expedition that took place 400 years ago: In October 1613, the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga boarded the galleon "San Juan Bautista" on behalf of the ruler Date Masamune in Sendai, Japan. In addition to merchants, warriors and Spanish sailors, the Spanish Franciscan monk Luis Sotelo, who spoke fluent Japanese, also embarked. The legation wanted to obtain permission from the Spanish King Philip III and Pope Paul V to open a new sea route to India alongside the spice route; in return, Christian missionaries were to be sent to Japan. When he set off, Hasekura Tsunenaga had no idea that the journey would take seven years. Who was this Japanese samurai? What is known about his motives and what is known about the actual background to the expedition?

2018-08-30 | fr

Tsukiji Wonderland

Through the lives of professionals working at Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, the film portrays how Tsukiji has been the center of fish culinary culture and helped Japanese food culture to flourish as we know it today.

2016-09-01 | ja

The Story of Yanagawa's Canals

A partially-animated documentary about the preservation and restoration of the canal system in Yanagawa, Fukuoka

1987-08-15 | ja

The Coelacanth, a dive into our origins

Gombessa Expedition 1 To dive for the Coelacanth is to go back in time. In 1938, when it was known only as a fossil, a Coelacanth was discovered in South Africa in a fisherman's net. This species bears witness to an evolutionary bifurcation 380 million years ago, and bears the marks of a great event: the day the fish left the ocean for the open air. Does it hold the secret to the transition to walking on land? In 2010, a marine biologist and outstanding diver, Laurent Ballesta, took the first photographs of the Coelacanth in its ecosystem. In April 2013, divers and researchers set down their equipment at the Sodwana base camp in South Africa, in the club founded by Peter Timm (who died in 2014). Six weeks of extreme diving at depths of over 120 meters, in an attempt to film the Coelacanth with a double-headed camera, collect its DNA and tag a subject with a satellite-linked beacon...

2013-11-02 | fr

Modern Tokyo

This Traveltalk series short looks at pre-World War II Tokyo, highlighting the influences of Western culture.

1935-12-28 | en

Goodbye CP

Kazuo Hara follows the lives and activities of Yokota Hiroshi and Yokozuka Koichi, members of an activist group made up of people with cerebral palsy.

1972-03-01 | ja

Super Fish - An Endless Adventure

Since man made the spear one-hundred thousand years ago, the fish have been a surprising role in human history. They've only been known as food for man who have been hungry! How have they changed the history of humans? Here goes the story...

2013-07-11 | ko

Lads on Tour

As described by Oliver Sykes, "The most offensive, vulgar, awkward, retarded band DVD of all time. But also the funniest and the best."

2013-02-01 | en

Born In Summer

A filmmaker plays with diary-docu and fiction as his camera joins his ventures into a phone dating club. Bored to death, hormones running, and desperately wanting to talk to someone his own age (preferably a girl), he walks into a local phone dating club. Can he hook up with someone? Borrowing the form of a diary-movie, the director unfurls an unpredictable and imaginative look into his own persona. 8mm experimental film by Murakami Kenji, the film that made his name.

1998-01-01 | ja

Dear Pyongyang

Dear Pyongyang is a documentary film by Zainichi Korean director Yang Yong-hi (Korean: 양영희, Hanja: 梁英姬) about her own family. It was shot in Osaka Japan (Yang's hometown) and Pyongyang, North Korea, In the 1970s, Yang's father, an ardent communist and leader of the pro-North movement in Japan, sent his three sons from Japan to North Korea under a repatriation campaign sponsored by ethnic activist organisation and de facto North Korean embassy Chongryon; as the only daughter, Yang herself remained in Japan. However, as the economic situation in the North deteriorated, the brothers became increasingly dependent for survival on the care packages sent by their parents. The film shows Yang's visits to her brothers in Pyongyang, as well as conversations with her father about his ideological faith and his regrets over breaking up his family.

2006-01-23 | ja

The Inland Sea

In 1971, author and film scholar Donald Richie published a poetic travelogue about his explorations of the islands of Japan’s Inland Sea, recording his search for traces of a traditional way of life as well as his own journey of self-discovery. Twenty years later, filmmaker Lucille Carra undertook a parallel trip inspired by Richie’s by-then-classic book, capturing images of hushed beauty and meeting people who still carried on the fading customs that Richie had observed. Interspersed with surprising detours—a visit to a Frank Sinatra-loving monk, a leper colony, an ersatz temple of plywood and plaster—and woven together by Richie’s narration as well as a score by celebrated composer Toru Takemitsu, The Inland Sea is an eye-opening voyage and a profound meditation on what it means to be a foreigner.

1991-12-01 | en

Omoiyari

Violinist and songwriter Kishi Bashi travels on a musical journey to understand WWII era Japanese Incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today.

2022-03-14 | en

Iwo Jima: From Combat to Comrades

For the men who fought perhaps the fiercest battle of WWII, seventy years have passed. But the memories of those 36 bloody days on Iwo Jima have not. In the spring of 2015, survivors of both sides of the battle returned for the last time to join a Reunion of Honor — a unique, now-peaceful fellowship first forged of fire and bullets.

2015-11-10 | en

Citizen Kitano

Takeshi Kitano is an international icon. We know the actor, the multi-award-winning filmmaker, but many ignore his double personality: the crazy TV star, the street kid from Tokyo close to the Yakuza, and the political satirist who blasted taboos! Can we dream of a better guide to introduce us to the cultural history of Japan?

2020-10-16 | fr

Pickle

An ode to man's capacity to care for all creatures throughout their sometimes greatly protracted existence, displayed through the homegrown remedies Tom and Debbie Nicholson create for disabled animals.

2016-04-10 | en

Okinawa: The Afterburn

On April 1, 1945, the United States military launched its invasion of the main island of Okinawa, the start of a battle that was to last 12 weeks and claim the lives of some 240,000 people. This film depicts the Battle through the eyes of Japanese and American soldiers who fought each other on the same battlefield, along with Okinawa civilians who were swept up in the fighting. The film also depicts the history of discrimination and oppression forced upon Okinawa by the American and Japanese governments. Carrying up to the current controversy over the construction of a new base at Henoko, the film explores the root causes of the widespread disillusionment and anger expressed by many Okinawans. This ambitious documentary was directed by the American John Junkerman, long-term resident of Japan and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. Okinawa: The Afterburn is a heartfelt plea for peace and an expression of deep respect for the unyielding spirit of the Okinawa people.

2015-06-20 | ja

Ama-San

A dive, the midday sunlight filtering down through the water. The air in her lungs has to last until she can dislodge the abalone. Dives like these have been carried out in Japan for over 2000 years by the Ama-San.

2016-04-16 | ja

Japon : L'Empire du sexe virtuel

2016-12-22 | fr

A Handful of Salt

A documentary that focuses on the craftspeople who continue to make salt with a technique called Agehama-shiki that has been passed down since ancient times, and the lush natural environment of the northernmost tip of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. It is also the feature-length debut of director Ishii Kaori. The process of making salt by collecting sea water and boiling it in a hiragama cauldron temporarily died out during the period of Japan's rapid economic growth following World War II, but one family's efforts to keep it alive has miraculously ensured its continuation. Salt is a vital element of people's lives. The saltmaking artisans who perpetuate their traditions represent a way forward for those of us living in this modern age.

2011-11-12 | ja