Masaaki Taniguchi

Bungo: Stories of Desire

Omnibus film "Bungo Sasayakana Yokubo" features 6 different short stories set under 2 different themes ("Mitsumerareru Shukujotachi" & "Kokuhaku Suru Shinshitachi").

Release Date2012-09-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Akari Yoshiyama is graduating high school soon and is expected to lead new life after she passes the university entrance exam, while her mother is working as a pharmacologist. However, her mother has a car accident and the situation is totally changed. She decides to go to 1972 to fullfil her mother's wish.

Release Date2010-03-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count64

Snow Flake

A college student in Hakodate, Japan lost her best friend 10 years ago. Since the tragic loss the girl hasn't talked. One day, the girl is asked to write a comment about a "forget-me-not" on a website. She writes about letting go of the past and to focus on the present day. Soon after however a man resembling her childhood friend appears in her life.

Release Date2011-08-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Heaven's Bookstore

Kenta, a young pianist who has just lost his job, is drowning his woes at a bar, when he meets a man in a Hawaiian shirt named Yamaki. He invites Kenta to work with him, and the next thing he knows, Kenta wakes up to find himself in a room he has never been in before. It is a strange room that seems to have no connection to life. He descends a staircase to find many shelves of books.

Release Date2004-06-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobAssistant Director

Vote Count13

Musicophilia

Based on webcomic “Musicophilia” by Akira Saso published in 2011, this is a film about Saku Urushibara, a young man with a special ability to understand sounds in nature. His father is a prominent composer, and his younger half-brother is a genius music composer. Due to the success achieved by his father and half-brother, Saku Urushibara has an inferiority complex. He tries to stay away from music because of this, but he ends up enrolling at the University of Arts in Kyoto where his special ability helps him find his own voice in the world of contemporary classical music.

Release Date2021-11-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

愛を乞うひと

Release Date2017-01-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Jump

An ordinary salary man, Junosuke, goes in search of his lover, Miharu, who disappeared one night when she handed him the key to her room, and promised to be back in five minutes. She had only gone out to buy apples at the nearby convenience store, because Junosuke has one for breakfast every morning. Slightly drunk from the cocktail he had had earlier, Junosuke falls asleep, and wakes up the next morning to find that Miharu had never returned.

Release Date2003-08-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobAssistant Director

Vote Count1

Signal

University student Keisuke returns to his hometown during his summer holiday and takes a part-time job at a run-down movie theater. However, his boss Ruka, a projectionist who lives on the premises, has not set foot outside in three years, and always falls into a deep depression on Mondays. Keisuke feels himself becoming attracted to the mysterious Ruka, but...

Release Date2012-06-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

The Tender Throbbing Twilight

Surprisingly touching tale of love at the far side of retirement age, proving that Pink films are not just for dirty old men; they can also be about dirty old men. It follows two former high-school sweethearts who are recently widowed and reunite, only to run up against the expectations of society.

Release Date2008-11-10

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count3

Shōtai

Keiichi Kaburagi is arrested as a suspect in a murder case and sentenced to death. He escaped from prison during the transfer, but while fleeing, he rescues the people he meets in his hiding place from the predicament. And when the rescued people realize that Kaburagi is a wanted death-row prisoner, they begin to wonder, "Is he really a murderer?"

Release Date2022-03-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count4

Vote Count3

In Lilac Bloom, The Path to a Veterinarian

Set in the vast wilderness of Hokkaido, this awkward yet endearing coming-of-age story follows a girl who used to be socially withdrawn as she strives to become a veterinarian while facing the reality of life and death.

Release Date2025-02-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Yoko's Moving

A cold landscape spreads across the reclaimed land. A road that stretches in a straight line. Hasegawa wanders into this place while his girlfriend, Yoko, is moving. However, the conversation between the two is awkward and doesn't mesh well. By chance, Hasegawa is left alone in this empty landscape. He starts playing with the bouncing ball. This work expresses the inability to communicate well and the feeling of loneliness through a cinematic space created by the contrast between the "stillness" of the landscape and the "motion" of a rolling ball. The sight of a single person standing alone in a desolate landscape has an almost existentialist feel to it.

Release Date1989-01-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Aquarium Girl

Yuka is an employee at a major Japanese trading company who finds herself dumped by her elitist boyfriend, also a colleague. To make matters worse, she ends up getting demoted and is transferred to a soon-to-be-closed aquarium that's affiliated with her company. Yuka's former boss and ex-boyfriend from the head office come to the aquarium with intentions of closing it, arousing suspicions in Yuka's trainer, Kaji. As a result, Kaji pushes Yuka harder and harder in her work as a dolphin trainer. But over time, Yuka sees through his harsh exterior and recognizes he has a deep love for the aquarium's animals. She becomes competent at her job through the relationship with her dolphin, while beginning to develop feelings for Kaji. Yuka's personal and professional lives are now poised to emerge from the depths!

Release Date2016-06-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

No Matter How Much the Night is Dark

Shiga Michinari was a well-respected deputy editor-in-chief of a major publishing company "Shukan Shuncho". However, his reputation and happiness hit the bottom when his son Kensuke was involved in a stalker's murder case and later committed suicide. People around Michinari suddenly became cold to him. He was demoted and abused by the company and reporters. In addition, his daughter Nanami became violent while his beloved wife couldn't handle the pressure and left home. Michinari could no longer stand the situation and decided to investigate the incident which Kensuke was involved in.

Release Date2020-11-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count4

Scattered Reflection

Shima (Mirei Kiritani) is a second year high school student. She has already become the youngest ever winner of a "new writer award" for poetry. Yet, she keeps it a secret that she is a writer at school. Shima has developed feelings for fellow second year high school student Kento (Takahiro Miura). One day, Kento confesses his feelings for her and they begin to have a relationship. Shima has difficulties understanding other's emotions and can't understand Kento's feelings. Soon afterwards, Kento decides to break up with Shim...

Release Date2011-08-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1