Jakujaku Katsura

Tourists, foreigners and outcasts converge on the streets of Osaka in this sprawling ensemble drama by Japan-based, Malaysia-born filmmaker Lim Kah Wai. His eighth feature explores the lesser-known aspects of the Asian melting pot city through the eyes and experiences of a dozen characters who struggle to find their place in society: among them a Nepali refugee with dreams of opening a restaurant, a Burmese student struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs, and a Taiwanese sex tourist who travels to meet his favorite adult video actress.

Sakai is a city near Osaka by the bay famous for its swords in the old days and kitchen knives today. Norio is an antique dealer in the city. Sasuke is a potter in the city. Seventeenth century tea master Sen No Rikyu appears before them one day.

The central Kansai region of Japan is the setting for the historic cities of Sakai and Kyoto. Noda and Koike from We Make Antiques are back and together for the tea ceremony by Furuta Shigenari who is the master of the ceremony. Enter a mysterious new woman named Shino about whom the two have a feeling.

Kenji Shimamura has trouble being intimate with his girlfriend Noriko after a lifetime of watching his parents bicker over his father’s infidelity. After he spurns her advances, causing her to storm off in an offended rage, he decides it’s time to seek psychological help. Unfortunately that costs money and the best way to earn some quick cash in his family is to spy on his dad for his mother. He quickly discovers his dad has a young girlfriend named Yukari. Figuring the best way to deal with this gracefully is to come clean with Yukari he tells her all about their family and the real estate business his parents run together. Unfortunately, however, his plan backfires. Instead of being scared off Yukari applies for a job at the family business and befriends Kenji’s mother, setting up a chain of events that makes things awkward for everyone involved.

A treasure appears in front of antique dealer Norio Koike (Kiichi Nakai) and potter Sasuke (Kuranosuke Sasaki). The treasure is Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s chawan (procelain tea bowl) called Houou, that has been missing.

Kota hears about an impending 1.5 billion yen gold bar heist from his friend Kitagawa, a former college classmate, and decides to take part. The gold bar sits in the basement of the HQ of Sumita Bank. Helping Kota and Kitagawa are bank security employee Noda, a North Korean spy pretending to be a college student, Kitagawa's younger brother Haruki and a former elevator engineer. These 6 men are about to carry the boldest of schemes to bypass the bank's high-tech defense system.

After Tamiko Kazami's husband passes away, she works their dairy farm. People around her oppose her, but she places her cattle out to pasture which her late husband insisted. Tamiko's situation is not very good. Her father-in-law's chronic disease gets worse and she must do all the labor by herself. One night, a man comes to stay the night because of a broken bike. Tamiko asks him "Please work here."

Follows the rise of Tooru Muranishi, one of Japan's most notorious directors of adult video. Adapted from a biography of the man, this series depicts the character, his art, vision and his interactions with the approving and disapproving folk around him.