The Best Films From Japan Released in 2014

Films from Japan Released In 2014

One could think that the 18-year-old Nozomi is a normalstudent in a normal family somewhere in Japan. One day, when she suffers from neck pain, her mother hires "expert" help in the form of a sect master friend who immediately realizes that only an evil spirit can be behind it. Driven by parental love, a cruel exorcism ritual begins for Nozomi.

Sweet Home Inferno (2015)

Alien pods come to Earth and, naturally, start taking over Human Hosts. One such pod only manages to take over one human's, Shin Izumi, right arm. Together they grow and co-exist, all the while the other aliens are making meals of other humans; Shin feels he must put a stop to it all, but his alien, Migi, doesn't see why.

Parasyte: Part 1 (2014)

Gajirou Honda is a self-centered man who only cares about money and women. When he’s involved in a car accident, he encounters the ghosts of the deceased occupants of the other car, including the driver and three pole dancers. The four ghosts promise him a large sum of money in exchange for his help fulfilling their last wishes, thus allowing their spirits to pass over to the afterlife.

Lingering Spirits (2014)

Takahata Shun's day at high school begins just as boring as ever, but it doesn't end that way. He and his classmates find themselves forced to play children's games with deadly stakes. With no idea who is behind, the only thing Shun and other students can do is keep trying to win.

As the Gods Will (2014)

1000 years from now a young womans' life is at risk in a post nuclear sci-fi community as she investigates who controls and operates society and the economy. As she gets close to the truth the walls start to close in on her.

Wonogawa (2014)

Every night, Master (Kaoru Kobayashi) is busy with customers at the restaurant he runs. He has a worried face, looking at the funerary urn which someone left at his restaurant. His customers also talk about the funerary urn.

Midnight Diner (2014)

A retired samurai must redeem himself for a crime that he committed earlier in his life.

A Samurai Chronicle (2014)

High school student Aya Tsukimori becomes cursed and is unable to leave her school dormitory. Meanwhile, many students begin reporting ghost sightings at the school, while others go missing and are later discovered to have drowned mysteriously. Soon, Aya attempts to communicate with fellow student Michi Kazato, who begins investigating the disappearances of her friends.

Fatal Frame (2014)

Shishio has set sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the Meiji government and return Japan to chaos, carrying Kaoru with him. In order to stop him in time, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)

Kenshin has settled into his new life with Kaoru and his other friends when he is approached with a request from the Meiji government. Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin, was betrayed, set on fire and left for dead. He survived, and is now in Kyoto, plotting with his gathered warriors to overthrow the new government. Against Kaoru's wishes, Kenshin reluctantly agrees to go to Kyoto and help keep his country from falling back into civil war.

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)

Film adaptation of the same-titled comic popular for its extraordinary premise. Up-and-coming Yoshida Kota, known for his humorous yet sensual style in films like Usotsuki Paradox, creates a unique coming-of-age drama about love between two girls, with elements of sports and perseverance sprinkled throughout. The "Torture Club" is an official afterschool activity at the private school Saint Honesty Gakuen. Yuzuki (Kijima Noriko) has no idea about the club when she enrolls, and gets abducted by the club members and hauled off the clubroom. There, she finds out that upperclass student Aoi (Yoshizumi Haruna), her secret idol, is in the club, and decides to join, but…

The Torture Club (2014)

When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.

The World of Kanako (2014)

Sachiko Suzuki (Naoho Ichihashi) is a female high school student. She claims that she is an alien and her mission on Earth is to conceive a child with a human man. Sachicko seduces her class teacher Mr. Fukuda (Yukichi Kobayashi). After their intimate encounter, Mr. Fukuda becomes becomes convinced that Sachiko is not a human. Meanwhile, female student Kobato Hagimoto (Yumi Ishikawa) knows that Mr. Murata (Toshiya Sakai) has a crush on some male students. Because of this, Mr. Murata is treated as a pig by Kobata until he can't bear the situation anymore.

A Woman's Hole (2014)

A somber paranormal thriller that offers an original, exciting variation of the tale of two men with supernatural abilities, locked in a duel to the death. A battle between a man who can control people with a stare, and the only man he cannot control. When their fate cross, the survival battle begins. The two men with inevitable fate, who will survive?

Monsterz (2014)

Ayano, Miyu, Yuri and Mei are high school students. They learn about a fatal gas accident which occurred at a school in the past. The girls then experience unusual occurrences like hearing breathing from closed classrooms and seeing a person's shadow. Hitomi then sneaks into an abandoned school to shoot a horror video for the internet. Hitomi hears from her colleague Kimio about a fox's window which leads to the spirit world.

Haunted School: The Curse of the Word Spirit (2014)

Misaki Amemiya is an assistant inspector for the Metropolitan Police Department's Community Safety Bureau who becomes ensnared in a trap while investigating a mysterious illegal video website called "Babylon". Soon, she's bound and tortured along with Shizuko and an oversexed housewife named Ruri.

Flower & Snake: Zero (2014)

Hajime asks his friend Yoshi to set him up with his classmate Ann. Yoshi tries to do this for Hajime, but this just upsets Ann. Yoshi's relationship with Ann is now awkward. Yoshi doesn't know exactly why, but Ann becomes absent from school frequently. One day, during their summer vacation, Yoshi hears that Ann has dropped out of school.

Adult Drop (2014)

Physician Kohei Taguchi and Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare investigator Shiratori soon become involved in major reforms to the death investigation system of the country and localities when a letter arrives threatening the destruction of Tojo University Hospital and Kerberos Tower in 3 months. Before the pair are able to uncover the truth, an unprecedented rash of suspicious deaths occur which can’t be explained through autopsy. On the day of the AI (Autopsy Imaging) Center’s opening and introduction of a revolutionary new MRI machine called “Leviathan”, further incidents rock the medical community.

Team Batista the Movie: The Portrait of Kerberos (2014)

Beautiful Noriko Miki works at a cosmetic company. One day, Noriko is murdered. People begin to suspect her co-worker Miki Shirono might have killed her. Television begins to cover her story. A TV show interviews Miki Shirono's colleagues, family, people from her hometown. Rumors turn into fear. Is she a wicked a woman?

The Snow White Murder Case (2014)

The ever versatile Kazuki Kitamura stars as masterless samurai Kyutaro Madarame, a feared swordsman who has fallen on hard times in old Edo. Caught between two warring gangs in an epic battle of cat lovers and dog lovers, he begrudgingly accepts the canine faction's offer to assassinate the opposite leader's beloved pet: an adorable white cat. Yet upon raising his lethal sword, he cannot bring himself to go through with the act, and the cat melts his ronin heart. But before finding peace as a newly minted cat person, the still fearsome Madarame will have to take on both gangs in a classic samurai street brawl.

Samurai Cat: The Movie (2014)