University of Michigan-Flint

When a Japanese mining company announces the closure of a coal mine in Iwaki, a group of brave young women defies their community by signing up to become hula dancers at the company's new Hawaiian tourist center in this heartwarming dramedy. Amid union workers' protests and against the wishes of their families, the women passionately practice and perform their newly learned art in hopes that it will lead to a brighter future.

Cult director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan’s feudal era. 13 Assassins - a “masterful exercise in cinematic butchery” (New York Post) – is centered around a group of elite samurai who are secretly enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord in order to prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war torn future.

Kosuke is 31 and tired of his hometown where nothing happens. On a whim, he departs for New York with dreams of making it big but return defeated and with debt. Little does he realizes upon his return, that he would rediscover the town’s - and the rest of the world’s - fixation with udon.

Unhappy with his food-tasting job, samurai Shinnojo Mimura (Takuya Kimura) dreams of opening a martial arts school for boys. But when eating toxic shellfish leaves him blind, his hopes for the future are dashed. Learning his wife (Rei Dan) has been forced into sexual favors in order to secure a stipend, Shinnojo works to revamp his sword skills and seek revenge. The film is the third in a series from director Yôji Yamada.