JAPAN – rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films

AIDO (1969)

Jon W. — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:36:24 +0000

After wandering into a cemetery, a young man named Shusei is led by the mysterious Madame Enjoji to a secluded mansion. There, he is introduced to Aido, an ethereal woman who seems to be the living embodiment of his most surreal erotic fantasies. Caught between the real world and a haunting dreamscape, Shusei becomes obsessed with Aido.

Director: Susumu Hani. AKA 愛奴 / Slave of Love
Writers: Susumu Hani, Isamu Kurita.
Stars: Yuri Suemasa, Kenzô Kawarasaki, Kimiko Nukamura, Rumiko Tanuma, Kenzaburo Shirai, Takamitsu Masuda, Jusaburô Tsujimura.
Cinematographer: Yûji Okumura.
Composers: Teizô Matsumura, Noatada Odaka, Akio Yashiro, Saori Yuki.

1969 Berlin International Film Festival – Nominated for the Golden Bear.

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MP4 | 2.68 GB | 1000×720 | 23.976 FPS | 3500 kb/s | AAC 141 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 5.98 GB | 1440×1080 | 23.976 FPS | 8002 kb/s | AAC 141 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (soft)

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TENKÔSEI: SAYONARA ANATA (2007)

Jon W. — Thu, 14 May 2026 06:45:58 +0000

After his parent’s divorce, Kazuo Saito moves with his mother from Onomichi and must leave his girlfriend behind. At his new school, Kazuo is surprised to reunite with his childhood friend Kazumi. Obayashi’s self-remake of Tenkôsei.

Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi. AKA Switching: Goodbye Me
Writers: Fumio Ishimori, Wataru Kenmochi, Chûkon Minami, Tadashi Naitô, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, Hisashi Yamanaka (novel).
Stars: Misako Renbutsu, Naoyuki Morita, Maika Hara, Hiroshi, Takuro Atsuki, Hiroshi Inuzuka, Wakaba Irie, Hikari Ishida, Keiju Kobayashi, Yûko Kotegawa, Shunsuke Kubozuka, Hiroyuki Nagato, Misa Shimizu, Jô Shishido, Tomorô Taguchi, Koto Takagi, Saki Terashima.
Cinematographer: Yûdai Katô.
Composers: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, Kôsuke Yamashita.

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ENCODE:
MP4 | 2.25 GB | 890×480 | 23.976 FPS | 2538 kb/s | AAC 192 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 3.85 GB | 1280×688 | 23.976 FPS | 3974 kb/s | AC3 5.1 640 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (soft)

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SHELTER (1980)

Jon W. — Thu, 14 May 2026 06:45:09 +0000

Set in a cave imagined as an air-raid shelter, images of the surrounding trees are painted over directly on the film. Vivid colors intermixed with the sound of wartime radio communications and bombing create a harmonious composition of documentary and animation.

Director: Nobuhiro Aihara.

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MP4 | 253 MB | 1920×1080 | 23.976 FPS | 4598 kb/s | AAC 128 kb/s
Language: None | Subtitles: None

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HANARE GOZE ORIN (1977)

Jon W. — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 08:50:42 +0000

One of the most sublime color films ever made, Ballad of Orin follows the hardscrabble life of a wandering outcast goze (blind female musician) in early 20th-century Japan. Cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa and director Masahiro Shinoda interviewed surviving goza of the time to capture “a sense of the ideal beauty that these blind women had inwardly visualized.

Director: Masahiro Shinoda. AKA Ballad of Orin AKA はなれ瞽女おりん
Writers: Keiji Hasebe (screenplay), Tsutomu Minakami (author-story), Masahiro Shinoda (screenplay).
Stars: Shima Iwashita, Yoshio Harada, Tomoko Naraoka, Kirin Kiki, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tôru Abe, Keiko Nakamura, Ako Tomizawa, Rie Yokoyama, Jun Hamamura, Takako Minekawa, Izumi Hara, Kaoru Kobayashi, Taiji Tonoyama, Mansaku Fuwa.
Cinematographer: Kazuo Miyagawa.
Composer: Tôru Takemitsu.

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ENCODE:
MP4 | 3.47 GB | 960×720 | 23.976 FPS | 4000 kb/s | AAC 192 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 9.22 GB | 1440×1080 | 23.976 FPS | 10,900 kb/s | E-AC3 224 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (soft)

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AFURIKA NO HIKARI (1975)

Jon W. — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:51:40 +0000

Two drifters, Jun and Katsuhiro, dream of escaping Japan for Africa but end up stranded in a bleak fishing town in Hokkaido. There, they drift between odd jobs, drinking, and fleeting connections, including with a disillusioned woman, Fujiko. Their dream of Africa becomes less a destination than a symbol of escape from stagnation, as the film reflects on friendship, longing, and the quiet despair of lives lived on the margins.

Director: Tatsumi Kumashiro. AKA Africa’s Light / アフリカの光
Writers: Kenji Maruyama (novel), Takehiro Nakajima.
Stars: Ken’ichi Hagiwara, Kunie Tanaka, Kaori Momoi, Yôko Takahashi, Tatsuya Fuji, Moeko Ezawa.
Cinematographer: Shinsaku Himeda.
Composer: Takayuki Inoue.

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ENCODE:
MP4 | 1.78 GB | 1440×736 (Upscaled) | 23.976 FPS | 2500 kb/s | AAC 192 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 1.46 GB | 720×368 | 23.976 FPS | 1766 kb/s | AC3 448 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (soft)

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SARABA HAKOBUNE (1984)

Jon W. — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:25:14 +0000

Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Terayama’s final and elaborate opus takes place on a remote Okinawan island, where a mythical time law rules and shapes memories, life and even death. Sutekichi and his cousin Su-e love each other, attracting the attention and insults of the superstitious inhabitants of an isolated village beyond time. When Sutekichi murders his rival Daisaku, the couple decides to flee from the village, but Sutekichi is haunted by Daisaku’s ghost and increasingly affected by the unforgiving course of time.

Director: Shûji Terayama. さらば箱舟 / AKA Farewell to the Ark
Writers: Gabriel García Márquez (novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude”), Rio Kishida, Shûji Terayama.
Stars: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Mayumi Ogawa, Yoshio Harada, Yôko Takahashi.
Cinematographer: Tatsuo Suzuki.
Composer: J.A. Seazer.

1985 Cannes Film Festival – Nominated for the Palme d’Or.

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ENCODE:
MP4 | 3.74 GB | 1192×720 | 23.976 FPS | 4000 kb/s | AAC 192 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 9.29 GB | 1790×1080 | 23.976 FPS | 10,000 kb/s | AC3 448 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (soft)

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IKARI NO MACHI (1950)

Jon W. — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 08:30:41 +0000

Sudo and Mori are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, Sudo becomes involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister, Masako. In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.

Director: Mikio Naruse. 怒りの街 / AKA The Angry Street.
Writers: Mikio Naruse, Motosada Nishiki (screenplay), Fumio Niwa (novel).
Stars: Jûkichi Uno, Yasumi Hara, Yuriko Hamada, Setsuko Wakayama, Yoshiko Kuga, Mayuri Mokushô, Takashi Shimura, Ichirô Sugai, Kan Yanagiya, Mitsue Tachibana, Mie Asô, Chieko Higashiyama, Sachiko Murase, Keiko Kishi, Isao Kimura, Fujio Nagahama, Isao Ubukata, Hiroshi Kondô, Kiyoshi Kamoda, Kô Ishida, Sachio Sakai, Tadashi Okabe, Hiroshi Imaizumi, Ichirô Tetsu.
Cinematographer: Masao Tamai.
Composer: Nobuo Iida.

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ENCODE:
MP4 | 2.72 GB | 956×720 | 29.970 FPS | 3500 kb/s | AAC 192 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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SOURCE FILE:
MKV | 7.88 GB | 1440×1080 | 29.970 FPS | 10,000 kb/s | AC3 640 kb/s & E-AC3 224 kb/s (boosted+denoised & untouched audio track)
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (soft)

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More Naruse in HD! Also in an unrestored print. The audio was pretty bad for this one, very quiet for the first 20 minutes or so and with a lot of noise and crackling, I boosted and denoised it with Audacity, I think it sounds much better but if you’re not happy with the result the 1080p includes both the original & denoised audio tracks.

AME ONNA (1990)

Jon W. — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:55:41 +0000

In the first part of the film, two young women live together and create their own eccentric adventures, transforming their (always rainy) everyday environment into an enchanted playground, full of pop-musical sequences and synchronized tooth brushing performances. As the second half of the film shifts to both deeper psychological themes and a more meta-filmic playfulness, Yaguchi develops a bewitchingly melancholic atmosphere of unpredictability.

Director: Shinobu Yaguchi. AKA The Rain Women
Writer: Shinobu Yaguchi.
Stars: Kayoko Komaba, Miwa Makii.

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MP4 | 1.68 GB | 720×534 | 24 FPS | 3095 kb/s | AAC 256 kb/s
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (hard)

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