In this exquisite melodrama imbued with national allegory, anything that can go wrong does. Kuei-mei, a poor girl from the mainland, relocates to Taiwan post-revolution and enters into a marriage of convenience with an alcoholic widower. In spite of being initially rejected by his children, she guides the family through decades of poverty and trauma to stability with unblinking, selfless perseverance. As Kuei-mei, Hui Sang Yang gives a phenomenal performance that expertly deconstructs the image of the ideal wife.

“Life's more fun when you're an idiot,” says one of the characters in FINE, TOTALLY FINE and this movie is Exhibit A in the case against brains. Set in the dusty margins of Tokyo, FTF is a surreal comedy that's a spiritual successor to previous festival hits like THE TASTE OF TEA, and it charts a lazy love triangle between the world's clumsiest woman, Akari (Kimura Yoshino of Cannes hit BLINDNESS and SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO), who can't even open a box of Kleenex without setting off destructive shock waves, a tamped-down hospital administrator Hisanobu (Okada Yoshinori) and his brother, Teruo (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa), a clueless part-time park keeper who is so unconcerned with the world around him that he doesn't even realize he's working part-time (“Why do you think you have so much free time?” a co-worker asks). Teruo is obsessed with building the world's greatest haunted house, one that will terrify grown-ups but he'd rather spend his time talking about it than doing any actual work. It's a star-making performance by Arakawa who has appeared in dozens of Japanese films playing everything from a cloud of flying sperm to Vinnie Jones' translator, and who can get a laugh from something as simple as typing on his computer. Gormless and weird, his Super! Ultra! Deluxe! deadpan is this movie's stylistic touchstone. First time director, Yosuke Fujita, was a hospital janitor for eight years before making FINE, TOTALLY FINE and this movie is full of characters who are all turning 30 and going nowhere fast, and what stands between them and true happiness are the exact same things that ruin all of our lives: the magic marker that's going dry just when you really need it most, a disappointing corndog or even that horrible person who won't let you gracefully escape their boring company before three o'clock in the morning. This is a movie made by someone who is cautious about strong emotions and who treats them with a hushed respect. There isn't a big moment of emotional catharsis here, instead the closest these characters come to nirvana is when they're all sitting quietly together, listening to the rain. Life can be an unfair string of humiliating indignities, but sometimes it gives you these moments where you can't possibly imagine wanting anything more

During the late Heian era in Japan a famous duel took place between the warrior monk Musashibo Benkei and a slender young man of high rank named Shanao. This was the battle at Gojo Bridge, and while Benkei had taken 999 sword from his vanquished opponents, he was soundly defeated by the young flute-playing samurai. Swearing allegiance to the superior swordsman, Benkei became his loyal vassal and accompanied the young man who went on to fame as Minamoto Yoshitsune, the general who defeated the Taira clan at the Battle of Dan no Ura thus leading the Genji over the Heike as the most powerful clan in the nation. With superb performances by some of Japan's greatest stars, including Satomi Kotaro and Tanba Tetsuro, history comes to life in this action-packed production.

Denchai is a geeky 30-year-old IT officer whose existence is only acknowledged when his colleagues need tech support. Denchai's mundane world is flipped upside down when he meets a new girl in the Marketing department named Nui, who makes him...

"Trivial Matters" is exactly what it says on the packet. Collection of seven vignettes -- some sad, others sardonic -- have little in common other than a concern with the small things of life and a throwaway attitude very typical of its creator, Pang Ho-cheung (aka Edmond Pang). Hard on the heels of his much more formal "Exodus," pic may baffle those unfamiliar with the Hong Kong writer-director's insouciant oeuvre, and will be best appreciated at Asiaphile events. Pic did so-so biz on local release last December. Though Pang is best known internationally for "Isabella" (in many ways his least typical movie), "Trivial Matters" is closer in spirit to earlier pics like "Beyond Our Ken" and "AV," in which the audience is never sure just how seriously to take what's being shown. Based on Pang's own collection of short stories, it also has a scattergun success rate that's also very characteristic of him. Best segs are the third and fifth, both of which are constructed as mini-movies rather than casual jottings, and are nicely played by their separate casts. In "It's a Festival Today," a girl (Isabel Chan) moves in with her b.f. (Eason Chan) but doesn't want to have sex; finally, at Christmas, she agrees to service the poor guy, which leads him to desperately hunt the calendar for other holidays in order to get pleasured again. Punchline is blackly witty. Tone in "Ah Wai, the 'Big Head,' " the longest and most slickly lensed of the bunch, is more wistful, sketching a friendship between two high schoolers -- quiet Kei (Stephy Tang) and spacey Ah Wai (Gillian Chung) -- as they drift apart but meet again at a class reunion. Stretching from the late '80s to the mid-'90s, and based around their shared liking for Cantopop legend Danny Chan, yarn has a lovely period feel and subtle chemistry between the two actresses that packs quite an emotional punch at the end. Other segs range from passing gags -- thesp Edison Chen as a dirty-mouthed pick-up artist -- to self-consciously clever playing with film form. The simplest, but with a piercing moment of sadness, is the sixth episode, "Recharge," centered on a hotel-room assignation between a businessman (Chapman To) and a Mainland hooker (Zhang Zheng). At a time when Hong Kong production has become increasingly conventional and middle-class, pic is notable for its natural, undogmatic approach to nudity and drug use. Casting of names in all the segments -- including Mainland helmer Feng Xiaogang in a witty cameo as the account manager of an assassination agency -- maintains interest for auds able to recognize the faces. However, general viewers are more likely to agree with pic's opening intertitle: "Life is rather trivial in hindsight."

Morita Sae (Takimoto Miori) lives in the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture. One day, when she visits Spa Resort Hawaiians with her family and their pet dog, Choco, she sees girls doing the hula dance and gets completely engrossed. Time passes. Sae joins Spa Resort Hawaiians. She fulfils her dream to become a hula girl and enjoys her days to the fullest. But on 11 March 2011 at 2.46 p.m. when she is taking a break back stage after the end of a show, the Great East Japan Earthquake hits. Her peaceful, regular life undergoes a sudden change. Transportation and telecommunications are disrupted due to the earthquake. At the hotel, the manager Haseda Takeshi (Ihara Tsuyoshi) issues instructions to staff to take care of guest needs as much as possible. Sae and fellow dancers, Takezawa Kasumi (Haru) and Shimano Hikari (Sasamoto Rena), wait for their families to contact them. She focuses on her family and Choco. At the Moritas at that moment, her father Zenko (Taguchi Hiromasa), mother Ayano (Nakahara Kannan) and elder sister Ami (Sato Megumi) are all safe, but a temporary evacuation warning has been issued because of a second earthquake alert. Sae finally gets hold of her family. The next morning, she rushes over to the evacuation centre where they are waiting. However, Choco is not there. Sae dissolves into tears at the memories of Choco. She had always had her family and Choco by her side. It was Choco that cheered her up each time she came back home after she joined Spa Resort Hawaiians and got yelled at by the instructor, Yoshimoto Minako (Kikuchi Momoko), for not being able to dance to her satisfaction, and whenever she had difficult moments. Forced into harsh circumstances because of the earthquake, Sae and the hula girl members grow depressed. But they also believe in resuming their dance and begin to practice with Minako’s encouragement. Meanwhile, taking Hikari’s suggestion, they pay visits to evacuation centres as well as start the Hula Girls National Kizuna Caravan to hold free performances nationwide to cheer up and bring smiles throughout Japan with the hula dance. The hula girls including Sae transform their sorrow and pain into smiles for the sake of Fukushima’s rehabilitation and Spa Resort Hawaiians’ reopening. Like the hula girls 46 years ago, they head to various parts of the country. However, adversity beyond their imagination awaits them.

Kiyosumi is a live in manger of an apartment building. He spends most of his time composing & playing music in his apartment. He doesn’t relate well with people and his life is simple. One day, Ushio who lives upstairs from him, greets him. She tells him that she broke up with her boyfriend and she listens to his music every day. Ushio then posts online a video of Kiyoshumi playing his music. Since then, Kiyosumi faces a big change in his life.

Takahata Suzuo is married to Natsuko and they have one daughter Miyu. Suzuo works as an unpopular manga writer. He spends his days drinking and gambling. One day, he dies in a traffic accident. Suzuo believes he is going to Hell, but he is given one month to reflect on his life and his family. He then returns as a cat.