Movies: Mamoru Samuragochi

Akiko returns to her home village in Japan after seven years in South America, where she contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. The town, thick with paranoia, is quick to ostracize the ailing Akiko. With only her best friend and her mom in her cor...

Although the situation is universal, Japanese mourning rituals are given solid coverage. The 49th day after death is considered crucial, as the date at which the soul passes from this world to the next and, therefore, the date from when the living ar...

Born to atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima, Mamoru Samuragochi, a self-taught classical composer with a degenerative condition causing deafness, was celebrated as a "Japanese Beethoven" for the digital age. However, just prior to the 2014 Winter Olym...