Free and Easy 5

Shall We Dance?

A bored accountant spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.

Strings

A normal office worker with a grand passion for his violin playing confronts the strings that have been performing his life’s symphony.

The Trial

Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.

Le Bleu

Office Space

Milton, a put-upon office worker hounded by his boss, talks to the camera about his troubles, picks his nose, and threatens to burn the building down.

Dear Etranger

Makoto Tanaka is 40-years-old and has remarried. His wife is Nanae and they care for 2 daughters from Nanae's prior marriage. Makoto tries to have an ordinary family. Nanae then becomes pregnant. Afterwards, things begin to change among the family members.

The Pit of Death

Kuramoto, who works for a large trading company, is a skilled employee who is well-liked by the company president. He is engaged to an employee named Nishino Etsuko, but he used her for his own career advancement and kills her so that he can marry the company president's daughter. When Kuramoto returns from his honeymoon with his new wife, Etsuko's brother shows up in search of the whereabouts of his missing sister.

Eyes of the Spider

After killing the man he believes murdered his daughter, a white-collar worker returns to his mundane life, until he's approached by a man offering a mysterious job opportunity.

Climbing to Spring

Toru grew up in alpine countryside around Mount Tate. As a child, he resented the yearly trek up the mountain with his father to prepare their mountain hut for the summer season of climbers. When Toru grows up, he leaves his hometown and enters the working world as a stock trader. One day, Toru receives word that his father has passed away. He returns to Mount Tate once again, and becomes conscious of a new calling. But, does Toru have what it takes to follow in his father’s footsteps?

Words of Devotion: To the End of the World

IT guy meets corporate golden boy. They can’t stand each other—until they maybe can’t stop thinking about each other.

White-Collar Worker Kintaro

Kintaro is a reformed delinquent, the former leader of a biker gang who has gone straight. Working at a construction company, his unorthodox tactics cause trouble with his colleagues. He is transferred to a tiny countryside branch, where he butts heads with his lazy superior until the two men discover a plot by the competition to put the construction company out of bussiness. With the help of his old biker friends, Kintaro prepares to confront the masterminds behind the scheme.

Hell's Garden

Naoko Tanaka is a 26-year-old office lady (OL). Her job is typical, but her workplace has fierce fights among different cliques. Other OLs are absorbed in the daily clique fighting. One day, due to an OL at the company, Naoko Tanaka's company is targeted by OL from all over Japan.

Genge

During business trip Yohei Tanaka prays at a local shrine. Much to his surprise, his wishes come true. He wins some money at the lottery and cures his long lasting diarrhoea. His final wish also comes true. He is asked to direct a film.

Bitter and Sweet

A group of people whose lives suffer from stagnation, are working together in the same company and their lives are scutinized by those who see them. There is the development manager whose last new idea was five years earlier; a procrastinating office clerk with a crush on a co-worker that he is too shy to reveal; and a senior manager who believes his wife is having an affair causing him to take out his frustration on all his employees.

You Can Succeed, Too

A group of friends try to find success in corporate Japan.

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai

After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.

Slow Derek

The tale of Derek, an office worker, as he struggles with the true speed of planet earth.

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese

Kyoichi, a man with an indecisive personality, constantly cheats. That is, until his wife sends a P. I to investigate his affairs. But what will happen when the man she sent wants to fulfill his own desires?

Sometimes I Think About Dying

Fran likes to think about dying. It brings sensation to her quiet life. When she makes the new guy at work laugh, it leads to more: a date, a slice of pie, a conversation, a spark. The only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.

Salaryman Senka

Based on the manga by Sadao Jouji which has been running in the magazine Shukan Gendai since 1969.