

The Firefly
2001-05-01 · 114 min · ★ 7.5
Shūji Yamaoka was a suicide pilot during the war who somehow survived Japan's surrender. After decades of working as a fisherman in Kumamoto, a provincial seaside city in southern Kyushu, Yamaoka remains reluctant to discuss his wartime experiences with anyone, much less an intrusive reporter looking for a feature story. Then a series of events shake Yamaoka to the core, forcing him to re-evaluate his past.
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Directors
- Yasuo Furuhata
- Production companies
- Unavailable
- Countries
- Japan
- Status
- Released
Top Cast
Ken TakakuraYamaoka Shuji
Yuko TanakaTomoko Yamaoka
Isao NatsuyagiTakemoto
Ryuji HaradaTetsuo
Takami MizuhashiHotaru
Ayako Kobayashi
Kiichi Nakai
Hisashi Igawa
Tomoko Naraoka
Nenji Kobayashi
Renji Ishibashi
Yukiyoshi Ozawa
Yuko FuekiYoung Tomoko Yamaoka
Shigeo KobayashiTitle information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Availability not listed for this country.
Seasons & episodes
Recommendations

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.

Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio's family life.

A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.

Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.

The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.

Early morning silence is broken by screeching tires as a helicopter bears down on a speeding vehicle. Taking a quick corner, the team tumbles out into the woods as their car pulls away. Now they must make their way through the thick of nature and thick gunfire to accomplish their mission. Not a single word of dialogue is spoken throughout the entire film. Instead, the music, sounds, images and deeply truthful acting turn a simple plot into an intense experience. Passion and intrigue keep building to the very end.

Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...

A brother and sister learn their biological grandfather was a kamikaze pilot who died during World War II. During their research into his life, they get conflicting accounts from his former comrades about his character and how he joined his squadron.

A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.

A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.

The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.

It’s 1940, and the population of Japan is divided over its entry into World War II. Satoko, the wife of a fabric merchant, is devoted to her husband but is beginning to suspect he’s up to something. Soon she allows herself to be drawn into a game in which she enigmatically conceals her intentions.

A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Set shortly after the end of World War II, a philosophical boxing drama of two fighters from opposite worlds (USA and Japan) who are pulled together for a questionable fight arranged by their unscrupulous managers and the Yakuza.
Similar titles

A girl is invited to a TV show to explain why she has murdered 239 people.

The burlesque and nonsensical biography of a singer, bohemian and broke, who falls in love with his sexy dentist who is already the fiancée of a well-off executive. The adventures and misadventures of the singer in this wonderful new world are told with tongue-in-cheek and several adult situations.

A lost soul stumbles drunken through the city. In a park, Death finds him and shows him many things.

Gritty independent action/thriller set in Manchester, UK starring Michael L. Knight.
Summer dream or like nightmare? Somewhere, we're all on our way ...

A married woman realizes how unhappy her marriage really is, and that her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey to "find herself".

Jack Dodd was a London butcher who enjoyed a pint with his mates for over 50 years. When he died, he died as he lived, with a smile on his face watching a horse race on which he had bet, with borrowed money. But before he died he had a final request, 'Last Orders', that his ashes be scattered in the sea at Margate. The movie follows his mates, Ray, Lenny and Vic and his foster son Vince as they journey to the sea with the ashes. Along the way, the threads of their lives, their loves and their disappointments are woven together in their memories of Jack and his wife Amy

The loop that life itself is, presented thought an artist walking on a shopping mall.

Ji-so is a young girl who doesn't have a house because of her bankrupted dad. In order to get money to buy a house she plans to steal a wealthy person's dogs to earn reward money when she returns them.

An astronomer becomes obsessed with searching the cosmos for signs of life beyond Earth which leads to a shocking discovery.

A Palanca-winning comedy about gay best friends for life John and Mark whose friendship is put to the test when one of them has a terminal illness and asks the other to help him stage his fake death, wake, and funeral as his dying wish. The result is a laughfest of "deadly" proportions.

A sudden loss disrupts Carol’s orderly life, propelling her into the dating world for the first time in 20 years. Finally living in the present tense, she finds herself swept up in not one, but two unexpected relationships that challenge her assumptions about what it means to grow old.

Ten years ago, on a train home during the busy Spring Festival travel period, fate brings Xiaoxiao and Jianqing together. Like many young couples, they meet, fall in love, and strive to make it work, but eventually, the harsh realities of life make them drift apart. Ten years later, they run into each other again. Will they make the most of this second chance and rekindle what they once lost?

The film tells the story of a reclusive taxi driver in Tehran in the days leading up to an earthquake. He has chosen to distance himself from society and to be passive so as not to be hurt. Finally one of his passengers gives him enough motivation to act and bring about a change in his life.

Two scientists are selected to travel across the universe to the source of a distant transmission and potential life.

The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.
A co-worker confronts Mamoru on his apparent apathy toward life, and this results in Mamoru leaving his job out of humiliation. Now alone and without work, just as it seems that things could not possibly get worse, parts of Mamoru's bicycle begin to disappear, one by one. In frustration, Mamoru leaves a note for the thief, begging him to just take the whole thing. The note left in response is signed God, leaving Mamoru only more confused. At last, when the only remaining piece of the bicycle is a lonely bell, Mamoru receives an envelope, containing addresses at which each piece of the bicycle might be retrieved.

A family finally comes to terms with the grief over their son's suicide 25 years earlier.

An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.

A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate, while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.