DigiCon6 ASIA, which began in 2000, has grown to become Asia’s largest short movie film festival. Currently, 10 countries and regions participate including Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. All submitted works have an easily viewable running time of 15 minutes or less, running the gamut of formats from CG animation (2D & 3D) and stop motion/clay animation to live action, and spanning a wide variety of genres from children’s animation and human drama to action and science fiction. Carefully-selected works by Asia’s top film creators are presented.
Over 100 works
15 minutes or less per work
Single-story format

Prior to the start of World War II, Saichiro Aichi witnessed firsthand the technological prowess and industrial strength developing in the automotive industry of the US and Europe. Under Saichiro’s strong visionary leadership and the efforts of his team, a do-mestic passenger car is finally built just as the march of war is heard approaching. Saichiro’s group bides its time through a devastating war by building military trucks and machinery only to confront a dire depression upon war’s end, due to a financial re-trenchment policy by the Bank of Japan. Short on capital and troubled by labor strife, as well as personal illness, Saichiro and his men refuse to give up. Here is an inspiring tale about visionary men who through blood, sweat and tears and the spirit of “monozukuri” battled back from the brink of bankruptcy to build a Japanese auto company that would be the pride of the world.

Fulfilling a long-cherished dream, school teacher Hijiri Matsunaga is hired at a far-flung countryside middle school where she encounters, Akira Kuroiwa, a 9th grader with mysterious powers. Though 10 years younger than his teacher, Akira falls instantly in love with her and single-mindedly pursues her affections. But Hijiri has a devoted finance, Shotaro, with whom she keeps up a long-distance relationship. Aware that she should not reciprocate her student’s feelings for her, Hijiri eventually finds her heart swayed by Akira’s unremitting love and becomes attracted to him. Deeply conflicted between the affections of a pubescent youth and an elite company man, Hijiri’s “forbidden” love triangle engulfs those around her in this “forbidden yet pure” love story between student and pupil.

6 months have passed since national security policeman, Kuraki, along with fellow investigators Osugi and Akeboshi started poking around into a mysterious wife and child murder case. The so-called Mozu Incident exposed part of a shadowy organization within the police department, but proved to be only the tip of the iceberg for a much larger conspiracy. Two simultaneous terrorist acts, a skyscraper occupation and bombing, and the attacking to the embassy of Penam have put Kuraki and his team on the trail of “criminal planner” Takayanagi and professional assassin, Gondo. But they both work for someone deeper behind the scenes, cryptically known as “Daruma”, a man tied to Japan’s criminal history and who has been working on some elaborately nefarious plan. Kuraki and his partners’ pursuit of the truth take them to the Republic of Penam where they find themselves embroiled in deadly confrontation with their last true enemy, Daruma.

Yamakura of the Kobe Fire Department aspires to wear the vaunted “orange” uniform of an elite rescue force that only 3% of all firefighters can attain. But to do so, he and his fellow trainees must suffer through the most rigorous training. As Yamakura and his fellow trainees grit their teeth and complain, their superior officer, Sakurai, impresses upon them the lessons of the Great Hanshin Earthquake (Kobe Earthquake) 20 years ago as “the only time we ever lost.” What hap-pened on the front lines of rescue that day and in the aftermath? What raced through the hearts and minds of rescuers as they tried to get a handle on unimaginable disaster? The shocking facts pour from Sakurai’s mouth in hopes of preparing the recruits for the unforgettable event that awaits them.

A fired-up high-school teacher who teaches his baseball team the importance of having a dream, and the students he leads, burning with this dream of a national championship. A group of modern young people of the baseball club at Futakotamagawa High School: they have no hope for the future, and no idea of what they want to do. ‘The world is full of hope,’ a new teacher, Kawato shouts at them. ‘Don’t make fun of people who have dreams.’ Overcoming problems with the new players, and an injury to their captain, with Kawato, they move into the semifinal tournament that leads to their final chance at a national championship. Will the dreams of the Futakotamagawa baseball team come true? Meanwhile, graduation day draws near..…

”The most exciting baseball game score is 8 to 7!”
That’s what former U.S. President Roosevelt once said.
Aoshima Works is a medium-size precision instruments maker. Forced to navigate the rough waves of an unforeseen recession and fierce competition among rival companies scratching for advantage, company men on the brink of bankruptcy strive to survive by orchestrating a miracle reversal called the “Roosevelt Game”. Written by Jun Ikeido, author of a novel by the same name, and following his best-selling “Naoki Hanzawa”. A comeback story for the never-say-die working man.

Yoichi has been raised in the mountains by his samurai father, and now has great athletic skill and swordsmanship. One day, his father tells Yoichi that staying with him would not further increase his skills, and so it is decided that to grow stronger in body and mind he is to move to the city. Entering an affiliated dojo in the city, Yoichi is pleased to find that four sisters live at the dojo: Ibuki, Ayame, Chihaya and Kagome. Seeing the big city and girls for the first time has got Yoichi all turned around! On top of that he’s got to deal with bullies at school and assassins out to get him. With all these distractions will Yoichi ever get around to his studies to become a great samurai?

The setting is the Tsukishima district of Tokyo where the Summer Olympic Games will be held in five years. A small old-fashioned confectionary shop, “Sakuraya” stands as a remnant of the past amid the rapidly changing cityscape. Akiko Sakurai has been running the shop on a shoestring for over 50 years, along with her grandson, Taro (33) whom she raised form childhood after he lost his parents in a traffic accident. With them also is Reiko, a single mother who has returned to Tsukishima with her child. Seemingly left behind by a fast-moving world, Taro appears as something of a “loser” who finds himself reexamining his lost childhood in an effort to move forward. Life takes a strange turn when his grandmother, Akiko, receives a letter that she is being sued for damages because her cat, Mi-chan, allegedly scratched up a neighbor’s luxury car. What should be an easy case to win turns into a fumbling mess at the hands of Taro who can’t seem to win for losing in this wacky yet endearing and slightly heartwarming late-night drama.

Nearing the end of Japan’s long years of civil war, with Toyotomi Hideyoshi one short step away from finally uniting the land under his rule, he sends a massive army north against the Hojo clan, his last enemy. The one stronghold he cannot take is Oshi Castle, a Hojo outpost in the land of Bushu. Called ‘the floating castle’ because of the lake that surrounded it, it is under the command of one Narita Nagachika, an extremely popular ruler known to the people of his domain as ‘Nobou-sama’, from deku no bou, or ‘blockhead’.