JFF Theatre is a fantastic source for J-films. They offer a new roster of films every three months - all free and legal. You just need a free account. They tend towards coming of age and anything about food. Sometimes other traditional Japanese arts. Plus other films which are hard to categorise.
They've just started adding in new films off the quarterly schedule though, which is a bit confusing. A few are geo-restricted.
Keep an eye on their end dates though and don't cut it too close if you really want to see a title. Depending on where you live they might expire before you expect them to.
This is the custom list I keep for JFF, if you want an easy way to look up titles on MDL or see what they've offered in the past. The current selection begins with number 36.
Saeng:
To not lose track of which film is available and until when I made a master list, which I plan to update whenever there's a change in the line-up.
Thanks for this Saeng. I never had a problem with the year/month/day format until this change, but then the turnover was always early in the month (2nd or 3rd). Now Oct 7th or 10th July are equally possible for an end date.
They seem to be increasing availability to six months though, so that will help. This transition is confusing. I've added dates to the rest of mine. Need to start the series for Nobunaga Concerto if I'm going to watch the sequel film after.
Saeng:
7th of may is only three weeks away, btw.
Aside from too many lakorns in the way of the series for Nobunaga Concerto, I'm on track for May and June. The new system adds a different sort of structure so it's just learning how best to work with that. I think I liked it better when there was a sense of "this much to go to finish JFF before the date".
I think they might want to stretch out how many people access their site each day; if most viewers are anything like me, they either (used to) watch everything right after the start or remember a few days before the end date and rush fo finish things in time. So, there might be a larger strain on servers around the date the line-ups switched. With the new system the Japan Foundation can also license film for varying lengths of time.
Saeng:
So, there might be a larger strain on servers around the date the line-ups switched. With the new system the Japan Foundation can also license film for varying lengths of time.
Valid points. Maybe also people forgetting to look in again for the new roster.
I'm going to be burnt out on time travel movies they way they're doing it though.
Elisheva:
This is the custom list I keep for JFF, if you want an easy way to look up titles on MDL or see what they've offered in the past. The current selection begins with number 36.
Saeng:
To not lose track of which film is available and until when I made a master list, which I plan to update whenever there's a change in the line-up.
I don't have the energy to update several lists across platforms, sorry.
Thanks to both of you for making the list!
Elisheva:
Need to start the series for Nobunaga Concerto if I'm going to watch the sequel film after.
Jdramas are usually short (in Ep number and duration) so if you have time you can technically finish it in one sitting. Furthermore the series was funny and an easy watch.