Ashi Films is a collaboration between Tokyo based filmmakers, Fuyuko Mochizuki and John Enos centered on documentary and branded film productions from Japan.
Launched in 2016, our more than 80 short documentary style films have covered everything from traditional free divers in Japan to Syrian refugee camps in Greece. In 2019, we produced the Japan portion of the highly acclaimed Netflix series “HIGH SCORE”. We directed and produced the documentary “Beauty and Buddhism” which was a finalist at the 2020 Tribeca X Film Festival. “In the Eyes of Children”, our 2016 independent short was chosen as an official selection to 5 different international film festivals from Sydney to New York. Based along the Nakameguro river in Tokyo, our Tokyo based filmmakers and full service production team manages a variety of documentary projects and branded video assignments for clients such asNetflix, CNN, Channel News Asia, VICE Media, ANA Airways, Genesis Cars, and Patagonia.
Our growing team offers a flexible solution of producers, translators and directors for co-productions with external production and service companies from places like Singapore, California, and Europe on branded film projects for companies like Patagonia, to documentaries for foreign audiences. To find out why many of our films go viral, some with over 20 million views, take a look at our Portfolio of latest works
Latest Work
Patagonia Documentary
High Score Netflix Original Documentary
Beauty & Buddhism
Kengo Kuma Documentary
Japans Salt Farming Tradition
From Mud to Kimono
Amami Oshima’s Sumo Tradition
Scissor Craftsman
Japan’s Train Composer
Pharmaceutical Samurai
Singing the Tokyo Blues
Japan’s Male Geisha
World’s Youngest F3 Racer
The Artist Keeping Japan’s Bathhouse Art Alive
The Link Between Japanese Samurai and Aizome
Sushi’s Roots – Funazushi
Japan’s DJ Monk Spins the Holiest Beats
When in Japan, Deep-Fry Some Maple Leaves
Illuminating the Night
New Years Auction – Tsukiji Fish Market 2018
The Animal Sculptures Giving New Life to Recycled Paper
Japan’s Town With No Waste
Freediving With Japan’s Pearl Divers
Aquatic Affection
How the Japanese Craft the World’s Hardest Food
All Hail Tokyo’s Robot Queen!
Japan’s Post Box Under the Sea
A Homemade Meal . . . From a Vending Machine
The Michelangelo of Microsoft Excel
Japan’s City of Gold Protects a Valuable Tradition
納品用[野中生萌]
The Freakishly Fast World of Robot Sumo
“In The Eyes Of Children” is inspired on our visit to Ritsona Refugee Camp, Greece during the summer of 2016.
Over the past few years, many documentaries have been made about the refugee crisis and the refugees in Greece. We had a desire to make a documentary that told the story from a new perspective. We feel that although it’s too overwhelming to consider our lives as refugees, perhaps we could relate to how it feels to help someone in need and how that experience enriches our lives.
Made on a shoestring budget, our documentary focuses on the life and work of a middle aged Greek photographer who found his own identity by becoming an integral part of the refugees lives in the camp near his home by initiating a Tuesday movie night for the children.
Vassilis Nikas, a Greek photographer who has made it his priority to replace despair with hope and smiles by being true to not only his own core beliefs but all of ours.