Tengu (63 min, Japan 2009, written and directed by Roger Walch).

David (Ted Taylor) comes to Japan for one week to study traditional legends. He is supposed to meet Professor Ozawa, a leading expert in the field. But when he arrives, he gets picked up by Ozawa's two female assistants, Sanae (Mimori Sento) and Manami (Sakiko Ikegami). They bring him to a traditional guest-house and accompany him during his stay. A strange man in the bath house (Kan Mikami) tells David about the local Tengu legend. Tengu are a class of well known monster-spirits with a long nose and a red face who live in the Japanese forests and mountains. David is immediately fascinated. But the more he finds out about the Tengu, the more he is drawn into his own past-life.

As a matter of fact some Tengu legends can be connected to shipwrecked foreigners who were forced to live in hiding in the Japanese mountains during Japan's Sakoku (closed country) era (1637 - 1853).

"Roger Walch is a Swiss filmmaker and a longtime resident of Kyoto who makes films that capture the beauty of Japan in out-of-the-way places that most guidebooks don't cover. His latest film is a mystery and travelogue about a first-time visitor to Japan (played by Ted Taylor) who has a connection to supernatural creatures called "Tengu" found in Japanese folklore."
(Matt Kaufman, Kansai Time Out Magazine) (less info)