Kamatari Fujiwara

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who...

Once an average and seemingly ordinary Tokyo girl, she suddenly finds herself as a TV star owing to her discovery by a casting company, which noticed...

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to...

Kiichi Nakajima, an elderly foundry owner, is convinced that Japan will be affected by an imminent nuclear war, and resolves to move his family to...

Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and...

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the...

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the...

Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that...

A former comic is on the run from the mob.

In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by...

A woman remember's her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.

When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of random events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three...

Masuo and Sazae are enjoying their newlywed life in their new house, even though they are in company housing. Masuo's colleague is invited to thank...

Sazae's wish came true and she got married to Masuo. The two ended up living together at Sazae's parents' home, the Isono family. However, the...

Sazae finally gets married, but right after that, Masuo is transferred to Osaka. A heartbroken Sazae sends her parents on a silver wedding trip, and...

A movie directed by Nobuo Nakagawa

Jidai-geki by Kiyoshi Saeki

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip

Melodrama by Kiyoshi Saeki

Woman melodrama by Shiro Toyoda

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan....

Fearless Edo-period police inspector Hanzo Itami, nicknamed The Razor, has developed his own unique way of extracting information for his inquiries....

1951 Japanese movie

Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse....

An ambitious young woman uses her sex appeal to solve financial problems in her family, including a brother in debt to the yakuza, and a father who...

Tai Kato’s early 20th century set yakuza epic about an ordinary merchant girl (Hiroko Maki) who crosses paths with an assassin (Tetsuya...

Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.

Director Iwauchi Katsumi adapted this melodrama from Sasazawa Saho's award winning novel about two young lovers from different sides of the tracks...

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic.

Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from...

Story of young love in the hills.

The first instalment in Toho's popular Wakadaishō (Young Guy) series.

A bizarre murder at a hot springs resort threatens to disrupt an Edo detective's (Hasegawa) vacation. When his hot-blooded wife (Yamada) starts...

In the middle of the period of high economic growth in Japan, a family is thrown into disarray over work, money, and romance. Their father's sudden...

This film depicts a troupe of wandering kabuki players traveling through rural Japan.

1962 Japanese movie

Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a...

A colourful study of theatrical life. Two acting troupes vie for the Kyoto market during the Genroku Era. Tojuro, an extremely popular actor, feels...

Among the tight-knit neighbours are a poet, his actress wife, a bachelor budding author, a tobacco shop owner-cum-landlady, an insurance salesman and...

1963 Japanese movie

This film is based on a real Meiji era performer -- and tells of Tochuken's partnership with his wife (played by Chikako Hosokawa) who played...

The otherwise promising young man Asaji (Heihachirô Ôkawa) and his younger brother Yuji (Hideo Saeki) face blighted lives because of...

1961 Japanese movie

Drama about a couple and how they found themselves related with music, their egos and each other.

Hide-chan (Hideko Takamine) and her family are on a trip to Tokyo. While visiting a fairground, a pickpocket (Kamatari Furukawa) steals the father's...

9th directorial work by Yamamoto Satsuo.

In the 19th century Edo period, sisters Oshizu and Otaka have sacrificed their personal happiness to work and care for their ailing father. Otaka...

As the reputation of Sasaki Kojiro, who traveled through various provinces with his long sword seeking duels, began to spread, he was summoned by...

Eternal young guy, Yuzo Kayama stars in this fifth installment of the Young Guy series. Young Guy returns to the swim team from the first movie, ...

When an invisible man is run down by a car it’s up to an eager young reporter and a strange clown to bring a dangerous gang to justice.

Final part of epic drama about war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family through the Sino-Japanese War through...

A suspense comedy about thieves starring Kazuo Funaki.

Directed by Daisuke Ito.

A villager's family is ostracized after he makes an accusation of rigged elections

Akane Kawasaki, known for her aversion to physical contact with men, possesses some unfavorable habits such as stealing. Despite these flaws, she...

1949 drama film

Director Hiroshi Inagaki's early version of the life and death of famed swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. Otani Tomoemon gives a brilliant performance as...

Based on Kazuo Taoka's autobiography, this film follows a Kobe gangster as he builds the small Yamaguchi-gumi into Japan's largest criminal clan.

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him...

Yoshida Denkichi does loses sight of his wife Chiyoko and daughter Toyoko during the war, and is taken in by a familiar woman, Oshige, and becomes...

Japanese drama.

A series of murders at Fukagawa lumberyard is tied to a grudge letter from the deceased Kansuke Tsukunamiya. Officer Kasajiro Sakane investigates the...

The main focus is on the 5 member band of a small circus as it runs into problems while touring rural Japan. It also pays lots of attention to the...

This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their...

Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid...

A story of two sisters, the older being more traditional, the younger a "moga" ("modern girl"). Their widowed father runs the family sake shop, but...

In Osaka's slum, youths without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of...

Ten years into a marriage, the wife is disappointed by the husband's lack of financial success, meaning she has to work and can't treat herself and...

An inspirational teacher is the focus of this Japanese drama. After his friend kills himself, Natsuki takes a teaching job on an isolated island. His...

The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army...

1945 Japanese movie

Teacher Yukiko finds herself in opposition to conservative faculty and villagers after defending a student for being in a relationship with a young...

Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs...

Three sisters earn money for their bossy mother by being samisen street musicians. This means mainly playing a banjo type instrument for tips in...

Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the...

1945 Japanese movie

An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka...

An old man cashes in all his possessions and sets off on a journey to the Tohoku region in late autumn. Along the way, he visits a friend on his...

A carpenter, Shigetsugu, learns a lesson of love and humanity from five orphaned children and an affectionate woman named Oritsu. It's a winning...

Shinkichi, a peasant employed as a cloth-dyer, has a dream: in the midst of the civil war which ravages Japan, he hopes to revive the long-banned...

Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money.

Setsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them...

The mistress of a crook real estate broker comes to terms with her soulless existence after an artist paints her portrait.

A 1981 TV movie based on a short story by Kuniko Mukoda, starring Kaori Momoi and Jinpachi Nezu. A housewife is slowly tempted by a mysterious man...

First live action "Barefoot Gen" sequel.

Adaptation of a novel by Yojiro Ishizaka, originally released in two parts.

Three humorous love stories set in rural Japan.

1936 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.

1935 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.

Walking home late one night, a down-on-his-luck sewage worker runs into a drunk businessman with a briefcase full of cash. His impulsive decision...

A high-born woman named Okuni travels around the country with Gohei, a samurai retainer who is in service to her. They are in search of Tomonojo, who...

Historical drama about a sleepy-eyed ronin.

Historical drama about a sleep-eyed ronin

Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.

A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.

A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.

The premature death of a young mother serves as inspiration for her husband and son.

Postwar Tokyo. Pin and Toku live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru, a slightly demented woman who...

Frustrated with the bad behavior of his lord, Inaba Yajuro (Otomo) declares that he is leaving the clan and sets off on a journey that leads him...

A single mother from the country raising a 6th grade boy comes to Tokyo, leaves the boy to live with his uncle's family, runs a struggling grocery...

A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community.

Two semi-slackers with an ultra-intimate friendship work, slack and drink in a freezing Hokkaido town.

Minoru visits his home on Okinoerabu island for the first time in thirty years. Seeing the old man who used to be in love with his mother, Minoru...

A young factory worker struggles to figure out what she wants to do with her life.

Pinku from 1971.

Period romantic drama.

Based on the comic by Yutaka Asou

An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.

Two youths - the serious son of a Buddhist abbot and his rakish pal - quarrel over a restaurant keeper's daughter. When one of the youths die the...

The film generally regarded as Japan’s first true musical was also the first film made entirely in-house by the pioneering studio P.C.L., a...

When a group of young geologists declares a mountainside marked for residential development unstable, they are met with scorn on two fronts. On one...

Chocolate and Soldiers (チョコレートと兵隊, Chokorēto to Heitai) is a 1938 Japanese war film directed by Sato Takeshi and one of the most...

A high-school girl inherits a declining yakuza organization, which seeks to repair its fortunes under her leadership.

Following the Second World War, the lives of various people in a poverty-stricken area of Tokyo are entertwined. Pachinko parlor girls, shoeshine...

A musical romance.

A Hibari Misora musical about an impoverished girl and her brother in Postwar Japan.

A screwball tale of a suspected “lady thief” and the detective who is on her trail, following her from Osaka to her home village, where...

Ine Onoda, the eldest daughter of a poor family of farmers, raises a colt from birth and comes to love the horse dearly. When the horse is grown, the...

Forced on the road by yakuza obligations, a man sets out on a reckless journey to Tsumagoi. Movie posters for local cinemas were often displayed at...

Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.

Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese...

Enoken plays a magician real powers come from his magical hat. A jealous theater owner sends girls, then goons, to keep Enoken from performing his...

The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and...

An Ishiro Honda film.

An Ishiro Honda film.

An Ishiro Honda film.

A young man and woman are determined to marry despite opposition from her parents.

An Ishiro Honda film.

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their...

The Sengoku Era was coming to an end. The monopoly of the ever powerful shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa, was at a near. Only one man was brave enough to...

A young girl is striving for stardom. In order to get a lead role in a new production, she agrees to stand-in for a famous star whose rich patron...

Gonza was a handsome young laborer, a footman and spear-carrier, working hard for his meager wage. All Gonza wanted was to marry his young...

The womanising master of a run-down dojo hires an unemployed samurai to make himself look good instead of learning the skills himself. He lives to...

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six...

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip.

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip. The first entry in Toho's Sazae-san series.

Adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series shot in color.

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series shot in TohoScope.

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip.

1948 Japanese drama film.

Also known as Crazy Uproar.

In a village subsisting on it herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one...

In a small town, according to the homecoming of Professor Ishinaka, the youth culture group was overwhelmed to make a presentation for the summer...

On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police...

Shot mostly in Tokyo, this comedy depicts two Chinese tourists who have travelled from their country to Japan in order to experience the latter...

Venice Film Festival 1939

What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy...

An early Tōhō salaryman musical.

The movie "Jump Out of the Window" is a heartwarming work that depicts the interaction between two families. Shusuke Tokuyama (Den Obinata) runs an...

Miyamoto Tokunosuke works at a Detective Agency in the heart of Tokyo. When his lover Ranko tells him that she's pregnant, he begins to worry. His...

The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer.