Shima Iwashita

A noble samurai serving the Shogun as 'Kogi Kaishaku-nin' (Official Executioner) is the target of a plot by the evil Yagyu Clan to take away his...

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a...

1962 Japanese movie

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

Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his...

Film by Deme Masanobu

Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the...

Two Jesuit priests encounter persecution when they travel to Japan in the 17th century to spread Christianity and search for their mentor.

Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang of thieves. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to...

The myth of the Sun Goddess who founded Japanese society is seen through the lens of a modern view of history.

Assassination begins with the events of 1853 when "four black ships" anchored at Edo Bay, sparking civil unrest and the major political manoeuvring...

Misawa Ihei (Nagato) is traveling with his wife Tae (Iwashita Shima) who abhors the practice of sword fighting for prize money. Tae is the daughter...

Japan, February 1868. As the Tokugawa shogunate declines and the power of Emperor Meiji grows, Gonzo, a soldier of the Restoration Army, returns to...

A mountain man beheads his many wives to prove his love to an alluring woman he meets in an enchanted forest.

From his early days as Matsudaira Motoyasu through his rise to the most powerful man in Japan as Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first of the Tokugawa Shoguns,...

Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi household and has fallen victim to gambling herself.

A vengeful contractor hires a series of young killers to target a woman muckraker. Trouble brews when an amateur marksman shows up his eclectic...

A reckless student contemplates terrorism in a prescient film that confirmed Shinoda as a fearless member of Shochiku's iconoclastic New Wave. At the...

When Sokichi stops providing his long-time lover Kikuyo enough money to pay for the care of their three young children, Kikuyo leaves the children...

A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.

Follows a young med student's relationships with two women: a dangerous affair with a childhood friend and his mother's struggle to rebuild their...

A blind traveling musician is abused and oppressed wherever she goes, even as the modern world imposes change around her.

When a married man begins an affair with a woman from his past, he comes to suspect her young son intends to murder him.

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

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II.

In a time of continuous civil wars ravaging the fields of feudal Japan, the eldest son of a very poor peasant family, living alongside the bridge...

1962 Japanese movie

The tragic story of Gonza, a handsome ladies man, set in the Tokagawa Period, a time in which appearences are very important. Gonza competes with...

1962 Japanese movie

In the 15th year of the Genroku era (1688), the world praised the 47 ronin who avenged the death of their master Asano Takumi-no-kami. Shogun...

It was five years ago when Minako spent a night with Sozo, younger brother of her ex-husband. She now lives in a local town with a rich old man who...

One day a company executive learns that his younger brother, whom he recommended, embezzled company funds. To save the situation he withdraws his...

Suzuko, a woman in her twenties who has a brother with political problems (due to communist reprisals), lives for over five years in a love affair...

Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced...

One year has passed since the Kidojis' eldest son Otohiko was arrested for his part in a terrorist kidnapping, which resulted in multiple deaths....

Onimasa is the egocentric boss of a small yakuza clan on Shikoku Island, whose criminal duties conflict with his self-image as a chivalrous samurai....

A rural high school takes part in a mountain-climbing exercise and are caught in a sudden typhoon.

A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who...

A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the...

Filled with guilt over his forbidden desires, a young man leaves home and his studies. He finds a new smaller place to stay, a low-paying but...

In this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation's defeat and the...

A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold drawings, and...

Famous detective Kosuke Kindaichi follows a dying man's words to an enigmatic island, where he meets beautiful twin sisters and tragic events unfold.

Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for...

While her husband is in prison doing time, Tamaki, the wife of a yakuza capo, runs her spouse’s gang with an iron hand. Meanwhile, Makoto, her...

A young woman begins murdering all those responsible for her ailing father's condition. Because the girl is so outwardly sweet and innocent, the...

TV drama based off the play of the same name by Yukio Mishima.

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...

A criminal syndicate wants detective Onihei dead, but the resolute hero proves to be hard to kill.

Released after seven years in prison, an inveterate thug goes from strength to ruthless strength as he makes his way through a succession of dubious...

In Jimpachi Kodera's household, young samurai Keishiro Kanie arrives, captivating Jimpachi's wife, Shoko, despite his initially arrogant demeanor....

The clerk of a trading company happens to have a large sum of money from his company in his possession. His girlfriend pressures him into fleeing...

In this Japanese drama, a dry goods merchant's daughter is surprised to discover that she has a twin sister. In rural Japan it was thought that twins...

Turbulent life of Kiwa, the successor of the most prominent yakuza in Osaka, the Domoto Clan.

A story of friendship between two women, Yae and Kiyoko. Their friendship is tested when artist Yae, who suffers from fatal illness, develops special...

A television drama aired on November 3, 1983 as a special project to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Yomiuri Television and the...

In the spring of Genroku 14 (1701), Oishi Kuranosuke (Tamura Masakazu), the chief retainer of the Asano family in Ako domain is shocked to learn that...

This movie is based on an immortal literary work "The Snow Country," a story about a life of geisha Komako who lives in a region with heavy snowfalls.

A promising dancer asks her professor to write a libretto for a Nō play. He then introduces her to a student of classical literature, but also a...

Ishihara Kiyoshi plans to marry the woman he loves, Chiee, a coffee shop girl. After an accident, Chiee loses her memory. A romance movie whose...

A story about four best friends and their lives inside and outside college. Then suddenly one of them receives a surprising offer to be a movie star.

Eiko Yagami (Ryoko Yonekura) is a "Marubo", a unit of Ueno Central Police Station's Organized Crime Division which deals directly with organized...

Kasuga’s husband gets arrested for a murder of his beloved protégé. She and her family investigate and find out he was trapped by...

The wife of a recently deceased yakuza boss is caught in a conflict between the candidates for his succession and must protect her beloved daughter.

A Yakuza boss's wife and the widow of a rival crime syndicate's murdered leader bond over a common purpose: to seek vengeance.

The seventh movie of the series “Yakuza Ladies” focuses on a wife of a small Osaka family. She risks her life to protect her...

The wife of a yakuza lieutenant tries to keep the peace when the clan's heir suddenly dies and a succession conflict threatens to break out.

Recently released from prison for a murder sentence, a yakuza boss's wife leaves Hong Kong for a fresh start, but a betrayal leads to her return.

Also known as: For My Daughter's 7th Birthday. Many years following her mother’s suicide, Maya seeks out her father, who deserted them, for...

Three assassins take on a band of thieves who specialize in murder.

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both...

Takamura, a poet and sculptor, marries a budding artist named Chieko who dreams of becoming an oil painter. When a series of hardships befall her...

Based on the novel of the same name by Seichō Matsumoto.

A young tofu maker, Eikichi comes from Kyoto to open a tofu shop in a friendly neighborhood. He meets there a feisty local girl Ofumi who befriends...

Yutaro Kida, a worker at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, volunteers for the navy but finds himself a cook's mate in the galley of a gunboat. But his dream...

Epic saga of an idealistic land-owning family dealing with militarism, war, social change and economic reform.

A treasury official passed over for promotion and obsessed with careerism interferes in the lives of his three sons, who seek escape from his...

A lovely female thief, and disguise artist, has a great passion for her next big job which she sets up with her right-hand man: She intends to steal...

A story about love triangle between mother and daughter relation...

On his way to Tokyo one night, a truck driver picks up a country girl and has his way with her amidst a forest. A few days later he loses his job...

Comedy about five good-for-nothings who run a phony exercise-hall.

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

Ryô is a young leopard, Maki a rhythmical wave. The barrier between a teacher and a student gives way to the passionate embrace of a man and a...

Sabu was once a boy soldier but people in his village disliked him. He finally broke loose when his land was taken.

Picked up and raised on an island in the Seto Inland Sea, Yasukichi's only trait is his innate mischievousness. However, because his love for his...

A story of childhood life during wartime Japan. Takeshi, the intelligent son of a fisherman, is the schoolyard bully. When his cousin comes to stay...

Set at the end of the feudal period. A woman spends most of her early life in prison, incarcerated by political opponents of her father. When she is...

The tale of Taira Kiyomori who started as a young inexperienced warrior who led the Heike into the battle against the brutal pirates on Setouchi.

One evening, when the monk Saito Musashibo Benkei was luring for his sword number 1000 at Gojo bridge, Shanao (later Yoshitsune), a young man of...

A Japanese soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her...

Based on Muneta Hiroshi's military novel. The main character, Yamaguchi Zensuke, is a military dog soldier. He joins the army and winds up sent...

The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to...

An epic drama depicting the lineage of a military family that lived for three generations before, during, and after World War II, against the...

The golden duo of Yoshitaro Mura and Kiyoshi Atsumi brings you a full-on comedy filled with laughter and melancholy set in Kitakyushu. Matsujiro...