Eijirō Tōno

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...

In the year 1786, Shogun Ieharu Tokugawa selected beautiful Ochisa to be his concubine. It causes other concubines to become very jealous and mean....

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...

A young Tokyo salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital affair.

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes...

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...

In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in...

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...

Years after the death of legendary tea master Rikyu, his disciple Honkakubo attempts to resolve the mystery of the master's death.

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...

With one million yen in stolen cash, Kurita plans his escape to Hokkaido with an unwilling bar girl named Katsumi.

On a quiet spring day in the suburbs, a stray dog found the corpse of a baby. Three days after his death, the blood group of the victim was...

Part one of Shin Saburi's Theater of Life adaptation.

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells...

Japanese noir.

A woman marries, gives birth to a stillborn child, and divorces, falls in love with a hotel-keeper, only to find herself subordinated to his drive...

From the late 1500's through the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate many battles were fought as the great warlords vied for power over the nation....

A gangster gets released from prison and has to cope with the recent shifts of power between the gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young...

Jidai-geki about the life of Yasubei Nakayama, a famous ronin who did participate in the revenge against Lord Kira Yoshinaka as detailed in Japan's...

1962 Japanese movie

The picture belongs to the jidai gekki (historic) genre. It is a powerful story of violence and eroticism, picturing a world at once sordid and...

Bittersweet shomin-geki drama by Keigo Kimura

Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gomyo hires Tanigawa as his bodyguard, or yojimbo,...

A pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a...

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

1962 Japanese movie

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder...

[Period covered: 1582-1594]. As the film opens, the warlod Nobunaga Oda rides to Iga Ayanokuni shrine. He is asked if he thinks he has destroyed all...

Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuangdi conquered the rest of China. Qin's great accomplishments and also his serious faults are showed in this film. Qin adopted...

Based on the novel by Yoshie Hotta

Film by director Kenji Misumi

1951 Japanese movie

Young Horus lives in a mythical Scandinavia of the Iron Age. Recovering the stolen Sword of the Sun from a rock giant, he learns he must travel to...

Zatoichi comes upon the town of Tonda, overrun by gangsters. Using one of his favorite techniques, Zatoichi proceeds to win 8 ryo in a rigged...

After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and...

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

A salaryman's drunken ravings in public attract the attention of journalists who coerce him into telling them his life's story.

The executive director of the «Chuo Shoji» company, Hidaka Shiro, is called a "demon of work", but the hostess of the bar calls him "the...

Shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in...

1962 Japanese movie

Ushinosuke returns to Tokyo with new ambitions. Fourth and final part of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi’s novel, Oban.

A young country boy leaves his village for Tokyo, where he begins to work as a stock trader. First part (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku...

Ushinosuke returns broke to his hometown, where everyone believes he's rich and successful. Part two (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku...

A young Japanese-American comes from California looking for a bride, going on blind dates with three candidates from Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya.

Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of...

A Japanese family is torn apart by the tensions of an avoidable nuclear world war between the superpowers.

A university student moves into an apartment building and becomes involved with a waitress. The landlord then attempts to evict the tenants and sell...

A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls...

In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and...

A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising athlete to the baseball team the Toyko Flowers.

A Japanese family weathers much hardship after their military uncle comes to live with them during WWII.

Takes place in one place, a beer hall, over the course of one evening. Uchida employs this concentration of setting and time to fashion a microcosm...

A young woman, who must support her father as a middle-aged man's mistress, finds herself falling in love with a student closer to her age.

In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and...

A coming-of-age story portrayed as the loss of all youthful illusions. Sixteen-year-old Yoichi dreams of becoming a sailor. His parents are...

This is a story of "Takechiyo," the previous name of Iemitsu Tokunaga, the third Shogun (General). Takechiyo got sick of daily run-of-the-mill tasks,...

The fish market is to be moved to Shinagawa, and Tasuke Isshin (Jun Inoue) got in trouble. Hikosaemon Ookubo (Eijiro Tono) heard of it from Tasuke,...

The Nami family lives in a quiet fishing village at the tip of the Shima Peninsula overlooking Ago Bay. The family of four consists of her...

1959 Japanese movie

1958 Japanese movie

The four-member con group, including the intellectual boss Nobukichi Ishiguro (Masayuki Mori), who is called an "aristocrat con man" for his elegant...

The story contrasts the life of two doctors, former classmates and now both assistant professors at Naniwa University Hospital in Osaka. The...

The movie depicts the interaction between a childless middle-aged couple and a small dog.

Part one of The Masterless 47.

Japanese war film.

The action takes place in the highlands of the Chugoku region. While the owner of the Yazaki ranch is away, a gang of villains is trying to take over...

A song drama based on the autobiographical song "The sun is laughing" by composer Endo Minoru. It tells the story of a young man who moves to Tokyo...

A group of four chorus singers leave their hometown in Kyushu and go to Tokyo to become stars. It’s a musical comedy that shows Segawa’s...

Film adaptation of the stage version of Samuil Marshak's "Twelve Months"

The sweet but naive denizens of a charming port town are hoodwinked by a couple of con men at the outset of World War II. But the hustlers’...

Minamimura, who had always wanted to be free, suddenly quits his job. His hardworking wife is surprised and angry, and throws him out of the house....

Winter holidays at the university. Eikichi visits a city in the north of the country, the hometown of Yuko, a classmate for whom he has feelings....

He was married to his lover's butterfly and started a new residence. But good things do not last. In his uncle, Uzaemon in Kawashima, Yoshiji Akaji,...

Japanese drama.

Film directed by Shima Koji and starring Wakao Ayako

Yano, a progressive individual who seeks to overcome strength with gentleness and confronts physical power with moral principles, faces off against a...

A Japanese artist (Ikebe), who had won the favor of the Cambodian royal family when he rescued their daughter during World War II, returns and falls...

Yoshida’s first big-budget production and colour film is a haunting tale of unrequited love and postwar disillusion. The story of the fatal...

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...

When a former artisan is tricked into putting his sister up as collateral for a loan by a gangster boss in a crooked gambling casino it sets in...

George Mihara was ordered by his grandfather Tom to go to Japan. The purpose was to deliver a $100,000 check to Matsuyama, a Japanese soldier who had...

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

Executive management of a major Tokyo construction company are getting bumped off one after another. It seems obvious that it is a former partner of...

The struggles of a low-ranking samurai (Nakamura) coming to terms with the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and the end of Japan's feudal age with the...

Fukazawa Shino is a prostitute in the late Meiji period. Shino was deceived by Tatsukichi and sold. One day Shino came to like a thief (Yoshioka) who...

A luckless geisha struggles to make a living for herself and her young son.

In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the fiery breaths of war hadn't yet reached Okinawa...

An Indian prince leaves his world of comfort and riches behind to wander and meditate for six years in search of spiritual enlightenment. Siddartha...

1952 Japanese movie

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

In Kyoto a young kimono maker with traditional ideas gets involved with a married professor.

The story of a group of young people who organise their own travelling symphony orchestra to provide music for people living in remote villages...

Lending money, job hunting for civilians and babysitting. All these things are usually not listed on a policeman's job description. But for the...

A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a...

The film depicts a group of boys and girls who graduate from a local junior high school and head to Tokyo to find employment, and the teachers who...

A touching story about a young boy, Genta, who bravely takes on life's challenges in hopes of finding a better life for himself and his sickly mother.

The ghost of a samurai's wife takes revenge on her husband.

The story of a professional nude model stalked by a bizarre, unknown man wearing a hideous mask.

In the Meiji period, a schoolteacher tries to hide his lower-class upbringing as he supports a visiting liberal intellectual.

The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when...

Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small...

It's a story of the life of a man who advocated the necessity of sex education to children, which was unusual at the time, solely opposed to the...

Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially...

Based on true events surrounding a Korean student who had entered Japan unlawfully and escaped illegal alien internment.

Japanese action film.

Lavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.

Japanese mystery thriller.

Japanese comedy film.

In this Japanese drama, a village girl goes to Tokyo and becomes a hooker to support her ailing mother. While there she meets an unmarried teacher...

Chuji Kunisada returns to his home village to find that Jubei Matsui, the corrupt magistrate, has been responsible for virtually destroying...

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...

The year is 1932, and a woman, whose tenant-farmer fiancé is fighting in China, is raped by the landowner's son, who has returned from the war...

[Period covered: 1595-1600] Third film in the famous shinobi no mono series. We last saw ninja Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa), as he was about to...

Ayako, a young woman from a rural fishing village, is sold by her family into a brothel when her father takes ill. There, she is quickly stripped of...

Drama which shows the struggle of Fumiko, a female teacher, at work and at home.

The adopted son of an Osaka courier falls in love with a prostitute and, discovering that she is about to be purchased by a client, steals money from...

In postwar Japan a young woman is unable to marry her sweetheart because her family's in difficult circumstances and needs her income to keep afloat.

Horror film directed by Toshikazu Kôno.

Kiku and her brother Isamu are social outcasts, children of a prostitute mother and black GI father, in postwar Japan.

The few residents left on the streets in Tokyo share their individual stories and come to understand the melancholy of saying goodbye.

Detective Tarao investigates the deaths of police officers who were involved in solving a kidnapping case.

A sake factory worker on holiday returns to his home town, where he rapes the wife of one of his co-workers in the forest. The other man returns home...

An all-star cast highlights this Jidai-Geki classic. Set in the samurai era, this is the tale of period Yakuza. One of the real classics in this...

In 1730, the Tokugawa Shogunate orders the Yagyu Clan to repair a huge shrine. Since it cannot refuse the Shogunate's request, the impoverished Yagyu...

A touching story depicting the harsh lives of farmers in Kasumigaura. An attempt to start a fishery business to revive an ailing farming community...

Four unlucky pirates head to a weather tracking station set on a remote island with the intention of holding the weather trackers as hostages and...

In a small town, high school students in their final year try to balance their studies while also playing together in a rock band.

A reporter Takuo, who is sleeping in the newspaper room of the Maichō newspaper company, receives a sudden report from a reporter that the missing...

In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy...

With her family suffering from extreme poverty, Yuko, as the eldest daughter, is sold to a successful brothel in Kyoto. There she is assigned to...

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments....

A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it...

When two sisters fall in love with the same man, one must decide to look elsewhere.

A touching story of a girl who sails away from her love to keep her family together.

Well before “Shogun” as warring clans were fighting for power throughout Japan, a Portuguese vessel ran aground off Tanegashima. Lord...

Soldiers Hayate and Yaheiji secretly escape from their besieged castle. Hayate has left behind his lover, Kano. On his way, Hayate is wounded and...

Upon returning to his hometown of Nagasaki, recently released prisoner Tachibana Shinichi must rejoin the Asahi gang family in order to pay back a...

Upon his release from the prison, Hishakaku joins the Kikkyo family who is struggling to regain their turf from their rival, Domoto family. To...

Friendship between an ambitious young thief and an artist during the Warring States period.

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...

A young son of a master of the Kuwana clan gets disowned for his rebellious behavior. After he goes from the mountains to the ocean defeating the...

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for...

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader....

Japanese drama film.

Mototsugu is the younger son of Akira Sakawa, a director of an advertising agency whose mother, Nobuko, is ill with cancer of the liver. His elder...

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

A scruffy detective investigates the murders of three sisters on a small Japanese island in 1946.

This is one of the most powerfully effective ninja films that dispenses with the silly magic of earlier efforts, and concentrates on an excellent...

When a gifted Japanese craftsmen dies, his three daughters are summoned to decide who will take over the family ribbon business in this family drama....

Three young women make a suicide pact, but they grow to have a better understanding of themselves.

Eiji lives a quiet life running a small Izakaya with his wife. He spends his days cooking for and serving the lively residents of his small hometown.

A dark family secret sends a 21-year-old French student (Hoshi) on a journey of self-discovery.

The common-law wife and daughter of a wealthy old man plot to murder him and steal his fortune, with the help of their male acquaintances.

It is 1922 and Fumiko is a high school student. Her family is poor but she loves to study literature. Her father, a peddler, does not return home and...

One of the earliest Japanese cop films following a mysterious killing on the last train to Mitaka, Tokyo.

Yoshikawa and Kaji are alumni - Yoshikawa leads a life loyal to his company Toho Corporation, whilst Kaji works in the underground world for Aoyama,...

A young, struggling couple are making every sacrifice so they will one day in the not-too-distant-future, have enough money to get married. As they...

The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the...

A promising post-graduate literature student is transformed into a psychotic killer following the suicide of his father and a sleazy affair by his...

One of Japan’s most popular historical characters, former Vice-Shogun Tokugawa Mitsukuni, whose travels around the nation are legendary has...

After their father quarrels with local military men, Anju and Zushio are forced to flee, but they are captured and sold into slavery. When their...

Early film by Kenji Misumi.

An employee at an oil cartel (Mihashi) is haunted by an act years before when he euthanized a fellow soldier when the two were adrift at sea during...

Though plagued by ill health all his life, a young Japanese man is obligated to fulfill his family's longstanding military tradition.

This subversive period film features a hotheaded young samurai, Kurodo, who threatens to commit harakiri in response to the humiliation meted out to...

A well-respected drama teacher confesses to his housekeeper that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has left him impotent. With the coming of spring,...

Following the journey of a caterpillar along the Japanese islands from Nagasaki to Hokkaido, this allegorical and oblique first feature film by...

Kohei Misugi works in a vegetable market, but his ambition is to be a photographer. He is given his first opportunity to demonstrate his talent by...

Kuruma Torajiro is discovered looking around Kyoto for someone special to him.

A film about the life of Kiyoshi Yamashita, a Japanese painter with disabilities.

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...

Fifteen years after Ishida Mitsunari lost in the battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu foresees his unavoidable battle with Toyotomi Hideyori and...

Ryuji Oshima, a gambler, kills Saiga in self-defense, and considering himself unfit to lead men, secludes himself in a temple to atone for his...

A tale of two best friends in the WWII era Japan. Takao is a young man enthusiastic about joining the navy to fight for his country. He convinces his...

Japanese Warmovie

A young woman marries someone else, but cannot forget her first lover.

Follows the life of Tsuru, the poor daughter of farmers in Shinshu, Japan.

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora!...

International thief Zivaco, who can assume any identity, eludes the authorities and battles rival thief WCWC for a rare gold samurai sword.

Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately...

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

The film stars two of Itami's regular actors, Nobuko Miyamoto as a geisha who brings luck to the men with whom she sleeps, and Masahiko Tsugawa as...

The female members of the family of the Minister of Health and Welfare, who has just proposed a program of birth control, become pregnant one after...

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama...

The Story of the three Japanese castaways Otokichi, Kyukichi and Iwakichi. After their ship the Hojunmaru was damaged, they drifted to America and...

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...

A documentary about French illustrator Georges Bigot, who lived in Japan for 17 years and left behind many drawings depicting life and social...

A story of a passionate teacher and his great effort for the children in a poor village.

The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family...

Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.

A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.

1950 Toho film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi

1958 Theater of Life adaptation.

Little dark-eyed boy Kazuo. Yes, he dreamed of the sea. However, like everyone here in the village. Kazuo only wanted to study first, to finish...

The story of a certain engineer from his youth until he retired from the Japanese National Railways after the war .

Finding more freedom on the high seas than in war-torn Japan, the 'Bahansen' (Pirate ships) based on the Seto Inland Sea during the Warring Period...

Japanese war movie.

Girls in the Orchard (1953) is about tension between the life of a family in a rural area with all the traditions (continuing family business, taking...

The last judgment.

Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo.

The 22nd film in the Shacho comedy series.

A travelling theater troupe, led by Umagoro Ichikawa, comes to play in a mining town, and manages to sell every seat. Before the play begins,...

After discovering a slaughtered corpse, the investigating team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department began canvassing the area around the crime...

The Glorious Days

Kunio Shimizu, a sailor of Tohto University, helped a girl that was chased by someone on her way home from practice.The girl went away without saying...

After the war-time government orders the disbanding of the Big-Six baseball league, the teams of Waseda and Keio universities play one final game...

After Shuichiro moved to Tokyo, the Tanno family became completely female, including Mrs. Tanno, Shuichiro's daughter-in-law Manzuko, painter...

1959 youth comedy.