Noriko Sengoku

A narrative feature made from a collage of clips from various films around the world.

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

One of a gang of karaoke loving middle aged women is murdered by a young man. Her friends track him down and kill him. His friends track them down and kill the killer ..... and it escalates!

Mizusawa (Takenouchi Yutaka), an explosives expert, is arrested and charged with a string of bank robberies. Because he is a flight risk, Detective Kayama (Ogata Ken) is assigned to transport Mizusawa to Shizuoka for questioning. On the way, Kayama receives word that the hotel where his wife and daughter are attending a party has been rigged with a time bomb. Being a "by-the-book" kind of cop, Kayama refuses to abandon his job and return to help his family. Meanwhile, the hotel is swarming with police and the bomb squad who are searching for the bomb and the culprit. Time is almost up. Mizusawa claims that he is the only who who can deactivate the bomb.

When pregnant lunchbox factory worker Yayoi has finally taken all the abuse she can handle, she strangles her brutish husband and disposes of the body parts, piece by piece. She's soon joined by three down on their luck housewives who murder their own husbands and find various ways to hide the evidence.

In the year 198X, a young screenwriter, Ryohei Shimura, has been in a slump lately. Then an opportunity arises. He is asked to write a script for the comeback film of Akiko Ryuzoji, the legendary beauty who was known as Japan's Cleopatra. Ryohei met Akiko right away, but he couldn't believe his eyes. Akiko was young and good-looking, even though she was already an old woman. Ryohei moved into Akiko's house to work on his scenario. A film director, Mizumori, who lives with Akiko at the mansion, warns Ryohei, “Don't sleep with Akiko,” he says. In fact, Ryohei was chosen for the job for a surprising reason...

Broke, his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama's past, returns to town, the fuse is lit on a criminal powder keg set to blow the lid off the Yokohama underworld.

A straight young woman living in Tokyo becomes involved in the lives of a gay man and his married lover.

A stylish light comedy about the “Banana boys”— two boys who were born and raised in Roppongi who are still growing up.

Benio, a peppy tomboy, is surprised to learn that she has been secretly betrothed by her grandfather to a young officer named Shinobu Ijuin. Because of his family’s noble status, Benio must first undergo rigorous training to learn how to be a proper bride and wife before she can marry. However, because of her vivacious personality, this proves to me more challenging than anyone imagined.

Hitomi, a former orphan who is trying to leave behind her delinquent ways, one day agrees to tutor a wealthy young boy who has just become an orphan himself…

Two interns and a nurse are interrogated by American MPs for their involvement in an atrocity during the war: the vivisections of a downed American air crew.

Momoko Watanabe—a student who, upon visiting a shrine in order to wish good luck on a friend of hers, witnesses a murder in the forest...and she knows the culprit! Unfortunately, she doesn't have it in her to tell anybody about it, and to make matters worse, said aforementioned friend gets accused of the murder.

Accused of being a spy for a rival clan by Nanbu Clan samurai who then attack him, the 'Lowly Ronin' barely escapes with his life after being shot. Nursed back to health by Yamaoka Daijiro, the one Nanbu Clan retainer that believes him, he must find a way to prove his inno-cence to the others. The two team up together to uncover the mystery and find out who the real spy is that threatens the security of the clan. Against all odds, the two master swordsmen must rely on all their skills to defeat a vast conspiracy and save the clan from being abolished.

Reprising his role from the popular TV series "Koya no Suronin" (The Lowly Ronin), Mifune Toshiro stars in this full-length, stand-alone made for TV movie. The wandering ronin is reminiscent of his most famous role as the samurai without a name in Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" and "Sanjuro". He travels about Japan, and while he may seek happiness, violence and tragedy always cross his path. This time it is a woman carrying a young infant who he encounters on the road that leads him into a tale of violence, intrigue and a village in uproar. A great story and cool action scenes, a movie not to be missed!

After saving a young Lord from an assassination attempt the Lowly Ronin finds that he is now a wanted man! Accused of being a thief by those that tried to kill the young Lord he must now clear himself of the accusations. Befriended by an old woman, she then attempts to use him for her own designs.

Mitamura Yuka is a normal, shy high school student. Except for the fact that she has psychic powers. When a new student with similar powers begins to show her skills, creating a force of psychic Nazi student enforcers, Yuka and her friends vow to stop her. But behind it all is a mysterious force that will put Yuka's powers to the ultimate test!

“Quit working as a nurse!” “All right, I will!” thus began the married life of Yasuo and Keiko. But the reality is harsh. Keiko even had to work on the first night after her marriage. Ten years later, the married couple is still at it. Yauso tends to the house and their children, while Keiko sacrifices family life for life as an overworked nurse. One day, after Keiko comes home utterly exhausted and dejected from her work, Yasuo makes up his mind and writes a letter of resignation in her place. Upon learning of this, Keiko angrily declares that nursing is what she lives for and she will keep on working. Realising that that is one battle he will never win, Yasuo sends a letter to a newspaper -- “Nurses’ husbands, aren’t you having a hard time? Get together nurses’ husbands. Contact me.” There is a tremendous response. This leads to the formation of many unions of nurses’ husbands throughout the country.

21-year-old Hideo Ishida is a reckless young man. Today again, he took part in a car race with a stolen driver's license and a car belonging to the junkyard. But unfortunately, things go wrong and after a collision with another car, the seriously injured Hideo is taken to the hospital. Here he meets the nurse Yuki Kobayashi. Yuki is the opposite of Hideo. During the day she works as a nurse and in the evening she studies hard. However, Hideo's behavior leaves an unforgettable impression on Yuki and the two soon develop an intimate friendship ...

When his pistol is stolen, police detective Murakami is humiliated, especially when the gun is later implicated in a crime. Working with his superior, Chief Detective Sato, Murakami works feverishly to trace the location of his pistol, ultimately clashing with a gang of youthful Okinawans.

Adapted from the Seicho Matsumoto story "Tazutazushi". Ryohei Suzuki, a manager at a travel company, is married to his superior's daughter, but tires of their authority over his life. A chance encounter with Yukiko Hirai one rainy night brings a new romance into Ryohei's life, and he and Yukiko fall deeply in love. Yukiko, however, reveals that she has a violent husband in prison - with only a week left until his release. Ryohei, desperate to maintain his social standing, brings Yukiko to the mountains in Nagano and sets in motion an unthinkable, tragic chain of events.

A blind sculptor kidnaps an artists’ model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio – a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in world where sight is replaced by touch.

The love story of an aspiring architect and a charcoal-making daughter, who discover that they are actually brother and sister.

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 with Tate who's a young lieutenant in the Army, ultimately becoming a right-wing fundamentalist revolutionary. She marries another man, one totally dedicated to the rigorous practices of Noh theatre, in an arranged marriage, but the bond that connects her with Tate is too strong.

Astronauts Glenn and Fuji investigate Planet X and encounter mysterious aliens known as the Xiliens, who ask Earth's people to help save their world from "Monster Zero". In exchange for borrowing Godzilla and Rodan, the Xiliens offer a cure for cancer. As Glenn investigates, he develops a romance with Miss Namikawa and uncovers the Xilien's true intentions.

"When human beings venture too far along a trail made by wild beasts, it is said, they quite often discover themselves on a road of no return." Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Yoshie Nogami, a factory worker by day, moonlights as a hostess at a bar. One of the regulars, Eiji Kitami, invites her out on a date. Still only 19, she goes along out of curiosity and ends up spending the night at a hotel where she gives herself to him. They begin a passionate love affair and move in together, after which Yoshie begins skipping work at the factory and rarely returns to her family home. Before long, Eiji’s demeanor changes and he begins to constantly ask her for money. Despite claiming to be a businessman, he is actually a local thug, and his inability to pay his dues to his gang leads him to force Yoshie into prostitution.

Toho-produced crime drama involving the drug trade.

On his deathbed, a wealthy businessman announces that his fortune is to be split equally among his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown to his family and colleagues. A bevy of lawyers and associates scheme to procure the money for themselves, enlisting the aid of impostors and blackmail.

Gen is a lonely orphan boy. His sole sense of companionship comes from an imaginary friend, the god Prince Fudo-Myo. Prince Fudo-Myo comes to the boy's rescue in times of difficulty.

In the late 1950's prostitution was banned in Japan and if a woman was found exercising this profession they were sent to a reformatory. This is a story of one of these brave women Kuniko who is released from the reformatory and tries to build a new life.

Yukio, a farm boy, and Toru, a fisherboy, live in a small Japanese village that is periodically threatened by a volcano on one side and tidal waves on the other. Yukio's younger sister Setsu follows then and dreams of becoming a pearl diver. Toru is preparing to go fishing with his father when a bell tolls and a danger flag is hung high on the hill behind the village to warn of an impending tidal wave by the village patriarch, known as Old Gentleman.

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?

An Ishiro Honda film.

After discovering a slaughtered corpse, the investigating team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department began canvassing the area around the crime scene. As a result, they found a wallet with bloodstains that seemed to belong to the victim, a woman's wallet that did not fit the field, earrings, and other valuable materials, which led them on a foot search. The woman's purse had been picked up by a male prostitute on the subway, and from the prostitute's testimony, they were able to identify the pickpocket's face, but the next day, the man was found dead in a road accident, apparently murdered.

In the mist of the warring age (Sengoku Era), the Kyushu based Hayato Clan is faced with a monumental battle to determine their survival.

It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and her family loses their home. Complications arise when Shimamura doesn't come back as promised. Then Komako discovers that he and Yuko knew each other in Tokyo. Can Komako escape destiny?

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own.

A notorious abortion doctor fell down from a night train and he was dead. A man who knows the truth of this accident starts to chase a up-and-coming model.

20th film adaptation of the novel Ono ga tsumi (published 1900-1901).

The woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her.

Poor social conditions badly affect the relationship between a married couple, when the husband, who is desperately searching for work, fails to notice the terrible sacrifices made by his wife when she accepts a job at a local inn.

Detective Tarao goes undercover to battle an evil gun smuggling business.

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 safety in Brazil. His family decides to have him ruled incompetent and Dr. Harada, a Domestic Court counselor, attempts to arbitrate.

Lending money, job hunting for civilians and babysitting. All these things are usually not listed on a policeman's job description. But for the officers of this local police station, it‘s part of their daily routine. One day, patrolman Yoshii (Hisaya Morishige) finds an abandoned baby and a six year old girl standing in front of the station. When he's declined by the welfare office, orphanage and local health clinic to take them in, he decides to take care of them himself.

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

After the Onin War ended in 1477, Kyoto was left in ashes and the nation was in complete disorder. Bands of roving samurai called the "nobushi" terrorized the country under the leadership of Akagaki Genba and overthrew Mangetsu Castle in Tanba Province scattering the few survivors. Lord Niwa's two sons have been studying in China and return to Japan upon hearing of the tragedy in an attempt to restore the clan. On Mt. Oe they meet magician Kiri no Kojiro and try to enlist his aid. With touches of the supernatural and rousing sword-play can they succeed against the evil villains whose symbol is the skull mask?

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 others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

An elderly woman devoted to her foster-daughter searches for a good husband for her.

1953 jidaigeki directed by Nobuo Nakagawa of Jigoku and Ghost of Yotsuya fame.

Period film about a feudal era judge living in Edo

After graduating from a high school in the Seto Inland Sea, Koji, a childhood friend of Yaeko, went to Tokyo to enter university wearing a heartfelt sweater.

1950s Japanese comedy.

Group of women escape Chinese controlled area for Japanese occupied lands during Pacific War.

A Japanese woman, the mistress of an American, falls in love with her servant.

Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.

Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues.

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

A Japanese adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story Boule de Suif, directed by Kimura Keigo

A Japanese melodrama about three sisters, rival fashion companies, and attempted murder by overheated bathroom.

Setsuko is unhappily to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them failed to propose when Hiroshi left for France a few years ago. Now he is back and Mariko (Setsuko's sister) tries to reunite them. She too is secretly in love with Hiroshi.

The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its cat fights, hysterical tantrums, film noir lighting, and dramatic music, White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) initiated a cycle of women's prison movies in the United States that may or may not have been shown in Japan, but the stylistics of White Beast draw on the same paranoid woman's films and film noir conventions that preceded the American cycle.

A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.

Woman melodrama by Shiro Toyoda

Kindaichi challenges the mystery of an incident in which three sisters were killed one after the other according to an ancient tradition on an isolated island in the Seto Inland Sea. Kosuke Kindaichi received a will from his friend Kito, which said, "Go to Gokumon Island to save my three younger sisters," and Kosuke went to Gokumon Island. Upon arriving at the residence of Quito, there were three beautiful sisters, a crazy father, a cousin of Sanae, and Kosuke plunged into a strange atmosphere. The film adaptation of the masterpiece novel of the same name by Seishi Yokomizo. Kyozo Kataoka plays Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, and Ryutaro Otomo plays Inspector Isokawa, who can be called Kindaichi's best partner.

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 undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Toshirō Mifune plays a young idealistic doctor who works at his father's (Takashi Shimura) clinic in a small and seedy district. During the war, he contracts syphilis from the blood of a patient when he cuts himself during an operation. Treating himself in secret and tormented by his conscience, he rejects his heartbroken fiancée without explanation.

Doctor Sanada treats gangster Matsunaga after he is wounded in a gunfight, and discovers that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Sanada tries to convince Matsunaga to stay for treatment, which would drastically change his lifestyle. They form an uneasy friendship until Matsunaga's old boss Okada returns from prison.

Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu,a scholar who brought some of European realism to the Japan's stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society. This is another version of Kenji Mizoguchi's film "The Love of Sumako the Actress" ("Joyû Sumako no koi"), from the same year. Both tells the story of the famous actress Sumako Mitsui (1886-1919), considered the first great modern theater actress in Japan. Mizoguchi himself is said to have preferred Kinugasa's version.