Shin Watarai

Movies

Nomugi Pass
Sound Recordist
The story of the silk industry and the young girls who worked as silk spinners in the early 1900s in Japan. The silk mills were located in Okaya which lies just beyond the Nomugi Pass. The women and girls worked in a hot, humid atmosphere without rest, and endured those conditions and sexual harassment to earn money for their poor families. Across the ocean, it was the great depression in America.
High Seas Hijack
Sound Recordist
Terrorists hijack an oil tanker and threaten to blow it up unless Japan meets their demands.
Aoba shigereru
Sound Recordist
Based on the novel of the same name by Hisashi Inoue.
Long Journey into Love
Sound Recordist
A beautifully told story of a woman hardened by marriage to a man she doesn't love, after giving herself to another. She dedicates herself to her work, designing and creating plaited cords for kimono.
The Battle of Okinawa
Sound Recordist
The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army divisions to defend it at all costs. The mission quickly degenerates as vital resources and troops are diverted to other islands. After a civilian evacuation ends in tragedy most of non-combatants are forced to remain on the island. Many convert to soldier status. Tokyo sends mixed messages that squander time and resources, as when they order the defenders to build an airstrip for aircraft that never come. The truth soon becomes obvious: the high command decides that the island cannot be held and effectively abandons the Okinawan defenders. When the Americans land many troops are deployed in the wrong places. As the slaughter mounts, a suicidal attitude takes hold. Okinawa becomes a death trap, for civilian volunteers and non-combatants as well.
Lake of Dracula
Sound Recordist
A doctor investigates the murders of several women at a lakeside resort. His investigation leads him to believe that a vampire is responsible for the murders. He sets out to track the vampire down.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Sound Recordist
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! Tora!", named after the code words use by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.
The Age of Assassins
Sound Recordist
A nerdy young college instructor named Shinji Kikyo returns home one day to find himself the target of a mad assassin. Surviving somewhat miraculously, he fends off other assassins and with the help of reporter Keiko Tsurumaki and car mechanic Bill Otomo, eventually discovering that a "population control" association is really an assassination squad led by Shogo Mizorogi, who has been training patients of a mental asylum to become killers.
Red Beard
Sound Recordist
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 to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Warring Clans
Sound Recordist
A brave, highly principled warrior resigns his post as a body guard to the head of a powerful clan after he learns that his employers have been smuggling arms to the enemy. The remaining samurai try in vain to coerce him back, but their efforts are thwarted by crooked warriors who launch an attack...
Woman of Design
Sound Recordist
Story of romance and rivalry between two ad agencies vying for the same account with a pharmaceutical firm.
Big Shots Die at Dawn
Sound Recordist
An early Okamoto yakuza film, though it's not in the Underworld series (along with The Last Gunfight and The Big Boss) despite being alternatively known as "Death of the Boss." While Okamoto did not write this film and took on the project because he was assigned and "just doing [his] job" according to an interview with Chris Desjardins in Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film, he did express a general excitement about working in action cinema (which shows through in this film's energy.)
Blueprint of Murder
Sound Recordist
Yuzo Kayama plays the protagonist, a whale-hunting cannon manufactuing supervisor, whose brother is an automobile tester for Komatsu Motors which has a fatal accident. As his brother investigates the "Accident" with his old college friend (makoto Sato), now a reporter... They stumble across murder, espionage and cover-ups. High-class night club, femme fatale, and a "Blueprint of Murder" all adds up to a bigger plot then first expected.
Westward Desperado
Sound Recordist
Follow-up to Desperado Outpost (1959) sees Japanese soldiers seeking the flag of a defeated regiment in China.
The Last Gunfight
Sound Recordist
Japanese police detective Saburo Fujioka is suspected of corruption, demoted, and sent to the city of Kojin. Kojin is the scene of fierce fighting between rival gangs. Fujioka is assigned to investigate the death of the wife of gangster Tetsuo Maruyama of the Kozuka gang, probably at the hands of one of the Oka gang. During a gang gunfight, Maruyama is rescued by Detective Fujioka and the two become friends. But Maruyama insists on avenging his wife's murder, even if it means conflict with his new friend.
Desperado Outpost
Sound Recordist
When Sergeant Okubo's brother is murdered at a Japanese outpost in Northern China during the Second World War, Okubo poses as a war correspondent and seeks out his brother's killer.
Someday I'll Know
Sound Recordist
A modern love story involving different affairs.
The Hotelman's Holiday
Sound Recordist
A longtime hotel employee (Morishige) struggles to bring his old-fashioned ryokan in line with postwar Japanese business practices.
City of Love
Sound Recordist
Aiko, a bar hostess, falls for the son of a company president who also keeps a mistress, and whose family disapproves of his relationship with the bar hostess.