A playboy bartender pretends to be gay in order to approach women. He is in cahoots with another opportunist, a young woman who is trying to seduce a rich married man. Their attempts at making easy money can only end tragically.
Yugao
An eroticized adaptation of Murasaki Shikibu's classic novel, written over 1000 years ago. Genji, the son of the emperor, has gained renown among the nobility of Kyoto for his charm and good looks, yet he cannot stop himself from pursuing the one object of desire he must never obtain: his father's young and beautiful bride. Following the tragic consequences of his obsession, Genji wanders from one affair to another, always seeking some sort of completion to his life.
Japanese horror film directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi.
Organized thieves battle against the Shogun’s ruthless ruling in attempt to get back their land.
Kiyo
A film about the confrontation between two yakuza groups in the brutal Miike prison, which contained 1,500 inmates.
The second film in the series Gambler / Bakuto directed by Shigehiro Ozawa.
Four ninja are hired to fight against the Shogunate’s plot to abolish the Gamo Clan, the regional barons struggling to reinstate their young heir Tanemaru as their Lord.
This is the story of a bad man who re-discovering humanity via woman and child while clashing with the yakuza and being hunted by a man called “Death” who has his own dark past. The prototype for the later two yakuza priest series with Shintaro Katsu and Tomisaburo Wakayama. Apparently so. And the swordsman motif seems to have been concurrent with Daiei's first ZATOICHI production.
Three Iga ninja are on a hunt for Chidoken, a Takeda ninja sent out to assasinate Lord Nobunaga.
A skilled assassin's services are called upon to put an end to the ugly turf battle between two yakuza families, Mitsuwa and Aikawa. Forced by the code of the yakuza to put one's life on the line for a Boss who offered a meal and lodging, each side manages to get hold of powerful swordsmen who will stop at nothing to pay their obligations.
Kaede
A wave of terror is threatening to unseat Shogun Yoshimune. Police stations are erupting into flames, convicts escaping from prison, houses robbed and vandalized, streets teeming with panicked citizens. Is Ijyuin Tanomo, highly-placed official of Owari clan, secretly using deadly ninja to foment riot and rebellion? Narumiya Shinbei, a lone samurai spy adept at ninjutsu must uncover the hidden hand orchestrating these shocking crimes. Shinbei enlists a small band of dedicated ninja to lay siege to the enemy’s stronghold, where his own sister works as an undercover agent. Now, ninja must fight ninja in a last desperate battle to save the shogunate.
This is one of the most powerfully effective ninja films that dispenses with the silly magic of earlier efforts, and concentrates on an excellent story with expert fighting. Sena Denemon is the rarest of government officials, a man of integrity, sent on a mission to uncover the corruption that ran rampant during the Edo Period. Refusing bribes, and willing to put his life on the line to raise his son properly, heinfuriates the corrupt Inspectors; thus endangering his own life. Along with his two trusted vassals, he makes a brave effort to alert the Shogun to the plot which is being carried out. After the battle, his son Ichitaro joins the Chichibu ninja group in order to master fighting so he, too, can fight the forces which have brought about so much suffering.
While on his journey through the countryside of Japan, Shingo encounters many people whose lives have been affected by his actions. Though the many duels he fought were intended to bring justice to those who sought to do evil, he is faced with the knowledge that his victories have also caused suffering amont the family members of his victims-leading him to question his life's philosophy.
This superb film is the final chapter in this part of Shingo's story. A fitting tribute to his quest to be the supreme swordsman.
The Purple-Hooded Man, Japan's version of Robin Hood, tries to uncover a corruption scandal in Edo era Japan.
Miyuki
Ryujin Misaki, located at the edge of the Genkai Sea, is known as an isolation ward for leprosy patients. When Saotome, a sword master and guard of the Shogun, hears news of a doctor gone missing, he begins to suspect that things are not what they seem at Ryujin Misaki. Intent on discovering the truth, Saotome launches a private investigation.
A wandering vagrant, Hantaro, risks his life to save a beautiful blind girl and her father from con artists.
Tetsunosuke, an eccentric doctor and an owner of a fencing school, takes aim against corrupt authorities.
Friendship between an ambitious young thief and an artist during the Warring States period.
As Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate nears the end of its rule, Edo North Magistrate Toyama no Kinsan is called upon to judge the most difficult case of his career. In a masterfully woven tale, he has to face the truth about his estranged father’s possible involvement in a nefarious plot to take over rule of the Hizen Shimabara clan by assassinating the rightful lord, his son, and install one of Shogun Ienari’s offspring as daimyo.
A lord explores the lives of common people.
Fumi
Detective Umon’s services are called upon when ronin Yaichiro is killed with a peculiar weapon, a stone wrapped in a towel.
The story of two young men whose ambition is to become the personal bodyguards to the Shogun's uncle, Lord Mito Komon. Portrayed by a pair of up and coming stars, Sasaki Sukesaburo (Matsukata), the son of a widower and Atsumi Kakunoshin (Kitaoji), whose mother is a widow find themselves constantly in trouble and are forced to become two of the most powerful fighters in all Japan. The stories about Mito Komon and his travels througout Japan are many, but this is one that had yet to be told. The struggles of Suke-san and Kaku-san faced in order to join the Elder in his quest to fight against injustice and corruption during the samurai era.
Kikyo
The plot is based on the novel "Akechi Samanosuke no Koi," the final work in a trilogy by Hiroshi Kato about the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga at the temple Honnoji. Historically, the general Akechi Mitsuhide is credited with causing Nobunaga's downfall. Kato's novel focuses on Mitsuhide's nephew Samanosuke, who fought alongside his uncle during the assault on Honnoji.
Shochiku's commemorative 3000th film production; a suspenseful period drama.
Two brothers, Takamaru and Kikumaru, are living with their father, Hakuraku-Ou, until one day Hakuraku-Ou is killed by "Death's-Head" Ginnosuke, a villain skilled in the art of sorcery. Hakuraku-Ou had long been seeking a Tiger Seal which, together with the Dragon Seal in his possession, would reveal the location of a huge ancestral fortune. But on the very night that the Tiger Seal was found, it was stolen by Tomomitsu, Ginnosuke's chief. When the two brothers receive the Dragon Seal from their father just before his death they determine to go to Death's-Head Castle, in order to recover the Tiger Seal.
A playful short film made in the style of a trailer for a fictional feature film that seems to be a spoof of films that were popular in Japan at the time.
