Akira Takarada

Saki, a high school girl who always skips classes, works part-time as a life adviser.

Suzuki Shizuka is an office lady at a conglomerate who is hypnotized at a local amusement park and left under the spell. Now she is compelled to sing and dance whenever she hears any melody whatsoever. She heads back to the hypnotist for relief, but he is nowhere to be found. So Shizuka sets off on a journey around Japan to find him and break the spell.

Japan, 1954. A legend emerges from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastated by atomic bombs in 1945. The creature's name is Godzilla. The film that tells its story is the first of kaiju eiga, the giant monster movies.

Naraho town in Fukushima Prefecture is on the front-line of the government-funded nuclear power plant decommissioning work. Kokuhei Kusunoki is transferred from Aizu Wakamatsu City to Naraho Town to take over the Disaster PR Division. Murai takes Kokuhei around Fukushima including areas washed away by the tsunami. They examine the still incomplete railway lines, the unfinished decontamination area and villages in the danger zone, where deadly cesium continues to pile up. One day Kokuhei is told to organize a party to celebrate the professor who has been appointed as deputy director of the Atomic Energy Research Institute.

An all-star reboot of the lost classic 1934 film, The Giant Buddha Statue's Travel Through The Country, made with the cooperation of director Yoshiro Edamasa's grandson. From Japan, a modern kaiju story based on what may be the first kaiju film.

Miyuki works as an OL. Her younger sibling died from a car accident in 1989. Due to her sibling's death, her mother became ill and her father drank constantly until he died. Miyuki believes if she could prevent the car accident, her family would have a happy future. She travels back in time to 1989 and struggles to save her younger sibling from the car accident.

An independent crowd-funded documentary that celebrates the sixty-year legacy of the world's greatest monster, Godzilla. Filmed on location in Tokyo to document kaiju-related events, locations and to interview cast, crew and fans of the Godzilla series about their passion and experiences with the King of the Monsters.

There was a tragedy that began at the end of the '69 war. The sad story about the lives of the orphans of Manchuria refugee camp who had to struggled against perpetual cold and hunger.

Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.

Lonely after the death of her husband, whom she nursed for years, Tae decides to find a new life partner. Her family and friends try to dissuade her.

A look into the production of the nineteenth Godzilla film. Includes filmmaker and actor interviews with behind the scenes footage of the film's visual effects. Includes an interview with Akira Ifukube and a brief discussion of the late Ishiro Honda.

A look at the unrecognized work of the talented artists and craftsmen who've maintained the tradition of Japanese special-effects. Highlighted is Yasuyuki Inoue along with various crew members who crafted meticulously detailed miniatures and risked life and limb as suit actors. All done to bring to life some of film's most iconic monsters through a distinct Japanese artform.

Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.

Two brothers must take the helm of their family's company, Armadillo, Inc., after their father steps down from his position as the company's director. Through trials and tribulations, the two slowly begin to learn the true meaning of family.

Humanity final rids themselves of Godzilla, in-prisoning him in an icy tomb at the South Pole. All is peaceful until various monsters emerge to lay waste to Earth's cities. Overwhelmed, humanity is seemingly saved by a race of benevolent aliens known as Xiliens. But not all is what it seems with these bizarre visitors. If humanity wishes to survive they must reluctantly resurrect their most hated enemy, Godzilla.

Biwako is a vain, middle-aged actress who witnesses a brutal murder. Realizing that the very public life of the woman makes their sole witness vulnerable to the killers, the police assign two officers to safeguard her until the trial. In the interim, the lives of Biwako and everyone around her are changed in unexpected ways.

When an artist dies, the official cause of death is judged to be a stroke, but his daughter suspects foul play. She recruits the services of an assassin, who by chance encounters an old friend...

Mothra's dark counterpart, Battra, emerges to eliminate humanity on behalf of the Earth. Two tiny fairies called the Cosmos offer their help by calling Mothra to battle the creature. Unfortunately a meteorite has awoken a hibernating Godzilla as a three way battle for the Earth begins.

An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials.

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 her unfaithful, sometimes partner. As well as showing her relationships with the man she loves and the men who employ her, it satirizes corruption and the influence of money in Japanese politics.

Four girls and their manager aiming for stardom!

A re-edited Italian-language dubbed version of Godzilla, using as a basis the U.S. version Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), plus WWII newsreel footage and clips from other monster 1950's movies. The re-edited film was then colorized via a process called Spectrorama 70 consisting of applying various colored gels to the black and white footage. The film's opening and ending also features new music composed by musician Vince Tempera (under the pseudonym Magnetic System).

In the 9th year of Genroku, Mitsukuni Mito Komon of Hitachi Province set out on a pilgrimage to various countries with his reluctant vassals, Sukesaburo and Kakunosuke, under the name of Koemon, a retired peasant.

A massive underwater volcano erupts and puts a group of investigative scientists in danger. They are rescued by an atomic super submarine named The Alpha under the command of Captain McKenzie. The group is quickly taken to a vast underwater city known as Latitude Zero, a fantastic, Atlantean type utopia, a world beneath the ocean with its own sun. It is soon discovered that Captain McKenzie is at war with the evil Dr. Malic, a cruel scientist who wishes to rule mankind all the while conducting genetic experiments on humans and animals. Malic sends his agents to kidnap Dr. Okada, a human scientist who has created a serum that can immunize exposure to radiation.

A killer-for-hire gets mixed up with a cast of wacky characters involved in a gold smuggling route from Beirut to Tokyo.

An adaptation of the Rankin/Bass cartoon, "The King Kong Show". King Kong is brought in by the evil Dr. Who to dig for Element X in a mine when the robot Mechani-Kong is unable to do the task. This leads to the machine and the real Kong engaging in a tremendous battle atop Tokyo Tower.

College student Yuuichi Tanuma is fired up for Nationals where his university Kyonan will face off against their rivals, Seihoku. Yuuichi has his sights set on winning football gold, but his father, who wants him to take over his sukiyaki restaurant, isn't too keen on this. Set in Kyoto, Hong Kong, and Macau, we follow Yuuichi as he falls in love and chases after his dreams.

Searching for his brother, Ryota stows away on a boat belonging to a criminal alongside two other teenagers. The group shipwrecks on Letchi island and discover the Infant Island natives have been enslaved by a terrorist organization controlling a crustacean monster. Finding a sleeping Godzilla, they decide to awaken him to defeat the terrorists and liberate the natives.

Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their long-suffering mother. The mother and her brother try various schemes to find husbands for them.

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.

After being mistaken for an Interpol agent, a man who was just supposed to go on vacation gets mixed up in a war between two gangs intent on winning the favor of a notorious arms dealer.

A group of criminals whose diamond heist goes wrong retreat to a WWII era bunker where tensions begin to rise.

Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra's fairies arrive and are aided by the journalists in a plea for its return. As their requests are denied, Godzilla arises near Nagoya and the people of Infant Island must decide if they are willing to answer Japan's own pleas for help.

A woman remember's her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.

The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder.

Considered one of the finest late Naruses and a model of film biography, A Wanderer’s Notebook features remarkable performances by Hideko Takamine – Phillip Lopate calls it “probably her greatest performance” – and Kinuyo Tanaka as mother and daughter living from hand to mouth in Twenties Tokyo. Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, the novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, A Wanderer’s Notebook traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the twentieth century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.

Toho comedy shot in Tohoscope featuring performances from the Peanuts and the Crazy Cats. Original released alongside another Toho comedy, King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Love story of a Japanese man (Takarada) and a Chinese medical student (Yu Ming).

Story of romance and rivalry between two ad agencies vying for the same account with a pharmaceutical firm.

Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

This Japanese film speculates on the events which lead the U.S. and the Soviet Union into a nuclear Armageddon.

Romantic melodrama set in contemporary Hong Kong, Japan and Laos. Hiroshi Tanaka (Takarada) is a Japanese journalist on assignment in Hong Kong who meets and falls in love with Wu Li Hung (Ming). He proposes to Wu Li but she rejects him because of her distaste for mixed marriages (her mother was Japanese but deserted her family and returned to Japan during WWII). Tanaka locates Wu Li’s mother and unsuccessfully tries to reunite them, but eventually Wu Li accepts his proposal. A joyous Tanaka flies off to Laos to finish an assignment but on the eve of his wedding he is killed there.

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself "already dead."

Starring Akira Takarada as a lightweight boxing champion.

Sanae is left a widow after her prestigious husband dies, but holds the proceeds of a million yen insurance policy. Being childless, her former in-laws have no objection to her return to her own family.

Lt. Koji Kitami is a navigator-bombardier in Japan's Naval Air Force. He participates in the Japanese raid on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and is welcomed with pride in his hometown on his return. As Japan racks up victory after victory in the Pacific War, Kitami is caught up in the emotion of the time and fights courageously for the standard of Japanese honor. But his assuredness of his government's righteousness is shaken after the Japanese navy is defeated in the debacle of Midway.

Story of young love in the hills.

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 Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. But Ouso prevails in the mission and returns to his father's castle under a new name, Prince Yamato Takeru. Otomo plots to have the Prince sent into even greater danger, but Otomo is unaware that the gods have favored the Prince and the outcome is far from what any of them expected.

A modern love story involving different affairs.

Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a lady. But she sees him only as a friend, so he helps another man to woo her by giving him the poetry of his own heart.

The story is about the social problems faced by Japan's indigenous Ainu, mostly centered on the reactions of the characters to their oppressed state.

Ryuta and Mineo Komatsu are brothers, both yakuza (gangsters). Mineo, although complicit in crime, even murder, wants out of the gangster life, hoping to become a successful singer instead. Ryuta loves his brother, but Mineo's possible defection presents problems for the gang, and Ryuta realizes he must kill his brother if he wants to survive.

An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote tribe as a god, and how it was discovered by modern man after it raided a ski-ers' shelter following an avalanche, killing all inside. This is an adaptation of the Japanese film Ju Jin Yuki Otoko with added American-made footage, narration and music track.

Two residents of Edo city Yaji and Kita make a journey to the temple of Ise, as part of a religious pilgrimage, but actually to get away from their wives for a little while. As they travel, they are constantly beset by complications involving women, mistaken identity, and misunderstood events. Another film adaptation of the famous novel Ikku Jippensha Footing It Along the Tokaido (Tokaidochu Hizakurige)

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.

On Wings of Love is a 1957 Japanese romantic musical film directed by Toshio Sugie. It was Toho's highest-grossing film of the year and the first film released in Tohoscope.

An Ishiro Honda film. The first part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the second film.

An Ishiro Honda film. The second part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the first film.

The cabaret «Romance», run by Masami Daisaku's father, is experiencing financial difficulties, and Masami is betting on changes and asks singer Hibari Misora to perform. Musical youth comedy with young actors, passion, funny songs and laughter. Hibari Misora appears as herself.

Melodrama about a young factory girl who "chooses riches over chastity".

Musical-comedy about nine soldiers deserted on an island in South Pacific.

During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.

Three competing parties all race against time to track down an elusive creature known only as the Snowman.

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Yemani soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.