Juro Kara
Birth : 1940-02-11, Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
History
Japanese playwright, theater and film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and songwriter.
Writer
An employee of a bank goes missing following his retirement from the bank. Veteran detective Yobuno (Koji Yakusho), who is set to retire himself, is charged with the investigating the missing person case. Det. Yobuno quickly finds more mysterious as he delves into the case, but a woman named Keiko Fukumura (Eri Fukatsu) surfaces who may hold the key to case.
When poverty-stricken Korean-Japanese (Zainichi) discover there is valuable iron ore in the rubble of a destroyed shantytown they plan to haul it out for profit. Amidst this plan there is discrimination, war and an infatuation between a man and a woman, but like everything around them there and owing to the forces around them, there is as much chance that these may burn to ashes and be destroyed or be the beginning of something new.
Screenplay
Based on the Waki Yamato's manga version of The Tale of Genji. An all-female production starring members of the Takarazuka Revue.
Umemoto
At the end of WWII, Japanese doctor Akagi searches for the cure for hepatitis in the prisoner-of-war camp.
A couple years have passed, Matsuzaki is divorced and has a daughter and is still up to his old compulsive gambling, boozing and womanizing even as he stares middle age in the face. At his daughter's school he meets a teacher who's similarily obsessed with horserace betting and who's also frigid - something he does his best to therapize. He also reconnects with his ex-wife, who just so happens to be the literary agent and love interest of another writer of the gambling genre. An epic gambling battle between the two ensues.
Screenplay
Haida, once a famous private detective, is now down and out and running out of reasons to live. One day, while engaging in a group volunteer project to clean up a river, he loses what's left of his will to live and lets the water carry him away. He ends up rescuing a drowning man who alters his view of life totally. Soon he gets a job investigating the mysterious disappearance of a student who sent her mother a cryptic letter, "Wait a bit, Mother. I'm sending my breath. It will arrive soon."
Haida, once a famous private detective, is now down and out and running out of reasons to live. One day, while engaging in a group volunteer project to clean up a river, he loses what's left of his will to live and lets the water carry him away. He ends up rescuing a drowning man who alters his view of life totally. Soon he gets a job investigating the mysterious disappearance of a student who sent her mother a cryptic letter, "Wait a bit, Mother. I'm sending my breath. It will arrive soon."
This coming-of-age story revolves around two young long distance runners, Kenji Hirose and Ryuji Nakazawa. Kenji, haunted by memories of his dead friend Aihara with whom he had a brief homosexual affair, is now dating Aihara's former girlfriend Kyoko, but Kyoko is more interested in Kenji than he is in her. Ryuji, Kenji's friend and track rival, is pursuing hurdler Shoko but she in turn is after Kenji. Ryuji does have his own admirer, Nao, Kenji's younger sister, but when they do get together, Nao resembles her brother too much for Ryuji to go through with the lovemaking.
Oyama
Professor Sarusawa and his psychic daughter Mai live together after the suicide of the Professor's wife years earlier - which was caused by a suicide plague running rampant throughout the city. Dr. Aryo lives in a nearby castle with his wife, whom Dr. Aryo created, and a hunchbacked assistant. Dr. Aryo once worked at the same university with Professor Sarusawa but was fired for his morbid experiments. Now, Dr. Aryo may hold the key to unlocking the origins & cure for the suicide virus which Professor Sarusawa may now have. Meanwhile Professor Sarusawa's daughter Mai can be bring to life Dr. Aryo's stitched up cadavers which Dr. Aryo hopes to create a new race with.
Kyunosuke
Shipwrecked African-American slaves arrive in the midst of Bakumatsu-era Japan; they soon carve out a niche in the market with their musical talents.
Screenplay
Japanese drama film.
Denkichi
Outside of a small village in Japan, a mysterious pond is inhabited by mythic creatures. Their story is of revenge, tragedy, and the power of real love. A classical tale which translates wonderfully to film.
Referee for the Final Match
In the midst of a match, a successful boxer - Hayato, has had enough of the sport. He lets himself get knocked, quits boxing, leaving his wife and start living alone with his mangy dog. One day a young mediocre boxer knocks at the door and wants to be Hayatos apprentice.
Two yakuza, one of whom frequently reflects on an uncomfortable past taking advantage of Korean women, meet a stowaway on Japanese soil from across the Genkai Sea.
Screenplay
Two yakuza, one of whom frequently reflects on an uncomfortable past taking advantage of Korean women, meet a stowaway on Japanese soil from across the Genkai Sea.
Director
Two yakuza, one of whom frequently reflects on an uncomfortable past taking advantage of Korean women, meet a stowaway on Japanese soil from across the Genkai Sea.
Sango
Gengobe Satsuma, an exiled samurai cast out as an Asano clan retainer is given a second chance to join his brothers in arms to become the 48th Ronin against the Shogunate. His faithful servant gathers the 100 ryo required for his acceptance. Gengobe is also in love with a greedy geisha named Koman. About to be sold to another man, Gengobe learns that for him to keep her, her debt is exactly 100 ryo.
Based on the comic by George Akiyama
Shimada Ichiro
This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history.
Singer
This is the story of a bookstore thief named Birdy, who is led through various adventures in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by salesgirl Umeko.
Screenplay
A young man breaks into a nurse's rooming house and one-by-one kills off nurses.
A young man breaks into a nurse's rooming house and one-by-one kills off nurses.
Daimon, a student
A woman falls in love with her sister's fiancé.