Shunpei Takayama
Nurarihyon
Young women disappear one after another in drizzling rain. They all hear the “cursed song” of the Cage Song before they vanish into thin air. Kitaro and his friends investigate these mysterious cases when they meet Kaede Hiramoto, a high school girl who finds herself involved in this mystery. With the help from the librarian of Yokai Library, they find out that the curse was caused by an evil Yokai that was released from 1,000 years of sealing. To save Kaede, they are to gather the 5 ancient musical instruments and perform the ritual to seal the evil Yokai again, which has to be done within 48 hours!
Magohachiro Kibe
Yamada cierra su trilogía sobre samurais con esta historia acerca de un fuerte servidor del Shogun que pierde la vista en una misión. Su mujer, por la que siente devoción, se sacrifica para salvar su honor. Ahora el samurái promete venganza por su amor perdido y por su honor como guerrero.
Tofu shop owner
Gabai Granny is based on the bestseller Saga No Gabai Baachan (Gabai Granny from Saga), which is penned by comedian Shimada Yoshichi as he recounts his childhood memories of growing up under the care of his grandmother.
Matsutaro Yasuda
A lonely retired girl's High School Principal who's lost his wife to alcoholism moves to an old apartment in a country town. There he forms a relationship with a neglected little neighborhood girl.
A celebration of the ancient art of Japanese rakugo, roughly translated as “comic storytelling”. The film is interspersed with numerous funerals and wakes, songs, dances, and often disgustingly crude jokes.
Takashi Yamamura
Sachiko Mishima a young Japanese woman get sent to Haiti as a dispatch member for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She thinks she is going to the holiday resort of Tahiti by mistaking Tahiti for Haiti). While in Haiti with the help of a Japanese craftsman she learns paper can be made from bananas. She embarks on a mission to create paper for the Haiti residents to help them.
Maki Sukezaemon
A young samurai stuck at the bottom of the hierarchical order attempts to rescue his childhood sweetheart from an evil clan lord after learning of a plot to kill her and her infant child. Bunshiro Maki is a skilled swordfighter who's lethal with a blade, yet still can't rise through the ranks of the system. After his father is accused of plotting against his clan and forced to commit ritual suicide, his longtime love Fuku is sent to Edo to become the clan lord's concubine. A few years later, Fuku has bore the clan lord a son. When Maki learns that the clan has hatched a plan to kill Fuku and her son to secure succession to the throne, he recruits two childhood friends to help thwart the diabolical plot.
Chief Retainer Hori
Japón, siglo XIX. El declive de la casta guerrera de los Samurai y de los Shogun ha hecho mella en el pequeño feudo de Unasaka, situado en la costa del noroeste del país. El samurai Yaichiro Hazama se marcha a la lejana ciudad de Edo para hacerse cargo de un puesto muy importante de la organización del clan, mientras sus amigos samuráis, Munezo y Samon, vuelven al lugar en el que Munezo nació y creció. A pesar de su modesto sueldo consiguen vivir una vida placentera en la casa de la madre de Munezo junto con la hermana pequeña de éste y la hija de un vecino que es granjero, llamada Kie, que trabaja en la casa como empleada doméstica y espera poder conseguir marido. Durante los tres años siguientes fallece la madre de Munezo, Samon se casa con la hermana de Munezo, y Kie se casa con el hijo de una familia acomodada de mercaderes, los Iseya.
Do you believe in love after death? On the eve of her 19th birthday, Mizuki (Kuriyama) doesn't have a lot to celebrate about. Her mother recently committed suicide, her stepfamily bothers her, her boyfriend has been cheating on her and her best friend has betrayed her. Hurt and disillusioned, Mizuki runs from everything and is drawn by some unknown force to a dilapidated estate. Deep within the house Mizuki discovers the mysterious Adam (Hyde), playing a hauntingly familiar melody on the guitar. Melancholy and full of secrets, it seems that Adam, and the house, have a strange, irresistible link to Mizuki. Can Mizuki's boyfriend and a couple of well-meaning schoolchildren uncover the secret of what happened 19 years ago and free Mizuki before the last quarter of the moon falls?
Swordsman
El grito de Izo resuena en el lugar de ejecución, donde acaba de ser crucificado acusado de un asesinato. Muere, pero deja una profunda maldición. Su alma no puede ir al cielo ni al infierno, y quedará flotando en el espacio y el tiempo. Años después un vagabundo aparece entre los edificios. Es la reencarnación de Izo y tiene un claro objetivo: matar... (FILMAFFINITY)
Tsutomu Minagawa is set to retire; the organized business life, a perfectly normal family living in a two-story house with a garage, the once unstoppable routine is about to close down forever. However, Tsutomu's last day changes him forever, as a car accident leads to his new purpose and sets him on a mission to clean every traffic mirror in Japan in order to save lives.
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.
Villager (segment "Japan")
Once directores, once historias, once puntos de vista sobre el atentado contra las Torres Gemelas y el Pentágono el 11 de septiembre del 2001, un suceso que cambió la historia del siglo XXI.
Nobuo Honma
Mashike, a city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Nobuo Honma is a 63-year-old sake producer. He has lived with Yasuo since his wife died two years ago. Yasuo is his youngest son to whom he has entrusted his trade. Every day Nobuo goes for a walk which leads him to a fish-breeding center, located in the mountains. He fills his loneliness by attentively observing the development of thousands of little fish poured into the pool. The second anniversary of his wife's death approaches. Nobuo insists on the presence of Ryoichi, his elder son whom he hasn't seen for a long time. Nobuo and his two sons, along with their partners, gather for the commemoration. Unspoken feelings resurface and clash with each other.
Client
The movie is absurd, and a thoroughly original take on the morale in Japanese society. The images are beautiful, and the people are as cold as the snow that surrounds them. The take on Melville's "Samoraï" from -67 is obvious, but Kobayashi turns the image around and portrays the killer as the weakest person in the movie - haunted by his demanding wife and the moaning contractor, who is one of the most mysterious characters ever portrayed in a movie.
A tremor struck the Information Industry Bureau of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The prosecution arrested a local contractor on suspicion of bribery, and then the brunt was directed to the Information Industry Bureau. The interviewee was Akihiko Kurahashi (Shinobu Tsuruta), the leader of the non-carrier group. Previously, Kiichiro Yamada (Ken Ogata), a clerk who lived next door in the government building, couldn't help but sympathize with Kurahashi, who had succeeded in his career.
The Father
En Kyoto, en los años 70, un anciano calígrafo escribe con gran delicadeza una felicitación en la cara de su hija el día de su cumpleaños. Cuando se hace mayor, Nagiko recuerda emocionada aquel regalo, y busca al amante calígrafo ideal que utilice todo su cuerpo como una hoja en blanco...
Toyama Masamichi
Cuando una pareja llega a su casa, Toyama y su mujer, Yoko, se encuentran que ha sido invadida por Gosekai, un teniente del jefe yakuza Aihara, y sus hombres, Toyana sólo puede mirar como los yakuza violan a su mujer, sin que pueda hacer nada al respecto. Incapaz de vivir con ello, Yoko se acaba ahorcando. Toyama se hace una espada y va en busca de Aihara y sus hombres, pero no sabe muy bien por donde empezar. Un robo en una joyería le dará las primeras pistas para encontrar a los culpables y conocerá a cinco mujeres que le ayudarán a encontrarlos.
Yukihiko's first film.
A close look at the inner workings of Japan's political underbelly.
Daisaku Kadota
A former stockbroker-turned-yakuza must make sure his alcoholic boss is up to the task of swearing in the next leader of their syndicate.
Koudayu Daikokuya
Sumptuous filming of the journey of a shipwrecked Japanese expedition from the Pacific Ocean across Siberia to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia. A Russo-Japanese co-production of a unique event in history which was the hit of Cannes and other film festivals but did not receive wide distribution despite its huge scope, high production values, and very human story of culture clash.
Shutaro Ishikawa
A hospital accidentally gives a man Count Dracula's blood while trying to save his life. A year later, he's back from the dead, trying to right the wrongs of his life while trying to resist the urge to become a vampire.
A successful office lady, who has made herself sexually available to a doctor, has her routine disrupted when her former boyfriend's son appears in her life. She is not connected to the boy, but his father has been in an accident.
Police
Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi household and has fallen victim to gambling herself.
Inspector Daigoro Igari
Después de ser secuestrada por tres jóvenes, una anciana multimillonaria consigue dominar la situación con gran habilidad e inteligencia, manipulando a su antojo a sus captores y logrando dividirlos y enfrentarlos.
The narrator
The classic tale of the shogun's illegitimate son Aoi Shingo is told in three parts as he strives to become the greatest fencer in Japan, while his father Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune seeks to reunite with his lost son. When the secrets of Shingo's birth are revealed to him, it sets off a series of events that bring him to cross swords with members of the shogun's inner circle in a series of duels that could change the destiny of Japan.
A fierce succession battle ignites at a newspaper company when the president passes away.
Última de las veintiséis películas basadas en el personaje de Zatoichi interpretado por Shintarô Katsu. La película comienza con Zatoichi encerrado entre rejas, no obstante le dejan pronto en libertad y decide ir a visitar a un viejo amigo.
Igo Gyobu
La historia narra las aventuras de un grupo de samuráis liderados por Igo Gyobu (Ken Ogata), que luchan por defender al heredero del Shogun de su propio padre Iemitsu. Los motivos que le llevan a buscar la muerte de su hijo forman parte de su locura y excentricismo, considerándole demasiado débil para su sucesión. Librarse de él con tan poderosa protección solo será posible tendiéndoles una trampa en su viaje a Edo.
Jiku Ajari
Dos monjes unen sus fuerzas para salvar el mundo del Armagedón. Deben detener a Ashura a toda costa, antes de que desate el caos que iniciará la destrucción total. Los dos monjes resultan ser hermanos perdidos. Unido por el destino, llegarán hasta Ashura, pero cuál no es su sorpresa al encontrarse con una agradable jovencita, guapa y amable que no parece albergar malas intenciones.. (FILMAFFINITY)
Kan Yosano
Set in the Taisho era, which might be regarded as Japan's Hippie Phase, Hana no ran is a story about fashionable people without impulse control. Much of the action centers on a popular woman writer, the real-life poet Akiko Yosano, and her experiences among the literati of early 20th century Japan. Because of her independent, anti-war and often erotic poetry, she was a lightning rod for revolutionaries and other extremists, many of whom were destined to glamorous, yet ultimately pointless, deaths. The closest parallels might be the Byron/Shelley group or the people drawn to the Beat Generation.
Senzo Wataumi
Set on a quiet ranch in Hokkaido. One day, a colt is born from a legendary bloodline. It is given the name Oracion or "prayer". When Oracion is grown, a factory owner buys the horse. Will he be the key to solving the man's problems? Based on the novel by Teru Miyamoto.
University student Akira meets the lovely 14-year-old Yumi, whom he had tutored years ago. Her mother is told by her doctor that the schoolgirl has leukaemia and has only 6 months to live.
A ruined businessman was forced to sell his daughter, Hisano, to a brothel in Yoshiwara, the largest red-light district in Tokyo. The owner of the brothel has hopes to make her a great new addition which will attract the richest of customers. But after several months of training, she tries to flee Yoshiwara when the time has come for her to take her first customer...
Iheiji Muraoka
At the time between the World Wars, Japan is involved in empire-building throughout East and Southeast Asia. After a brief career as a low-level military adventurer, Iheiji sets up chains of brothels throughout Asia. As Japan's power in the region grows, so does Iheiji's prosperity and patriotism.
Kazuo Katsura
In the 50s, the complicated life of a popular writer who must share his life with his family, his numerous mistresses and his work
Tokichi Sakane
When a fugitive begins a romance with the woman hiding him from the law, it becomes uncertain whether he will ever escape the shadow of his heinous crimes--or the detectives hot on his trail.
Yukio Mishima (segment "November 25, 1970")
Producida por Coppola y Lucas, "Mishima" es un retrato biográfico del consagrado autor japonés Yukio Mishima. La película investiga la inquietud interior y las contradicciones de un hombre que trató de alcanzar una imposible armonía entre sí mismo, el arte y la sociedad. La trama se centra en el día en que Mishima conmocionó al mundo, al hacerse en público el seppuku o harakiri (25 de noviembre de 1970), en el Cuartel General del Ejército. El relato está salpicado de flashbacks para contar diversos episodios de su infancia, sus comienzos como escritor, el posterior triunfo profesional, su tranformación en estrella mediática, sus obsesiones por la belleza física y sus ambiguos gustos sexuales, así como la creación de la "Sociedad del Escudo". (FILMAFFINITY)
Iwago Tomita
Drama about the difficult relationship between a former wrestler, his wife and their adopted children.
Kyohei Tasaka
One spring, Tasaka, an elementary school teacher, receives a new class of first graders. While taking the children's attendance, Tasaka is surprised to see a call girl he once had an encounter with standing among the parents in the back of the classroom. According to the school's files, her name is Yukako Sawada, and her child Eisaku has no legal father. The next day, Eisaku gives Tasaka a letter from Yukako asking to meet at the hotel where they first met, and Tasaka sets out with an uneasy feeling...
Toru Mori
A double suicide happens in Morioka in Iwate Prefecture. The two were employees of rival real estate companies. A prosecutor who senses a setup exposes the truth.
Fusajiro Kohama
A young man tries to overcome the hostility of his girlfriend's father, a tuna fisherman, by getting the father to teach him the trade's secrets.
Katsuzo
Yokiro was the most successful Geisha house in Western Japan during the first half of the 20th century and remains open to this day. At its peak, it was home to over 200 geisha, however behind the fabulous facade, there were many battles - between family members, men and women, and with the Yakuza. Momokawa was sold to Yokiro at age 12, and despite being the top geisha, her many complicated relationships provide unending challenges throughout her glamorous but turbulent life.
Tatsuhei
Era una vieja ley del pueblo, de un tiempo tan lejano que ya nadie lo recordaba; Al alcanzar los 70 los ancianos debían abandonar el pueblo para ir a vivir en la cima de la montaña Narayama. Una sentencia de muerte despiadada que sumía en la tristeza y la desesperación a las familias cuando tenían que enviar a sus mayores a la montaña. Orin tiene 69 años y se acerca el momento de partir hacia la montaña, pero todavía tiene que encontrar una mujer a su hijo. Remake de la película "Narayama bushiko", dirigida en 1958 por Keisuke Kinoshita.
Seiji Ohtaki
Detective Seiji Otaki is determined to find the psychopathic killer of a young woman who was ostensibly a student but in reality a high-priced prostitute. Even though he has been taken off the case for beating up a suspect, he refuses to let it go and recruits his mistress to act as a decoy for the killer. Her involvement turns out to be a fatal mistake, and when her husband gets out of prison, Detective Otaki is in worse trouble than ever.
Hokusai
Jidaigeki de corte biográfico sobre Hokusai (1760-1849), pintor famoso por sus ukiyo-e (grabados a color japoneses que estuvieron de moda entre los siglos XVII y XIX). La película muestra la rivalidad de Hokusai con Utamaro, otro de los grandes artistas de la época, el esfuerzo de Hokusai para realizar las "36 visiones del monte Fuji", una de sus obras más conocidas, y su obsesión por pasar a la posteridad no por su obra paisajística, sino por ser capaz de plasmar en el papel la pasión femenina, para lo cual, y de la mano de su modelo favorita Onao, emprende la ejecución de su obra maestra: "El sueño de la mujer del pescador".
Musashi Miyamoto
Un samurai vende su alma al diablo para cobrarse venganza contra Dios. Satán le otorga el poder de levantar a los muertos para que lo ayuden en su personal carnicería.
Toyama no Kin-san
Magistrate Toyama no Kin-san is ordered to catch the phantom thief Nezumi Kozo, who is robbing daimyo and wealthy townspeople. Under the name of Nezumi Kozo, there is a small wholesaler Jiro. And once Toyama and Jiro, when they were young, were comrades who spent all their time gambling and having fun with women in the Yushima Tenjin area...
Furukawa
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
A selfish playboy uses rich women to pay off his debts. Divorcing his wife and marrying the woman he loves throws him into a spiral of destruction.
Prof. Tsuchiya
El mundo sufre un auténtico apocalipsis a causa de la liberación accidental de un virus que había sido desarrollado como una letal arma biológica. En la Antártida, donde el intenso frío evita su proliferación, las personas que ahí se encuentran (principalmente científicos y militares) intentan organizarse para sobrevivir y repoblar el planeta. Esta versión japonesa de la película es considerada "de culto" habiéndose remasterizado para versiones en DVD y Bluray en esa nación asiática. El gobierno de Chile cooperó con la producción de esta película comisionando al submarino SS-21 Simpson, comandado por el Capitán de Fragata Carlos Toledo de la Maza, y al rompehielos BA Piloto Pardo, bajo el mando del Capitán de Fragata Roberto Suazo Francis, para apoyo logístico y artístico (el Simpson aparece caracterizado como un submarino inglés y luego uno ruso). Notables son las tomas exteriores del Territorio Antártico Chileno.
Koga Shiro Samurai
The tale takes place around 1650, after the death of the third Tokugawa shogun, when ronin were expelled from Edo, the military capital. During the political instability following the death of Iemitsu Tokugawa, Hanzo's Iga ninja clan battles against the Koga clan as various factions vie to seize power. The child shogun Ietsuna is kidnapped but turns out to be hidden under (or over) everyone's noses in a castle turret which is reinforced by a comic book villain, the fire-spitting black ninja. The good ninja has to get through all the traps & save the child.
Iwao Enokizu
Enokizu es un criminal al que le encanta cometer atrocidades y despiadados crímenes. Toda la policía de Japón le persigue, pero siempre logra escapar. Un día Enokizu conoce a una chica que trabaja en un burdel, y los dos se enamoran...
Sokichi Takeshita
La antigua amante de un hombre se presenta un día en casa de éste y de su actual mujer, con sus tres hijos y desaparece, abandonando así a los tres niños. Para ella, es una venganza y una forma de darle una lección a este hombre que considera irresponsable. Esta situación inesperada no le gusta nada a la esposa legítima, que empieza a sentir un odio incontrolable hacia los niños y piensa hacerlos desaparecer del todo...
Corporal Murayama
Two infantry regiments of the Imperial Japanese Army—210 men overall—tackled Mt. Hakkoda in the winter of 1902 to prepare for war with Russia.
Kenichi Miki
Dos detectives son asignados a la investigación del asesinato de un viejo ex-policía en la estación de ferrocarril de Tokio sin ninguna motivación aparente. Poco a poco, la investigación acabará conduciendo al descubrimiento del pasado oculto de un joven y prometedor músico...
Nakamura Hanjiro
The film follows the story of Sugi Toranosuke, a ronin, who returns to his home town of Edo many years after his attempted suicide as a sickly child. Rescued and adopted by a master swordsman, he has grown into a master swordsman and a very kind gentleman. The time is around 1868 the year that the nails were finally put into the coffin containing the feudal system that nurtured and sustained the samurai. Sugi is confused and unsure about what is happening but his teacher wants him out of the chaos of the multiple power struggles between the various clans.
Baian Fujieda
Three assassins take on a band of thieves who specialize in murder.
Baian Fujieda
An assassin is mistaken for a doctor and threatened by a band of masterless warriors, but they realize their mistake and retreat into the darkness. Days later, he is asked to kill the doctor's brother. What secrets are these men hiding?
Scholar
A lovely female thief, and disguise artist, has a great passion for her next big job which she sets up with her right-hand man: She intends to steal 500 million yen of ill-gotten money from the safe at Nitto Textiles
Hatanaka Buhei
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?
During the early days of the war a young student, Makito (Kazuo Funaki), falls in love with Yuko (Mayumi Ozora), the widow of a naval officer. She, however, is living with the memories of her husband and it is her younger sister, Yumiko (Nana Ozaki), who grows fond of the student. Then, one day, a young naval officer, Tadayuki (Ken Ogata), a friend of her late husband, comes to see the widow and she becomes attracted to him. Though Makito is inspired to study for the navy, he is much upset when he learns that Yuko and Tadayuki are to marry.
On his return from school, young Ichiro finds his father in bed with his adopted sister, Namie. Enraged, he decides to outdo his father in terms of immoral behaviour.
Ken Ogata plays Shiro Miyagi, a sprinter with Olympic aspirations whose dreams were shattered by WWII. A broken man, he leads the dissolute life of a gigolo until a chance meeting with a fiery young athlete named Hiroko (Michiyo Yasuda). Realizing that she has talent as a sprinter, Miyagi sees a second chance at Olympic glory in becoming her coach. Following Miyagi’s unconventional, military-style training, Hiroko sets a record for the 100-meter dash, but her greatest hurdle proves to be a “sex check” which all professional athletes must pass.
