A disgraced yakuza member, framed for the murder of his boss, emerges from prison eight years later with revenge on his mind.
Violent Gang Re-Arms is a rousing tale of friction in yakuza and labor interactions with Koji Tsurata as a yakuza supervising a dockworker's union. He finds himself between a rock and a hard place, at odds with both the dockworkers' leader (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and sadistic, unprincipled bosses (Fumio Watanabe and Tetsuro Tamba).
Fujioka
Aiba is a gang boss who has just got out of jail, and finds everything has changed. His old gang has broken up, and only a few people still respect him. So he becomes a consultant to another gang who are about to be clobbered by a much larger gang moving in from out of town. Aiba proves a crafty tactician, and does very well at playing gangs off against each other in order to save the smaller gang. His advice is not always taken by those he tries to help, but he is generally proved right.
When the boss of the Nakano Family decides to retire and makes a loyal follower the new boss instead of his own son, it causes strife in the family. Sides are taken and lines are drawn. Meanwhile, a rival family with a land dispute with the Nakano starts pulling strings behind the scenes...
A reformed gangster agrees to help a former yakuza member.
藤純子の緋牡丹博徒シリーズでお馴染みの人気者熊虎親分を主人公にした若山富三郎新シリーズ第１作。日露戦争で大陸に渡った四国熊虎一家がお国のためにご奉仕しようと、軍の仕事を引き受けて九州熊本へと渡る。だが仕事を独占し不当な利益を貪る鎮台一家と激突。暴虐な手段で熊虎一家を潰しにかかる鎮台一家に、熊虎親分と緋牡丹お竜が挑戦。
An honorable yakuza syndicate deeply rooted in Kyoto fights for survival when a new breed of gangsters threaten their very existence.
Otowa is a former Seto Inland Sea island farmer who has moved to the mainland in order to find work, but instead ends up dead. The film begins with the discovery of her corpse, which leads to an investigation that uncovers the narcotics, prostitution, and murder in which many poor farmers had found themselves trapped after World War II.
A story of yakuza lynching during the Edo, Meiji, and Showa periods.
「眠狂四郎悪女狩り」の高岩肇が脚本を執筆し、「女賭博師みだれ壷」の田中重雄が監督したシリーズ第十三作。撮影はコンビの中川芳久。
Yakuza boss Kanichi Shige
恋人を犠牲にしてしまった過去を持つヤクザの五郎が、行く先々で暴力団の圧力を受け、先輩が殺されたことから復讐のドスを抜く。
Japanese crime film
After being bailed out of trouble by a member of the Kaijima Clan, Ryuhei dedicates himself to saving the Kajima’s lucrative lumber business.
A song drama based on the autobiographical song "The sun is laughing" by composer Endo Minoru. It tells the story of a young man who moves to Tokyo with a big dream of becoming a composer, and despite the unfamiliar city life, sticks to his original intentions with the gentle encouragement of his young wife, and takes the music world by storm.
Dr. Matsushita
ガメラシリーズ第2作。 前作「大怪獣ガメラ」から半年後。ガメラを宇宙に追放したZプランのロケットが隕石と衝突。自由の身となったガメラは地球に戻り黒部ダムを襲撃、電気エネルギーを吸収するとさらに別の熱エネルギーを求めて何処かへ去って行った。一方、ニューギニアの奥地にある禁忌の地「虹の谷」から日本に持ち帰られたオパールへ、不注意から赤外線が照射され続けたことにより、オパールの中から虹色の光線を出す伝説の怪獣バルゴンが出現。神戸港に上陸して港を破壊、大阪へと東進したバラゴンは冷凍液により大阪各地を破壊していく。 そこへ出現したガメラと激しい戦闘が繰り広げられるが、バラゴンによりガメラは凍結されてしまう。 水に弱いことが判明したバラゴンを琵琶湖へ誘導する作戦が開始されるが、あと一歩のとのところで作戦は失敗。しかし作戦の影響により凍結から復活したガメラが再度出現。二大怪獣による琵琶湖を挟んだ決闘が繰り広げられる…。
Machiko's grandfather
A young lawyer looking for a true culprit to save his innocent friend. But behind the case is the father of a woman he loves.
Iwao Muraki
Kenichi and Satoru join up with three other electric music lovers to form their own band, "The Young and Fresh."
Shinun Ogata
Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
Detective Kinoshita
Mourning the death of her boyfriend, Yukiko wanders aimlessly from one city to another. During her mourning, she becomes addicted to gambling. One day, a man that resembles her deceased lover asks for help. He's being pursued by a dangerous gang of yakuza.
Detective Kinoshita
Arikawa runs a transport company. But this is only a front for his gambling house. Yuriko is a regular on the scene, and she is fascinated by the dice and the one who throws them. A year before, Yuriko's father died in mysterious circumstances; she decides to go in search of the truth.
Suganuma
The young yakuza who have arrived in the city are being taught the beauty of work and the pleasure of learning by hard-working young people of the same generation. Youth masterpiece created based on the hit Kazuo Funaki.
Sabu was once a boy soldier but people in his village disliked him. He finally broke loose when his land was taken.
A dangerous mobster threatens the life of a businessman's mother in this thriller. As Ryuji oversees the building of a bridge in Japan, a powerful gangster plans to stop the project. By any means necessary.
An exciting and fast-paced entertaining action in which G-Man Joe of Aces (Japanese version 007) challenges a terrible international mafia organization based in Japan. To defeat the villains, Joe uses his unprecedented skills of fast shooting and karate secrets!
A comedy directed by Koji Shima about a men's game. Reckless and exciting, definitely worth watching! Miyoshi Oki was born in Hokkaido and grew up in a dirty carriage that his father owned. His dream was to have a horse with a good coat that costs 10 million yen and he set a goal for it. At the invitation of Otaki-gumi executive Iwasa, he joined Otaki-gumi while the leader Sozaburo was sick. Miyoshi's method is not to deal with the yakuza's morale and slashing, but to handle things mentally....
Jukichi Oyama
On a small island, inhabited by only fourteen hundred people, a young fisherman's son, Shinji falls in love with Hatsue, the daughter of the richest and most difficult man on the island. Despite their differences in class, they begin to meet and rumors spread of them having an illicit affair. Soon after, Shinji jumps into a stormy sea to help a ship in distress. The vessel turns out to be owned by Hatsue's arrogant father, who now becomes an understanding and sympathetic parent and allows the two lovers to marry.
On January 26, 1948, a robbery of the Teigin bank took place in Tokyo - the criminal poisoned the bank employees and fled the scene with a large amount of money. In parallel with the investigation conducted by the Japanese police, journalists are also trying to find the culprit. Based on a true incident.
Daisaku Yabuuchi
A light comedy with Ayako Wakao charming her patients.
A group of pirates sail the treacherous Pacific ocean in search for wealth.
Set around Ginza’s neon billboard boom, the movie is a drama of romance, corporate intrigue and tragic crime. A reporter (Ken Utsui) investigates a homicide in Tokyo’s bustling construction scene, meanwhile a super typhoon is brewing in the Pacific, and Ginza is square in its sights!
Hikozaemon Okubo
The shogun's vassal Harima Aoyama and a chamber maid are in love with each other, but they cannot be together due to a difference of their status. Soon, an offer of marriage is brought to Harima. Trying to test his love, Okiku breaks one of the plates of the family treasure of the Aoyama family, but Harima doesn't notice. However, someone surrounding her witnesses the moment Okiku breaks the plate on purpose.
Futari dake no toride
Japanese action film.
Mawatari
Two car manufacturers spy on each other to try to find out details and prices of a new sports car each is about to launch.
Ezaki
Satake Shoji had been a trapeze artist in the Ezaki Circus, but when Shingo, his team mate, slipped and fell to his death, he had felt responsible and, sick at heart, left the circus for a life at sea. On land again Shoji goes to a cabaret where he is soon involved in a brawl. Kasamatsu, the owner of the cabaret, impressed by Shoji's strength, offers him a job as his bodyguard. The next morning Shoji visits Shingo's grave and meets Miyako, Shingo's former sweetheart, who is still a trapeze performer and now the star of the Kuroko Circus which Shoji realizes Kasamatsu intends to control.
A detective sets out on a manhunt to catch a murderer before the crime's statue of limitations runs out.
Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast about their loving sons but in reality, one had just escaped a retirement home and the other was looking for an escape from her son and daughter-in-law. With nowhere to go, the two wander around, befriending a cosmetics salesman and a kind waitress who give them beer. This biting social satire starring two memorable grandmothers, scripted by Yôko Mizuki, picked up on Japan’s aging population problem far ahead of its time.
Wearing a symbol of justice and brotherhood on his waist – a crimson pistol belt, Ace Joe engages in a fight with villains trying to seize the mine.
The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.
Nitani is an undercover drug enforcement agent in Kobe who not only busts two rival drug gangs but also helps one of the more decent hoodlums find the killer of the hood's brother.
Tsuyama
高校の空手部員・英次は正義感に燃える好青年。愚連隊に対抗するため、友人たちを誘い街をパトロールしていた。これを快く思わない新界興業は、乾分のトメやゲンに嫌がらせをはじめるが...。和田浩治扮する正義に燃える学生が、霧笛のの空手で街の愚連隊をなぎ倒す娯楽アクション巨篇。
井原西鶴の代表作である同名の浮世草子を、市川雷蔵主演で映画化した作品。
但馬屋のひとり息子・世之介は、父親の心配をよそに放蕩三昧。修業先でも金にまかせて女狂い。ついに勘当された世之介は、頭を丸め放浪の旅に出るが、なおも懲りずに、京都随一とうたわれた夕霧太夫を口説き落とす始末。女体遍歴に命を賭けた男・世之介の華麗な一代記。
Mizuta
Eye-popping visuals and black humor mark this wild New Wave masterpiece about a vengeful contractor who hires a series of young killers to target a woman muckraker. Trouble brews when an amateur marksman shows up his eclectic competition.
An employee in an assurance company threatens to commit suicide when management announces a massive layoff, the company uses this threat to its own advantage by turning the incident into an advertising campaign. With the success of the campaign, however, he is no longer a desperate man pointing a gun to his head, but a potential leader who wishes to take advantage of his failed suicide.
Hitoshi Otsu
Sadao, is saved from death at the hands of Goro, a killer belonging to a rival gang by Joji just released from prison who has resolved to turn over a new leaf. He has returned, however, because of Keiko, his sweetheart, who he now finds is engaged to Noboru, a detective and son of Jinsaku, boss of the Otsu gang. That night at the night club, headquarters of the Highlight Group - which Noboru is investigating, Majima meets Joji who knows of his attempt to kill Jinsaku, and resolves to kill him.
Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give them an heiress for the family business, he stands by helplessly as his wife is thrown out of the house for producing a son. Driven to a life of dissipation - his mistresses also fail to produce daughters - in the end he is just too tired to care.
大コンツェルンの会長令嬢をめぐる六人の青年の恋の駆引きをフレッシュなタッチで明るく描くもので、新時代にふさわしい軽快でスマートなラブ・コメディー！
暗黒街を舞台に“決して相手を殺さず、利き腕を打ち砕く”抜き射ちの名手・竜二（赤木圭一郎）。彼は偶然見かけた、弟分で麻薬中毒の元ボクサーを救け出すために、同業者“コルトの銀”と死闘を繰り広げることになるが・・・。日活第三の男、赤木圭一郎の”拳銃無頼帖”シリーズの記念すべき第一作。
Doroemon
狸の国。カチカチ山でやけどを負った父の泥右衛門を手当てするため、お黒は人間の栗助から薬を買っていた。お黒も栗助もお互いのことを気に入っているが、それを口にはしない。狸御殿では、人間との結婚を望むきぬた姫が、狸吉郎との見合いを嫌って家出してしまい大騒ぎ。ひょんなことから狸御殿に紛れ込んだお黒は、顔がきぬた姫と瓜二つなことから、姫の身代わりとして狸吉郎と見合いをすることになってしまう。お見合いは成功、二人の仲はどんどん近づいていくが、そこへ人間に相手をされず意気消沈のきぬた姫が帰ってきた。
Saido
Masseur
A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introduction of his daughter's lover to his wife.
Kinzo Onoyu
Set in post-war Japan, a group of five, four men and one woman, gathers in the basement of a butcher shop to dig up a cache of morphine buried during the war. A grimly humorous tale of twisted relationships as one by one each of the group is eliminated.
Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially greeted by the effusive welcome of his family, spiteful whispers also reach his ear about an adulterous affair carried on, in his long absence, between his wife and a famous drummer. With Hikokuro’s honor imperiled by rumor, his family insists on a formal investigation into the veracity of the gossip. Through the combined testimony of many witnesses, a tale unwinds around the visits of a traveling musician hired to tutor the family heir, the spurned attentions of the man who started the rumor, and the ultimate truth behind the accusations. The conclusion of events prove as much an indictment of bushidō as it is of the reluctant parties involved. Adapted from a 1706 play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and based on a true case.
A Tokyo newspaper reporter goes after the Japanese king of cocaine trafficking but he's tricked by a woman who works for the gangster and gets framed for a murder he didn't commit.
A scrap iron carrier arrived at Tokyo bay. The ship swarmed with the stevedores, the souvenir seller and the hookers. The crews of ship were oppressed by arrogant captain and his officers. The crews caused an uprising. A manager of stevedore ordered his employee leader to suppress an uprising...
Eikichi
Harsh film about a car dealer who gets into financial trouble.
Okaruhachi
A conflict between two yakuza families in Tokyo, the Izus and the Yoshidas, has recently broken out. When an Izu underling starts a fight with a Yoshida man, Fuyu, the Izu family sends Tsuruta, a senior member of the clan, to make a personal apology to Fuyu. Tsuruta discovers that the woman he is in love with is Fuyu's sister, Tatsuko. Tsuruta ends up gambling with a swindler, who is in fact Tatsuko's husband. (The general plot of the film was re-used for Seijun Suzuki's Kanto Wanderer).
Japanese "kayo" film centered around the song "Wakai omawari-san" by Shiro Sone.
Japanese drama film.
The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when her parents accuse him of cashing in on her misfortune.
Ôba
A yakuza boss and his right-hand, Hawasaki, escape from prison. the film concentrates on their relationship, emphasizing loyalty and thier eventual betrayal, enroute they get involved in money trafficking, a cop killing and horse racing scams before the inevitable tragic ending. A patch-work production.
Lawyer Yamamoto
Police beat a murder confession out of four innocent men who are then sentenced to death. Based on a true story.
A sailor tries to help his younger brother, a horse-racing jockey, escape from the yakuza after double crossing them in a fixing scam. Seijun Suzuki's directorial debut.
Kondo
Japanese crime film.
Kurimoto
Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.
After finishing his sentence, Ryosuke Ogiwara, who left the prison gate, got into a car that was sent by his wife's cell and Kenmochi detective of the Metropolitan Police Department, but the real Kenmochi detective arrived a few minutes later. The corpse of the bunch went up in the moat near Akasaka, and the Metropolitan Police Department's Investigation Division 1 was colored.
Carpenter
Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating the uprising of pirates in the western sea of Japan. But because the high courtiers dislike career soldiers gaining power and influence, they ignore the will of ex-Emperor Toba and refuse to reward the captain. Reward recommender Lord Tokinobu is punished, and the captain sends his son Kiyomori to the Lord's residence, where he falls in love with Tokiko, the Lord's daughter. Meanwhile, Kiyomori finds out that he is possibly the ex-Emperor's son... Written by L.H. Wong
A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a plan to rob a cash delivery truck in order to provide for their families.
Kitagawa, a drug control officer in the Kanto Shinetsu area, was ordered to investigate the situation of drug trafficking around Yokohama.
Gembei
In 17th century Kyoto, Osan is married to Ishun, a wealthy miserly scroll-maker. When Osan is falsely accused of having an affair with the best worker, Mohei, the pair flee the city and declare their love for each other. Ishun orders his men to find them, and separate them to avoid public humiliation.
Director
Shigeki Kachi, Tosuke Satomura, and Nanako, who belong to the theater company Vuanbert around Dosa, withdrew at the indignation of the chairman Hayashi and seeked their own careers in the film industry.
Toku, a factory worker gives food to a starving woman, Tsuru, who then follows him home. He shares a shack in a shanty village in Kawasaki with his friend Pin-chan. The two men try to get rid of her but then let her stay when she gives them money. Tsuru tells the people of the village that she lost her job due to a strike, then was robbed of her severance pay, then sold to a brothel in Tsuchiura. She ran away with a friend from Kawasaki. Toku and Pin-chan sell her to a geisha house and spend the money. She is thrown out. The owner demands his money back. Tsuru earns the money to pay their debt by working as a prostitute outside the station. The other prostitutes beat her. She fends them off with a policeman's revolver and is then shot dead by the police.
Minister of Justice
森鴎外の同名小説を、八尋不二と依田義賢が共同で脚色し、溝口健二がメガホンをとった文芸作品。特に美術と撮影はレベルが高く、ヴェネチア国際映画祭で銀獅子賞を受賞した。美しいラストシーンは、ゴダールが「気狂いピエロ」において引用したことでも知られる。 平安時代末期、農民を救うため将軍にたてついた平正氏が左遷された。妻の玉木、娘の安寿と息子の厨子王は越後を旅している途中、人買いにだまされ離ればなれになってしまう。玉木は佐渡に、安寿と厨子王は丹後の山椒大夫に奴隷として売られた。きょうだいはそれから十年もの間、奴隷としての生活を続けるが、ついに意を決して逃げ出すことにする。しかし追っ手に迫られ、安寿は厨子王を逃すため池に身を投げるのだった。
Teppuu
Comedy about a 50-something movie director, his new bride, a classical dancer, and his adult son and daughter and their loves.
Admiral Koshirô Oikawa
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan's navy into war with the United States. He opposes the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, overruled, he leads his forces to the best of his ability.
Kinbei
祇園ではちょっと名の知れた芸妓・美代春の許に、母を亡くしたばかりの少女・栄子が舞妓志願にやってきた。栄子の熱意に負けた美代春は、彼女を引き受けることに。やがて、1年間の舞妓修行を経て、初めて店に出た栄子。ほどなく大会社の御曹司・楠田に見初められる。一方、美代春も楠田の取引先である神崎から言い寄られるのだったが…。
Nobuko Otowa won the Blue Ribbon for the Best Actress for this movie among others.
三流どこの補習学校教師野呂は、税務署吏員金森風吉の家に間借りしている。独身者だ。久かたぶりに銀座へ出て目をまわし、トラックに轢かれそこなった。当分右腕が利かず、学生泡田に代って黒板に字をかいてもらうが、かき賃一時間百円也を請求され、びっくりする。学校経営者の土建屋から夜間担任に格下げされ、無体な時間外勤務を強いられても文句ひとついえぬ野呂が、心ひそかに想うのは金森の娘－－銀行事務員のカン子であった。カン子は無類のガンコ娘で、同僚とはりあい恋人とはりあい、張りのない野呂なんか念頭にもない。野呂と金森は散歩中、戦記物で売りだし今は時めく代議士の五津元大佐に会釈された、というので大感激、警官の甲賀をまじえ外食券食堂で五津礼讃の一くさりをはじめる。途中から一枚加わった学生泡田と甲賀が、話のはしばしに互いの身分を知り、掴みあいとなる。つられて食堂中が大格闘、野呂は丼をもってにげだした。この顛末にもこりず、野呂は学生ちの誘いにのってメーデーに参加宮城前の紛糾にまきこまれて拘置される。同じ署内に選挙違反で検挙された五津もいたが、前後して裟婆に出てからは、五津は「牢獄記」出版でまたまた大ヒット、野呂は学校もクビ、しごと探しに必死である。漸く金森の妻らんの世話でミシン会社荷造り係の口がみつかり、今や入社詮衡へでかけよう、というまぎわ、カン子自殺未遂の報がくる。恋人との結婚を反対されてカンシャクをおこしたのである。が、無我夢中の野呂は「人でなし！」と呼ばうらんの声を背に、とっととわき目もふらず詮衡場へかけつけた。...
Isogai
Ginko, a poor cobbler's daughter, becomes a geisha to support her family. She passes from one geisha house to the next, trying to find love and hope in the process. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't escape her sad fate.
Japanese drama film and Setsuko Miyuki's film debut.
Kazuo Miyagawa’s prizewinning black-and-white cinematography draws out the moral shadings of Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s 1952 novel Thousand Cranes, a quietly devastating story of a young man, orphaned during the war, who stumbles into a passionate yet tragic relationship with his late father’s mistress and her daughter.
Mr. Inokuma
The picture belongs to the jidai gekki (historic) genre. It is a powerful story of violence and eroticism, picturing a world at once sordid and poetic, with two central themes which intermingle to compound an admirable panel of a critical period in Japanese history: the great famine in the mid 19th Century.
Drama about a famous one-eyed, one-armed samurai swordsman of the middle of the Tokugawa period by the name of Tange Sazen. By chance, Tange gets an old pot in which the secret of the treasure of 1000000 ryos of gold is hidden. However, a bunch of different people hunt for the pot and Tange will have to apply his phenomenal fencing skills with the sword.
A family of Kyoto textile workers struggles after tragedy.
Shinzaemon, Oharu's Father
奈良の荒れ寺に集まる街娼たち。年老いたお春は羅漢堂に入り、過去に出会った男の面影を思い浮かべていた。御所勤めをしていた13歳のお春は、公卿の勝之介に宿に連れ込まれたところを見つかり、両親ともども洛外へ追放となってしまった。その後、松平家に取り立てられ嗣子をもうけたものの、側近の裏切りに遭い実家へ帰されてしまう。島原の郭に売られたお春は、気に入られた客の住み込み女中となるが、その妻に嫉妬され追い出されてしまった。さらに結婚相手が急死し、世話になった男の盗みが発覚して捕らえられるなど、流転の人生を歩むのだった。
Ogasawara
This early gem starring the great Mifune Toshiro tells the tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka "The Shark," a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan's rugged northernmost territory of Hokkaddo.. ...
Shukichi Mamiya
結婚にあまり興味のない娘と、そんな娘に早く結婚してほしいと気を揉む家族を中心にさりげない日常をユーモアを織り交ぜ淡々と細やかに描く感動作。敗戦後わずか6年の作品とは思えないモダンな息づかいには驚かずにはいられない。北鎌倉に住む間宮家では適齢期を過ぎた娘紀子の結婚が何より気がかり。当の紀子は大手の会社で秘書として働き、いまだのんきに独身生活を楽しんでいる風だった。やがて、そんな紀子に縁談話が立て続けに舞い込むのだったが……。 巨匠・小津安二郎監督を代表する傑作の1本。
Story of a Beloved Wife is an autobiographical work based on Shindo's first marriage. Jūkichi Uno stars as a struggling screenwriter, and Nobuko Otowa stars as the wife who supports him through his early struggles.
Minister of the Left
Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his heart is broken by Awaji does Genji realizes how much pain he himself has caused.
Sakurai
Thriller drama by Kon Ichikawa
A Japanese adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story Boule de Suif, directed by Kimura Keigo
Numata
A period mystery in which an unconventional priest exposes the truth behind the bizarre death of a maid in the shogun's harem. Kinuyo Tanaka stylishly plays a constantly intoxicated geisha in this all-star entertainment film.
Clothes of Deception initiated Yoshimura’s most characteristic vein. This geisha story is often described as a loose remake of Mizoguchi’s pre-war masterpiece Sisters of Gion (1936), but this is inexact. Whereas in Mizoguchi’s study of two sisters, both women had been geisha, in Yoshimura’s film only Kimicho (Kyo Machiko) is, while her sister works in the Kyoto tourist office. Juxtaposing a traditional Kyoto profession with a modern one, Yoshimura shows how life in the old capital was changing in the wake of wider transformations in Japanese society.
Melodrama by Kiyoshi Saeki
The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of the University of Tokyo, and the high life of jazzy dance halls. Sudo (Hara Yasumi) and Mori (Uno Jukichi) are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, Sudo becomes involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister, Masako (Wakayama Setsuko). In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.
Mr. Kon
A film by Kiyoshi Saeki
Osamu Kachigawa
十二歳の天才少女美空ひばり登場！爆弾娘が主人公の音楽メロドラマ。
自分の作曲した『悲しき口笛』という歌を手かがりに、外地から復員してきた兄が、行方不明の妹を探し回り巡り会うまでを描いた作品。戦後の荒んだ社会の中を健気に生きる可憐な少女の役柄で、天才少女歌手・美空ひばりが本格主演、ひばりが歌った同名主題歌も大ヒットし、全国にひばりブームを巻き起こした。監督の家城巳代治は、本作発表後、まもなくレッドパージにより退社、活躍の場を独立プロに移している。
Yayoi Hotel owner
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Tagawa
Kentaro Omoi
A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government.
Keinosuke Kazama
A teacher at a Japanese school tries to hide his outcast upbringing.
The mistress of a crook real estate broker comes to terms with her soulless existence after an artist paints her portrait.
During his summer holiday, Kawasaki Ryuichi (Ryuzaki Ichiro), a handsome engineer in his late twenties, visits his teacher and mentor, Professor Inagaki (Sugai Ichiro), at his seaside home. There he meets the professor's lovely young wife, Sachiko (Hamada Yuriko), and is unsettled by the striking resemblance she bears to his wife, who died three years earlier. Attracted to Sachiko, he does his best to hide his feelings. The couple, however, senses a deep-seated melancholy in him. Attributing it to the loss of his wife, they urge him to marry their niece, Kaoru, but he is not interested. Shortly after, Fumiko , Sachiko's older sister, realizes that Sachiko and Kawasaki have feelings for each other, but she keeps her counsel. One day Kawasaki, Sachiko, and Kaoru go boating when a storm forces them to stay overnight at a hotel. Unable to sleep, Kawasaki takes a walk along the beach where he finds Sachiko, also unable to sleep. He declares his love for her.
Black-marketeer
楽しくなるはずの日曜日のデートでことごとく厳しい現実に遭遇して落ち込む恋人たちが、最後にはそれでも明るい未来に希望を抱き絆を強める姿を巨匠・黒澤明監督が描いた瑞々しい感動編。とある日曜日にデートを計画した雄造と昌子。でも、手持ちのお金はたった35円。お金がないなりになんとか工夫して楽しいデートをと考えるのだが、そんな二人に容赦ない現実が待っていた。すっかり惨めな気持ちになって帰路につく二人だったが…。
1947 Toho film directed by Tadashi Imai
Lord for a Night is a 1946 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.
Tadashi Imai 1946 movie
Reputedly based on Frank Capra’s 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, A Descendant of Tarô Urashima is about a repatriated soldier who becomes populist politician in the Japanese Happiness Party.
1946 Toho film directed by Kiyoshi Saeki
Yoshizo Fubiki
In this government-suggested sequel, Sugata again grows as a judo master, and demonstrates his (and by extension, all Japanese) superiority to the foreign warrior.
Ken Shinda, Chief of Labor Section
The stories of several young women who work in a 'precision optical instruments' factory during the second World War. Despite illness, injury, and tremendous personal hardship, the women persevere in their tasks, devoted to their work and their country's cause.
A small community in wartime Japan learn how to make do with less.
Grandfather Yoshino
Set in wartime at the Yawata Steel Works in Tobata, Yawata, and Kokura cities in Fukuoka Prefecture, the film depicts people taking on the evil blast furnaces that prevent increased production. The film was shot on location at the actual Yawata Steel Works for an extended period of time, and special effects were created using a miniature blast furnace that closely reproduces the actual one.
Ryu
Stalwart soldiers of the Japanese Empire – Japanese and Korean alike – stand in defense of a military outpost threatened by "bandits."
A sixteen-year-old who had been living on her own since her mother died, frequently gets in trouble with the police. She gets sent to an "institute" for young girls in the countryside. There the residents grow their own food, cook and clean for themselves, and are taught language, music, and sewing. While there the young girl slowly begins to form friendships and come out of her shell.
Police Chief Mishima
The story of Sanshiro, a strong stubborn youth, who travels into the city in order to learn Jujutsu. However, upon his arrival he discovers a new form of self-defence: Judo. The main character is based on Shiro Saigo, a legendary judoka.
The Opium War is a 1943 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Masahiro Makino. "Ahen senso" in Japan refers to the First Opium War. The story of the film concerns this war.
The premature death of a young mother serves as inspiration for her husband and son.
1942 adaptation of Izumi Kyoka's novel.
Nagabayashi, former chief
A female doctor's story of her life in an isolated leper colony.
Kiyosi Arakava
A man who works late hours at a deadening job lives together with his wife and his younger sister. The younger sister's a modern girl who's starting to receive romantic attention from one of her co-workers.
Sanjuro Mori
A story of a servant girl whose life is upturned by her doomed love for a spineless young man.
Cooper
Chiyokichi, a young man, hates Cooper, a white man who looks down on the Japanese. Chiyokichi picks Cooper’s pocket and is caught. He is brought to Cooper’s house and becomes his slave, and a riveting tale of passion, hatred, and revenge unfolds.
Totsuka
Jinbee
A sad love film where the action takes place in Kyoto, in a trading house.
Gozô Iwabuchi - usurer
明治二十三年頃、北陸一帯を巡業する見世物の中に、今評判の水芸の太夫"瀧の白糸"がいた。美人で勝気な男勝りで通っている白糸が、一日の興行を終え、浅野川の辺りでホッとした時間を過ごしていると、フトした奇縁で知り合った村越欣弥と思いがけない再会をした...。
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Released in 2 parts. His only release of 1931
The second part of the melodrama based on the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, the action of which is transferred to the era of the Meiji Revolution. The film has not survived.
The first part of a fascinating melodrama based on Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, the action of which is transferred to the era of the Meiji Revolution. The film has not survived.
Denkichi
Tōjin Okichi is a 1930 film by Kenji Mizoguchi based on the novel by Gisaburo Juichiya. Only 4 minutes have survived. The fragment has been published on DVD coupled with The Downfall of Osen (1935) by Digital MEME in 2007.
A pre-war sports movie by director Tomu Uchida. This story is set at the Waseda-Keio regatta. This was shot at the banks of the Sumida River, where the regatta is still held today. The main stroke role of Mochizuki was played by young star Tsunemi Hirose. Mochizuki, who enrolled in A University that lost the previous year gains the trust of the President's niece Mitsuko (Shizue Natsukawa) but a spy from the other side uses this relationship to create a scandal. The regatta approaches, with Mochizuki not able to participate... The supporters and atmosphere of student sports at the time are well presented.
