Koji Yakusho

This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man-its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi--who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.

Festival de Cannes – Prémio de Melhor Actor (Kōji Yakusho) e Prémio do Júri Ecuménico. Neste delicado drama do quotidiano, Wim Wenders narra a história de Hirayama, um japonês que aparenta encontrar a felicidade numa vida simples enquanto empregado de limpeza de casas de banho em Tóquio. Para além da sua rotina meticulosa, Hirayama nutre uma paixão pela música, pelos livros e pela fotografia de árvores. Através de uma série de encontros inesperados, são revelados detalhes do seu passado que desencadeiam uma reflexão profundamente poética e comovente sobre a capacidade de encontrar beleza no mundo que nos rodeia.

Seiji Kamiya, a pottery craftsman who lives alone in a mountain village, temporarily returns to Japan with his fiancée, Nadia, who has been assigned to work in Algeria. Seiji opposes Satoru, who declares that Seiji should quit the company after marrying and Satoru should take over the pottery business. On the other hand, Marcos, a young Brazilian resident in Japan who lives in an apartment complex in the neighboring town to where Seiji lives, sees Seiji, who helped him when he was being chased and in whom Marcos sees the image of his late father, and he becomes interested in pottery work. Meanwhile, a tragedy strikes Satoru and Nadia, who has returned to Algeria.

The last year of Ryotaro Shiba's life, as he tried to achieve peace and independence without joining the armies of East and West.

A man wanders alone, away from his family, in search of a place to die. He runs away from the massage therapist who is supposed to heal him, and drives into the deep mountains in a car he stole on the road. He abandons his car and walks further into the forest, where he meets a strange young man.

In a studio at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Gaku Hamada is struggling to shoot a movie with a dog in the lead role. Enter a huge cast of veteran actors who get involved in misadventures while on set.

Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.

Quando um avião carregando documentos importantes cai na Zona da Morte do Monte Everest, dois homens que afirmam trabalhar no departamento de pesquisa e análise da Índia oferecem uma grande quantia em dinheiro à Equipe Wings para levá-los para recuperá-los.

A seemingly lazy salaryman is tasked with managing a company secret.

Kun é um menino com uma infância feliz até a chegada de Mirai, sua irmãzinha. Com ciúmes desse bebê que monopoliza a atenção dos pais, ele vai se retraindo pouco a pouco. No fundo do seu jardim, o menino embarca em um mundo fantástico, onde o passado e o futuro se misturam. Lá, ele conhece seus parentes em diferentes idades da vida: sua mãe ainda criança, seu bisavô na juventude e sua pequena irmã na adolescência. Através dessas aventuras, Kun vai descobrir sua própria história.

Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.

Shigemori é advogado renomado assume a defesa de Misumi, um suspeito de roubo e assassinato, que já cumpriu pena há 30 anos por outro assassinato. As chances de ganhar o caso parecem extremamente baixas – ele assumiu livremente a culpa, sabendo que terá de enfrentar a pena de morte se for condenado. À medida que o advogado se aprofunda no caso, e escuta os testemunhos da família da vítima e do próprio Misumi, ele começa a duvidar se o seu cliente é realmente o assassino. Seleção Oficial – Festival de Veneza 2017 – Em competição.

The background to and depiction of a watershed battle in Japanese history, at Sekigahara in 1600, when Tokugawa Ieyasu's Army of the East defeated the Army of the West of Ishida Mitsunari. The story includes the intrigues and shifting loyalties of the various retainers, family members, and samurai.

Uma mulher solitária de Tóquio (Shinobu Terajima) se apaixona por seu professor (Josh Hartnett) quando decide fazer aulas de inglês. Quando seu professor desaparece, ela parte em uma viagem para encontrá-lo que a leva para o sul da Califórnia. Adaptação do curta-metragem homônimo de Atsuko Hirayanagi, de 2014. Atsuko Hirayanagi também dirigirá o filme, fazendo sua estreia em longas-metragens.

An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. General Korechika Anami is torn over making the proper decision and the Emperor of Japan worries about his people. Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki leads the cabinet meeting, while Chief Secretary Hisatsune Sakomizu can't do anything, but watch the meeting. At this time, Major Kenji Hatanaka and other young commissioned officers, who are against Japan surrendering, move to occupy the palace and a radio broadcasting station. The radio station is set to broadcast Emperor Hirohito reading out the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War.

Uma história de amizade entre Kyuta, um menino solitário que vive em Shibuya e Kumatetsu, uma sobrenatural fera de Jutengai, que vive isolado um mundo imaginário. Um dia, Kyauta foge para o mundo imaginário e quando ele procura por um caminho de volta conhece Kumatetsu, que se torna o seu guia espiritual. O encontro deles lidera uma grande aventura que está por vir.

A retired samurai must redeem himself for a crime that he committed earlier in his life.

When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.

After the forced suicide of Nobunaga Oda at the Incident at Honnō-ji, powerful figures Katsuie Shibata, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Nagahide Niwa and Tsuneoki Ikeda meet to decide on a successor. The conference would become Japan's first group made political decision. The meeting was known as the Kiyosu Kaigi.

Shinzo Egi is an asthma sufferer who does not want to be place on life support. As a last request, Shinzo Egi asks his doctor Ayano Orii if she could follow his wish. Doctor Ayano Orii is then questioned in a criminal case because of her decision.

Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds.

A widowed lumberjack's life is turned upside down when a film crew shooting a zombie movie asks for his help and increasingly starts to rely on him.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943) was the Japanese Naval commander who was given the order to attack Pearl Harbour, an order he was duty bound to obey which went against his own personal beliefs. While this infamous attack is a low point in Japanese and US history it wouldn’t have happened if the Japanese government had listened to Yamamoto in 1939 and searched for a more peaceful way to end their war campaign, proving his many ominous presages of the outcomes of the attack to come true.

Procurando terminar sua vida com honra, o indigente samurai Hanshiro pede a um senhor feudal para cometer hara-kiri no pátio de sua propriedade. Tentando ignorar o desejo de Hanshiro de salvar sua reputação, o senhor conta a trágica história de um apelo semelhante feito há anos por um jovem ronin.

16 years after the fateful "revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin," involving samurais from the Ako domain who avenged their leader and then commited seppuku (ritual suicide), the sole survivor of that incident, Kichiemon Terasaka (Koichi Sato) traverses the country on a mission. His purpose is to find the families of the fallen samurais and spread the truth of the ronin uprising.

A paz do Japão feudal de 1844 está sendo ameaçada por um tirano cruel e impiedoso chamado Naritsugu Matsudaira. Um veterano guerreiro chamado Shinzaemon Shimada é recrutado para deter o tirano. Ele reúne mais doze guerreiros para se unirem a ele em uma missão suicida que irá assassinar o lorde Matsudaira.

In 1907, a group of men climb an unconquered peak in the last unmapped region of Japan.

The Yazawa family consists of the father Takuro (Koji Yakusho) - who is always busy day trading, charming wife Erumi (Satomi Kobayashi), and teenage son Tetsuya (Eita) - who dreams of becoming an astronaut. The family is also joined by Saburo Akiba (Junichi Sawayashiki), a good-natured teen recently released from a juvenile corrections facility. Then one day Tetsuya falls into a coma from a car accident. A chain of events is set to occur set-off by the father taking a phone call from an unsuspecting girl named Hikari. The father pretends to be his son Tokuya...

The Yazawa family consists of the father Takuro (Koji Yakusho) - who is always busy day trading, charming wife Erumi (Satomi Kobayashi), and teenage son Tetsuya (Eita) - who dreams of becoming an astronaut. The family is also joined by Saburo Akiba (Junichi Sawayashiki), a good-natured teen recently released from a juvenile corrections facility. Then one day Tetsuya falls into a coma from a car accident. A chain of events is set to occur set-off by the father taking a phone call from an unsuspecting girl named Hikari. The father pretends to be his son Tokuya...

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.

The story of a photographer who becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman who lives in the apartment opposite his.

Tokyo Sonata é o retrato de uma família japonesa aparentemente normal. O pai que bruscamente perde seu trabalho esconde a verdade de toda família; o filho mais velho que quase não pára em casa quer se alistar no exército de outro país; o mais novo, começa a fazer aulas de piano escondido dos pais, e a mãe, que sabe que seu papel é manter a família unida, não encontra suficiente vontade para isso. De alguma maneira, um profundo abismo aparece dentro da família, e se estende rápido e silenciosamente para desintegrá-los.

There once was a hospital where patients and even doctors & nurses were all weird. Above all, Onuki, a patient who built up his company all by himself from scratch, is a super cranky old man. One day, he meets up a girl called Paco, who cannot retain memory beyond one day due to a car accident. She is reading the same picture book everyday. Onuki starts bonding with Paco after some incident, and begins to doubt his way of living. He starts wanting to do something for Paco with his remaining life, and comes up with a brilliant idea. This pleases Paco, but their fate is?

A 48-year-old company chief, Yukihiro Fujiyama (Koji Yakusho) goes to a hospital. There he discovered that he has got terminal lung cancer and will die within half a year. He declines any treatment and decides to go to see some people he has not met for years, to write farewell letters to his family, relatives and friends...

A housewife was killed by a falling fire extinguisher, which a boy of seven years dropped from the top floor of an apartment. The offender, however, was not accused because he was too young. Ten years later, a series of murders occur, which target young girls only. It is the boy accused of killing the housewife who comes up in the couse of investigation, while the son of the murdered mother is the witness of a new murder. When the two families of the offender and of the victim meet again, two opposite morals conflict with each other – one is to crack down on the sin beyond the law and another is to disapprove the retaliation.

Século XIX. Hervé Jancour (Michael Pitt) vivia feliz ao lado de sua amada Hélène (Keira Knightley), até que a próspera indústria da seda européia é atacada por uma praga. Isto faz com que Hervé tenha que viajar até o Japão, onde precisará negociar a mercadoria em uma ilha misteriosa e lendária. Lá ele conhece o temido barão local, Hara Jubei (Kôji Yakusho), e também sua concubina, uma jovem sem nome de grande beleza. Logo Hervé fica obcecado pela jovem, mesmo lutando para esquecê-la a qualquer custo.

After the death of her dearest mother, her serious-minded father goes missing, leaving their only daughter Mitsuko. Six months later, it turns out that he is at Yuri's house, who is rumored to be an eccentric and is commonly known as Argentine hag.

A young man is falsely accused of molesting a high-school girl on a train. He is arrested and charged, and goes through endless court sessions, all the while insisting that he is innocent.

Um ônibus repleto de turistas atravessa uma região montanhosa do Marrocos. Entre os viajantes estão Richard (Brad Pitt) e Susan (Cate Blanchett), um casal de americanos. Ali perto os meninos Ahmed (Said Tarchani) e Youssef (Boubker At El Caid) manejam um rifle que seu pai lhes deu para proteger a pequena criação de cabras da família. Um tiro atinge o ônibus, ferindo Susan. A partir daí o filme mostra como este fato afeta a vida de pessoas em vários pontos diferentes do mundo: nos Estados Unidos, onde Richard e Susan deixaram seus filhos aos cuidados da babá mexicana; no Japão, onde um homem (Kôji Yakusho) tenta superar a morte trágica de sua mulher e ajudar a filha surda (Rinko Kinkuchi) a aceitar a perda; no México, para onde a babá (Adriana Barraza) acaba levando as crianças; e ali mesmo, no Marrocos, onde a polícia passa a procurar suspeitos de um ato terrorista.

A detective investigates a series of murders. A possible serial killer might be on a rampage, since they all are in the same vicinity and by the same method, but as the evidence points toward the detective as the prime suspect, a ghost in red follows him, and he begins to question his identity. His realization of what seems to have really happened results in something much more sinister and larger in scope, and it leaves his psyche scarred.

New Year's Eve at a posh hotel and all should be shipshape. It is not. There is the traditional party, an official ceremony, entertainment and a special dinner planned and yet there is trouble everywhere. An Animal is on the loose, a politician to protect, a prostitute to handle, a bellhop to focus and a few things more.

Chiyo foi vendida a uma casa de gueixas quando ainda era menina, em 1929, onde é maltratada pelos donos e por Hatsumomo, uma gueixa que tem inveja de sua beleza. Acolhida por Mameha, a principal rival de Hatsumomo, Chiyo ao crescer se torna a gueixa Sayuri. Reconhecida, ela passa a desfrutar de uma sociedade repleta de riquezas e privilégios até que a 2ª Guerra Mundial modifica radicalmente sua realidade no Japão.

A drama set during World War II where a submarine carrying a secret weapon attempts to stop a planned third atomic bombing of Japan. Based on Harutoshi Fukui's novel Shuusen no Lorelei.

In pre-war Japan, a government censor tries to make the writer for a theater troupe alter his comedic script. As they work with and against each other, the script ends up developing in unexpected ways.

After finally passing his teacher's exam, Miwa (Yukiyoshi Ozawa) devoted himself to teaching in a rustic primary school. He struggles to get through to his students, until he creates a class project to raise fireflies to fly over it once again. All students, even the reserved girl Hikari (Risako Sugaya), become passionately involved in the project. However, it brings them into conflict with parents and the school, one problem after another stands in his way.

Panic occurs when the Governor of Tokyo proposes to attract a nuclear power plant to Tokyo.

Three couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has killed his mistress.

Hayasaki is an inventor working on an Artificial Body. It is not going well and he is stressed out and on the verge of being fired from the research division of his company. His doppelgänger appears to help him out of the rut he has created for himself.

When radicals from Japan's Red Army took a woman hostage in the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano in 1972, Officer Atsuyuki Sassa was put in charge of diffusing the situation. But the task had its challenges. Upon arriving in mountainous Nagano, Sassa had to compete with freezing winter temperatures, conflicting opinions between the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Nagano Prefectural Police, as well as public opinion to gain entrance to the lodge that held the single woman captive.

A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers.

In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lurks some of its inhabitants who are desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.

A psychic housewife and her husband accidentally find a kidnapped girl. But instead of informing the police, they hatch a scheme to get famous by working with the police as a psychic consultant to "find" the girl. And then, things start to go terribly wrong.

Numa manhã quente de verão, um ônibus é sequestrado. Apenas três pessoas sobrevivem à carnificina: o motorista Makoto, a estudante Kozue e seu irmão Naoki. Dois anos depois, enquanto lutam para retomar a vida, Makoto compra um ônibus velho e convida Kozue, Naoki e o primo deles para uma viagem.

A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption.

A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.

When a major bank is caught paying off a corporate extortionist, the media and prosecutors begin to dig, breaking open a money-and-favours scandal that threatens to rock the entire structure of business and government to its core. While the bank's top executives continue to vacillate, a quartet of middle-management reformers, led by straight-arrow Kitano (Koji Yakusho), decide to stage a boardroom coup and install a new, clean management team. With the aid of a hotshot news anchor (Miho Wada) and a hard-nosed prosecutor (Kenichi Endo), heads begin to roll.

A film based on two short stories by Shiina Makoto. Tadon is the story of a cab-driver who spends his days listening to his passengers' conversations. Chikuwa is about a writer who faces a creativity bottleneck.

Yutaka was fourteen years old when he was run over by a car and fell into a coma. Now, ten years later, he wakes up and realizes that his family is not intact anymore: father, mother and sister live at different places. Yutaka decides to re-open the pony farm that his family once ran.

Tetsuro Haga is a troubled gangster, living under the assumed identity Ise for ten years, to escape jail for gunning down his cruel adoptive father. His life begins to unravel when a journalist following him takes an interest in the wife of a boyhood chum, and the wife of another close friend takes an interest in Ise. A couple of murders later, Ise/Haga goes on the run and also sets out for revenge.

Takayuki Iwabuchi (Koji Yakusho), a former yakuza member with a tattoo of Kisshoten on his back. Although he has a criminal record, he is currently working as a driver at a hearse transportation company. One day, a young man visits the company and asks Takayuki to transport the body of his fiancé, Sawa (Shinobu Terajima), who had unexpectedly passed away, to her hometown in a rural area of Takamatsu, Shikoku. Takayuki decides to go to Shikoku with the young man, However, the man disappears when leaving to take a call while they are stopped at a rest area near Setoo Bridge. Left alone, Takayuki arrives at Sawa's home village after much searching. He then tells Sawa's bereaved family about the situation at her parents' house. There, he learns of the tradition of posthumous marriage, or 'Yukon', from the village elder...

Pessoas são encontradas mortas com um bizarro "x" cravado em seus corpos. Desesperado, um detetive chamado Takabe decide iniciar uma investigação à base de longos e intermináveis sessões de interrogatórios porém, sua investigação não resulta em nada. Até que um determinado dia um rapaz é preso por estar perto de mais uma pessoa assassinada. Tímido e de trejeitos estranhos, resta saber qual a ligação entre ele o os crimes (e quem sabe, com o assassino)

Filmed somewhat in documentary style, it follows three girls over the span of one day and night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Jonko runs a group of high school girls involved in paid dating, Raku is a street dancer, and Togo was brought up in the US and back in Japan for one year wants to escape to New York. Their contact with the world of talent scouts and yakuza places them in danger.

Takuro, depois de passar oito anos na prisão por ter assassinado a esposa, começa uma nova vida numa pequena cidade, no subúrbio de Tóquio, trabalhando como barbeiro. Sua grande companheira é uma enguia, que ele manteve em sua cela durante o período em que esteve preso.Aos poucos, ele começa a se abrir para o mundo, tornando-se amigo dos moradores locais, que frequentam sua loja. Sua vida, no entanto, muda radicalmente quando ele salva Keiko, uma jovem mulher que tenta se jogar no rio próximo à sua barbearia.Keiko, que também tenta esquecer seu sofrimento, começa a trabalhar na loja de Takuro. Os dois se sentem atraídos um pelo outro, mas alguns incidentes ocorrem, colocando-os de volta ao seu passado.

Kuki is a veteran newspaper reporter who has been shuffled off to a book-development branch and finds escape in an illicit relationship with Rinko. Together they find the passion no longer present in their marriages.

Makabe is a yakuza who is addicted to 'shabu' (a slang refers to stimulant drug). He lives as if he wants to destroy himself. He steals a mistress of the boss of a big yakuza syndicate by force. He takes over the yakuza group he belongs to, by killing the old boss. When he tries to use 'shabu' as the main finacial resource of his group, it leads to the serious confrontation with another big yakuza syndicate.

Ever since an accident in the mountains outside town, Takuji's slept in a coma; his neighbors care for him as new events occur every day.

Shohei Sugiyama (Kôji Yakusho) é um típico homem de negócios japonês, que durante o trajeto do seu trabalho para casa vê Mai Kishikawa (Tamiyo Kusakari), uma bela jovem mulher, através da janela de uma escola de dança. Atraído por ela, Shohei se matricula na escola e conhece Mai, uma professora de dança. Inicialmente Mai confunde Shohei com um sedutor, mas para surpresa dela ele é um dançarino naturalmente talentoso, que só está interessado em ter uma boa parceira. Assim Mai começa a treiná-lo para uma competição.

A young foot soldier in the yakuza seeks revenge when his prostitute girlfriend dies after a session with a high-ranking Japanese politician with a taste for torture. He sets out on a 'kamikaze' mission to kill his bosses and the politician; along the way, he acquires the aid of a taxi driver who has recently returned to Japan after living in South America for several decades and is struggling to cope with poverty and the prejudices of native-born Japanese.

A historical chivalric drama with tears and laughter, telling the story of Jirocho Shimizu's family, his confrontation with Katsuzo Kurokoma's family, right up to the final battle on the Tenryu River to avenge Ishimatsu Mori.

A story about the activities of Southeast Asian Mafia gangs in Shinjuku. Ryosuke Kano is an ex French Foreign Legion soldier and is now a cocaine smuggler and dealer. He is acquainted with Larry, a Japanese American, but he turned out to be an undercover cop from New York.

Sakura and Kenzo are married. Both think they can live a happy marriage, despite the fact that she cannot have children and he does not want to give up her relationship with her lover Yoko.

The story of a man and a wolf-dog in East Siberia during the early 1900s.

Katsuyo plans her last gang robbery.

O primeiro Western-Spaguetti japonês! Neste hino bem-humorado para as alegrias da comida, a história principal é sobre o motorista do caminhão Goro, um cowboy do asfalto, que "cavalga" para a cidade como um Shane moderno para ajudar a viúva e chefe de cozinha Tampopo a transformar seu restaurante no lugar perfeito para o conhecido Udon, a sopa de macarrão japonesa. Entrelaçadas nesta história principal temos uma série de pequenas histórias sobre a importância dos alimentos. Desde um gangster que mistura sexo quente com alimentos, até uma velha que aterroriza um vendedor de legumes por compulsivamente apertar suas mercadorias.

The 21-year-old feudal on Sendai, Tsunamune Date, was prohibited to go out in the daytime for his misbehavior during his short stay in Edo. On the next day, his 4 attendants were killed one after another. Sakai Utanokamike, the Rozyu, is turned out to be involved in this scheme, and the aim is to destroy the Date family. Tsunamune's brother Munekatsu Date who is willing to take over the family doesn't know the real purpose of Utanokami and helps him. Munesuku Harada gets to know the whole picture of the incident and takes action alone for the sake of protecting the Date family, leaving his own family. His lonely fight continues for 10 years and he got in danger in Utanokamike's house, and...

Sayo has just celebrated her sixteenth birthday when she attends a temple festival. On her way back she sees a large cherry tree which is infamous for the legend of dead white horse. When her fiancé returns from war and visits her he comes across a white horse which he takes in. The man also does not see himself engaged anymore as his family has lost its wealth.

A remake of the 1953 film of the same name.

Onimasa é o chefe egocêntrico de um pequeno clã Yakuza na ilha de Shikoku, cujos deveres criminosos entram em conflito com sua autoimagem de samurai cavalheiresco. As suas lutas com o seu chefe, o padrinho de Shikoku, e a vida tumultuosa da sua filha adotiva, Matsue, formam o pano de fundo deste conto épico de justiça, obediência e vingança sangrenta.

The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical reporter follows the case for years, but the basic question remains unanswered: was the victim killed by members of the burgeoning Communist movement in Japan, or was the death stage-managed by the authorities in hopes of discrediting the Communists?

A young queen requests a bouquet of snowdrop flowers for New Year's Day in exchange for a reward. One greedy woman sends her stepdaughter, whom she does not like, to look for the flowers in a cold forest, knowing the task will be impossible for her. The girl almost freezes to death in the forest, but she is rescued by the spirits of the Twelve Months, who create spring around her. The girl is able to deliver the bouquet to the queen, but others want a share of the reward.

Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gomyo hires Tanigawa as his bodyguard, or yojimbo, to protect him during an inter-clan conflict. Tanigawa quickly rises in stature in the clan, but finds his boss's enemies almost overwhelming.