Chikage Awashima

Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.

A Christmas Eve power outage provides a collection of troubled Tokyo denizens the opportunity to come clean on the misdeeds of their past.

A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. The boys form a bond with the recluse and set about weeding and replanting the garden.

A sensuous movie based on a literary work. Hitomi Kuroki stars as the film’s heroine.

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

August 9, 1945. An atomic bomb drops on Urakami, Nagasaki at 11:02am. The story of Dr. Nagai and his family.

Love-hate drama of three beautiful sisters in Ooku in Edo Castle.

#13 in the Ekimae series of films. Set at Todai University, Professor Sakai (played by Frankie Sakai) mentors a group of university hopefuls. Cut to 25 years later, the students have each settled into their careers and cross paths with Professor Sakai's son, a P.E. teacher (also played by Sakai).

The last judgment.

The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, cold-hearted father and a submissive mother. The year is 1910 and the place is a small Japanese village. Goichi is suffering because he wants to go to school, but his family is too poor to afford that luxury. Even when a kind friend agrees to help out, Goichi's father refuses to give in to his son's request for an education. Instead, he sends Goichi off to work as an indentured servant for a cold-hearted merchant and his family. As tragedy strikes and the suffering of the young boy increases, he begins to look for some way out of his bleak situation.

Nine maids serve the household of a writer and his wife. The couple treat their maids like daughters and marry them off to eligible men. So, they are forever looking for new maids. As the years go by maid servants become hired help and more bossy and independent, so Chikura and his wife find themselves adjusting their lives to keep up with changing times.

Ensemble comedy.

The film takes place at the junction of the two eras of Meiji and Taisho. Sakata Sankichi, an uneducated zori sandal maker, becomes a professional shogi player through his genius shogi skills and lives a fanatically devoted shogi game supported by the love of his family. This is the 3rd adaptation of Hideji Hojo's famous play.

A dark family secret sends a 21-year-old French student (Hoshi) on a journey of self-discovery.

A story about the lives of four sisters and their manipulative mother who must come to terms with each of their decisions in life.

A boss of underworld helps the police crush an evil gang.

Megastar Kataoka Chiezo is Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi in this realistic tale of Japan’s inner battles that led to the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Excellent performances and extremely good swordplay highlight this glimpse into the heart and soul of Japanese history. Although known as “Razor Blade” Hijikata, the vice-commander is a man of deep conviction with a little-known sense of humanity. Starting after the famed Ikedaya Incident, in which they saved Kyoto from Choshu’s plot to burn the city to ashes, they work hard to change the public’s view of them as merciless killers to their true mission of protecting the shogun. This is an extraordinary tale of blood and guts! From the pen of award winning author Shotaro Ikenami (Bandit Vs. Samurai, Hunter in the Dark, Misumi's The Last Samurai)

Japanese comedy film.

In the late 1950's prostitution was banned in Japan and if a woman was found exercising this profession they were sent to a reformatory. This is a story of one of these brave women Kuniko who is released from the reformatory and tries to build a new life.

Follow-up to "Ekimae Ryokan." Set around the Yurigaoka and Nishi-Ikuta stations on the Odakyu-Odawara line, the film takes up the problem of real estate around the expanding Yurigaoka apartments.

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.

In "The Other Woman" the children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to regard as their racy and slightly disreputable Ginza aunt is really their mother.

Action and adventure abound in this story of friendship between two rival firefighters, Kichigoro and Jirokichi in old Japan. When Mukai Sadayu, the vassal of Kaga Clan's accounting officer, Shinagawa Daihachi demands that Omon serve him tea in his mansion and she refuses, the clan's samurai abduct her setting in motion a series of events that will bring the two firefighters into a world of danger and excitement. Jirokichi, leader of the Edo firefighting team "Ha-gumi" must first rescue Omon from the clutches of the vile Kaga Clan's retainers.

Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.

The plot is based on the novel "Akechi Samanosuke no Koi," the final work in a trilogy by Hiroshi Kato about the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga at the temple Honnoji. Historically, the general Akechi Mitsuhide is credited with causing Nobunaga's downfall. Kato's novel focuses on Mitsuhide's nephew Samanosuke, who fought alongside his uncle during the assault on Honnoji.

This subversive period film features a hotheaded young samurai, Kurodo, who threatens to commit harakiri in response to the humiliation meted out to his family by the Shogun. The film critiques the inhumanity of feudal obligations, and Uchida’s direction slyly satirizes the contemporary cinematic audience, whose taste for onscreen bloodshed is mirrored in a crowd gathering to watch the protagonist’s planned suicide. The Master Spearman is imbued with Uchida’s characteristic blend of dark humor and stylized action, and Ryutaro Otomo gives an admirable performance in the lead.

When Kaneko Ichinosuke aims to avenge his father who was wrongly accused of embezzlement, the samurai Kochiyama Soshun agrees to assist.

Nakamura Yukinojo gains popularity in Edo's kabuki scene as a handsome onnagata (a male actor who plays female roles). But hidden behind the placid expression of his stage face is a deep grudge for the men responsible for dishonoring his parents' names and leading them to suicide when he was still a child. When he discovers that the mastermind behind those crimes has come to see him act onstage, he begins in earnest to plot his revenge. With the help of a renowned Robin Hood-like thief named Yamitaro, he makes out his first target: the daughter of the man who orchestrated his parents' demise.

Kitagawa Utamaro is a famous ukiyo-e artist known for his paintings of beautiful women. The courtesan who became his model became even more popular. Ocho, a resident of an apartment building, hears about this and secretly plans to follow Otose, the owner of Mizuta-ya, who became famous as Utamaro's model. At this time, the Kano school, headed by Kano Eikawa, which was under the control of the shogunate, is dissatisfied with Utamaro's fame and tries to compromise him…

Adapted by Yasumi Toshio and directed by Toyoda Shiro, this is a literary work based on a full-length novel of the same name published by Shiga Naoya of the Shirakaba School.

Kaji, um administrador civil pacifista, foi nomeado supervisor de um campo de prisioneiros na Manchúria durante a 2ª Grande Guerra. Seus problemas começam quando o tratamento humanitário com os trabalhadores das minas e os prisioneiros de guerra que Kaji supervisiona irrita seus superiores.

When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence.

During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government supporters and is persecuted. Can Nichiren persevere before the Mogol fleet reaches Japanese shores?

A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his wife. Her older brother tries to marry off his children and hang on to/ extend his farm through an advantageous marriage in the face of threatened land confiscation and the desire of his children to get comfortable urban jobs instead of the backbreaking work in the paddy fields under parental control.

A longtime hotel employee (Morishige) struggles to bring his old-fashioned ryokan in line with postwar Japanese business practices.

Um conto intemporal de honra e vingança, The Loyal 47 Ronin é a história verídica de um grupo de samurais que se tornou ronin (samurai sem mestre), após o seu Senhor ser obrigado a cometer seppuku (suicídio ritual) por agredir um oficial de justiça. Depois de pacientemente esperando e planejando por mais de um ano, eles executam um assalto ousado na propriedade do Senhor Kira, realizando a sua vingança, sabendo que eles iriam ser obrigados a cometer seppuku para reparar seu crime.

Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small inn in the Kyoto suburb of Fushimi. She does not have an easy life. Her husband, Isuke (Ban Junzaburo), is a wastrel who fancies himself a kabuki singer and who is obsessed with cleanliness. Her mother-in-law, Sada (Miyoshi Eiko) dislikes her because of her humble origins (her family are farmers) and because she fears that she will inherit the inn instead of Sugi, her daughter. Sada's hopes for Sugi, however, are dashed when she runs off with a con artist and leaves her child behind for Tose to take care of. When Sada becomes seriously ill, it is Tose who nurses her. On her deathbed, Sada asks her daughter-in-law's forgiveness. Meanwhile Isuke spends most of his time with a mistress he has taken, forcing Tose to manage the inn by herself

Comedy based on the writings of Ango Sakaguchi.

From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious swordsman named Noriyuki Gennojo has crossed Naruto’s waters to uncover the Awa clan’s secrets. He puts his life on the line after finding a testament of Awa’s secrets, written in blood by a dying man. Joining Noriyuki are a female ninja who loves him, and the beautiful daughter of an enemy who’s sworn to kill him. Awa’s defenders willl stop at nothing to prevent the blood-soaked letter from reaching the shogun.

Baseado no romance teatral homônimo de Yutaka Mafune

A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community.

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own.

In this Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, director Heinosuke Gosho -- a master chronicler of Japanese middle-class life -- presents the story of Kiyoshi Yoshida (Koji Shitara), who feels estranged from both parents after his father returns from war. How the boy adapts to life with the virtual stranger his father has become is the film's focus. Chikage Awashima, Yûnosuke Itô and Yoshiko Kuga also star.

In Asakusa, Tokyo, a couple of a violinist Yamano and a revue dancer Hanae lives in poverty. One day Hanae’s little sister rolls into their apartment and begins to stir things up with her riotousness.

Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a tanbi-ha work of decadence, aestheticism, and intrigue. Ichikawa's film presents the tragic plot of the young geisha who is unable to enact her love for a man publicly in any way other than a histrionic story of torment, a heart-rending tale of lovers being crushed by fate. Instead, Ichikawa shows the contest of wills that transpires as two geisha, Oko and Kiyoha fight for the top spot in Nihonbashi, the pinnacle of the Tokyo geisha world. Nihonbashi is an elegant, if steely, exposition of manners. The young doctor, Shinzo Katsuragi, is the object of affection for both women, but appears to be more the choice reward for the plotting and thieving of these two early modern superwomen, than a lover they swoon over.

Um jovem assalariado e a sua esposa lutam dentro dos limites do seu relacionamento sem paixão, enquanto ele tem um caso extraconjugal.

This period film is inspired by one of the most notorious scandals to have taken place in Edo-period Japan. The heroine, Ejima, was a lady of the Ooku, the harem of Edo Castle in which the Shogun’s mother, wife and concubines resided, forbidden from contact with any other man except in the presence of the Shogun. The institution played a key role in the Byzantine world of Japanese court politics during the Edo era. In 1714, Lady Ejima was sent to pay her respects at a Buddhist temple in the city, and chose to pay an unauthorised visit to the kabuki theatre – a violation of protocol that was to have tragic consequences.

The story of a couple, a spoiled son and a down-to-earth girl, in Osaka in the early Showa era. The film won the prestigious Blue Ribbon awards for best director, best actor (Morishige) and best actress (Awashima), and the Mainichi Concours award for best actor and best screenplay (Yasumi Toshio). It ranked second (after Naruse Mikio’s Ukigumo) on the Kinema Junpō top ten films for the year.

Shuzenji Monogatari (The Mask and Destiny) is based on a 12th-century Japanese legend. An abortive royal romance leads to an escalating series of tragedies. The central character is a Japanese monarch who would prefer to live a humble existence as a maskmaker. Unfortunately, events -- and destiny -- are against him. When first released, Shuzenji Monogatari was held in far lower esteem than such recent Japanese films as Gate of Hell and Samurai. Nevertheless, the film was selected as an entry at the Venice Film Festival, possibly on the strength of its excellent production values.

A young man hands in his notice at work and breaks up with his girlfriend in order to pursue his true nature and dream of shaping the world according to his own desires. Against all the odds, he manages to push through his business idea – the foundation of an airline. At the same time, his ex-girlfriend refuses to accept their separation and attempts to force her way back into his life by any means possible. He in turn feels attracted to a young woman, who turns out to be the wife of one of his airline investors and who has herself had a secret lover for several years.

O drama de Machiko e Haruki continua. Machiko não tem permissão para ver Haruki. Eles finalmente se encontram novamente, mas Haruki parte para a Europa.

Each one of us lives differently. So, there are many tragedies and comedies in our lives. She feels many conflicts in living her life between truth and love.

O drama de Machiko e Haruki continua. Dois se encontram novamente em Hokkaido, apenas para serem separados novamente.

Three short tales from stories by Ichiyo Higuchi. In one, a young woman is degraded by her family after an arranged marriage. Another deals with the troubles heaped upon a young servant by her family and the wealthy people who employ her. The final story tells of a prostitute and her hopes of finding a new, respectable life.

Machiko Ujiie e Haruki Atomiya se conheceram e apaixonam-se na ponte Sukiyabashi em Ginza durante o Grande Raid Aéreo de Tóquio em março de 1945. Machiko e Haruki prometem reencontrarem-se novamente na ponte dentro de seis meses, mas separam-se sem perguntar o nome um do outro.

Carmen falls in love with an artist in this sequel to Carmen Comes Home. The film is noted for being entirely shot with canted (Dutch) camera angles.

Um casal de meia-idade sem filhos enfrenta uma crise conjugal.

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.

Nami (波 Nami) is a Japanese film directed by Noboru Nakamura. It was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off. However, it is not to be: on this hectic day a man just back from the war front visits the doctor with a medical emergency, followed by a woman who claims to have been molested. Then a yakuza arrives to ask the doctor to cut his finger off...

Inochi uruwashi

Uma família escolhe um marido para a sua filha de 28 anos Noriko, mas ela surpreendentemente tem os seus próprios planos. Noriko mora em Tóquio no pós-guerra com sua extensa família. Embora ela esteja satisfeita com sua carreira e seus amigos, a sua mais tradicional família se preocupa com o fato de ela ainda estar solteira, aos 28 anos. Quando Takako, 40 anos, faz uma proposta de casamento, a família de Noriko a pressiona para aceitar. Mas quando seu amigo de infância Kenkichi, agora viúvo retorna ao bairro, ela percebe que seu coração a está levando em outra direção. (e Livre - Estimado Livre)

Two journalists and their lovers share an uncertain future.

Also known as Crazy Uproar.