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
A look at the relationship between a young blind samurai and his wife, who will make a sacrifice in order to defend her husband's honor.
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
No Japão do século 19, um jovem samurai que se apaixona por uma garota de fazenda deixa sua casa para começar uma nova vida. Ele tem que fazer um balanço de sua nova vida quando é posto à prova e ordenado a matar um traidor que por acaso é seu amigo mais querido.
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
Izo is an assassin in the service of a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified. Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine.
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")
Filmmakers from all over the world provide short films – each of which is eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame of film in length – that offer differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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
Orfã de mãe, Nagiko (Vivian Wu) cresceu em uma tradicional família japonesa, sendo criada pelo pai (Ken Ogata) com o auxílio da tia (Hideko Yoshida). A cada aniversário da jovem, seu pai escreve bençãos em seu rosto e nuca enquanto a tia lê um antigo manuscrito. Com o passar do tempo, o ritual marcará momentos importantes na vida da protagonista.
Toyama Masamichi
Masamichi Toyama is a loyal husband with a bad gambling debt. Mobsters out for the money track him down, beating him and raping his wife. Desperate for revenge, he makes himself a sword and sets out to wreak havoc. When he meets the Gonin, a group of five female thieves, his luck only gets worse. Run, Sayuri, Shiho, Saki and Chihiro are fast-shooting, strong-arm women. Not only that, but they're more than prepared to take on an army of gangsters. Unfortunately for them, they stole the ring Masamichi wanted for his wife, and now he's more likely to hunt them than join their cause.
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
A wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three. She is insulted by the amount of money they propose to demand as ransom, and a strange interchange of roles takes place.
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.
No século 19, o lendário samurai cego Zatoichi (Kitano) ganha a vida jogando e fazendo massagens. Por trás de sua aparência humilde há um habilidoso e imbatível espadachim. Zatoichi é membro da máfia Yakuza e mestre em iaijutsu (a arte de desembainhar a espada). Invencível graças à sua impecável técnica, ele é perseguido por malfeitores ao tentar salvar a vida de duas gueixas.
Igo Gyobu
Iemitsu, Tokugawa Shogun III, hates his eldest son Takechiyo; all his love is given to his younger son Tokumatsu. One day, he orders Takechiyo to an initiation rite in Yedo. Takechiyo lives far away under the surveillance of Hotta Masamori, head of the Skura clan, where he was also raised. Hotta does suspect some kind of treachery, but he can not ignore the direct command of the Shogun. Therefore, he starts on his travel with Takechiyo and seven accompanying samurais. A large army under the command of Iba Shoemon, a vassal of the Shogun, attacks their night camp in the vicinity of a copper mine. Hotta dies in this first battle, but Takechiyo and the samurai manage to escape. They are chased by the army, and several skirmishes between the small force and the larger army follow.
Jiku Ajari
Coerced by the evil Witch Raga, Ashura, the Hell Virgin, attempts to unlock the four Earth holes that lead to the Gates of Hell. Together, Raga aims to control the Earth. However, two monks skilful in magical powers set off on a journey to the cities to obstruct Ashura from unlocking the gates and stop Raga. Otherwise, not only will control of the Earth be at stake, but the King of Hell will resurrect and darkness will overcome the world.
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")
Biografia do romancista, dramaturgo e ator japonês Yukio Mishima. O filme relaciona suas obras a acontecimentos de sua vida, como seu suicídio, que inclui o ritual de ser decapitado por um seguidor após cortar seu abdômen.
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
Em uma pequena aldeia em um vale, todo mundo que chega aos 70 anos deve deixar a aldeia e ir para o topo de uma determinada montanha para morrer. Se alguém recusasse, iria desonrar sua família. O velho Orin tem 69 anos. Neste inverno, é a vez dela ir para a montanha. Mas primeiro ela deve se certificar de que seu filho mais velho, Tatsuhei, encontre uma esposa.
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
O mundialmente famoso pintor de madeira Hokusai (1760-1849), um viúvo que precisava de uma renda estável, mora com a sua filha Oei na casa do seu amigo de infância Bakin.
Katsushika Hokusai foi um artista japonês, pintor do estilo ukiyo-e e gravurista do período Edo. Na sua época, era um dos principais especialistas em pintura chinesa no Japão.
Musashi Miyamoto
After surviving the slaughter of many Christians 350 years ago, a samurai denounces God for ignoring the pleas of believers. He sells his soul to Satan and receives the power to resurrect the dead to join him in a murderous rampage.
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
Scientists in Antarctica desperately try to find a cure to a military virus that was released in a plane crash and has wiped out the rest of the world.
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
Com base em registros políciais e no premiado livro escrito por Ryuzo Saki, este filme relata a terrível onda de crimes de Iwao Enokizu, um homem vazio sem "kokoro", que significa em japonês, tanto "eu" como "coração". O funcionário insatisfeito, Enokizu mata várias pessos, sem qualquer razão e consegue escapar da polícia, mesmo com seu rosto celebrizado em todo país. Mas, seu pai e sua esposa, que sabem do seu segredo, tentam viver tranquilos. Depois de realizar vários documentários, insatisfeito com as limitações da forma narrativa, Shohei Imamura criou este filme. Aparentemente, um drama policial simples, Minha Vingança incorpora vários toques surrealistas, incluindo um final em que a "lei da gravidade" é esquecida.
Sokichi Takeshita
When Sokichi stops providing his long-time lover Kikuyo enough money to pay for the care of their three young children, Kikuyo leaves the children with Sokichi - and his very surprised and angry wife Oume - and disappears.
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
Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murderer of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a rail yard.
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.
