The further adventures of Takeshi Nanjo, the Young Boss.

After a yakuza boss is assassinated by a rival, his naval officer son returns home to take over the gang.

A musical romance.

Organized thieves battle against the Shogun’s ruthless ruling in attempt to get back their land.

Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman returning home with her baby. When gangsters mistake her for Zatoichi and kill her, Zatoichi determines to escort the baby to its father. He gains the reluctant help of a young pick pocket and together they travel to find the baby's father. But they do not reckon on the father's reaction to their arrival, nor on their own growing feelings for the child.

A man operates a small real estate business near Osaka. A man from Tokyo asks for help in buying a large tract of land in order, he says, to build an automobile factory. But by accident the realtor learns that the Tokaido Railway Line is going to be built directly across the land just acquired. Also known as Black Super Express

Industrial espionage gets in the way of love and marriage for factory worker Katayanagi.

Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from him a reduction in taxes. Shiba takes up their fight, joined by two renegades from the magistrate's guard, Sakura and Kikyo. The three outlaws find themselves in a battle to the death.

Picked up and raised on an island in the Seto Inland Sea, Yasukichi's only trait is his innate mischievousness. However, because his love for his hometown is exceptionally stronger than anybody's, he is trying everything he can to somehow help the inhabitants of the island which are going through a recession. He saddles himself with a debt to bring a cheap band onto the island and tries to market the underwater sightseeing ship on the island without regards for the Marine Act.

Ichi travels to the village of Itakura to pay his respects at the grave of Kichizo, a man he killed two years ago. When some tax money is stolen while in transit to the governor he is accused and sets out to find the money and clear his name.

Yoso is truly a lost classic, set in the Nara Era (710-794), from Kinugasa Teinosuke the same writer/director who gave us the recognized classic Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1952) & the milestone silent surrealist masterpiece A Page of Madness (Kurutta Ippeji, 1926).

A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.

[Period covered: 1582-1594]. As the film opens, the warlod Nobunaga Oda rides to Iga Ayanokuni shrine. He is asked if he thinks he has destroyed all the ninja who opposed him and answers that he suspects that there may be more. A servant brings water and tests it first. The paige dies and we hear gunshots as two ninja flee the scene. His suspicions confirmed, Nobunaga oversees the execution of captured ninja and decides that, in the future, he needs a much crueler method of execution. The daimyo Hideyoshi comes to visit.

In the mountain regions of Hida, the dreams of a peasant named Kyonosuke, who longed to be a samurai, come true when he becomes one of three doubles, of shadows, of Lord Yasutaka. After months of intense and cruel training, he faces his destiny when the Lord and the other two shadows are killed in battle and he must take on the role of Lord Yasutaka....

When a group of men from the Hanya clan search his town for a missing geisha, a brave ronin decides to help her and a drunken calligrapher. In doing so, he uncovers a wider scheme.

As winds of change sweep Japan, an honest man joins the Shinsengumi out of admiration for its leader, and because he wants to live and die as a samurai. However, as his involvement grows, reality and idealism come into deadly conflict.

A wandering vagrant, Hantaro, risks his life to save a beautiful blind girl and her father from con artists.

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

Chuji and his family become the primary target of gangs in Nikko headed by Hasshu marshal Nakayama and boss Sukegoro Iioka. Chuji is then aided by boss Shigezo Sasagawa, Ishimatsu, and a few young yakuza.

Shortly after the Meiji Restoration, young people devoted to the teachings of Saigo Takamori trained day and night at Seiyun Juku in Kagoshima, Kyushu. Shuntaro Amano (Yukio Hashi) entered the school after going through numerous trials and tribulations, and quickly became known for his outstanding talent. Some time after Shuntaro's admission to school, the daughter of director Shiho (Eriko Sanjo) returns from a trip to Tokyo. Shiho is attracted to the intelligent and caring Shuntaro, and soon they fall in love with each other. However, their feelings for each other are futile, and soon Shiho and Shuntaro find themselves in the vortex of time...

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

The story concerns the efforts of seven master swordsman who join together to protect the new inexperienced Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune from the evil plans of the Owari Clan's corrupt Lord. It's a colorful bunch, a drunk samurai, a master thief, a sword instructor and a Lord who is disguised as a ronin since it is an executable offense for a lord to wander outside of their domain without permission. As the Chief Magistrate becomes suspicious of the Owari plot to send men to Kodenmacho Prison to start a riot he begins to investigate the rumors. He soon calls upon the Lord of Mikazuki Castle and the Shogun's best friend to help thwart the evil ambitions and battle the rouge swordsman hired by the Owari Clan.

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

Adaptation of a famous Kyouka Izumi novel. Set in the early 1900's, it tells the story of the impossible love between a young scholar a beautiful geisha.

A geisha helps a runaway who looks just like her.

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

Kayama Ichinoshin (Raizo Ichikawa) has been traveling for ten years in search of revenge for his father. One day, Ichinoshin reunites with his younger brother Shinjiro (Yukio Hashi), who has completely changed. Shinjiro abandoned the quiet samurai life and began to lead a Yakuza lifestyle. The older brother is angry at the younger one for his depravity, and the younger one laughs at him for being tied to old-fashioned traditions. As a result, they quarrel. Ichinoshin hears that the person he has to take revenge on has become a Yakuza, and in order to get a hint, he takes care of the Otsu family, to which Shinjiro owes, but later discovers that the boss of Otsu Kanemon is the one he is looking for.

1961 Toei adaptation of Yokomizo's novel.

Japanese comedy film.

Daiei Film Company's three biggest stars shine in this exciting story about Vice-Shogun Mito Komon's journey to the land of the Ainu. As the shogun's uncle, Lord Mito traveled about the nation seeking to make sure that corruption and injustice did not go unpunished. Traveling together with his two faithful bodyguards Kaku and Suke, they board ship for a voyage to the far northern island of Ezo (modern day Hokkaido) where the indigenous people called "Ainu" live. Somewhat like American Indians, the Ainu had their own culture which had not been subjugated by the Matsumae clan, rulers of the vast island. A revolt is brewing within the leadership of the Ainu, which threatens to destroy their peaceful lives. The elder lord and his retinue are the only ones who can stop this reign of terror!

1961 Toei comedy

Japanese "kayo" film based on the song by Tsuzuko Sugawara.

Japanese comedy film.

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.

After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.

The story of Sasaki Kojiro, a young swordsman, and his quest to train under master Seigen and develop his own style.

The sequel to Daibosatsu tôge (1960) and the second of the trilogy follows the adventures of Ryunosuke Tsukue after he is blinded.

The exciting story of Jirocho and his yakuza gang that controlled the area of the Tokaido during the latter days of the samurai era. Awesome fighting from Katsu Shintaro as One-Eyed Ishimatsu highlights this great tale taken from Japanese history!

First "Pfc. Story" sequel and eighth overall sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

Kinnosuke of Toyama sets out on a private mission to clear his father’s name for a crime he did not commit.

1960 version of Lion Festival of Echigo

Pu Zhe , the younger brother of the Emperor of Manchukuo, Pu Wen, marries Ryuko the daughter of a long-established aristocratic family - all in the interest of the Japanese rulers , which legitimizes the relationship between Japan and its Chinese puppet state. To the surprise of all , a deep love between Pu Zhe and Ryuko develops. It is put to the test when Japan loses the war, Manchukuo is dissolved and the imperial court must flee. The lovers now have to separate: Pu Zhe tries to escape to Japan with his brother , while Ryuko flees with her daughter Eisei over the country. A film on the relationship between Pujie (1907-94) , brother of the " last emperor " Puyi and his second wife, Marquise Hiro Saga (1914-87).

In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of Leyte.

First installment of the "Pfc. Story" series of military-themed comedies from Shochiku, and seventh overall sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

Yagyu Jubei proves his skills in this early adventure film.

Sixth sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

Shochiku's commemorative 3000th film production; a suspenseful period drama.

Fifth sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

From birth Hideyoshi was a restless, defiant spirit--a child of the poorest of the poor. Cast out of his peasant cottage, he would live by his wits, driven by his burning ambition to become a samurai and to find a warlord worth pledging his sword to. This is the story of his rise, and the thunderous battle he pinned his hopes on. The challenge that had already ruined and bloodied the armies of higher-ranking samurai than Hiyoshi. The battle that brought him rank, fame and fortune and transformed him into Hashiba Hideyoshi, right-hand man to the ruthless Lord Oda Nobunaga, and would drive him on to conquer Japan.

Fourth sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

Film directed by Tadashi Ashihara

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.

Chushingura has been made into a movie several times before, but this time it will be presented in a widescreen version with all natural colors and a new look. Written by Masato Ide and directed by Tatsuo Osone. This is a magnificent scroll of images that depicts on a grand scale the triumph of the Genroku era that shook the citizens of Edo, the peaceful capital of Japan. The top stars of the film, shinpa, shingeki, and kabuki worlds at the time of production were lavishly cast, and a huge budget was invested to create a large set for this highly acclaimed and moving epic.

Period drama based on the novel by Saisei Murō.

Based on the famous novel by Yamagami Itaro, this is the story of a group of ronin living in abject poverty in the latter days of the Edo period. Starring the great Konoe Jushiro, Ronin Gai is populated by an ensemble of colorful characters, social outcasts who patronize a restaurant and bar on the outskirts of Edo. Among them are masterless samurai reduced to drunkenness and debauchery. One disgraced and disillusioned former warrior gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to retrieve a famous knife from a corrupt lord. This is the third version directed by Makino Masahiro and is considered a true classic.

A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising athlete to the baseball team the Toyko Flowers.

A botanist woos the secretary of an industrialist whose company threatens the local water supply.

Nakamura Yukinojō, Edo's most popular actor, discovered that his parent's enemy, Ohara Genba, had changed his name to Isshiki Kurōnosuke and become a hatamoto, a direct retainer of the shogun. Yukinojō's younger brother, Shingorō, traveling to Edo from their hometown, helped the town boy Kiyohē and his daughter Michi from troublemakers led by Kumosuke. This act led to a reunion with Yukinojō through the assistance of their associate, Daisaburō.

Underneath Himeji Castle, Miyamoto Bensuke was determined to inherit the will of his late father, Shinmen Munenori, and aimed to become a great swordsman. For this purpose, he challenged anyone he could to matches and eventually forced a duel upon a martial artist named Arima Kihei, whom he killed. Munenori's old friend, the monk Guan Ando, reprimanded Bensuke's brutality and told him to go to the capital to refine his skills.

On February 4th of the 16th year of the Genroku era, Yatō Uemon no Shichi reminisces while waiting his turn for seppuku at the Mizuno residence. When news of his lord, Asano Naganori, attacking Kira Yoshinaka in the palace reached Akō, Uemon no Shichi was sixteen. The family elder, Ōishi Kuranosuke, determined to avenge, gathered allies, but Uemon no Shichi's father, Chōsuke, being sickly and considered too young, was not included. Chōsuke committed suicide.

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.

Chiba Sōsaku, whose childhood name was Otome, was raised by his father Yukiuemon, the successor of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū style, and his wet nurse in Rikuzen Onikobe, where he early on earned the nickname "Little Tengu of Chiba." One day, Otome heard a rumor that Arao Miyauchi, who once was an internal student at the Chiba family but now ran his own dojo in Onikobe, was spreading false rumors out of resentment for not inheriting the Chiba house—a situation that led to his mother's suicide and his father's abandonment of the sword to become a doctor. Enraged, Otome stormed into the Arao dojo only to be captured and publicly humiliated at Onikobe Pass. However, in his heart, Miyauchi hoped to marry his daughter Nanae to Otome and have him inherit the Chiba family.

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

Private Detective Ippei Shizuno faces off against a serial killer and a wealthy woman's society who runs an illegal gun trade.

In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love with her and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets. The ministers misuse their power so much that there is a popular revolt against the Yangs, fueled by An Lushan.

Kitagawa, a drug control officer in the Kanto Shinetsu area, was ordered to investigate the situation of drug trafficking around Yokohama.

In this movie, Sashichi tries to catch a serial killer who kills his victims with shurikens.

Yasuichiro Isa, who works in the labor section of Sone Mining Tokyo Headquarters, paid a monthly fee for his younger brother, Reiji, who was in trouble because he had a bonus of 10,000 yen more.

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.

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.

A film about the Ghost of Okiku that's based on the kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki.

Japan, 1159. Moritō, a brave samurai, performs a heroic act by rescuing the lovely Kesa during a violent uprising. Moritō falls in love with her, but becomes distraught when he finds out that she is married.

Japanese war drama.

Ten years into a marriage, the wife is disappointed by the husband's lack of financial success, meaning she has to work and can't treat herself and the husband finds the wife slovenly and mean-spirited: she neither cooks not cleans particularly well and is generally disagreeable. In turn, he alternately ignores her and treats her as a servant. Neither is particularly happy, not helped by their unsatisfactory lodgers. The husband is easily seduced by an ex-colleague, a widow with a small child who needs some security, and considers leaving his wife.

The film vividly shows the misadventures of Oishi Kuranosuke and the human dramas inside the castle, which lead to the surrender of Ako Castle after seppuku by its lord Asano Takumi-no-kami and the termination of his family's power. This is the first film of the Ako Castle trilogy.

Dedication of the Great Buddha is a 1952 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. It was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.

A period film about a peasant revolt in the region near Mount Fuji, occasioned by high officials' depriving the farmers of their water rights.

Thriller drama by Kon Ichikawa

A Japanese adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story Boule de Suif, directed by Kimura Keigo

When a theater producer Kurato is murdered in the audience on opening night, Inspector Kawano investigates the prop pistols used on stage, but all were fake. That same night, a dancer in the troupe went missing and a police officer was shot with the same caliber gun. Kawano suspects they are all related to a gun smuggling case.

The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its cat fights, hysterical tantrums, film noir lighting, and dramatic music, White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) initiated a cycle of women's prison movies in the United States that may or may not have been shown in Japan, but the stylistics of White Beast draw on the same paranoid woman's films and film noir conventions that preceded the American cycle.

Jida-geki by Santaro Marune.

Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu,a scholar who brought some of European realism to the Japan's stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society. This is another version of Kenji Mizoguchi's film "The Love of Sumako the Actress" ("Joyû Sumako no koi"), from the same year. Both tells the story of the famous actress Sumako Mitsui (1886-1919), considered the first great modern theater actress in Japan. Mizoguchi himself is said to have preferred Kinugasa's version.

Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl.

Based on the comic by Kaoru Akiyoshi

The romantic struggles of three close friends who came back from the war.

1945 Japanese movie

1945 Japanese movie

1945 Japanese movie

1945 Japanese movie

During the Taiping Rebellion of the mid-19th century, anti-Qing (Manchu) Chinese forces led by Taiping commander Li Xiucheng march on Shanghai. Although the Western powers are officially neutral, the British consul in Shanghai sides with the Qing imperial government, and counter to his own government's policy he retains American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward to raise a mercenary force of foreigners in Shanghai and oppose the Taipings. Ward's force is routed, with heavy casualties, but since many of the casualties are British, the British army soon is drawn in on the side of the Qings. The only support for the Chinese comes from Japanese in Shanghai and anti-imperialist demonstrations in Japan. A family drama plays out against this historical background. After a Chinese home is destroyed by careless British shelling, killing the father and crippling a daughter, the surviving son vows revenge but begins to see that his true friends may be the Japanese.

Mysterious incident at a secret factory! Important documents lost! What is the true identity of the enemy's invisible spy?

Minowada, a young teacher at a National People's School, has his own theory of education and the daughter of his linguistics teacher becomes drawn to him. Kayo, a strong-willed doctor, is also attracted to him. A mediator tries to arrange a marriage but just at that point Minowada receives military call-up papers.

This epic depicts the battle between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The focus of the story is the struggle by the unit leader in charge of the main supply wagons and the supply troops to transport materiel to the Uesugi army. To this are added episodes involving an itinerant woman.

A ninja movie co-written by Fuutarou Yamada's "Edo Ninpocho" by Hyougo Suzuki of "Whirlwind of Chusendo" and Koji Takada of "Yogiri no Joshuji," and directed by Junji Kurata of "Jigoku no Kagehoshi." Photographed by Tsuneji Mori of the duo.