A forceful indictment of the devastating effects of war and nationalistic fanaticism on the average man, who, in the face of the absurdity of violence, is reduced to apathy or victimhood.
Coal miner Isamu Oba is forced to quit his village and leave his mother and siblings behind. Mining buddy Ichiro accompanies him to Tokyo, and the pair enjoy several "fish-out-of-water" sequences before finding employment at a boxing gym with trainer Sawada and his spunky sister Tomoko. The boys also find part time night jobs as roving minstrels in the club district courtesy of benevolent gang boss Asakawa. Of course, they run afoul of boss Karasawa's cruel gang. Karasawa also has it in for Asakawa, and this indirectly throws a spanner into the works as far as Isamu's burgeoning success as a kickboxer. When Asakawa's HQ is burned to the ground by Karasawa's men, Asakawa tries to kill Karasawa - which, of course, leads to his own gruesome death. Isamu goes on the rampage with his sword, wiping out Karasawa and men.
Japanese noir.
Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.
Directorial debut by Umetsugu Inoue, the famous director of Musicals
Melodrama by Kiyoshi Saeki
On a Sunday morning, young dentist Toshio Ezaki wakes up with a hangover, on a bench in his office. He finds a poisoned woman in a green-striped Western-style outfit lying in his exam room. He must retrace his blurry steps of the night before, and navigate a web of embezzlement, murder, framings, and false identities in Tokyo's Ginza district, to discover the identity of the dead woman and why she is there—and hopefully prove his innocence, before his wedding in three days...
1961 Toei comedy
Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer. Part three (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi’s novel, Oban.
Part 2 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series
Story of young love in the hills.
On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of poverty.
1962 Japanese movie
Otherwise promising young man Asaji and his younger brother Yuji face blighted lives due of society's disapproval of their illegitmacy and déclassé family.
After some fruitless career hunting in downtown Tokyo, Chiyo accepts a job as a bar hostess in Shiba ward. Well away from glamorous Asakusa and Ginza, this is a neighbourhood tavern where the women are dirt poor, each having only one kimono to their name...
The Old Man of the Propeller can be seen as a comedic amalgam of “King Lear” and “Christmas Carol”. A neighborhood loan shark is hounded by his relatives expecting big inheritance. But he is not giving any favor to anyone. His only joy of life is to go on junk hunt in the neighborhood, collecting garbages and scraps and selling them to junkmen to make profit.
This is a rokyoku film of Tenjuken Ungetsu II (Hideko Itami), a popular rokyoku performer who was famous for her seven different voices for men and women of all ages.
1962 Japanese movie
1962 Japanese movie
A picture-story-show operator, accompanies her son, Akira, who lives apart from her, to a hot-spring medical treatment and spend a moment of brief happiness together, but eventually the time comes to say goodbye. The portrayal of the children and the atmosphere of the hot spring resort shine through in this film about a mother by master filmmaker Hiroshi Shimizu.
9th directorial work by Yamamoto Satsuo.
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…
1962 Japanese movie
It was supposed to be about a love story, but it was and was not. An aircraft mechanic working for the government is matched by his boss with the latter man's daughter (Setsuko Hara) who is both beautiful and aggressive. Yet, he picks a woman who is less assertive as his bride.
A middle-aged factory engineer trains, marries, and ultimately loses a teenage bride after she enslaves him to her whims.
Shinzō, the heir of the prominent Edo lumber dealer Yamashiroya, left home when his stubborn father, Chōzaemon, dismissed his lover, the maid Oyasu. Shinzō and Oyasu set up a household near a soba shop in Fukagawa, but Shinzō struggled financially, turning to gambling and fighting, while Oyasu worked as a tea server in a theater, constantly harassed by a small-time gangster, Rikichi, for cigarette money. The only ones concerned about Shinzō and Oyasu were Shinzō’s sister, Omitu, and her dance teacher, Oyoshi. Later, Shinzō managed to get a job at another lumber dealer, but after a conflict with the detective Hansuke, who was also infatuated with Oyasu, Shinzō accidentally dropped lumber into the river and was fired. Unaware that Oyasu had borrowed money from a bar to repay the lumber dealer, Shinzō left to earn money in the Mito clan's crew quarters and ended up rescuing Rikichi from a dice game trouble.
1950s Japanese comedy.
1949 Japanese film
1950 drama film
1962 Japanese movie
After finishing the course of junior high school, Kazuo comes up to Tokyo, leaving his mother alone in the unproductive northern district. He finds a job in a small laundry in downtown Tokyo and works hard till late at night. At a nearby restaurant a brother and sister are working, and Kazuo becomes friendly with the girl, Yoneko. Love blossoms between the two. However, Yoneko's brother objects to his sister marrying Kazuo.
A priest in Hokkaido adopts a blind orphan girl, and as she grows up he finds himself falling in love with her.
Jidaigeki by Tai Kato
Famed movie director Paul Robaix breaks with tradition by not casting his actress-comedienne wife, Lucy Dell, in his latest film production, a version of Madame Butterfly. Undaunted, the resourceful Lucy wings her way to Tokyo and, masquerading as a Japanese geisha, lands the coveted role from her unsuspecting husband! But in front of the cameras (and behind the pancake makeup), Lucy faces greater challenges: her lecherous leading man - and a husband who is beginning to realize that his talented new "discovery" seems vaguely familiar...
Akogare no Hawaii kôro
Set in Qingdao, China, a Japanese company locates an office there and begins work and cooperation with a local Chinese company for business. Many Japanese engineers also move to China, with their families, for the company in order to construct a canal. There are young Chinese resisting the Japanese in this area.
Kichigoro, a firefighter from the Maeda family of the Kaga Principality, rescues Oshimo, the younger sister of Jirokichi, a city firefighter from the Ha-gumi group, from a samurai who is trying to kidnap her. Oshimo has feelings for Kichigoro. At this moment, a fire warning bell sounds in the city...
A few days in the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a smart young boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza. A woman devoted to others' needs, she'll end by taking part herself in one of the many disguises of Ginza.
Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the dwindling number of passengers when her job and the bus company itself are at stake.
1940 Japanese movie
Police detective Heiji is assigned to catch the masked Maboroshi gang of robbers who have terrorized all of Edo leaving few clues as to who their leader is.
Japanese comedy directed by Noriaki Yuasa.
A bar girl tries to pass her three children, each from a different father, to rural relatives.
A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.
The three Matsunami sisters navigate adulthood and the complex social pressures of finding a husband while living under their traditional father’s roof. As they balance their personal desires against the family's obsession with status, their search for "marriageable age" stability is complicated by secret affairs and the cold reality of arranged matches. They must ultimately decide whether to conform to the rigid expectations of their upper-class upbringing or break away to pursue their own independence.
Adaptation of a novel by Yojiro Ishizaka, originally released in two parts.
1952 Japanese film directed by Kunio Watanabe.
Kotaro Shimoyama, once a government official, loses his job and separates from his wife, Sachie. He now resides with his daughter, Haruko. By chance, he apprehends a criminal and reconnects with his former colleague, Sakamoto, leading him to become a security guard at a film studio. Haruko, secretly a singer, rises to stardom within the same studio. Unbeknownst to each other, they both work there. As the studio faces turmoil, their hidden identities are unveiled...
Japanese musical.
1936 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
Second "Pfc. Story" sequel and the ninth and final sequel to "Story of Second Class Private", the only one in both series not directed by Seiichi Fukuda.
Japanese comedy film.
Japanese comedy film.
"Karayuki-san offers a no-holds-barred depiction of the discrimination faced by a former prostitute who returns to Japan from Singapore with her mixed-race son." - Alexander Jacoby (Oxford Brookes University)
Young, timid bowmaster Kazuma seeks to beat the archery record set by Hoshino Kanzaemon, a mysterious figure who, it is rumoured, drove the previous champion—Kazuma’s father—to suicide. Possessed of much raw talent, Kazuma is very much a coward, holing up in an inn and generally avoiding confrontation. Despite his best attempts to remain clandestine, the locals know of Kazuma’s purpose and an attempt is made on his life. He's saved by Karatsu Kanbei, a samurai who offers to help Kazuma hone his archery skills, though it becomes clear that this apparently selfless stranger has potentially shady ulterior motives.
A small community in wartime Japan learn how to make do with less.
A self-absorbed young actor humiliates an elderly Noh performer, who then commits suicide. His act of cruelty compels his father to disown him, leading the once promising actor to a life on the streets. But his desire to win back the respect of his father and the affection of the dead actor's daughter pushes him toward a more noble existence. Naruse employed a delicately structured mise-en-scene in this family melodrama, which evokes the work of Josef von Sternberg.
A spectacular comedy with a star-studded cast that depicts unusual trials and unexpected verdicts regarding the five deadly sins: the crime of beauty, the crime of a terrifying wife, the crime of taking the wrong course, the crime of seducing, and the crime of killing with laughter.
Adaptation of a novel by Nobuko Yoshiya that was serialized in "Shufu no tomo" between 1939 and 1940.
Postwar Tokyo. Pin and Toku live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru, a slightly demented woman who has run away from a geisha house.
Japanese "kayo" film based on the song "Ieraishan" by Yoshiko Yamaguchi.
Kinta (Nabe Osami) is Japanese by birth, but raised by a Chinese man. He stowsaway to Japan to see his girlfriend Yukiko but gets picked up for vagrancy in Shinjuku and thrown in jail. Helped by a yakuza and a prostitute, he goes on a search for Yukiko but winds up on a journey of sexual discovery.
An old man dies of heartbreak when a cruel landlord is about to repossess his land. The old man haunts the landlord from the grave. Since the man died in debt, his wife and daughter are indentured servants and are forced to work in the landlord's factory.
A story about four best friends and their lives inside and outside college. Then suddenly one of them receives a surprising offer to be a movie star.
Japanese drama film.
Japanese comedy film.
Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she is not who she thought she was.
Tanuma Kandayuu is a high class samurai of the house of Nabeshima. He finds a lavish board of Go (a Chinese Board game) at Kinbei's store. He recommend Kinbei to offer it to his lord. Kinbei hesitates at first, since he knows the board has a mysterious legend surrounding it; it's believed that for every game played on the board, one death is required.
Young Hiroko’s conservative principles place her at odds with most modern women, as she has already submitted to her mother’s choice of man for any marriage prospect. Wed into an affluent family that practically treats her as a housemaid, locked away like a 'doll' by her estimation, Hiroko’s own submission to traditional thinking brings contradictions to light.
Twenty-year-old Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) and her younger sister Asako (Yōko Yaguchi) struggle to accept changes in their home during the preparations of their widowed father's wedding to his chosen bride, Maki Tsuneko (Sadako Sawamura), who's anxious about her conduct as the bride.
Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.
Toyomi is pregnant -- and while Shintaro and Yurie are on their extended honeymoon, she bears his child, a girl named Kiyoko. She is supported in adversity by close friend Michiko and her mother but also, surprisingly, Shintaro's mother and siblings. Even moreso, Toyomi and Yurie become friends. Part two of a two-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan.
Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese merchant marine officer. Part spy thriller and part Shanghai travelogue, it was part of a popular series known as "Chinese Continental Friendship" made by the occupying Japanese in China.
Kohei Misugi works in a vegetable market, but his ambition is to be a photographer. He is given his first opportunity to demonstrate his talent by the Sakura Film Company which offers him an assignment to "Cover Tokyo" with a camera. But he is disillusioned when he is told he must work together with Miharu, a good looking girl in the film company's publicity department. Then the fun begins.
An Ishiro Honda film.
A young man and woman are determined to marry despite opposition from her parents.
Nobuo is a hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past.
Wealthy young Toyomi and Shintaro are in love. However, Shintaro’s father is arranging for him to marry Yurie, the scion of an even wealthier family. The two lovers flee to Tokyo, but when Shintaro returns to proclaim his intent to marry Toyomi, his father browbeats him into attending the marriage meeting with Yurie. Part one of a two-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan.
The story follows Oshino, a geisha who is trying to start a new life with a lover who is a painter. However, her past filled with debts and pimps catches up to her.
Ichiro’s family used to be a large landowner, but now he is living in poverty with his mother. His mother works hard to get her son through school. Under such circumstances, Ichiro meets Wakako, the daughter of a wealthy man, and they fall in love with each other, but they are opposed by those around them because of their different social status.
Hideko, a young Baseball fan, determined to cheer for her favourite baseball team by creating a new song for them.
A motley cast of characters, including a human billboard and a shoeshine girl, help a 5 year old girl after she is separated from her mother on the crowded streets of Ginza.
In a small town, according to the homecoming of Professor Ishinaka, the youth culture group was overwhelmed to make a presentation for the summer festival, but because of lack of funds, she works part-time at the spectacle of a tour, a haunted house Especially. The ghost was a struggle amongst the people, it was a great success in filling the crowd, but in the circus hut next to it, Kenji who was supposed to have disappeared was pitiful.
In 1887, two businessmen, Echigo-ya and Kitahara, compete for railroad construction authorization from the government. The minister states that a local noble must not object, and his missing younger brother is the only one who could sway him. Meanwhile, Omitsu, a hotel employee tired of Echigo-ya’s wife’s arrogance, teams up with Kitahara to stage a scheme where a vagrant young man pretends to be the noble’s lost brother, aiming to trick and embarrass the wealthy woman.
Kôfuku eno shôtai - Invitation to happiness
The young boy Michio struggles with the loss of his mother while his widowed father, Sadao remarries the kind-hearted Sonoko, who has a daughter of her own. As Michio clings to memories of his mother, the family navigates the challenges of grief, love, and new beginnings.
The TV drama of Ima Harube was adapted by Yagi Ryuichiro ("Komuso Henge"), directed by Mori Issei ("I Am Fujikichirou"), and cinematographed by Honda Shozo ("The Return of the Ghost"). The main cast includes Katsu Shintaro ("Flower of the Wandering Bird"), Saga Michiko and Mita Tokiko ("Matashirou's Fighting Journey")
1950 Japanese movie
Japanese prison exploitation movie. Part 1 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series
1961 Japanese movie
When Shinsuke returns to Kyushu from the Russo-Japanese War he finds his Judo school hall neglected and in decay. His Judo teacher has died and his brother, Ryota, and the teacher's only daughter, Akiko, are greatly disturbed by Zanba, who intends to use the school for teaching the Ryukyu art of Karate.
1960 Toei film
Based on a comic strip by Kaoru Akiyoshi. First in a four part film series.
1958 Japanese movie
The story of three sportsman brothers living in the Ginza. One day, the three meet a raving beauty on separate occasions and are unaware they have met the same girl.
The story of five sisters.
At a coastal hot spring inn, a group of women navigate work, personal struggles, and unexpected scandals. When a guest threatens to expose one maid's past, she must decide whether to run or face it—with help from a kind local officer.
A carefree student from a traditional sake shop family balances love, rebellion, and a bike race while clashing with gangsters and his old-fashioned grandfather.
A college football star gets caught in a scandal involving a geisha teacher, endangering his team’s season and his family’s honor—until a last-minute comeback restores both.
A group of hustling peddlers swindle rural towns with fake goods, facing betrayals, close calls, and constant setbacks as they chase survival and dream of a better future.
The story is set in a rural village, where the village mayor gives a speech at the local community center as a theater troupe visits the village for the first time in several years.
Moju Tsukai no Shojois a 1952 black-and-white Japanese film
The story deas with the experiences of an exceptionally strong-willed, middle class Tokyo "ojōsan" who comes to teach in a middle school in the countryside.
Atsuko, a seamstress at a clothing shop in Ginza, spends her days quietly going about her work, oblivious to the gossip about romance swirling around her. However, on a day off, she happens to visit an amusement park where she meets a man and senses the beginnings of romance.
