Acting
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51 movies sorted by popularity
Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.
In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.
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.
Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.
Set along the river basin of Shimane Prefeture's Takatsu River, a government-protected river, this drama portrays various people living in an area burdened by decreasing population as they carry on the tradition of "Kagura" Shinto music and dance which is said to be the roots of Kabuki. Directing from his own screenplay is Nishikori Yoshinari of Railways. Saito Manabu (Komoto Masahiro) operates a ranch on a mountain and worries his son Tatsuya (Ishikawa Raizo) has been making a habit of skipping Kagura practice. Then Manabu learns his alma mater elementary school will be closed down.
The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.
Vain, middle-aged actress Biwako is placed in witness protection while authorities investigate the brutal murder she witnessed. Under the watch of two dedicated cops, Biwako struggles to maintain her career, her public image, and her personal life as she prepares for her new role on the witness stand.
A struggling Japanese neighborhood supermarket manager chances upon an old classmate, who has plenty of ideas for revitalizing his business.
In 1945, after the horrific fire-bombings of the Pacific War levels Japan to the ground, the government consults spiritual psychics to aid them in winning the war. Unfortunately, the souls' resentment and agony of the victims culminate together to revive the evil Onmyoji, Yasunori Kato. Only a young, psychically imbued priests' apprentice will dare fight the evil magician.
Ryōko Itakura returns as the tough-as-nails government taxing agent. This time she must figure out a way to expose a fanatical religious cult lead by a corrupt sociopath.
Based on a short story written by Shuhei Fujisawa (who also wrote Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, Love and Honor), the film depicts the uneasy life of Noe Isomura (Rena Tanaka) with the difficult family she has married into after her former husband passed away. One day as she tries to brake off a branch of a cherry tree, she is aided by a samurai who she does not recognize but who recognizes her. He turns out to be a former suitor that she never met named Yaichiro Tezuka (Noriyuki Higashiyama) and who teaches swordsmanship to the local samurai. Meanwhile, the powerful new chief retainer of the village enacts land policies that threaten the survival of the local farmers.
An old woman has died and her widower with dementia confesses to killing her. After this, the story goes back in time to show the events leading up to her death.
A successful Japanese movie director in his sixties becomes increasingly ill while working on his latest film. Though his family, friends, and doctor try to keep the secret of his terminal cancer from him, Buhei gradually comes to realize the truth of his condition, leading him on a journey of despair, anger, and – ultimately – acceptance.
A drifting gambler named Tamegorō befriends a weary salesman and helps connect him with a nightclub hostess whose father has just been released from prison. In a rapidly industrializing coastal town dominated by yakuza influence, Tamegorō becomes entangled in gang conflicts and the exploitation of local workers. As he grows attached to the struggling people around him, the carefree drifter finds himself driven toward an act of rebellion against the corrupt underworld controlling the city.
This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history.
In the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, a journalist arrives in Nagaoka, a city decimated during a WWII air raid and by the 2004 Chūetsu earthquakes, to report on the disaster; there, she learns about the experiences of its inhabitants and stumbles upon a stage play written by an enigmatic student of her ex-boyfriend.
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.
Inomatsu, a carpenter with a reputation as a skilled craftsman, has a wife named Oritsu. Oritsu is deeply in love with Inomatsu and believes that the purpose of her life is to devote herself to her husband day and night. However, Oritsu is Inomatsu's fourth wife. In fact, he is a robber and thief. As a carpenter, Inomatsu usually sneaked into merchants' houses and carried out robberies. For him, wives are just a tool to deceive the public...
Haruo returns to his hometown for his mother’s second marriage, where he happens to meet his first love Miyuki for the first time in eight years. Miyuki is back in town with her daughter Chiharu, after leaving a failed marriage.
A young girl suffers a terrifying nightmare of a vampire with blazing golden eyes. Eighteen years later, it is revealed to be a hellish prophecy when a strange package containing an empty coffin mysteriously turns up at a nearby lake.
A government employee meets a hostess of a "pink club," and together they set out on a journey.
A young man saves a woman who is trying to commit suicide, gradually discovering more about her troubled past.
Two soon-to-be kamikaze pilots stop by a local school near their base to play the piano one last time, leaving a deep impression on a teacher. Years later, she seeks out the relatives of the pilots when the piano is old and about to be discarded.
A melodrama about the life of a mentally disabled young man and his devoted sister after their famous novelist father and housewife mother go to Australia on a business trip.
A compelling human drama about the growing social problems and public responsibilities regarding the welfare and ethical treatment of neglected dogs and cats at animal shelters. The story is told through the eyes of tormented vets who are relentless in their efforts to change the system to serve these animals with dignity.
It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.
A nurse is caring for a patient in a life and death situation whilst also dealing with her own emotional issues.
A lighthearted study of friendship, life, and death in the lives of four men: two elderly residents of a suburban housing complex, and two adults who cling to their youth.
A young woman undergoes psychiatric treatment after she no longer hears music and develops sexual hang-ups.
Yukie, Koichi and Akira are rogues looking for a place to crash. They move into a house which Etsuko (Kaori Momoi) inherited from her parents. Soon after getting settled, the hippies slip into a communal lifestyle. They eat, have sex, and generally share everything together.
Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin's father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord's plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse.
Dr. Hattori and her husband watch footage of brain surgery experiments with Manchurian, Russian and Japanese guinea pigs that had been found in the basement of a wrecked hospital. Out of the blue, there is a white light and when they look back, they see they children Ota Miyuki and Kaori staring at the light. Years later, Miyuki vanishes from the Tama Medical University Hospital and her sister Kaori, Miyuki's boyfriend Motojima and detective Hirasawa are seeking her. However, Miyuki and the teenagers Kazochi, Takumi, Hattori and Rieko have been submitted to a nightmarish experiment by Dr. Hattori and her team with tragic results.
A top police-guard, charged with protecting a visiting politician and ruthless dictator, contends with an assassin set to kill the man.
The film tells the story of a man who was washed ashore on an uninhabited island after a ship wrecked by a storm, and after twelve years, he returned to human society.
Richness, severity and pureness of love is beautifully and sentimentally depicted.
A three parts movie following people forgotten by a society that modernizes at the price of expelling part of its individuals.
No description available.
Set in downtown Tokyo, it depicts the activities of a weak youth baseball team, the Chidori Boys, and the ordinary people who live there.
#15 in the series, after "Ginjiro vs. The Evil Lawyer."
A mother fights to reverse her dismissal from her job as a telephone operator
A neighbor dies when potted flowers fall from a balcony of an apartment complex. A man whose father suffers from dementia begins to question if it really was an accident.
A woman living alone is visited by her ex-husband. At the same time a young couple who are about to break up get trapped in the town as public transport is cut off.
Shuji Kanzaki, who lives in the underworld of Manila, winds up in a fierce battle with Japan's biggest gangster.
A blind girl of around ten years old is not having a pleasant upbringing. She is poor, neglected, shunned and even loses a friend. Yet, she does not give up hope. That is the adaptation of the actual story of Kiyo Awazu who grows up to educate blind children. The young Fumiko becomes an apprentice to a masseuse and works hard to learn a skill. She also studies to learn braille.
In this second film compiled from episodes of a Japanese TV serial, Captain Joe, reformed interstellar marauder Ken and the rest of the crew of the Bacchus-III set off to destroy an alien race's super-weapon.
In the Tosa in the early Showa era, the fourth series of Tempo active series that depicts the activity of the woman trainer involved in the conflict of two pairs of confrontation yakuza.
An alien is pursued as a traitor by his own race because he refuses to kill humans.
Ninth film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.
