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A street guitarist is unwittingly drawn into a smuggling ring while trying to earn money for his sister’s wedding.
A naively honorable samurai comes to the bitter realization that his devotion to moral samurai principles makes him an oddity among his peers, and a very vulnerable oddity in consequence. He takes the blame for the misdeeds of others, with the understanding that he will be exiled for one year and restored to the clan's good graces after the political situation dies down. As betrayal begins to heap upon betrayal, he realizes he'll have to live out his life as a ronin, if not hunted down and killed.
A true-story film depicting a police officer’s pursuit of a criminal who carries out a series of attacks on pawnshops and banks, running amok with a handgun stolen from a police officer.
Two college girls who work part-time as shrine maidens swap their names with private investigators conducting a marriage background check, throwing their boyfriends into total chaos.
Warlord Oda Nobunaga seeks to unite a fractured Japan. A young man trained in the arts of ninjitsu is manipulated by a ninja master into attempting to assassinate the warlord before he completes his task.
Ogami Itto is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin and battles Retsudo, head of the Yagyu clan, and his son Gunbei.
Kurama Tengu appears in the Great Edo, where conspiracies swirl. The righteous sword flashes as the mystery of a beautiful woman’s disappearance unfolds.
Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.
Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.
The story takes place during the end of the Pacific War and the aftermath period and it focuses on Mizoguchi, who is the son of a Buddhist Priest. When his father dies, he’s sent to the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. Mizoguchi is physically unattractive and becomes, in some way, jealous of the beautiful Temple that he loves so much.
An Indian prince leaves his world of comfort and riches behind to wander and meditate for six years in search of spiritual enlightenment. Siddartha (Cojoin Hong) turns his back on the old religion when people are starving needlessly and holy rituals include human sacrifices. During his meditations, he is tempted by erotic dancing women, demons, and the evil machinations of his criminal cousin. Devastate to attain the spiritual perfection and become the Buddha. He travels to convert followers by his kindness and wisdom, gaining a multitude of believers when he stops an elephant from crushing a local priest. Buddha of course goes on to become one of the great religious leaders of the world.
In the Meiji period, a schoolteacher tries to hide his lower-class upbringing as he supports a visiting liberal intellectual.
A historical drama about a foul-mouthed but good-natured traveller.
Itinerant masseur and master swordsman, the blind Zatoichi, is near the village of his teacher, Hikonoichi, so he decides to visit. He learns of Hikonoichi's recent robbery and murder and the imprisonment of his virginal daughter, Osayo, in a brothel. Through friendship with Denroku, a local dice thrower and devoted father, Ichi uncovers an unholy alliance between the governor and the area strongman: among their scams is falsifying tax records to put farmers in debt, then forcing their daughters into prostitution at the boss's brothel. With help from Denroku's daughter, Otsuru, Ichi comforts Osayo until he can provoke showdowns with the villains and their henchmen.
Legendary yakuza Shimizu Jirocho and his 28 henchmen travel the unruly path from a 'Fire Festival' in Akiba to a decisive battle by the Fujigawa.
Zatoichi's trek through 88 temples to atone for his violent past is interrupted as he stumbles into a village terrorized by a violent yakuza boss.
Ichi is staying at an inn when a woman dies. Her dying wish is that Ichi take her son to his father, an artist living in a nearby town. After arriving in the town, Ichi finds out that the father has been forced by a local boss to create illegal pornography to pay off his gambling debts. Ichi makes it his mission to save the man and reunite the family, even though it brings him into conflict with a samurai he sort of befriended on his way to the town.
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, the drama, set in the brothels of Shimabara in post-war Kyoto, is a moving look at the lives of women of tenacity and resilience.
After killing a man who owed him neither a debt of gratitude nor a grudge, Tokijiro decides to leave the yakuza life behind in accordance with the code of honor—but becomes an assistant to yakuza for the sake of the man’s orphaned child his mother.
Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.
A fugitive christian "saint" (female, of course!) and a sadistic drug-addled princess both have their eye on Kyoshiro. The fact that a bunch of ruthless smugglers also want him dead is the least of his problems!
Shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath.
Two devious retainers are competing to take control of a fief when the current Lord dies, but involving Kyoshiro in the conflict against his will is the textbook example of a bad idea - especially when the collateral damage starts to tick him off.
Two amiable samurai wind up on opposite sides of the vendetta between Lord Asano's retainers and the family of Lord Kira that led to the famous revenge of the 47 Ronin.
Zatoichi comes upon the town of Tonda, overrun by gangsters. Using one of his favorite techniques, Zatoichi proceeds to win 8 ryo in a rigged gambling game. Of course, the local gangsters attempt to kill him, and the adventure begins. It turns out a blacksmith named Senzo examines Zatoichi's cane sword, and discovers it to be forged by his old mentor. Senzo discovers the sword is at the end of its usefulness and will break when it is used next.
An emotionally charged tale of love and passion set on a remote island lighthouse, where a mysterious woman arrives out of nowhere to cast a shadow over a wedding.
A handsome young man infiltrates the Tanuki Kingdom, where conspiracies swirl around the Divine Mirror; he rescues the princess and turns the evil ministers against each other.
A seafaring man who hates women and a barmaid who hates men… drawn together and torn apart by a strange twist of fate… a melodrama of passion and intensity.
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 Mongol fleet reaches Japanese shores?
Kisuke, a young bamboo worker marries Tomoe, a courtesan who was once involved with Kisuke's late father.
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.
Zatoichi, the famed blind swordsman, returns to his home village for the first time in many years. He is befriended by Omiyo, who had the same wet-nurse as Zatoichi. He also encounters a boyhood friend, Shinbei, who is now wealthy and appears not to remember Zatoichi. Shinbei seems to be interested in repaying the villagers' debts, but is, in reality, manipulating the ownership of a now valuable rock quarry. Zatoichi learns of the subterfuge and confronts his old friend, who has a score of yakuza swordsmen backing his play.
The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting – he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New National Theatre Company, he wants nothing more than to choreograph the swordfights for the modern plays put on by the company.
The story of the hardships facing women working as maids and waitresses at a resort hotel restaurant.
As a child, Okin the one-armed one-eyed swordswoman was disfigured by Lord Daizen-dayu, who was after her family's most treasured possession, the famed Drenched Swallow sword. As an adult, she has become a skilled swordswoman and lives a carefree life with her adopted family. One day, Okin saves a girl from a group of yakuza, and in doing so, gets involved in a grand conspiracy involving religious leaders, government officials, the yakuza and Lord Daizen-dayu, the man who killed her father and mutilated her body...
This is the story of a blind masseur who tricks people, steals, and kills; he is the anti-Zatoichi.
The masked daughter of the Shogun wants to kill a samurai who has seen her scarred face. She sends waves of ninja warriors to kill the samurai and plots diabolical schemes / ambushes without much success.
When a nobleman finds a woman to be an obstacle to his growing political influence, he kills her and her cat and has their bodies immured in a wall. Shortly afterwards, a catlike demon begins to haunt the castle.
Features a haunted well with yet another blind masseur's vengeful ghost.
A fierce battle between a vicious train criminal and a police officer.
A poor rickshaw driver finds himself helping a young woman and her son after the woman's husband dies suddenly.
Tonii is a salesman at a mortgage company, and although he is in a romantic relationship with Haruko, a typist at the company, they cannot get married because they have nowhere to live. Growing impatient, Haruko declares, “As long as he can support us, I’d even marry an old man,” leaving Tonii deeply troubled.
About 1786 the doings of a demented lord results in many masterless samurai, including Iyemon (Kei Sato) who is used to luxury and cannot adjust to the hand-to-mouth conditions & piecework of umbrella making. Having hired ruffians to make him look like a superior swordsman, he arranges for himself the opportunity of a profitable marriage. He hires the half-blind masseur Takuetsu (Sawamura Sounosuke) to seduce or rape his wife (Kyoko Mikage), so that she can be divorced or killed for adultery. But the masseur takes pity & informs Oiwa of her husband's horrid plot. Assisted by the merchant's daughter he intends to marry, Iyemon disfigures his wife attempting to poison her so he can marry higher. There's a lovingly gruesome sequence as she combs blad patches into her hair, kneeling deformed at her mirror, weeping with bitterness. She eventually cuts her own throat, swearing revenge.
A former soldier, reduced to working at a restaurant post-war, becomes a contract killer for the yakuza gangs he's in contact with.
First movie of the Inu series directed by Tokuzō Tanaka
Tired of everyday life, the 8th Shogun Yoshimune flees Edo Castle and asks Ooka Echizen to become his personal assistant. In a rice shop, Yoshimune meets a simple ronin Ohashi Kenshiro, and receives permission to stay at his house, but a mysterious corpse awaits him in the house... And then the second, third and fourth murders occur...
Seventeen years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a newspaper reporter looks for the bomb's effects, but everyone seems to have forgotten. He meets a woman who was there when it happened but when they fall in love she isn't able to move on.
Sentaro (Raizo Ichikawa) from Ipponmatsu sets out to commit evil and gain dignity, but his good-natured nature does not allow him to do anything bad. Along the way, Sentaro saves a young woman named Okimi (Yuko Miki) from a bad womanizer and meets a Yakuza named Katsugoro (Yoshie Mizutani). He then visits Katsugoro boss Kanjiro Inariyama (Ganjiro Nakamura II) to train to be a yakuza, but to his surprise discovers that Katsugoro is Kanjiro's only daughter, Okatsu. He also finds out that the young yakuza working in Kanjiro's house is his younger brother Hanji (Yukio Hashi). Then the Shigezo family, who had been annoying Kanjiro for a long time, set fire to his gambling hall!
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.
The further adventures of Takeshi Nanjo, the Young Boss.
Set against the backdrop of Hiroshima, a city plagued by gun violence, a passionate newspaper reporter and the citizens band together to courageously confront the tyranny of two major organized crime syndicates.
The tragic, yet exciting story of the friendship between Nakayama Yasubei, a member of the 47 Ronin, and Tange Tenzen, a relative by marriage of the vile Lord Kira.
Wicked woman Ogin is a concubine of a powerful feudal lord Tayu. At first Ogin gains power by poisoning lawful wife of Tayu. To gain more power Ogin let her lover Isogai Iori, kill whoever interrupts her. Film it is based on Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's novel "Kyofu Jidai".
Film directed by Kenji Misumi
In the book of the world's greatest rogues, the number one man can only be one person.
The film portrays a satirical view of today's heartless money-oriented society.
A young woman turns to the supernatural to wreak revenge on a murderous warlord.
In the 19th century Edo period, sisters Oshizu and Otaka have sacrificed their personal happiness to work and care for their ailing father. Otaka falls in love, but can’t accept a marriage proposal since her older sister needs to marry first. When Oshizu learns of this decision, she takes matters in her own hands.
The 40th and final "Tengu Kurama" feature starring Kanjuro Arashi.
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!
1962 Japanese movie
Ishimatsu of Mori, from his early days leading up to his joining with Shimizu Jirocho, Boss of the Tokaido where he made his mark in history through his tragic end this is the story of a beloved and loyal henchman.
Yutaro Kodan, born under a cloud because his aristocrat father died opposing the shogunate, stumbles onto a treasure map. Lusting after the treasure, Lord Sumi Tadamasa convinces trusting Princess Tsu that the gold will help to avenge her lost clan.
The woman gambler Ginko risks her life for her brother-in-law.
A wandering gambler strolls into a village searching for his father's killer, unaware that the village is run by criminals who sell the poorest peasants into slavery.
Follows the murder of a money-lending masseur by an impoverished samurai. The slain masseur's daughter will also fall victim to his curse, so that she can become empowered as an agent of her father's vengeance.
Set against the backdrop of a port city, this action-packed story follows a man who makes a living selling daily necessities to foreign ships entering the harbor. When he believes he’s been set up, he finds himself caught in a trap and forced to become an accomplice to smuggling.
1961 Japanese movie
Based on the novel by Shofu Muramatsu, the film is dedicated to the actors of the renowned Japanese Kabuki theatre. Set in Japan in 1885, the story follows Kikunosuke Onoe, the adopted son of a famous Kabuki actor. Kikunosuke’s father teaches him professional acting skills, preparing him to become his successor and continue the acting dynasty. However, Kikunosuke leaves his family, much to his father’s dismay, to hone his craft outside of Tokyo and moves to Osaka.
The hairpin murdered a young girl. Detective Zenigata Heiji begin to investigate. Suddenly a murder case turns into a case of smuggling.
Nagasaki at the end of the Edo period had the taste of a criminal paradise, where, despite the exotic, dangerous work was always in demand. Here, three wandering samurai who earn their living by killing get to know each other. Soon they learn that government officials will be transporting a large cargo of gold and decide to steal it.
An entertaining historical drama featuring popular comedians from the Kansai region of the time, such as Makoto Fujita, Minoru Shiraki, and Gannosuke Ashiya. Raizo Ichikawa as the famous yakuza boss Jirocho.
1953 Hiroshi Inagaki movie.
The film adaptation of the famous tragic love story of the young samurai Shirai Gonpachi and the beautiful courtesan Komurasaki.
An uncle decides to put his delinquent orphaned niece into a temple in Kyoto known for its austere novitiate. Initially resistant to all forms of discipline, she ends up falling in love with the nun who is in charge of her.
A man dies in an automobile accident and returns as a white-haired demon and seeks revenge on his wife and her lover
A revenge comedy directed by Torajiro Saito (Oedo's most Popular Man) from a script by Chao Fushimi (The Millionaire of a Night) and shot by Hiro Imai (Akado Suzunosuke (1957)). Starring Achako Hanabishi (Segedei Momoshiki Goten), Tamao Nakamura (Akado Suzunosuke (1957)), Seinen Hayashi (Nijunin no Kenka-jou) and Sumire Harukaze (Harukaze Sumire). Also Rumiko Komachi, Shunji Sakai, Yoshio Tabata and Mieko Suzuki.
A historical drama directed by Yukiya Sato, and co-written by Rokuhei Susukita and Jiro Okuzawa. Seitarou, who travels from trip to trip, was asked by Fujisuke, who was killed in a mess at the Shinshu Oil Shop's gambling house, to deliver his child Shinkichi to his mother Megumi in the old Iwanjoya in Shiojiri, Shinshu. Megumi was crying day and night, worrying for her child. Masagoro, the boss of the land who had been aiming for the replacement of Iwanjoya, forced Megumi to marry his son Hyokichi. On the way, Seitarou and Shinkichi helped Rohno, who was looking for his fiancee....
O-Kiyo (Mitsuko Mito), who had escaped from her boss, Shoden, who controlled the Sensoji Temple district, was desperately contemplating suicide when she was rescued by ronin Kojuro Tozawa (Kazuo Hasegawa), who hid her in a dilapidated apartment building. The Shoden clan desperately searched for O-Kiyo, but Kojuro found a huge sum of 50 ryo and ransomed O-Kiyo. Unable to accept this outcome, the enraged Shoden clan attempted to win the favor of constable Jinnosuke Nakayama (Kusuo Abe), seeking to demolish the dilapidated building and transform the area into a pleasure district. However, Kojuro thwarted their plans, bringing joy to the poor residents of the building. After demonstrating his remarkable skills, Kojiro revealed his true identity - he was a prominent hatamoto.
Eight members of the Kuroinu clan gather to divide an inheritance, but one of them is suddenly found decapitated. A series of murders unfolds, with one mystery leading to another.
