Katsuhiko Kobayashi

No description available.

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.

Ittōsai, who trained in the Itto-ryu style deep in the mountains of Nara, joins a professional baseball team.

Mineoka Group executive Okitsu Seiji is imprisoned for the 13th time for attacking rival Kuronuma. While in prison, he learns that the Kuronuma Group has retaliated by killing its leader and seizing territory. Upon his release, he embarks on a revenge campaign.

When her crime boss husband is sent to prison, a woman assumes control of one of the most powerful gangs in Japan.

No description available.

After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.

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.

Mitsuko, a maiko from Gion, met Haruki by chance and had a fun time with him, but is stunned when he discovers her secret. This is a love story that cheerfully portrays the life of a modern maiko.

[Period covered: 1616] On May 8th, 1615 the summer campaign of Osaka has reached the climax. This film takes place immediately following 'Ninja 4: Mist Saizo, Last of The Ninja'. Staying one step ahead of the Shogun’s forces, “Mist” Saizo tries to save the Sanada Clan, and avenge the death of his lord by assassinating the first Tokugawa Shogun. Following the first four films in this remarkable series, more previously unknown Ninja skills are shown to the world for the first time. The action heats up as Saizo single-handedly attacks the Shogun’s Palace!

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.

Daisuke is supposed to be out looking for a respectable job and equally respectable wife. He is 30 years old and devotes his attention to music and literature; his family is wealthy and can support his interests. When his friend Hiraoka returns with his wife Michiyo, problems arise.

Kyoko is the third daughter of the Nonomiya family, a very ordinary family. Momoko, the eldest daughter, is married to Ichiro, the president of Mihara Shoji, and Riko, the second daughter, is married to Jiro, the managing director, and they plot to marry Kyoko to Saburo, the third son of the Mihara family. Kyoko is angry at the marriage talk that is being pushed forward without her permission, and declares that she "definitely won't get married," but before she knows it, she begins to become aware of the other person...

Yuko Kusaka is a Japanese journalist sent to Brazil to do a report on the gold rush phenomenon that seems to be making many people rich from night to day. Rumors say that among the many "garimpeiros" (gold diggers) currently on the Amazon forest, there is a Japanese known as Rio Baraki. Reaching their destination, her crew member is promptly attacked and she is raped as a warning to stop their work and return immediately to their home country. Determined to do her job, she stays and finds out from the attacker that he is none other than Baraki, a white haired muscular man with a large scar on his back. Later she discovers that his real name is Keisuke Ibaraki. Once a promising quarterback, he ended up falsely incriminated by a powerful organization known as GPX.

Disguised as a beggar monk, Ryunosuke is harassed along the road by the rowdy members of a country dojo or fencing school malingering outside their fencing hall. The third film in the Satan's Sword trilogy.

Three stories about the relationship between men and women: "Playgirl" (Masumura/Shirasaka), "Company No. 2" (Yoshimura/Kasahara), and "San Nyotai" (Kinugasa/Shindô).

The destruction of Earth is at hand! A pity that only one person knows it at the moment. Zule has announced his intention to take over Earth, and to demonstrate his resolved he's destroying interplanetary traffic. The warning is clear, stop expanding into space and prepare to be subjugated. Earth sends out their most competent troubleshooters: The Crasher Squad! Renowned for their skills at keeping the peace, they find their abilities are lacking against an opponent who can swallow star systems; and has. Not that the Earth represents anything more than a casual desire, but Zule has not gotten where he is by allowing the weaker species to flourish. Now, Earth's fate will be decided by Takeru Myojin, who is in the midst of discovering that his entire existence is a lie and his actual position is far more important than anyone would have believed. But he is only one, and Zule's armies are many. Even with the awesome power of the robot Gaia, how can he possibly win against Zule?

When a major bank is caught paying off a corporate extortionist, the media and prosecutors begin to dig, breaking open a money-and-favours scandal that threatens to rock the entire structure of business and government to its core. While the bank's top executives continue to vacillate, a quartet of middle-management reformers, led by straight-arrow Kitano (Koji Yakusho), decide to stage a boardroom coup and install a new, clean management team. With the aid of a hotshot news anchor (Mayumi Wakamura) and a hard-nosed prosecutor (Kenichi Endo), heads begin to roll.

No description available.

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!

No description available.

[Period covered: 1614-1615] Tokugawa Ieyasu is now the ruler of all Japan. But one last loose thread must be tied up before his domination is complete -- the destruction of the Toyotomi clan, now beseiged in Osaka castle. Ieyasu's ninja are the only ones who can penetrate the fortress, but unfortunately for Ieyasu, Kirigakure Saizo and the other Toyotomi ninja can just as easily get out. As armies of samurai maneuver for battle, the fate of the nation will be decided by a desperate struggle in the dark!

The Domain: Kanda Festival Showdown

The former Japanese Naval Academy was at Etajima, one of the many islands of the beautiful Inland Sea. Among the new cadets were Ishikawa and Murase. Murase's mother had remarried after his father's death and the impressionable boy hated his overbearing father who held the whip-hand over his gentle mother. Out of defiance of his step-father he became wayward. But he was bright and his teacher persuaded him to enter the Academy as he knew that if he left home, his mother need not feel apologetic towards her husband on his account. Discipline was strict, their studies were hard and, in between, all the new cadets received an ample share of beatings, at the hands of the senior cadets, for the slightest mistakes. Murase thought all picked on him the most, especially Cadet First Class Kogure, who manhandled him at the slightest excuse.

Gokudo Shimamura comes to blows with the Delinquent Boss who rolls into town with his motorcycle gang.

A gorgeous tragic love picture scroll depicting a beautiful woman who weeps over her strange fate and falters in her search for true love!

During Japan's Warring States period three young Tokugawa vassals head their separate ways after Takeda Shingen's forces overran their castle. When they next meet they have all joined opposing sides.

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 womanizing master of a run-down dojo hires an unemployed samurai to make himself look good instead of learning the skills himself. He lives to regret this laziness when he falls in love with the daughter of a higher class samurai and is informed on their wedding night that he must defeat her before their marriage can be consummated....

A musical about the escapades of some tanuki passing themselves off as humans in human society.

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....

Nemuri Kyoshiro, a youthful and cynical ronin with unparalleled skill, is approached by both sides in a game of corruption, ambition, and double crosses. The leader of the Kaga clan, who thinks he has killed his smuggling partner, fears that the shogunate will discover his illegal activities. He learns of evidence that will prove his guilt. Meanwhile, his partner is not dead, and, assisted by a master of Shorenji boxing, is looking for revenge and for his loot. The Kaga leader sends the beautiful Chisa to enlist Nemuri's aid. The unexpected happens: the hard-bitten Nemuri falls in love. Can he protect her, topple the criminals, and avoid the boxer's deadly skill?

Fierce war breaks out when Shujiro’s rival clan attempts to sabotage his lucrative construction business.

Set in the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867), this tragic love story takes its cue from a celebrated historical case tried by magistrate Tadasuke Ooka, whose shrewd legal decisions became the stuff of legend. Okuma Shirokoya, the daughter of a lumber merchant in Edo (today’s Tokyo), embarked on an affair and was executed after conspiring with her maid to murder her husband. (Source: https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/proiezione/shirokoya-komako/)

No description available.

Japan, 1643, as the Kato clan of Aizu falls from power two brave samurai will settle a dispute in the time-honored tradition of their clan, by drawing their blades in a duel to the death.

A film about young wandering Yakuza. Yukio Hashi's first film role.

Features a haunted well with yet another blind masseur's vengeful ghost.

The warlords overrun the country while the farmers are starving, and forced to become soldiers to keep the wolf from the door. The farmers are recruited in groups of fifteen. In Yaju's village, there are only twelve men, so they press Oto, who looks more like a boy than a girl, to join, disguised as a man.

A young yakuza experiences various conflicts, tactics, betrayals, rules, etc. in the gangster world, stands out in the organization, and climbs to the top of the organization. The theatrical version of the popular video series adapted from the original work by Murakami Kazuhiko.

While trying to search for her missing father, Atsuko Moriya meets a group of outcasts that help her. Having only an encrypted disk in her possession and while being chased by unknown people, Atsuko tries to solve the mystery of her family origins.

A story loosely based on the affair between Empress Kōken-Shōtoku and the monk Dōkyō, set during the Nara period (710–794 A.D.).

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!

The Sannō-kai is a yakuza organisation based in Kobe. Tanooka (played by Hitoshi Ozawa) managed to quell internal power struggles and rise to the position of second-in-command, but by cutting ties with a long-standing brother-in-arms who resented this decision, he left a lingering grudge within the organisation. Amidst this, an attack is launched on Ryūzōji (played by Tamio Kawachi), the third-generation chairman of the Sannō-kai, by a group affiliated with the Umeyama-gumi!

A 1961 film directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

A hobo exposes the misdeeds of a new yakuza.

No description available.

Original video

No description available.

A university student wants to avenge his sister from a businessman who abandoned her after leaving her pregnant. To do this, he decides to seduce the man’s sister to make him suffer the same fate.

No description available.

A unique story of a life of romance, divided into three episodes about the profound secrets of the path deeply rooted in the essence of human nature, depicted with a wry and stylish touch.

Former yakuza gang boss Noboru Ando reminisces about old partner in crime Kei Hanagata.

No description available.

1962 Japanese movie

1961 Japanese movie

Ryosuke Kotaki's life motto was his grandfather's will, "Study, make money, drink alcohol, and win the first prize". So, first of all, he went to Osaka to win the first prize with favorite shogi. In the car, he hit it off with a woman named Okichi and decided to live in the Shogi Kaisho, which is run by Okichi's father, Yoichi. Ryosuke's skill was strong, and he was happy to make a lot of money in gambling shogi. However, he lost to a middle-aged man by dropping four cards. This man was actually Heihachi Kudo, who is said to be the best of both worlds in the Kansai chess world at the time...

No description available.

No description available.

The nineteenth 'Road to the Don' film.

No description available.

Will the assassin take my life or will a beautiful woman take my chastity? Or will a beautiful woman take your chastity? On the Tokaido Highway of Flowers, a beautiful swordsman is in peril! Tokaido is a journey of women's peril! Pink Kumudo no Kenjidoshu! A swarm of beautiful women chases after him! The forest of white blades that ambushes! Tokaido is in full bloom!

No description available.

The final 'Kizu Blood Apocalypse' film.

Nishina Saburouta is powerful but corrupted priest. One night, an old samurai who couldn't bear him any more, attempts to kill him, but without success. Saburouta is rescued by his niece, Keisuke at the last moment. Keisuke is a a good-for-nothing. Since that event, he always turns to his uncle when he needs money. Recently Keisuke feels his uncle isn't as generous as he used to be, he suspects that Saburouta has found out the illicit relation between Keisuke and his uncle's young mistress, Ohasu.

The seventeenth 'Road to the Don' film.

1958 Japanese movie

The legendary yakuza ‘Oni no Tora Seiji’, who sent shockwaves through the underworld nationwide, is said to have a tattoo of a golden Chinese lion and peony on his back. Heitaro Bonno, the boss of the Ordinary Folks Gang, had managed to conceal the fact that he was a yakuza from his daughter, Niko, for 18 years. However, the unsuspecting Niko falls in love with Tsuyoshi, the second-generation head of the Arakai-gumi. Hiranoya panics, desperate to prevent their relationship from blossoming. But just then, the Himuro-gumi of the Kobe Sannō-kai launches an attack on his territory. As the conflict escalates, the Himuro-gumi finally kidnaps Niko! Enraged, Hiranoya’s hidden tattoo emerges on his back…!!

The tragic fate of Minoru Ikeda, a talented blind boy whose only joy was playing the violin.

1962 Japanese movie

The third 'Road to the Don' film.

One day, a funeral was held at one of the tenements in Asakusa. It was the only son of a wealthy merchant named Matasaburo, who had run away from home with a woman he was in love with and had been living here. But this funeral was actually a kyogen (a farce) orchestrated by a gardener named Yunosuke, who had planted it without telling his wife, Okinu, in order to bilk his parents out of their money. Matasaburo believed Yunosuke, who said he would dig him up right away, and was buried in the ground. ......

No description available.

No description available.

'Road to the Don' spinoff.

A sweet and melancholy story that depicts, with beautiful sentimentality, the day when a dreamy and lovely young girl first discovers love in the twilight of Tokyo Tower.

The eighteenth 'Road to the Don' film.

No description available.

The second 'Road to the Don' film

No description available.

No description available.