Akitake Kōno

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

A fugitive lord and his six retainers disguise themselves as monks to bluff their way through a hostile checkpoint.

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.

In 17th century Japan, Young Lord Masato returns after years abroad to find everything changed: his peace-loving father has died in what he soon finds to be mysterious circumstances, and his mother's married to his uncle, whose ruthless ambition is causing turmoil in the kingdom. Not knowing who to trust, Masato feigns madness, vowing to get to the truth, even though his act causes distress to the girl he loves, who's waited for him all these years. The ghost of his father turns up now and then to show him the way. Meanwhile a peasant revolt is brewing... It all ends tragically.

A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must reconcile strength with restraint and the true spirit of his art.

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.

Tatsuo Torigoe, the president of Torigoe Industries, attempts suicide but survives and reveals his motives for suicide to his only daughter, Akiko.

A young engineer and a pure-hearted mountain girl take on the challenges of the Akan primeval forest, where lawlessness and violence run rampant.

After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.

A young girl named Oichi is abandoned by her mother and blinded by a lightning strike. When her guardian is killed, she learns to wield a sword from a traveling ronin. As she develops into a master swordsman, her profession becomes that of a bounty hunter. Many test her sword and many die by her skills. She travels throughout the countryside to seek her mother and her revenge.

A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo’s spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falling for his vanquished opponent’s daughter. Based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo.

Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.

Detective Morgan and the Japanese police cooperate to unveil the truth of the mysterious death of Morgan’s friend in Arizona.

A group of Okinawan high school girls are drafted as nurses during the American invasion of the island. As the enemy army advances further, the situation for the girls becomes increasingly desperate as food and shelter run out and the number of injured climbs, leading to the film's tragic finale.

No description available.

Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.

Kokubu, captain of his university's kendo team, is a mystery to those who know him: An ascetic dedicated to a point of obsession with the simplicity and beauty of the sword arts. Kagawa, a promising but arrogant kendo student, is attracted to Kokubu's devout leadership but kept at a distance by his standoffish nature. With the national championships fast approaching, the pair clash as Kokubu drives his students with increasingly rigorous training and Kagawa tests Kokubu's grip on the class.

Saburo and Keiko fall in love with each other but the tide of war separates them.

Megastar Kataoka Chiezo is Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi in this realistic tale of Japan’s inner battles that led to the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Excellent performances and extremely good swordplay highlight this glimpse into the heart and soul of Japanese history. Although known as “Razor Blade” Hijikata, the vice-commander is a man of deep conviction with a little-known sense of humanity. Starting after the famed Ikedaya Incident, in which they saved Kyoto from Choshu’s plot to burn the city to ashes, they work hard to change the public’s view of them as merciless killers to their true mission of protecting the shogun. This is an extraordinary tale of blood and guts! From the pen of award winning author Shotaro Ikenami (Bandit Vs. Samurai, Hunter in the Dark, Misumi's The Last Samurai)

No description available.

In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war, achieving nothing because fighting on the losing side, & then beginning his long period of wandering & training, with the goal always in mind of his duel with Kojiro. Part II builds toward that great duel on Ganryu Island, with considerable focus on Musashi's planning & forethought as to how to gain an advantage.

Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman looking for her father, a village leader who has disappeared. As he helps her investigate the disappearance, Zatoichi also becomes involved with another young woman who is trying to help her brother, who has murdered someone at about the same time and place as the missing man was last seen.

No description available.

Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman and her father, as well as Honda, a mountaineer. The inn folk do not realize their guests are wanted criminals and the visitors are treated with great kindness. Honda volunteers to lead them over the mountains, but Eijima's paranoia endangers all of them as they make the perilous trip.

Yoshie Nogami, a factory worker by day, works as a bar hostess at night. She begins a passionate affair with one of her regulars, but his changing demeanor and constant demands for money lead Yoshie down a dark path.

Three IJN flyers Mikami (Susumu Fujita), Kawakami (Masayuki Mori) and Murakami (Akitake Kono) are good friends, and they are all renowned for their torpedo techniques. Mikami is posted as a staff officer at a base on an island in the Pacific. Kawakami and Murakami later joins him as the base squardron is reinforced. The enemy task force approaches the island and all three of them attack the fleet, killing themselves in the process.

The Shinsengumi is a special unit of ronin commissioned by the Tokugawa shogunate to counter anti-shogunate activities in Kyoto. A sinister plot to overthrow the shogun is set in motion and Kondo Isami and his fellow samurai must answer the call and expose those behind it.

Based on Matsumoto Seicho's classic mystery novel of the same name, the story centers around a group of detectives who are determined to find the truth behind an apparent double suicide.

No description available.

After spending several years in prison, yakuza punk Masa (Bunta Sugawara) and his underling, Katsuji (Tamio Kawachi) are back out in the mean streets of Kobe to make a name for themselves amongst the local yakuza organization.

With flashing swordwork and a terrific story, wandering gambler Kusama Hanjiro inspires the wrath of Boss Jirotaro who has been terrorizing travelers along the route through his territory. When Hanjiro steps in to gamble with him one-on-one it leads to a deadly vendetta that will show no mercy. Along the way Hanjiro is called upon to help sisters with no one else to depend on. Will the feud end in tragedy, or can the honest wanderer prevail against the bloodlust of an angry yakuza boss whom he had scarred for life?

A reporter Takuo, who is sleeping in the newspaper room of the Maichō newspaper company, receives a sudden report from a reporter that the missing Akiyama JNR president was found dead.

A comedy about Hikoichi, a mediocre train conductor who falls in love with a beautiful widow Sayuri.

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.

During the late Meiji period, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu, a scholar who brought European realism to the Japanese stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society.

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Master swordsman, Tsukue Ryunosuke is confronted by the families of his victims. Will justice be served for the lost innocent lives? The conclusion of the famed Jidaigeki series is an amazing film, with a completely different perspective on the story from the later versions. While the international audience is more familiar with the “Sword of Doom” and “Satan’s Sword” versions of Daibosatsu Toge (The Great Bodhisattva Pass), the “Souls in the Moonlight” trilogy casts an entirely different light on Ryunosuke and his motives. Can this brutal killer be brought to justice, or is living his life as a blind wanderer a more terrible fate? His sword skills have not diminished, nor has his desire to kill!

No description available.

Biographical film about bacteriologist Dr. Hideyo Noguchi.

The story of an airport and its air traffic control crew in a remote and northern Japanese town. Three of the air traffic controllers are female with one of them working with her dead fiancé's sister. The engaged man had gone to war and never returned.

A chance meeting between two traveling gamblers leads to a case of mistaken identity when the farmers transporting gold to the governor think they are about to be robbed as the two gamblers face off against each other swords in hand.

Three closely associated gamblers have adventures in Yokohama, Hokkaido, and Macao. Gambling trio endure hardships to rescue Naojiro’s family.

This historical film depicts the life of a man who was at the mercy of the waves during transition from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji Restoration, and therefore, shows audience the dynamic change from Edo to Meiji. Before the war, the director, Eisuke Takizawa, together with the writers, formed a scenario writer group "Narutaki-gumi and they shot many historical masterpieces.

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Young lord Saburo Nobuyasu struggles to find comfort in life. His arranged marriage to Tokuhime, daughter of one-time family enemy Oda Nobunaga, provides little happiness. His manipulative mother adds further complications through her constant interference and attempts at defeating the Nobunaga family.

Okatsu the Fugitive is the third film in the "Ohyaku/Okatsu" series. Okatsu; a "tomboy" who is good with a sword. Her father has found her a man to marry and actually she doesn't seem too upset about the situation. At the same time, a bunch of farmers are being slaughtered by a corrupt group running a tobacco smuggling ring. They're being investigated by a man who is documenting their crimes and when they find out about it, they torture him for information but get none. It's not long before he and Okatsu's mother wind up dead and she sets out for revenge.

Playhouse employees Okimi and Otoshi become involved in an undercover officer’s investigation of a gang when they accidentally walk in on a drug deal taking place at their theater.

Saotome Mondonosuke pursues the culprit who placed a malicious curse upon Shogun Tsunekichi.

Based on the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. Story of the beautiful blind daughter of a wealthy businessman who falls in love with a servant.

Detective Tarao investigates the deaths of police officers who were involved in solving a kidnapping case.

No description available.

A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a plan to rob a cash delivery truck in order to provide for their families.

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.

An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses.

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.

A young yakuza who respects obligation and humanity must face cruel and heartless turf wars leading to a fight to the death with his own brother.

Fukagawa's chef Ushimatsu of the restaurant Kawatake fell in love with a maid named Omame and changed dramatically. He stopped gambling and womanizing much to the surprise of his friends. As their wedding day approached, Minosuke who had long been infatuated with Omame threatened her mother Okuma by using a promissory note for three ryō that he lent to her.

No description available.

Thanks to a secret message hidden on the two sacred swords Kaen and Suien, the samurai Genji Kurô (Nakamura Kinnosuke) found the hidden treasure of Lord Yoshitsune. When he gives a piece of the treasure to a couple of poor but honest people so they can pay their debts, it attracts the unwanted attention of several dishonest people, such as pirates, greedy merchants and rebels. While the government is fighting a battle for power against rebels and royalists, all want the treasure by any means possible.

Young men endure challenging flight training in the Yokaren, a program feeding new pilots into the Army and Navy. By the time of the filming, the pressure of the war had led the government to shorten the training and expand the age range of the recruits. Yokaren was highly selective, and thus an object of great fascination and desire for boys and young men. In this Navy–sponsored film, Setsuko Hara plays the daughter of a family that often entertains recruits on their days off—a surrogate sister to many trainees. Her fragile younger brother aspires to join the program, but is rejected. With perseverance and much support from Hara and their mother, he surmounts his weaknesses and becomes a flier.

In 1842, in the Umemoku Mansion within Hikone Castle, Naosuke Ii, despite the tumultuous times, was engrossed in the world of tea ceremony. His friend, the Kokugaku scholar Nagano Shuzen, introduced him to a captivating shamisen master named Murayama Taka. Naosuke became deeply infatuated with her, disregarding the jealousy of his consort Shizu and the warnings of his senior retainer, Gaiji. However, upon discovering Taka's relationship with Shuzen, Naosuke promptly ended his ties with her.

At the end of the Edo period - On his way back after being invited by the three Mikados of Higashi Shirakawa, Kurama Tengu was attacked by the Shinsengumi. Given the circumstances, he began to suspect a connection between the Mikado and the Shinsengumi.

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No description available.

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

The final, third part of an entertaining historical drama depicting the eventful story of the revenge of an actor with a strange fate, with a variety of characters and exciting developments.

A young woman begins murdering all those responsible for her ailing father's condition. Because the girl is so outwardly sweet and innocent, the detective looking into the deaths does not suspect her.

During the early days of the war a young student, Makito (Kazuo Funaki), falls in love with Yuko (Mayumi Ozora), the widow of a naval officer. She, however, is living with the memories of her husband and it is her younger sister, Yumiko (Nana Ozaki), who grows fond of the student. Then, one day, a young naval officer, Tadayuki (Ken Ogata), a friend of her late husband, comes to see the widow and she becomes attracted to him. Though Makito is inspired to study for the navy, he is much upset when he learns that Yuko and Tadayuki are to marry.

Famous for his coin tossing when capturing criminals, an Edo detective, Heiji, launches an investigation into the mysterious murder of his friend Seigoro.

The 1st movie in the Kobushidake denki series.

1960 Toei film.

The Chase after Opium Dealers

From runaway brides to a typhoon, the continued adventures of Ushikata police station.

In a corner of a warehouse at Shiodome Station, a alumni trunk, is found with the terrible smell of decay. The dead body of a woman is inside. Since the trunk was shipped from Osaka Tennoji Station, the murder investigation headquarters were established in Tokyo and Osaka

Based on a short story by Dazai Osamu, produced under the national film law. The film's hero falls in love with the youngest daughter of a family he is visiting to arrange an engagement for his friend who has been drafted to fight in the war.

No description available.

Film about the 2-26 Incident.

The events of the film are based on the real facts of the Pacific War, when in June 1944 the American troops began landing on the Saipan island. On July 7, an order comes that everyone must die in order not to be captured by the enemy.

Television production of I Want to Be a Shellfish. On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation by GHQ, Toyomatsu "attemped to kill a US prisoner", which was nothing but an order by his superior and failed after all with hurting the prisoner by weak Toyomatsu. Also, Toyomatsu was driven to corner at the trial by the fact that he fed the US prisoner some burdock roots to nourish him. Toyomatsu believes nothing but being not guilty, but he is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to the execution, Toyomatsu writes a long farewell letter to his family, the wife and the only son: "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."

No description available.

Sheriff Goro goes undercover to investigate drug smugglers.

Escaping the hustle and bustle of Edo, the Young Lord came to Oshima Island in Izu to take a vacation. Unexpectedly, the island's boss, Amimoto, was brutally murdered with a harpoon. As usual, the Young Lord sets out to solve the case. However, most of the islanders have a grudge against Amimoto, and there are so many suspects that he is at his wits' end this time. Set against the beautiful sea of Izu and the majestic Mt. Mihara, the Young Lord's brilliant deductions and his secret sword Ichimonjo-Kakureshi cut through the mystery!

No description available.

The story of a certain engineer from his youth until he retired from the Japanese National Railways after the war .

Suehiro Katsuji, a prisoner of Abashiri, is sent to Shikoku to work at a dock where a fierce turf battle takes place between a local gang and the dock operator.

Tadashi Imai 1946 movie

Describes the oppressed life of the crab fishermen and their final revolt which is bloodily suppressed by the Royal Navy.

A suspense work based on the "Miyagi Incident," an attempted coup d'etat led by some officers working for the Ministry of the Defense and the General Staff of the Konoe Division on the eve of the end of the Pacific War.

A yakuza boss and his right-hand, Hawasaki, escape from prison. the film concentrates on their relationship, emphasizing loyalty and thier eventual betrayal, enroute they get involved in money trafficking, a cop killing and horse racing scams before the inevitable tragic ending. A patch-work production.

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A Buddhist monk becomes ensnared by a seductive woman who, according to legend, transforms her lovers into beasts.

In 1730, the Tokugawa Shogunate orders the Yagyu Clan to repair a huge shrine. Since it cannot refuse the Shogunate's request, the impoverished Yagyu Clan tries to raise funds by obtaining a sword which holds the key to a wondrous, hidden treasure. After learning the sword's secret, Tange Sazen sides with the Yagyu Clan, but his motive seems to be more than just pure interest in the treasure...

This is the second installment of the trilogy based on Japan’s greatest novel “The Great Bodhisattva Pass”, following the life and times of bloodthirsty samurai, Tsukue Ryunosuke. Blinded in an explosion and further injured from a fall, the master swordsman is taken in by Otoyo, a woman who falls in love with him. Under Otoyo’s dedicated care, Ryunosuke’s physical and emotional wounds seem to heal. However, deep inside, the demons that drive him to kill yearn to resurface. Meanwhile he is being pursued by Utsugi Hyoma, a young samurai seeking to avenge his brother’s death at Tsukue’s hands. Hyoma is being aided along the way by the clever thief Shichibei.

Three and a half years after Japan was bombed, the tax authorities organized the T-Men. Nango is in love with a girl called Mibu, and the two are against the T-Men organization. Mibu whats to kill all of the T-Men one-by-one.

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Hibari Misora plays Yoshiko, the popular daughter of a fish market owner. After discovering that she was adopted, she sets out to help her biological father who has fallen victim to an evil plot orchestrated by those who would take over his successful business.

Gonza was a handsome young laborer, a footman and spear-carrier, working hard for his meager wage. All Gonza wanted was to marry his young sweetheart, but despite their mutual poverty, her status as the daughter of a samurai blocked their path to happiness. A chance opportunity to achieve samurai status would come one day, but Gonza will regret trusting the so-called honorable samurai who extended this fateful offer, and the terrible price he'd pay, fighting for his life in one of the most blood-spattered samurai battles ever filmed.

A man and a woman meet through a strange fate. This unique melodrama depicts the course of their budding love in a corner of the big city.

Story of a bandit king part 2.

A Dead Drifter / Hyoryû shitaî

This film is strongly anti-war film. The film is based on the collection of writings by Japanese student soldiers who died during World War II. The film is located to Burma. It shows the everyday problems of soldiers in contrast of their ideas and the cynicism of their commanders. Soldiers are also victims of military bullying by their commanders.

While performing in Kanazawa, the renowned water-trick artist Taki no Shiraito falls deeply in love with a young student, Murakoshi Kinya. Determined to see him succeed, she endures years of financial hardship and social scorn to secretly fund his legal education in Tokyo.

Based on a novella in the Kyosuke Kozu series. The story depicts the meeting between Kyosuke Kozu and Kenzo Matsushita, as well as student dorm life and social customs in the 1930s, and the social climate following the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Movie adaptation of the 1959 ninja novel. With war against Korea looming on the horizon, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the 'Taiko' becomes the target of an assassination attempt to be carried out by the Iga Clan of ninja spies. Master spy Juzo Tsuzura (Ryutaro Otomo) is assigned the task, but first he must defeat a former Iga spy who has become a traitor, and outwit the treacherous woman that is trying to seduce him.

Maeda Tsunanori, the lord of Kaga Domain, had two young princes - Katsumaru, the son of his legitimate wife, who died, and Yasunosuke, the son of his concubine. However, Katsumaru suddenly lost his mind and appealed to the shogunate to hand over the reins of the family Yasunosuke, but the request was rejected. Vassal Osawa Kuranojo suspects that this is the work of Ishikawa Torajiro, a swordsman from the Katsumaru group, and begins an investigation.

No description available.

An action-packed, dramatic gangster film.

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In 1919, a group of Japanese immigrants arrives in Hawaii. Among them Yoshio Inoue and his wife Kishimo and Sumi, a young woman ready to get married soon. With the soil that is hard to work and the subtropical climate, the immigrants have to cope with a hard life. But after years of hard work, Yoshio finds work as a teacher while his wife manages to open a small grocery store. But with the war around the corner, life becomes more and more complicated for the Japanese immigrants in a foreign country.

A drama about relations between Japanese immigrants and the indigenous Ainu on Hokkaido, the most northerly island of Japan. From a novel by Taijun Takeda.

Story of a romance between a middle-aged journalist and a young woman.

No description available.

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.

During the Warring States era, Hozoin Kakuzenbo and Yagyu Tajima-no-kami, being best friends, spend their days acquiring skills of the spear, sword and martial arts. Hozoin loses a series of matches with master swordsman Kozumi Ise-no-kami. Bitterly ashamed, Hozoin embarks on a journey, trying to perfect his skills. A few years later, Hozoin is ready and it's time for the ultimate showdown with Ise-no-kami!

A young woman's letter sent to the newspaper reveals the truth about the murder case two years ago. The first work depicting the fighting spirit of a talented young reporter.

Keiko and Toshiko are sisters who leave their mountain home, where their parents live in a hydroelectric plant company house to study in the city. They stay with their kind-hearted aunt and her jovial but heavy-drinking carpenter husband. Keiko, the 17-year-old eldest of five siblings, is gentle and responsible, while 14-year-old Toshiko is lively and childlike, affectionately called "Konchi."

The action of this historical drama takes place against the background of poverty and hunger in the city of Edo and depicts young people rebelling against the contradictions of feudal society.

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.

A true semi-documentary drama depicting a record of a sheriff's challenge to the vivid evil of a sailor who embarked on a single underworld to uncover the crime of an inhumane international prostitution organization called "Japanese women's smuggling."

No description available.

1962 Japanese movie

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Kazuo Hasegawa's debut at Daiei.

The first part of an entertaining historical drama depicting the eventful story of the revenge of an actor with a strange fate, with a variety of characters and exciting developments.

A port town in the Hokuriku region, around the time the Meiji era was drawing to a close. Here, there was a strange custom dating back many years: whoever won the “Competitive Drumming” held on the night of the Spring Festival would gain control of that year’s fishing grounds. Consequently, the fishing boat owners went to great lengths—even resorting to underhanded tactics—to recruit the finest drummers.

War-time jidaigeki by Eisuke Takizawa.

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.

1958 Toei movie.

What starts as a simple request for correction of a newspaper article uncovers a corruption case hidden behind what seemed like an ordinary traffic accident.

Aboard a ship connecting Kyoto and Osaka, Osan was pickpocketed by a sham blind biwa player. A man who looked like a merchant retrieved the wallet for her. Osan was a woman being sold off for the sake of her yakuza-like brother, Nin'kichi. The man in the guise of a merchant turned out to be the Rat Thief, Jirokichi, the infamous thief of Edo. Due to this chance encounter, the two ended up staying at the same hot spring inn. However, one morning, as Jirokichi was about to leave alone, Osan, with the intuition of a smitten woman, confessed she knew he was the famed Rat Thief.

No description available.

No description available.

The second part of an entertaining historical drama depicting the eventful story of the revenge of an actor with a strange fate, with a variety of characters and exciting developments.

Yagyu Jubei proves his skills in this early adventure film.

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In Marugame Domain of Shikoku, a low-ranking foot soldier named Tagami Genbachi was envied for marrying Tsuji, the most beautiful woman in the domain. However, due to a personal grudge held by Horikawa Gentazaemon, the swordsmanship instructor, Genbachi met an untimely and bitter death through foul means within the precincts of the Hachiman Shrine. Due to the domain's oppressive treatment of those of low status, Tsuji, now with her infant son Botaro, was dispossessed of her home and exiled.

The actions and downfall of a man who lives a life of cold calculation, adapted from a Hideo Shirasaki novel.

The story follows Keiko, a dancer in the "Maiko Odori" theater in Kyoto, who tries to climb the social ladder in a world driven by money and self-interest. She becomes involved with wealthy men to pursue her ambitions but faces betrayal, exploitation, and is even accused of embezzlement. As she struggles to survive, her close friend dies from a heart condition, and her plan to marry a rich man fails. In the end, Keiko realizes the harshness of reality and decides to keep dancing despite the sorrow.

No description available.

No description available.

1963 Japanese movie

Sinza who is secretly the well known "Sea Glow Burglar", gives to the poor the money he takes from the bad lords and greedy merchants, who live just to exploit the poor for their small coins. On his travel he meets a man and his little girl Onatsu. The man gets ambushed and killed in front of his daughter, so Sinza promises the man he will take his daughter safely to their destination, so the little girl is now his responsibility. The kind, non-violent Sinza now finds himself entangled in something far bigger than he expected.

1960 Toei action film.

July 1945. War‑exhausted Japan groans under the heel of a brutal military regime. Young journalist Saeki struggles to cling to a fading sense of justice. Writer Yoshida slowly loses his convictions to the darkness of unquestioning orders. Kimiko, a young woman, bears the scars of cruelty from the cold‑hearted military police. Private Yamada has deserted the army. His wife, Ryōko, is branded a traitor's wife and relentlessly hunted. When Yamada finally reaches home, he finds his sick child Toshiko lying in bed. The military police drag him away in front of his family; a struggle ensues, and Yamada is shot dead before his wife's eyes. Hiroshima is annihilated by an atomic bomb. Rumors spread of a final decisive battle on the mainland. The people clutch bamboo spears with gaunt hands. Then August 15th arrives: Japan's defeat is laid bare before the stunned populace.

Early jidaigeki by Tai Kato

Japanese comedy film.

In search of the key to Takeda Shingen's hidden treasure, journey from the shadowy depths of Edo to the mystery-shrouded Kōbushin-dake! Final episode of the epic historical drama trilogy.

No description available.

A group of fishing boats dot the deep blue lake with white clouds rolling by. A heartwarming lyrical drama about the love story between an innocent girl and a young sailor set in a simple fishing village, set to the hit song by Yukiko Nomura, and the mother's love.

No description available.