Kyū Sazanka

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

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.

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

No description available.

No description available.

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.

A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

After a young boy captures a rare butterfly in Nagasaki, a caterpillar begins a relay-trip toward the northern tip of Hokkaido, serving as a silent witness to a series of vignettes featuring people struggling with the psychological and social scars of post-war Japan.

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Detective Tarao goes undercover to battle an evil gun smuggling business.

A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introduction of his daughter's lover to his wife.

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat.

A rival diner opens next door, the model student third son fails his college entrance exams, and the good-natured dad finds himself in a whirlwind of trouble as internal and external crises come one after another.

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A harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitchhiking to rob middle-class men.

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Period comedy with fantasy elements.

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture.

A child who was taken in and raised by a woman from a once-impoverished traveling theater troupe grows up to be a beautiful young woman and performs in a dance recital. Her biological mother, who suddenly appears, is the wife of a wealthy man.

After finding a winning lottery ticket, the daughter and wife convince their father who’s been acting like a millionaire that it’s all just a one-night dream, hoping to cure his gambling habit.

In Kyoto a young kimono maker with traditional ideas gets involved with a married professor.

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No description available.

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.

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The 22nd film in the Ekimae series about shop-owners living near Akabane Station, Tokyo.

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.

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.

The 16th "Ekimae" feature.

Sequel to the 1955 movie.

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A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo.

The story revolves around a young man appointed to rescue a troubled hospital who must choose between two women, a dedicated nurse or a spoiled rich girl.

A young girl is rigorously trained in the feminine arts so that she can become a geisha. As she struggles through life, she learns to live not just as a woman but as a complete person.

This film by Toyoda depicts the hard life of an unmarried mother in Tokyo. Umeko (Machiko Kyo), at 36, is working in a bar, struggling valiantly to keep her family together. Her 17-year-old daughter Takeko becomes increasingly upset by her mother's constant drinking and yakuza boyfriend, and runs away from home. Kyo's performance was highly praised.

The 17th "Ekimae" feature.

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies.

A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising baseball player to The Toyko Flowers.

Towards the end of WWII, a black American pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions as to how to proceed with their 'catch'.

Tamio Moroi, a young university graduate, works at a large brewery where he is taught to do nothing but look busy. When his father goes insane, he is told to send money for medical research into the condition. This prompts him to pay his father a visit, leading to a series of mishaps that leaves him at the bottom of the heap in what he once expected to be a promising lifetime career.

Police beat a murder confession out of four innocent men who are then sentenced to death. Based on a true story.

1961 Japanese movie

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 is about the social problems faced by Japan's indigenous Ainu, mostly centered on the reactions of the characters to their oppressed state.

A greedy, materialistic family attempts to cover-up the embezzlement committed by the son while keeping their other schemes active. They discover there are other, equally conniving players involved.

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

A comedic retelling of the legendary encounter between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamato Musashi.

Based on the famous novel by Junichiro Tanizaki, this is a story of the four sisters of the ancient and reputable Makioka family of Osaka.

The 12th "Ekimae" feature.

Seven employees rise up in rebellion against an irresponsible company.

The final film by Yuzo Kawashima.

A young intellectual conscientious objector is forced to serve with the Japanese army in Manchuria. He joins with a dim-witted former gangster in an effort to desert by stealing a train.

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.

Okawa Hashizo as 'Young Lord', the unlikely sleuth sets out to untangle the riddle of what went on at the Inner Palace, where a young woman who had served the Shogun came home in fear for her life. Will the Young Lord uncover the truth of what went on at the Palace, and does it relate to a series of murders that have been occurring just before the festival?

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1962 Japanese movie

When hopeful Olympic triple-jump competitor injures both his Achilles tendons, he discovers an old manuscript about self-confidence to join the best company in Japan try to triple-jump his way to the top and marry the company model (Mie Hama) in the bargain. The second installment in the "Japan's No. 1" film series.

A contemporary comedy.

A friendly rivalry turns into romance for Yukiko, an elite female detective, and a handsome private eye named Mitamura while both are investigating the missing person's case from a wealthy family.

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Penultimate 23rd "Ekimae" comedy is about oil-field exploration.

When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence.

Sixth entry in the Company President Series.

Based on the short story of the same name by Seichō Matsumoto.

A seasoned prosecutor uncovers the perfect crime committed by a young lawyer.

Japanese comedy film.

Asakichi beats a ganster, Sada, in a physical fight, leading to recognition by Sada's clan boss. When Kotoito, the geisha Asakichi is in love with, is kidnapped by a rival clan and sold to a a house of pleasure, Asakichi and Sada set out to rescue her.

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The 18th "Ekimae" feature.

1962 Japanese movie

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In Meiji era Japan a sixth grade boy is smart, likable and confident and owing to his academic success liked by his teacher. Things are not going well at home, however, where his father does not work leaving the mother to toil . With the boy's family having no money he cannot progress his education and has to drop out of school. A neighbour, who is a bookstore owner, offers the family money to allow the boy to continue his schooling, but the father is too proud to accept and rebuffs the offer forcing the boy to work.

Part one of The Masterless 47.

Comedy starring the Crazy Cats' Kei Tani as a salaryman suffering from amnesia.

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Late entry "Ekimae" feature, about the hunt for lost treasure.

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In a provincial Japanese town, an entrepreneurial sanitation collector is drawn into the world of local politics, only to discover that the prosperity he helped create will benefit everyone but himself.

Nine maids serve the household of a writer and his wife. The couple treat their maids like daughters and marry them off to eligible men. So, they are forever looking for new maids. As the years go by maid servants become hired help and more bossy and independent, so Chikura and his wife find themselves adjusting their lives to keep up with changing times.

A historical drama that depicts the touching beauty of world obsession and human love in the style of light comedy, in the center of which is a young man who has a master license menkyo kaiden in the art of swordsmanship, but weak against lies and women. A remake of Bungaku no Issue, shot by Sadao Yamanaka in 1933.

A clothing manufacturer president tries to revitalize his company during a business downturn by securing new sales partners and chasing a deal with a world-renowned fashion designer.

Contemporary musical drama film by Yasuzo Masumura.

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After a promotion brings new professional challenges, a diligent employee is pulled into corporate matchmaking and a high-stakes business conflict over a critical eel supply.

1967 Japanese movie

Ryokichi Ibuki is a clerk who learns company "top secrets" and becomes an industrial blackmailer. Kaoru Koizumi, a confidential secretary in love with Ibuki, reveals her firm's plans to him. She resigns when Ibuki blackmails her employer but Ibuki gains another spy in Ayuko Ichinoi...

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

1961 gangster film.

The 11th "Ekimae" feature.

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Ayako Wakao won the Blue Ribbon and the Kinema Jumpo for this film.

An ambitious young woman uses her sex appeal to solve financial problems in her family, including a brother in debt to the yakuza, and a father who stole money from his firm to repay his son's debt.

First sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

This movie depicts a familiar samurai Tange Sazen story realistically. Tange loses one of his eyes and arms in an attempt to recover a masterpiece sword for his lord. However, his efforts are not appreciated and he becomes a man of hatred.

1962 Japanese movie

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.

A kind of modern dress "Donzoko" "The Lower Depths", about slum life in Osaka, where a greedy widow (Mimasu) takes advantage of her poor roomers, including her own son, who makes a meagre living stripping taxicabs.

When the plague threatens a small town in Manchuria, a young doctor finds himself struggling to save the lives of his townspeople.

Kosaka drops to death while ice climbing with his friend Uozu to see the sunrise on the New Year’s Day. The investigators try to find the cause of the death, then discover that the cut rope was made in the factory for which Uozu’s brother works.

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Thriller about a narcotics investigator uncovering a dope ring.

Romantic comedy.

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Mie Nakao runs away from home to join her older sister's production company as a new talent. We follow her ups and downs on the way to stardom as she falls in love with two men, a petty thief and a music writer and teacher, and makes her way in the industry alongside The Peanuts and The Crazy Cats.

Early jidaigeki by Tai Kato.

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A film produced by Toho and Watanabe Productions as part of the Crazy Movie project featuring The Crazy Cats comedy group and jazz band members. It is the sixth film in the Crazy Operation series where the lead role was handed over from Eikichi Ueki to Kei Tani. According to the plot, Planet Alpha Secretary severely worried by the effects of the Earth's atomic bomb experiment and sent Mistake 7 and Zero 8, as a watchers to Earth for a nuclear disarmament.

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The lives of a family of kelp (kombu) merchants in Osaka across three generations, spanning from the Meiji era through the aftermath of World War II.

Ensemble comedy.

Japanese comedy film.

The fifth "Ekimae" film set in a Chinese restaurant in Yokohama's Chinatown.

No description available.

1962 Japanese movie

1961 Japanese movie

#13 in the Ekimae series of films. Set at Todai University, Professor Sakai (played by Frankie Sakai) mentors a group of university hopefuls. Cut to 25 years later, the students have each settled into their careers and cross paths with Professor Sakai's son, a P.E. teacher (also played by Sakai).

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No description available.

Sixth film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin.

A former company man turned drifter is pulled back to lead a struggling toy company, enforcing bold reforms that shake up its corporate culture. Just as success arrives, he quietly walks away, leaving a changed company behind.

Terasaki, the new history teacher at the Senior High School, finds encouragement in the words of his Principal. "There are no bad children in this world. Some may be hard to handle but a teacher should never lose courage … never give up." But when put in charge of the third year class C, reputed to be the most incorrigible in the whole school, he is faced with surly opposition from the start. However, Terasaki perseveres. His greatest headaches are three students ... Sanae, who develops a "crush" on him, Nakanishi, who seeks to forget his unhappy home life in rugby, and Nire his pal.

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No description available.

Two residents of Edo city Yaji and Kita make a journey to the temple of Ise, as part of a religious pilgrimage, but actually to get away from their wives for a little while. As they travel, they are constantly beset by complications involving women, mistaken identity, and misunderstood events. Another film adaptation of the famous novel Ikku Jippensha Footing It Along the Tokaido (Tokaidochu Hizakurige)

Comedy drama film

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Singer Eri stars in this modern musical.

Tatsuo Osone movie

A straight-laced employee is tasked with supervising his impulsive CEO during a business trip intended to revive struggling sales.

1967 Japanese movie

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Tale of tragic love between samurai and princess during Heian period.

Crime melodrama about two detectives (Ikebe and Arashima) and one detective's trumpet-playing son (Sato) who become involved in a complex murder investigation.

No description available.

Comedy historical film about a wandering warrior, based on the novel by Shin Hasegawa.

A love comedy directed by Osamu Takahashi based on an original screenplay by Kei Tasaka.

15th entry in the Ekimae series, surrounding the then-insanely popular Weekly Shounen Sunday series Osomatsu-kun and Obake no Q-Taro.

Aya successfully stages a fashion show in Osaka and in the train on her way home to Tokyo accidentally treads on a man's foot. The man whose name is Rentaro is not amused. Just afterwards she notices that he is reading a magazine which carries her picture which he crushes and throws under his seat. One of her customers in Tokyo is a pretty girl named Kana for whom she had designed a dress which at first seems quite satisfactory. But a few days later Kana brings it back. It seems her brother thinks it terrible. But when Kana brings the dress back she meets Aya's brother, Takeshi, with whom she becomes friendly and Takeshi gives her a new dress which he smuggles out of his sister's office. When Aya finds Kana's discarded dress and misses one belonging to another customer she goes to see Kana's brother, and to her surprise finds him to be the fellow whose foot she'd stepped upon in the train...

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Film adaption by Kenji Misumi

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Yano, a progressive individual who seeks to overcome strength with gentleness and confronts physical power with moral principles, faces off against a man protecting jujitsu in the twilight of Kikyōgahara!

Adapted from the Seicho Matsumoto story "Tazutazushi". Ryohei Suzuki, a manager at a travel company, is married to his superior's daughter, but tires of their authority over his life. A chance encounter with Yukiko Hirai one rainy night brings a new romance into Ryohei's life, and he and Yukiko fall deeply in love. Yukiko, however, reveals that she has a violent husband in prison - with only a week left until his release. Ryohei, desperate to maintain his social standing, brings Yukiko to the mountains in Nagano and sets in motion an unthinkable, tragic chain of events.

A fellow member of the company named Hanjiro tells Koharu, an actress in a traveling theatrical troupe, about a keepsake folding fan that his lost love Lady Okyo gave him years ago. It turns out this fan is a precious clan heirloom whose possession, for convoluted reasons, will determine the clan's leadership. Sword-slinging bad guys descend to capture the fan, and Koharu embarks on a road trip to Edo to return the MacGuffin to the rightful hands of Lady Okyo.

A fox in disguise, Okon, returns the favor to a man who rescued her from a fatal trap.

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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…

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No description available.

A privileged son betrays his family for the favors of a geisha in 18th century Osaka.

In the autumn of 1945, Petty Officer Tadashi Yamaji is among the numerous war crimes suspects facing death on the gallows for maltreatment of Allied women and children interned in camp Kampili. Kampili is located some ten kilometers outside Macassar on the island of Celebes. Eighteen-hundred Allied women and children were interned for the duration of the war. Yamaji's iron rule for camp administration is : No violence; hands off internees; He also endeavors to establish self-administration by internees while aiming at a self-supporting camp economy within six months. His ingenuity gains the camp numerous pigs to enrich their diet, and sewing machines with to make fatigue uniforms for the military. The internees are grateful for what little aid he can give them. As the tides of war changes, Allied planes bomb the camp in error. But the surrender of Japan changes everything, and the internees join forces to save their former camp commander from the gallows.

Young lawyer Jiro receives a late night phone call from a distraught woman sending him on a journey to uncover corruption and exploitation stemming from those at the very top of society.

Seventh in the Ekimae series, detailing the exploits of the landladies around Ryogoku Station in Tokyo, and their sumo clientele.

In postwar Osaka’s bustling textile district, a tough and highly rational moneylender named Katsumi builds a successful lending business in a world driven by debt, greed, and ambition. As rival lenders and business owners compete to take control of a struggling textile company, Katsumi becomes caught in a web of financial schemes, betrayals, and personal loyalties. What begins as a ruthless climb to power gradually turns into a fight to survive the consequences of the world she helped create.

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.

In the shimotsuke town of Tokyo, Honmachi tenkawa Cho continues to take the remains of the car. One of them was inuzuka store where the man loved the machine.

Film directed by Seiichirô Uchikawa.

Early jidaigeki by Tai Kato

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