Kôji Nanbara
The creator of the world orders Hermes to defeat the evil King Minos, tyrant of Crete. With his beautiful wife, Aphrodite, by his side, he bravely responds to the challenge. A battle between good and evil rocks the heavens as Hermes fights to unite Greece!
Tatsumi, a young doctor who works at Teito University Hospital, will be witnessing the operation of Black Jack, who does not have a doctor's license. Osamu Tezuka's comic of the same name was made into a series with an original video.
The original is a manga work by Shigeru Tsuchiyama serialized in the magazine "Leed Comic". The director is Takeshi Watanabe of "Kyouju Luger P08", the script is Masaya Ishikawa, and the shooting is Naoaki Imaizumi. A hard-boiled action by a combination of a former yakuza detective and a gangster who is a police officer. Performers are Kazuya Kimura, Rikiya Yasuoka, and Katsuya Kobayashi. Kyotaro Inugami, a detective at the port station, is a former yakuza. The young head of the gangster group Tsuneno-gumi, Choji Hanawa is a police officer. They were two people glaring at each other, but there are two people, Assistant Commissioner Masaru Sasaki and Shiro Sasaki ...
At an all-girls school, a group of girls prepare for a stage performance of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard".
A young doujinshi writer doesn't win the literary prize award, and ends up killing the selection committee.
Ryoko Itakura returns as the government tax agent willing to tackle the toughest cases. This time she takes on a fanatical but lucrative religious cult run by a vile lecher.
Kokuchou Academy used to be an elite school but it is now a nest of evil. Accordingly, spunky schoolgirls Miho, Yumi, Ruri and Kei form the Sailor Suit Rebel Alliance to eliminate wrongdoers from the school premises, wearing heavy makeup in order to keep their identities hidden.
Starting out in Edo, as Kyoshiro travels west toward Kyoto, he encounters some of the most dangerous obstacles in his career. Signs that the Tokugawa shogunate was vulnerable began to appear during the reign of 12th Shogun Ieyoshi. The Satsuma and the 13 Western non-Tokugawa lords began to act in suspicious ways. Minister Takebe, under orders from shogunate councilor Mizuno, attempted to quash this unrest. Nemuri Kyoshiro, a loner headed west, unwittingly becomes involved in the struggle.
Outside of a small village in Japan, a mysterious pond is inhabited by mythic creatures. Their story is of revenge, tragedy, and the power of real love. A classical tale which translates wonderfully to film.
Suspense film about a beautiful photographer who becomes involved in a murder case.
Lady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.
Following her successful prison break, Scorpion begins this third episode in the series hiding out in a brothel. Her prostitute friend tries to keep her identity secret, but the brothel's madam discovers that Scorpion is the ex-girlfriend of the vice officer who killed her lover.
Gang leader Nami (cult film legend Meiko Kaji) kills a member of a yakuza group and goes away to prison. Upon her release three years later, she’s a shamed woman confined to living in the shadowy world of sex clubs and street gangs. She returns to the city to live with her uncle, a billiard-hall owner, and after befriending pimp and ne’er-do-well Ryuji (Tsunehiko Watase), she gets a job working at a hostess club in the chic Ginza neighborhood, where the expensive shops and neon lights conceal a dark world of crime and sexual slavery. But when a rival gang attempts to muscle in on the club, Nami becomes enmeshed in a violent struggle that forces her to wield a skilled pool cue to defend her uncle’s business, and eventually a short sword to wreak bloody vengeance upon her enemies.
Can a sinful man change and find peace? It's unlikely in gang-plagued Japan. Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter (and hired sword), goes straight after protecting a woman in distress: they marry, have a son, and Jokichi pursues his father's craft. After three years, the gangs he embarrassed when he saved his wife find the family and leave Jokichi in grief, vowing revenge. To parry his terrible swift sword, rival gangs join forces, hiring a prostitute to pose as a woman needing help and breaking the code of honor to double cross the drifter. He finds unlikely allies: a thief who aids him for fun and a one-eyed swordsman who may be Jokichi's equal in skill and honor.
A fearless man confronts a yakuza organization pushing the envelope of extravagant & all sorts of violence.
Zatoichi is a blind massage therapist and swordsman who finds out that something troubling is taking place on the outskirts of town. After discovering who the guilty parties are -- an accomplished Chinese martial artist named Wang Kang and his youthful attendant -- Zatoichi finds them and discovers that the pair's mixed up with a dangerous bunch of terrorist samurai who murdered the boy's parents. Now, Zatoichi must step in to save the day.
Young man returns from prison and sets out to destroy the gang that killed his friends and boss of his former gang.
After helping a pregnant girl escape from their reform school and facing the resulting punishment, a clique of delinquent girls eventually reunites a year later in Tokyo to face different challenges in the form of yakuza and… street vendors.
A beautiful hostess of a small restaurant moonlights as a well-trained assassin tasked with taking the life of a wealthy businessman...
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?
A tragic love story involving the 5th Shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty and a woman who became one of his concubines.
Writer Jippensha Ikku hears Tsutaya Juzaburo, a wholesaler of picture books, mutter on his deathbed, "Where has Sharaku gone?" He begins to figure out the true identity of Sharaku, who disappeared after about 150 portraits of actors he created came out.
Ohyaku is a grifter who falls in love with a thief, who recruits her for his plan to rob a shipment of government gold. When this plan goes wrong and Ohyaku ends up in prison, she resolves to do anything to escape and claim revenge on the ones who betrayed her and her lover.
The first in what would become Toei's most successful, longest-running bosozoku film series. It lasted from 1968 till 1972 through sixteen films.
On a cold winter day, Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) and Masahiko murder the mob boss of Meishin-Kai. The deed costs them time in prison, but Goro had no shred of regret. When Goro is released 2 years later, Masahiko is dying in prison hospital and entrusts his last wish; "find my sister and take care of her." Goro leaves as a free man with a mission, but soon finds that he might have been better off in jail.
Continuation of the film Once and For All about two yakuza brothers Joji and Goro.
After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.
The lord of the Oshi fief is killed by his trespassing neighbour, the cruel and despotic Nariatsu, son of the former Shogun. After an investigation, the Oshi clan is blamed for what happened and sentenced to be disbanded. Eleven of the best samurai of the clan refuse the sentence and are willing to give their life for justice.
Ryoma is a former military man who gets to know the leader of a yakuza group and begins to work with them, helping them defend themselves against other yakuza gangs.
Thriller about a gangster and an outlaw who become friends despite their different outlooks.
Following “A Man's Face Shows His Personal History”, this movie is the second of the “Trilogy of the Wartime Generation”. It is a war drama set in China and depicts bottles over opium.
In a Toei all-star effort, Matsukata Hiroki, Otomo Ryutaro, and Konoe Jushiro combine to create an exciting black and white sequel to the classic story of 17 Ninja, one of the most famous films from that noted studio. In the year 1651 the Kishu clan is about to rise against the Tokugawa shogunate using a stash of muskets being guarded by Jinza the leader of the Koga ninja. The Iga ninja are called upon to stop the revolt under the leadership of Hattori Hanzo setting off a spy versus spy battle of silent ninja stealth. Through all the turmoil, Shizaburo and Yuka have broken the taboo of ninja falling in love and strive to achieve the forbidden life of happiness that is denied to all members of the ninja class.
The film depicts the fate of a young yakuza boss and his father, who confront each other, not knowing that they are relatives, and become victims of a brutal war for territory between the clans according to the merciless laws of the yakuza.
Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza, the other a petty criminal, and although they hate each other they must work together if they are to evade capture in this harshest of climates.
A young bartender acts as a pimp on the side: he pretends to have VD to get a girl an abortion. She is actually infected by another and plans her revenge.
Ronin samurai Ibuki-san enters a town and sells his skills to the warring families. He falls in love with the beautiful horse stable owner but like all heroes, cannot stay.
Three Iga ninja are on a hunt for Chidoken, a Takeda ninja sent out to assasinate Lord Nobunaga.
A suspenseful Ninja fantasy based on Shiba Ryotaro's novel, woven with the mysterious fate and romance of Shinzo and a beautiful Princess who find themselves at the center of an intrigue surrounding the legendary land of Yasurai in the mountains of Kumano. Hidden gold, the love of a beautiful Princess, and the approaching evil sword all contribute in bringing you a Ninja action thriller that only the legendary actor Okawa Hashizo and the genius director Kato Tai could produce!
A young woman (Dan) who worked as a prostitute in the days following World War II finds herself sexually dissatisfied with her husband and contemplates returning to an old lover who comes back into her life.
The last fight put up by remaining forces and a special volunteer nursing corps in 1944-5.
The basic story in Love under the Crucifix is about Ogin, daughter of a tea master, who are both Christians in feudal Japan. Ogin falls in love with a feudal prince, also a Christian who is already married, and that creates problems. Further, when the Shogun bans Christianity, the situation worsens.
Takashi Fujiki stars as a rebel in this drama about life on the Yokohama waterfront by New Wave director Masahiro Shinoda. The rebel works as an errand boy for a shipping company and vents his frustrations by plucking on the guitar. His interpretations of popular trends in music are sometimes right-on, and sometimes not exactly. Bereft of his guitar, the rebel's modes of expression are not as effective in generating interest as the Yokohama docks themselves, a fascinating world in their own right.
One week into newlywed Teiko Uhara's marriage, her husband, Kenichi, leaves on a short business trip and never returns. Teiko travels across Japan to search for him, and along the way discovers some surprising facts about her husband's past. With only a pair of old photographs among his belongings to go off of, Teiko tries to figure out what has happened to him.
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.
On his way to Tokyo one night, a truck driver picks up a country girl and has his way with her amidst a forest. A few days later he loses his job after a run-in with some punks, but is offered a job by a gangster impressed by his fighting skills. He tries to make amends with the girl he ravished, but becomes caught up in the ways of the underworld...
A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
Drama which shows the struggle of Fumiko, a female teacher, at work and at home.
This mammoth humanist drama by Masaki Kobayashi is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three installments of two parts each, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition, adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji—played by the Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai—from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet prisoner of war. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals to be an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of Japan’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.
Alongside Tokyo's Sumida River is a ragpickers' settlement known as Ant Village. One night, a young Catholic girl, Satoko Kitahara, who has been baptized under the name of Maria, comes to offer her services. However, Ant Village is not just an ordinary vagrants' community but a fine autonomous organization, and as the municipal authorities have long been demanding that the people of Ant Village leave the site, Satoko is utilized to publicize the Village and win public sympathy. While being utilized in this manner, Satoko is nevertheless glad to be able to help the people of Ant Village, especially the children, and when the summer vacation comes she decides to take the children on an excursion to Hakone. To raise funds for this purpose she becomes a rag-picker herself.
The plans of a trio of burglars are continually thwarted by the arrival of visitors to the house they plan to rob.
1957 film directed by Miyoji Ieki. Winner of the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Detective Tarao goes undercover to battle an evil gun smuggling business.
Second film in the Boy Detectives Club series.
Junpei Kihara, a young president of the University's wrestling club, is nicknamed "Mr. Chop". One day, on the way back from visiting the hospital after being thrown by Nobuyoshi Shinohara during practice and injured, he met Asako, the sister of Arisawa's mother, Katsuko. When they entering a coffee shop run by Asako's best friend Hisako, Hisako misunderstood them as lovers...
One of the earliest Japanese cop films following a mysterious killing on the last train to Mitaka, Tokyo.
A woman loses her son through an evil conspiracy and commits suicide. Shortly afterwards a ghost cat begins haunting the conspirators. This is Takako Irie's first bakeneko (ghost cat) movie; it started a Daiei cycle which was very popular at the time in Japan.
