Mako Midori

In the closing days of World War II, Japanese-American Hiromi, a girl age 16, encounters an American deserter, Bob, and a Japanese soldier, Iwabuchi, living together in a cave on a small island in Okinawa. The two men are deserters from their armies; yet both vow never to harm another human being again. Hiromi looks after the deserters until another soldier appears and the peace of the cave is shattered. It leads to the death of three of them and a fascinating mystery that isn't solved until the present day.

6.7/10

Kazu (Kengo Kora) lives in the Kabukicho entertainment district in Shinjuku, Tokyo. After falling into debt from gambling, he gets an offer from yakuza Ito (Jun Murakami) to trash the night club "New World" and his debt would be paid off. At the nightclub "New World," gambling goes on without permission from the gang which Ito belongs to. When Kazu attacks the bar with yakuza members, dancer Machiko Yagi (Anne Suzuki), who Kazu likes, is at the bar. Under this chaotic situation, Kazu takes Machiko from the waiting room and asks her to run away with him.

5.9/10

Based on the comic Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation, such as scholars and noblemen. In this historical and biographical drama, this is the situation that the young Shinran (1173-1263) discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time.

6.1/10

This is a story of love between a society girl and a yakuza boy. Mami lives an ordinary life in Tokyo, being with her friends and studying. Her biggest interest is ladies hats. She is rather well off, as her father is the ambassador of Japan in Spain. One day when she is out driving, she is attacked by a group of yakuza, but is saved by the honorable yakuza Jiro. This will change her life forever.

7.5/10

Taro Kuroki, 42, is a stuntman with a samurai's heart. He loves adventures, plays pranks with the police, tries to cure a cat lady by reversing her trauma, and finally, rescues his niece who is about to be lured into prostitution.

7/10

Helen and her associates stage a confession play in order to remedy stuttering, but things go amiss.

6.9/10

Utamaro was an artist who lived in Edo (which was later to become modern-day Tokyo) in the late 18th century. This film, which has a complex and wide-ranging storyline, recreates the world of that time, as it appeared in Utamaro's paintings.

6.9/10

Nakadai is an English teacher at a local school. Heā€™s put-upon like the patron figure of dozens of films and televisions shows. Viewers who are especially fans of Nakadai will appreciate how the actor comically rants about here. His home life is almost disastrous, with a ditzy (but attractive) wife, three young children, a loud school nearby thatā€™s controlled by a corrupt businessman he loathes, and frequent visits from layabout friends. And the grey-furred, green-eyed cat!

6.7/10

Hanzo extracts a confession from a ghost using his assaulting methods, foils thieves, connects with Heisuke Takei a friend from his youth, offers protection to a forward-thinking physician Genan Sugino who has defamed his ruler, discovers a pleasure ring of young wives and a blind music teacher, and cuckolds a corrupt official under his very nose.

6.7/10

Movie based on a book by Kakou Senda about the use of women as sexual slaves by the Japanese Army during WW2.

When his pistol is stolen, police detective Murakami is humiliated, especially when the gun is later implicated in a crime. Working with his superior, Chief Detective Sato, Murakami works feverishly to trace the location of his pistol, ultimately clashing with a gang of youthful Okinawans.

7/10

Comedy of an entertainment agent and strip-teasers.

6.7/10

A rebel youth joins a duo of entertainers only able to communicate by gesturing; when the female performer is suddenly abducted, he and Takeru must take action.

6.7/10

A survivor of the tragic mass suicides on Tokashiki Island in 1945 falls in love with a near-mute motorcycle engineer.

A truck driver is reunited with friends from his youth in a seedy bar and gets drawn into a web of crime.

7.6/10

Based on the comic by George Akiyama

Maruyama, a day laborer, is living on an abandoned ship at the port of Osaka when he meets an elusive man offering a job.

A young couple, composed by a cheating wife and a retired car racer, arrive at a drive-in. A man with a gun arrives at the restaurant and takes hostages. Chaos ensues in director's Kiyoshi Nishimura's debut film, almost totally filmed in one space.

A blind sculptor and his mother kidnap a young woman and use her as a model. In the darkness of an abandoned warehouse, she suffers at the hands of the artist, eventually losing both her sight and her mind as whips give way to knives and knives give way to meat cleavers.

7.2/10

Three students spend their holidays at the seaside where they are mistaken for Koreans, a minority which is looked down on in Japan. The action develops into a crime story.

6.6/10

The titular "tarantula" is a murderous woman who, along with the brother who is in love with her, kill without warrant because they are wealthy & above the law. Kyoshiro the homeless masterless wandering samurai has nothing to lose, & no scruples anyway, so can reproach even the powerful with ease. He is thus, for all that he has broad streaks of villainy all his own, a champion of the people by default.

7/10

Kazuo, a Japanese army intelligence agent, reveals a foreign intelligence network in Japan and then sent to Borneo Island with a special mission.

A young thug wanna-be yakuza falls in love with a country girl.

Psychological action drama about the activities of a corrupt lawyer.

In the year 1786, Shogun Ieharu Tokugawa selected beautiful Ochisa to be his concubine. It causes other concubines to become very jealous and mean. When the Shogun passes away, his concubines are forced to become nuns, which they are not happy to be. The subject is life inside a shogun's harem, and the treatment is again more restrained than in most of the historical pinku eiga films being produced by independents at the time, but the tone of this middle installment in the trilogy is decidedly more grim than that of its predecessor. There's a good deal of abuse and violence on display, as the shogun dies and his concubines are sent to a remote convent to become buddhist nuns. the hysterical nuns are being punished for their transgressions and committing suicide in grand exploitation fashion.

A roughneck named Komakichi of Kawachi, Osaka, comes back from a three-year training course to become a chef, hoping to be with his crush Tamae, a daughter of a Japanese restaurantā€™s owner. His father is not happy because Komakichi has no intention to become a rickshaw man to follow in his fatherā€™s footsteps.

Japanese drama film.

Easily bored, but still innocent and naive countryside girl (Mako Midori) discovers partying in Tokyo is a ton of fun. Yakuza-to-be (Ichiro Araki) is an acquaintance who tries to rape her, and the typically bland but very-good-here (Hayato Tani) the first boyfriend. Director Yasuo Furuhata (his first picture) lets his camera roll in trendy clubs amongst partying youngsters in a way that could've been out of 60s England or a Nikkatsu film if it wasn't shadowed by dated 60s Toei conservatism.The resulting film is a bit confused, either a rebellious youth tale chained by moral concerns, or something conceived as a morality tale trying to break free from its chains.

5.9/10

Part 2 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series

Movie adaptation of the TV series.

Gisuke Hayashida is an illegal dentist during the day and a burglar by night. One night during a burglary he witnesses a train derailment. Some communists are found guilty of causing the incident, but he knows it wasn't them. He can save innocent people but for that he must confess his own crime.

7.4/10

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.

Japanese prison exploitation movie. Part 1 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series

Helping her mother manage a nightclub, young Emiko quickly realizes how difficult life is.

About two girls severe way of living.

Second part of the series where sex magic skills of female and Iga ninjas clash over enourmous treasure of the Toyotomi family, discovered in connection with the plot to overthrow the shogunate.

Japanese Toei Production directed by Yƻsuke Watanabe.

Set in the pleasure district of Kyoto, Tamiko (Yoshiko Mita, in her first lead role) is a young girl attending high school by day and training as a geisha at night She sees her future as an entertainer, not a prostitute, & she expects a happy marriage with a medical student, Yasuke (Katsuo Nakamura), a sweet fellow she deeply loves. but things started to getting worse for Tamiko and she's forced to become the mistress of the disgusting Tsukada (Seiji Miyaguchi).

6.6/10