Masayo Banri
Thriller about a gangster and an outlaw who become friends despite their different outlooks.
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....
Nagasaki at the end of the Edo period had the taste of a criminal paradise, where, despite the exotic, dangerous work was always in demand. Here, three wandering samurai who earn their living by killing get to know each other. Soon they learn that government officials will be transporting a large cargo of gold and decide to steal it.
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.
Yoso is truly a lost classic, set in the Nara Era (710-794), from Kinugasa Teinosuke the same writer/director who gave us the recognized classic Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1952) & the milestone silent surrealist masterpiece A Page of Madness (Kurutta Ippeji, 1926).
The son of an executioner and the assassin he loved yet murdered learns of his origins, leaving his foster parents to avenge his mother's death.
Returning to the village where a year before he had killed Hirate, a much-admired opponent, Zatoichi encounters another swordsman and former rival in love: his own brother. He must face in combat not only the pursuing retainers but his own flesh-and-blood.
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
Adaptation of a famous Kyouka Izumi novel. Set in the early 1900's, it tells the story of the impossible love between a young scholar a beautiful geisha.
5 criminals organize a jailbreak in search of a cache of stolen diamonds.
The film begins strongly, with an atmospheric opening sequence, predating John Carpenter's The Fog by two decades, of shuffling ghost-like zombies, blood streaming from their faces, rising from the waves to drag the workers of a deserted shipyard,swirling with dry ice, to their doom. The ghost's main target however is the village kingpin, and employer of the local diving girls, Satomura (played by Juzaburo Akechi). When his wife and youngest daughter are abducted, it is up to his remaining daughter Nami (Banri) and her ama companions to get to the bottom of the mystery, which again revolves around sunken treasure and a gang of swarthy crooks.
Rumi (Yoko Mihara) and Emi (Masayo Banri) are sisters who dance nightly at the Blue Moon cabaret, which happens be the headquarters of a drug ring. Offstage, Rumi captivates the gang boss, Iwahara (Shuntaro Emi); while Emi attracts the portly club manager, Yajima (Saburo Sawai). Meanwhile their older brother Shinichi (Ryo Kuromaru), a seaman, is unwittingly assisting Iwahara with his drug running. When Shinichi’s ship is sea-jacked by another drug gang, an outraged Iwahara suspects him of treachery and has him beaten and confined in a dungeon-like basement. Rumi and Emi try to free him, but a gang hitman discovers them - and their attempt ends in failure. Now under suspicion themselves, the girls try to escape, but luck goes against them and they are taken to an island where Iwahara and his crew plan to ambush the rival gang.
The treasures of the Aoyamas were buried at the bottom of the sea when a large earthquake occurred years before. Yumi Aoyama is the only person who knows the location, but her family dies one after another through curious incidents, as if the family were under a curse. Yumi is surprised by the ghost of a dead sister who looks the same as the grim figure who jumped into the old well alter stabbing herself with a sword. Fearful that a similar fate awaits her, Yumi seeks the help of her friend Kyoko. Later the ghost appears before Kyoko and her fiancé, Detective Nonomiya. In a haunted cave, Kyoko and Yumi are in deadly peril from those who seek treasures of the Aoyamas.
The film marked Yōko Mihara's debut as the star of Shintoho's series of ama films, a role she took over from Michiko Maeda.
Desiring another officer’s new wife, a military police lieutenant fabricates evidence of treason that consigns the innocent man to torture and a firing squad. The lieutenant rapes the wife, but is haunted by bad dreams which after he is assigned to a battalion with the victim’s brother.
A blind masseur visits a samurai to request the return of a loan. The samurai kills him in anger, then has his servant dump the body in the Kasane swamp. However, the ghost of the masseur returns to haunt the samurai, who kills his wife by mistake and then goes to the swamp and drowns himself. 20 years later, the masseur's daughter unknowingly falls in love with the samurai's son who has been brought up to be a servant. After she is horribly disfigured in an accident, he plots to run away with another woman, but the path of their escape lies by the Kasane swamp...
Chie, who's chosen as 'Ms. Woman Diver', and her friend Yuki, have been missing for several days after they left for Tokyo to be interviewed by a magazine. Later, Yuki is found dead in the sea. Yoshi, Chie's sister, along with sailor Shunsuke, try to find Chie. Soon they learn about a conspiracy with diamonds in a ship sunk in the sea.
Japanese war film based on the true story of Yoshiko Kawashima, played by actress Miyuki Takakura in her film debut.
