Toshiyuki Nagashima
When Mio was young, she lost her parents in a great flood and also became separated from her best friend Noe. Afterwards, Mio found her talent in cooking and eventually became a cook. Meanwhile, Noe has become an oiran (high-ranking courtesan).
The film follows the relationship between a mother and her son. In 1945, the mother played by Sayuri Yoshinaga fled with her two sons from the Russians to Hokkaido. In 1972, her son played by Masato Sakai returns to Japan after finding success in the U.S.
Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this Japanese-Turkish blockbuster: The sinking of the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul off the Japanese coast in 1890, and the evacuation of Japanese nationals from Iran in 1985. By making this film about friendship and compassion, the initiators intended to contribute to world peace. Director Mitsutoshi Tanaka's masterpiece was nominated for the Japan Academy Film Prize in ten categories, including Best Film and Best Director, and won the awards for Best Sound Recording and Best Art Direction.
Kinjiro, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is a good-natured fellow who goes around the country helping farm families. At his new appointment in Usuki City, Oita Prefecture, he visits a tea-growing family he has known for a long time. There, he finds the family head's granddaughter Minori, who lost her job in Tokyo and has just returned home.
Teenager Tsubasa Sato returns to the parallel universe where demons are out to kill every person with the last name of Sato.
Steven Berkoff's iconic adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novella, which tells the tale of a traveling salesman who is transformed into an insect, is brought to life in this highly physical and visually striking production. Captured live at the Parco Theater in Tokyo, this landmark performance is in Japanese with English subtitles. Considered one of Berkoff’s masterpieces and performed multiple times since it first appeared in 1969, Metamorphosis combines elements of sound, physicality and minimalist design to recreate Kafka’s absurdist world on stage.
Famous movie actress Nami is being interviewed by a magazine reporter about her new film in which the plot resembles her real life. Her actor husband Yosuke has an affair with a young actress Junko whereas in the movie, Nami acts as an actress whose husband has an extramarital relationship with a young girl, with Yosuke as the husband and Junko as the new girl friend. In the course of the interview, Nami falls into deep thoughts and flashbacks about her lascivious encounters with strangers in a night train, in the movie as in the reality. Despite whether her intention is to revenge her husband or to satisfy her own desires, Nami demonstrates bewitching charm in a series of intercourse with different men, positions and locations. Director Takashi Ishii attempts to explore female sexual psychology through perfect blends of aesthetic nudity and violence.
Sakiko, works independently at a travel agent in Tokyo. She was raised by her mother, Tatsuko, is hospitalized, Sakiko returns to her hometown Tokushima on Shikoku. The town is famous for its annual Awa Dance Festival. She is told by doctor, Terasawa Daisuke, that her mother has terminal cancer.
Koji Namiki is a young pitcher who has shown great promise on the diamond by winning the National High School Basketball Championships. Shortly after entering college, however, Namiki's athletic career is called into question after he suffers a severe elbow injury. But despite a disheartening diagnosis, Namiki is determined to make a comeback. With a little help from his teammates it appears that he is getting back on track, too. Recently, he's even developed a new slow ball that he and his teammates have christened "the magic pitch". Fate can be a cruel mistress though, and when World War II breaks out Namiki the entire team join the navy and begin a training regiment specifically designed to prepare them for the ultimate darkness, an submarine attack method also known as "The Human Torpedo".
Rikka Nikaidou is a cute and innocent girl sees two persons vanish into thin hair...
Translucent Tree is centered around divorced Chigiri, a suburban middle-aged mother taking care of her teenage daughter, Mayu, and her ailing father Kaho. Her life is mundane and rather hopeless until Go, a TV producer from Tokyo, pays a visit to her town and the tree they shared time under some twenty years back after a TV commercial shoot. His remembrances of her, the tree, and the long unrequited love stir both of their hearts to fumbling action as they re-discover the love between them.
Naoto Ogata plays Sadajiro, a young farmer fighting out the battle of the riot through to the end. Sadajiro's wife is played by Hiromi Iwasaki, his father is played by Go Kato and Ryuzo Hayashi plays a leader of the Riot. The Riot in Gujo is called one of the biggest three riots in the Edo Period as it took almost 5 years to settle and also involved the Edo government. This movie is a period film about the riot and Gujo farmers fighting for their tenacity of purpose. The farmers had suffered enough from heavy taxes and decided to rise up in riot when the domain lord, Yorikane, issued a new act, which practically forced tax increases. Asking the lord to retract the act, they pour down to the Hachiman Castle. For once they attain the repeal deed signed by the chief retainer. However the promise is broken. Now the farmers decide to make a direct plea to the Edo Residence…This film is full tension and breathless moments.
Kazuki spends his days training to leave his home town and become the best cook in Japan.
In an alternate timeline, the original Godzilla is never defeated and repeatedly reemerges to feed on Japan's energy sources. A new inter-dimensional weapon called the Dimension Tide is created with the intent of eliminating Godzilla. However, the new weapon might also serve as a gateway to something far more sinister.
Junko was born with a type of ESP called pyrokinesis which she can use to incinerate anyone and anything at will. Junko is secretly in love with Kazuki, a young man who works with her. His sister is killed and a boy named Masaki suspected but the police don't arrest him. Junko tells Kazuki about her powers and takes revenge.
Screen icon Sayuri Yoshinaga stars in this historical melodrama about geishas in the southern city of Nagasaki set during the 1920s. Though she was sold to a geisha house at a young age, Aihara (Yoshinaga) has since become a master samisen player and woman of great elegance. Though not especially rich, she doles out money to street kids, in particular, a pretty young flower vendor named Oyuki, who becomes Aihara's godchild of sorts. Yet when a geisha (Reiko Takashima) from a rival red-light district insults Aihara and her brethren, she fights back. Soon an all-out geisha war looms. Dapper businessman and amateur scholar Tojiro Koga (Tetsuya Watari) appears on the scene and defuses tempers -- suggesting that difference be settled through a competition of artistic abilities. Smitten with her talent and mature beauty, Koga invites Aihara to record Nagasaki folk songs before they disappear forever
Togashi, an enthusiastic marathon runner and his wife are occupied with their daughter Mayumi's grade school entrance examinations, but he becomes jobless when his company folds. To regain his confidence Togashi decides to join the marathon that is taking place on the very day of his daughter's examination and the all important interview.
Remake of Chusei Sone's 1983 comedy about a yakuza family trying their luck in show business.
The 7th gangster action of men who continue to fight bloody battles in Tosa, Shikoku.
A retired warrior comes to see his former lord and learns that someone is making indestructible swords from some unknown metal. He is sent together with a swordsman to investigate the source. Along the way they meet a young girl working as a beekeeper. She is later witness to the appearance of three strange females from another dimension. They are searching for a lost weapon that has landed on earth and as one of them lay dying she enlists the girl to help them control the strange beast/weapon. Meanwhile the warrior and the swordsman learn that an old nemesis has created the swords from the shell that surrounded the alien weapon. Soon the alien beast/weapon is awakened and battle for control ensues.
Masamichi Toyama is a loyal husband with a bad gambling debt. Mobsters out for the money track him down, beating him and raping his wife. Desperate for revenge, he makes himself a sword and sets out to wreak havoc. When he meets the Gonin, a group of five female thieves, his luck only gets worse. Run, Sayuri, Shiho, Saki and Chihiro are fast-shooting, strong-arm women. Not only that, but they're more than prepared to take on an army of gangsters. Unfortunately for them, they stole the ring Masamichi wanted for his wife, and now he's more likely to hunt them than join their cause.
A strange meteor lands in Japan unleashing hundreds of insect-like "legion" creatures which find their way into Tokyo. When the military fails to control the situation, Gamera shows up to deal with the ever-evolving space adversary.
When the famous SL "Lady of Childbirth" traveling on the Yamaguchi Line approached Tsuwano, a passenger saw a man crashing into the tracks from the top of the Usui Tunnel. When the conductor rushed to report it, the man was already dead. Shortly after, the witness passenger had disappeared for some reason! Detective Sato (Takuma), who rushes to the scene, learns that the dead man is Odagiri (Odagiri), a taxi driver whom he met earlier.
A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past
Shirota Shintaro lives with his wife Atsuko, his four children, Shitaro's father Fukuzo, and a dog. He is forced to make room for his sister Megumi and her children, as well as an unexpected lodger from Hungary.
An undercover narcotics officer is killed, and after his funeral some yakuza break into his apartment and rape his wife, Nami, while looking for the drugs they claim he stole from them. Afterwards Nami attempts to commit suicide, but after being rescued by a mysterious yakuza she decides to infiltrate the gang and get revenge.
Andrzej Wajda's Japanese-language film based on the last chapter of Dostoevsky's Idiot, in which Prince Myshkin and Rogozhin return to the past in a conversation over the dead body of Nastassya Filippovna. Bando Tamasaburo, regarded as one of the most outstanding female impersonators in Japanese theater, plays the dual role of Myshkin and Nastassya.
Famed onnagata (a man who plays women's parts in Kabuki) Tamasaburo Bando follows up on the success of his directorial debut, Gekashitsu, with this soft-focused romance about love and obligation, based on a novel by Kafu Nagai. Set during the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kaede (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is the former mistress of a wealthy merchant. When he dies, she is forced out on the street and forced to give up her young daughter to the merchant's family. The film opens with her working in a high-class brothel abutting Tokyo Bay. Though she has passionate affection for a drug wholesaler, whom she loves as well, Kaede is swamped with not only debts to the bordello and family obligations -- she is expected to support her parents and her sister -- but also guilt over losing her child. This pain is only increased when Kaede learns that her daughter is being abused. She does the only thing she can: She buys back her child by signing on at the brothel for a longer stint.
A summery youth movie about love and beach volleyball, adapted by Yuhei Enoki from an original draft by Osamu Murakami. Starring Kenichiro Kikuchi and Eri Fukatsu.
After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese government uses the cells to create a new bio-weapon, ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). They seeks the aid of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who's experiments result in a new mutation.
Yuichi Koga is an upper-class business executive, running his own adult video company, and living a successful life with his wife and daughter. Outwardly, his family seems really happy, but in reality Yuichi enjoys sex with everyone but his wife Chikako. One day, he gets a phone call from a woman named Sanae, an old elementary school classmate of his.
Harada is a successful scenario writer, and his best buddy has just announced an intention to propose to Harada's ex-wife. Recovering from the shock, Harada indulges in melancholy, mainly on his failure as a husband and father, and goes to a 'Rakugo' (sit-down comedy) show, where a friendly man in the audience invites him home. Harada is puzzled at the strong resemblance of this man and his wife to his own parents, who were killed nearly 30 years ago when he was twelve.
A 30-year-old man's life gets up-ended when his girlfriend accepts an arranged marriage meeting with a more successful man.
A woman named Fujiki Asuka arrives as an acquaintance of a sister in law for a day under the bar master Tamura who had guided Yakuza's escaping as a shoji. Tamura who lives on the second floor of the store for the time being the son who wants to work here. A few days later, Tamura finds a handgun from Yuko's baggage and holds a suspicion ....
A young jazz musician's desire to advance in his career runs afoul of organized crime in this thriller from Haruki Kadokawa. After a saxophonist starts playing at a particular nightspot, a thug from the Yakuza adopts him as a special friend for no greater reason than he plays one of his favorite songs well. As the dangerous life of the gangster intertwines with that of the musician, it brings harm to the musician's girlfriend, who is raped. This changes the young saxophonist's attitude about his patron, but his Yakuza "friend" is still too embroiled in his own problems to worry about anything else.
A fictional account of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima told in four parts. The first three parts relate events in three of his novels: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. The last part depicts the events of 25th November 1970.
Awaji, the president of a famous food company, is found murdered in a locked bathroom. with mummified human hands found all over the body. Taki, a Young bonze, begins to privately investigate.
Internationally acclaimed for his cinematic realism and social commitment, Kaneto Shindo based the story of THE HORIZON on his sister's experiences. The film concerns Hideo, a young girl who leaves Japan in 1920 to settle her family's debt by being sold in marriage to a Japanese farmer in San Francisco. Over the next 20 years the couple works hard and raises 4 children. After Pearl Harbor is attacked they are interned with other Japanese immigrants in a camp, losing both their land and their assets. Hideo has now been uprooted twice and has to adjust to her son's going to war and her daughters' post-war assimilation and marriage to Americans despite her protests. But Hideo is a survivor and she awaits a new immigrant from Japan with hope.
In 1923 a Japanese comes to Munich and immediately falls in love with a street artist with a red hat, without knowing her past is. She turns to the Japanese, for the first time she thinks she has found her really great love- exotic stranger attracts her. They say a lot, but they do not understand each other - but they can show their love. Nevertheless, the relationship is doomed to failure from the beginning. Disappointment, death and loss.
A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato, Japan's greatest flagship during the Second World War.
A young man living on growing tomatoes in a greenhouse in a residential area. Tomato cultivation is as doomed as his personal life where he tries to keep alive his romance with the eccentric Kaede and parents selected fiancee Ayako.
A police procedural surrounding murder at a bookstore and the private lives of the cops trying to solve the case.
Depicts the bloody siege of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War.
A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored.
When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miyagi, tries to honor his dying wish to rescue his sister. Upon finding Kaoru at a party working as a geisha and later rescuing her from committing suicide, Col. Miyagi allows her to move in with him. Over time, the two grow close, but in spite of Kaoru's growing feelings for him, Col. Miyagi is unable to bring himself to return her love. On the night of his deployment to war, Col. Miyagi finally admits his feelings for Kaoru, but will they ever be able to enjoy a peaceful life together now that a very violent and bloody military revolt is under way...
Kei and Atsuo were both enrolled in summer school. Kei was an honor student, and Atsuo was the polar opposite - but opposites attract. After school, the two head to the beach, where they find another student from their school competing against a local gang member, to see who is able to hold his breath longer under water. Overwhelmed by the excitement, Kei and Atsuo decide to try themselves.
Third and Shinbunbu embark on a plan to make money by Third becoming a pimp and Shinbunbu a prostitute.
Taking the Chilean coup as an example, a group of young officers plan to overthrow the Japanese government on V-J Day. They aim to abolish the post-war constitution, restore the national army and revive the traditional spirit of Japan. As the conspiracy is exposed, the coup squadrons are wiped out one by one. The remaining squadron takes over a night train bound for Tokyo.
The story of a high school boy (Toshiyuki Nagashima) in Tokyo returning to his home town of Nagano upon the death of his father.
The body of Sakai Hatsuko, a woman of 23 who has been slain with a knife, has been found in a forest. Some days later, Ueda Hiroshi, a 19-year-old shipyard worker, is arrested and charged with the murder. At Ueda's trial, a complex story unfolds.
A high-school student rescues his baseball team. Live-action adaptation of Shinji Mizushima's manga "Dokaben".
