Lucky Adventurer Nobunaga Oda
Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) was a major daimyo during the Warring State period of Japanese history. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy military governor with land holdings…
The Tale of Zatoichi Continues
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.
The Idiot
Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved…
Bridge of Japan
Ichikawa’s 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a tanbi-ha…
The Second Bullet is Marked
Tsunokichi and Ken face off against a rival yakuza in Kyushu.
Always in My Heart Part 3
Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Machiko is not allowed to see Haruki. They finally meet again, but Haruki departs to Europe.
Always in My Heart Part 2
Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Two meet again in Hokkaido only to be separated again.
The Scent of Incense
After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply…
Eagle of the Pacific
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan’s navy into war with the United States. He opposes the…
An Actor’s Revenge
While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, firstly…
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
A childless middle-aged couple faces a marital crisis of sorts.
The Tale of Zatoichi
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.
Destiny’s Son
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.
Ginza Cosmetics
Italy is usually cited as the anchor of the neo-realist movement in cinema, but Mikio Naruse’s Ginza Cosmetics (1951) is a reminder that Japan had its own output equally rooted…
The Phantom Horse
Following the tragic death of his father, a young boy’s family trains his horse to compete in the local derby.
The Tattered Wings
A young widow, made world weary by her abusive, neglectful husband, finds herself in a minor scandal when she’s seen with her intense, no-nonsense childhood sweetheart.