When Sokichi stops providing his long-time lover Kikuyo enough money to pay for the care of their three young children, Kikuyo leaves the children with Sokichi – and his very…

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II.

A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold drawings, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal. The film…

A blind traveling musician is abused and oppressed wherever she goes, even as the modern world imposes change around her.

The myth of the Sun Goddess who founded Japanese society is seen through the lens of a modern view of history.

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu,…

Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life,…

In this Japanese drama, a dry goods merchant’s daughter is surprised to discover that she has a twin sister. In rural Japan it was thought that twins bring bad luck,…

While her husband is in prison doing time, Tamaki, the wife of a yakuza capo, runs her spouse’s gang with an iron hand. Meanwhile, Makoto, her younger sister, marries a…

Follows a young med student’s relationships with two women: a dangerous affair with a childhood friend and his mother’s struggle to rebuild their estranged relationship.

Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when…

A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving…

Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang of thieves. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to rob the castle…

The wife of a yakuza lieutenant tries to keep the peace when the clan’s heir suddenly dies and a succession conflict threatens to break out.

When a married man begins an affair with a woman from his past, he comes to suspect her young son intends to murder him.

Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His…

Following her mother’s suicide, Maya seeks out her father, who deserted them.

Onimasa is the egocentric boss of a small yakuza clan on Shikoku Island, whose criminal duties conflict with his self-image as a chivalrous samurai. His struggles with his boss, the…

An unusual request for ritual suicide on a feudal lord’s property leads to the unwinding of a greater mystery that challenges the clan’s integrity.

Kasuga’s husband gets arrested for a murder of his beloved protégé. She and her family investigate and find out he was trapped by greedy Nagoshi, the boss of their rival…

Impersonating an Imperial Army officer by wearing a “red lion’s mane”, a poor servant returns to his village after 10 years of absence to end the village’s suffering caused by…

Misawa Ihei (Nagato) is traveling with his wife Tae (Iwashita Shima) who abhors the practice of sword fighting for prize money. Tae is the daughter of the clan’s chief counselor…

A reckless student contemplates terrorism in a prescient film that confirmed Shinoda as a fearless member of Shochiku’s iconoclastic New Wave. At the height of student protests, Shimojo (Shinichiro Mikami)…