Cast: Kô Nishimura

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Kyôko Kagawa · Yutaka Sada · Takashi Shimura

Synopsis It is the story of Gondo, a shoe company executive (Toshirô Mifune) planning a boardroom intrigue to gain control of the company. He has raised the capital for his plan, when word comes that his son has been kidnapped for...

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Tatsuya Nakadai · Yôko Tsukasa · Isuzu Yamada

Synopsis In the 19th century, in a Feudal Japan, a samurai arrives to a rural village that is divided between two groups; neither side is particularly honorable. As he shows his combat skills, both sides will try to hire him.

Direction Akira Kurosawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Takeshi Katô · Masayuki Mori · Takashi Shimura

Synopsis A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in director Akira Kurosawa’s scathing The Bad Sleep Well. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elements of Hamlet and American film noir to chilling effect in exposing the...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Rentarô Mikuni · Shoji Yasui · Jun Hamamura · Taketoshi Naitô

Synopsis July, 1945: Japan's army is on the run. A platoon in Burma sings to keep its spirit up. Inspiration comes from their self-taught lute player, Mizushima. At war's end, while they await repatriation at Mudon prison camp, Mizushima is sent...

Direction Tadashi Imai

Cast Kinnosuke Nakamura · Yoshiko Mita · Masayuki Mori · Kyôko Kishida

Synopsis Episodic chronicle of one family's lineage and how it has been affected by the strict code of deference to the feudal lords.

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Masumi Harukawa · Kô Nishimura · Shigeru Tsuyuguchi · Yûko Kusunoki

Synopsis The film tells the story of a dull, plump housewife living in poverty with a common-law husband, his son by another woman, and his mother. When she is raped by a thief, she escapes for a new life in Tokyo...

Direction Kihachi Okamoto

Cast Tatsuya Nakadai · Yûzô Kayama · Michiyo Aratama · Toshirô Mifune

Synopsis Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade. Ryunosuke accepts...

Direction Kôzaburô Yoshimura

Cast Ayako Wakao · Junichiro Yamashita · Tamao Nakamura · Ganjiro Nakamura

Synopsis Based on a novel by Tsutomu Mizukami, a celebrated writer whose fictions also furnished plots for directors from Tadashi Imai to Masahiro Shinoda, this haunting melodrama focuses on a young bamboo worker who takes his father's prostitute as his wife....

Direction Hideo Gosha

Cast Tatsuya Nakadai · Kinnosuke Nakamura · Tetsurô Tanba · Yôko Tsukasa

Synopsis A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.

Direction Kenji Misumi

Cast Shintarô Katsu · Tatsuya Nakadai · Reiko Ohara · Masayuki Mori

Direction Koreyoshi Kurahara

Cast Nobuo Kaneko · Kojiro Kusanagi · Kô Nishimura · Mari Shiraki

Synopsis Koreyoshi Kurahara’s ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The marvelously moody Intimidation (Aru kyouhaku) is an elegantly stripped-down and...

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Shizuko Kasagi · Tomiko Hattori · Kayo Matsuo · Hiroyuki Nagato

Direction Eiichi Kudo

Cast Junko Miyazono · Koji Nambara · Isao Natsuyagi · Kô Nishimura

Synopsis It is the early 19th century in Japan. Nariatsu, a high ranking official and son of the former Shogun, is engaged in an animal hunt. In his reckless pursuit of the game, he crosses borders to a neighboring fief and...

Direction Masahiro Shinoda

Cast Tomisaburô Wakayama · Shima Iwashita · Hiroko Isayama · Kô Nishimura

Synopsis Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees tells the tale of a beautiful city woman and a bandit that has fallen in love with her. After kidnapping the object of his affection and bringing her to his mountain lair, the bandit asks...

Direction Seijun Suzuki

Cast Hiroyuki Nagato · Kazuko Yoshiyuki · Shoichi Ozawa · Shinsuke Ashida

Synopsis A businessman returns from an extended trip, but something seems off. Criminal operations and religious cults come into play, while the man's daughter and her journalist boyfriend race to find the truth.

Direction Satsuo Yamamoto

Cast Shintarô Katsu · Rentarô Mikuni · Kô Nishimura · Yuko Hamada

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Hiroyuki Nagato · Kayo Matsuo · Takeshi Okimura · Akiko Maeda

Direction Yoshio Inoue

Cast Shintarô Katsu · Kô Nishimura · Mako Midori · Mikio Narita

Synopsis Follow the money. In a time of economic disaster for wage earners, Hanzo discovers a conspiracy among high officials to "borrow" gold from the shogunate's treasury and loan it out to the destitute, including impecunious samurai - exacting either interest...

Direction Shôhei Imamura

Cast Shoichi Ozawa · Sumiko Sakamoto · Masaomi Kondo · Keiko Sagawa

Synopsis Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with...

Direction Satsuo Yamamoto

Cast Raizô Ichikawa · Shiho Fujimura · Saburo Date · Katsuhiko Kobayashi

Synopsis As nefarious warlord Oda Nobunaga continues his quest to conquer all of Japan, a powerful young ninja becomes ensnared in a plot to kill the powerful ruler in this period adventure that helped to launch the ninja craze when originally...