Soundtrack: Kensaku Tanikawa

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Yûko Asano · Kiichi Nakai · Hisashi Igawa · Koji Ishizaka

Plot Set in the 16th century, an ambitious young samurai is adopted into a noble household, thereby attaining the necessary status to marry the daughter of the castle warden. Plans for...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Toshirô Mifune · Ayako Wakao · Yasuko Sawaguchi · Koji Ishizaka

Plot Based on a centuries-old traditional Japanese fairy tale, a country couple finds a baby girl in some bamboo and raises her as their own daughter. Not the same as the...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Atsuo Nakamura · Kiichi Nakai · Ryuuji Harada · Tsuyoshi Ujiki

Plot The Shinsengumi was a self-appointed law-enforcing militia loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate that emerged in Kyoto during the Bakumatsu era of the 1860s. At its peak numbering around 300 members,...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Sayuri Yoshinaga · Hideki Noda · Takuzo Kawatani · Kirin Kiki

Plot Based on the folk tales "Repayment from a crane". One snowy night a beautiful woman named Tsuru (Crane) visits poor peasant Taiju sand says she will become his wife...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Ruriko Asaoka · Koji Ishizaka · Bunta Sugawara · Kiichi Nakai

Direction Yōjirō Takita

Cast Mikijiro Hira · Masako Motai · Asaka Seto · Isao Bitô

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Takaaki Enoki · Koji Ishizaka · Keiko Kishi · Shirô Itô

Plot The patriarch of a bickering family announces his retirement, stirring competition about who will succeed him as a leading practitioner of Noh theater, his granddaughter or grandson.

Direction Tetsu Maeda

Cast Shinya Taniuchi · Kyohei Kaneko · Keita Furuya · Teru Kagimoto

Direction Yoshio Takeuchi

Plot Deep below the sea off the coast of Okinawa, the Ocean Technopolis is at the forefront of humankind's efforts to adapt to catastrophically rising sea levels, but it's caught in...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Koji Ishizaka · Nanako Matsushima · Kikunosuke Onoe · Keiko Matsuzaka

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Etsushi Toyokawa · Yûko Asano · Yu Ji Chin Ye · Hisashi Igawa

Plot A band of samurai warriors places a curse on a family fortune thus frustrating the heir 4 centuries later. Despite the Asian setting, it has a sort of strong sense...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Sayuri Yoshinaga · Mitsuko Mori · Bunta Sugawara · Koji Ishizaka

Plot The Japanese actress and film director Kinuyo Tanaka had a career as significant to that country's movie industry as Lillian Gish's was in the U.S. -- it spanned the early...

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Ruriko Asaoka · Hisashi Igawa · Renji Ishibashi · Saburo Ishikura

Direction Jun Ichikawa

Cast Noritake Kinashi · Kiichi Nakai · Kyoka Suzuki · Yôsuke Eguchi

Direction Yutaka Osawa

Cast Tomokazu Miura · Yasufumi Hayashi · Misako Tanaka · Mayumi Ogawa

Plot Based on the non-fiction books by Takushi Ono (the NHK announcer, not the gymnast) and Yoshinari Tobe.

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Kôji Yakusho · Yûko Asano · Bunta Sugawara · Ryudo Uzaki

Plot Samurai Koheita Mochizuki, who goes by the nickname Dora-Heita, meaning "alley cat" or "playboy," pretends to be an alcoholic magistrate but is in actuality an envoy from the daimyo sent...