A forceful indictment of the devastating effects of war and nationalistic fanaticism on the average man, who, in the face of the absurdity of...

Coal miner Isamu Oba is forced to quit his village and leave his mother and siblings behind. Mining buddy Ichiro accompanies him to Tokyo, and the...

Japanese noir.

Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.

Directorial debut by Umetsugu Inoue, the famous director of Musicals

Melodrama by Kiyoshi Saeki

1961 Toei comedy

Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer. Part three (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi’s novel, Oban.

Part 2 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series

Story of young love in the hills.

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of...

1962 Japanese movie

The otherwise promising young man Asaji (Heihachirô Ôkawa) and his younger brother Yuji (Hideo Saeki) face blighted lives because of...

As suggested by the title, this film takes up the theme of the city, beginning with a series of traveling shots from Chiyo's point of view on a bus...

The Old Man of the Propeller can be seen as a comedic amalgam of “King Lear” and “Christmas Carol”. A neighborhood loan shark...

This is a rokyoku film of Tenjuken Ungetsu II (Hideko Itami), a popular rokyoku performer who was famous for her seven different voices for men and...

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

A picture-story-show operator, accompanies her son, Akira, who lives apart from her, to a hot-spring medical treatment and spend a moment of brief...

9th directorial work by Yamamoto Satsuo.

Kitagawa Utamaro is a famous ukiyo-e artist known for his paintings of beautiful women. The courtesan who became his model became even more popular....

1962 Japanese movie

It was supposed to be about a love story, but it was and was not. An aircraft mechanic working for the government is matched by his boss with the...

A middle-aged factory engineer trains, marries, and ultimately loses a teenage bride after she enslaves him to her whims.

Shinzō, the heir of the prominent Edo lumber dealer Yamashiroya, left home when his stubborn father, Chōzaemon, dismissed his lover, the maid...

1950s Japanese comedy.

1949 Japanese film

1950 drama film

1962 Japanese movie

After finishing the course of junior high school, Kazuo comes up to Tokyo, leaving his mother alone in the unproductive northern district. He finds a...

A priest in Hokkaido adopts a blind orphan girl, and as she grows up he finds himself falling in love with her.

Jidaigeki by Tai Kato

Famed movie director Paul Robaix breaks with tradition by not casting his actress-comedienne wife, Lucy Dell, in his latest film production, a...

Akogare no Hawaii kôro

Set in Qingdao, China, a Japanese company locates an office there and begins work and cooperation with a local Chinese company for business. Many...

Kichigoro, a firefighter from the Maeda family of the Kaga Principality, rescues Oshimo, the younger sister of Jirokichi, a city firefighter from the...

A luckless geisha struggles to make a living for herself and her young son.

Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the...

1940 Japanese movie

Police detective Heiji is assigned to catch the masked Maboroshi gang of robbers who have terrorized all of Edo leaving few clues as to who their...

Japanese comedy directed by Noriaki Yuasa.

A bar girl tries to pass her three children, each from a different father, to rural relatives.

A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.

Yoshimura's 48th film is the contemporary story of a well-to-do family showing the frailties and failings of the class, the egotism, and the complete...

Adaptation of a novel by Yojiro Ishizaka, originally released in two parts.

1952 Japanese film directed by Kunio Watanabe.

Kotaro Shimoyama, once a government official, loses his job and separates from his wife, Sachie. He now resides with his daughter, Haruko. By chance,...

Japanese musical.

1936 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.

Second "Pfc. Story" sequel and the ninth and final sequel to "Story of Second Class Private", the only one in both series not directed by Seiichi...

Japanese comedy film.

Japanese comedy film.

"Karayuki-san offers a no-holds-barred depiction of the discrimination faced by a former prostitute who returns to Japan from Singapore with her...

In A Tale of Archery, young, timid bowmaster Kazuma (Akitake Kôno) seeks to beat the archery record set by Hoshino Kanzaemon, a mysterious...

A small community in wartime Japan learn how to make do with less.

A self-absorbed young actor humiliates an elderly Noh performer, who then commits suicide. His act of cruelty compels his father to disown him,...

A spectacular comedy with a star-studded cast that depicts unusual trials and unexpected verdicts regarding the five deadly sins: the crime of...

Adaptation of a novel by Nobuko Yoshiya that was serialized in "Shufu no tomo" between 1939 and 1940.

Postwar Tokyo. Pin and Toku live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru, a slightly demented woman who...

Japanese "kayo" film based on the song "Ieraishan" by Yoshiko Yamaguchi.

Kinta (Nabe Osami) is Japanese by birth, but raised by a Chinese man. He stowsaway to Japan to see his girlfriend Yukiko but gets picked up for...

An old man dies of heartbreak when a cruel landlord is about to repossess his land. The old man haunts the landlord from the grave. Since the man...

A story about four best friends and their lives inside and outside college. Then suddenly one of them receives a surprising offer to be a movie star.

Japanese drama film.

Japanese comedy film.

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she...

Tanuma Kandayuu is a high class samurai of the house of Nabeshima. He finds a lavish board of Go (a Chinese Board game) at Kinbei's store. He...

Japanese domestic drama.

Twenty-year-old Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) and her younger sister Asako (Yōko Yaguchi) struggle to accept changes in their home during the preparations...

Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.

Part 2 of a 2-part romance (first part - Kafuku zempen) based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan. In the second half, we discover that Toyomi is...

Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese...

Kohei Misugi works in a vegetable market, but his ambition is to be a photographer. He is given his first opportunity to demonstrate his talent by...

An Ishiro Honda film.

A young man and woman are determined to marry despite opposition from her parents.

Nobuo is a hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past.

Part 1 of a 2-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan. The central character here is Toyomi (played by Takako IRIE, star of...

The story follows Oshino, a geisha who is trying to start a new life with a lover who is a painter. However, her past filled with debts and pimps...

Kanazawa in the Taisho era. A former junior high school student, Ichiro's family used to be a large landowner, but now they are living in poverty...

Hideko, a young Baseball fan, determined to cheer for her favourite baseball team by creating a new song for them.

A motley cast of characters, including a human billboard and a shoeshine girl, help a 5 year old girl after she is separated from her mother on the...

In a small town, according to the homecoming of Professor Ishinaka, the youth culture group was overwhelmed to make a presentation for the summer...

Lord for a Night is a 1946 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.

Kôfuku eno shôtai - Invitation to happiness

The final film in Shimizu’s thirty-plus year career, Image of a Mother remains true to Shimizu’s central themes as a young boy must learn...

The TV drama of Ima Harube was adapted by Yagi Ryuichiro ("Komuso Henge"), directed by Mori Issei ("I Am Fujikichirou"), and cinematographed by Honda...

1950 Japanese movie

Japanese prison exploitation movie. Part 1 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series

1961 Japanese movie

When Shinsuke returns to Kyushu from the Russo-Japanese War he finds his Judo school hall neglected and in decay. His Judo teacher has died and his...

1960 Toei film

Based on a comic strip by Kaoru Akiyoshi. First in a four part film series.

1958 Japanese movie