Melodrama by Kon Ichikawa

An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.

Japanese war-era film

The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases,...

A woman struggles to raise her young son on her own in postwar Japan, finding companionship with a kind laborer while still hoping for the return of...

The only son of a sushi chef hates sushi and decides to leave home to search for a job and make his own way.

This Japanese action-adventure is set in the 17th century when all forms of swordplay were banned. One fighter, an excellent swordsman believes the...

1962 Japanese movie

The Blue Pearl depicts the interplay between a young man from Tokyo and two ama (pearl divers; literally “women of the sea”) in a...

A widowed high-school teacher tries to raise his four children alone.

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover...

Mining engineer Shigeru investigates the disappearance and death of his fellow coworkers when prehistoric nymphs are discovered emerging from the...

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six...

With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant...

Ten years into a marriage, the wife is disappointed by the husband's lack of financial success, meaning she has to work and can't treat herself and...

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...

This film depicts a troupe of wandering kabuki players traveling through rural Japan.

Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl.

Three humorous love stories set in rural Japan.

Following Flower Picking Diary (1939), Tamizo directed another film starring Hideko Takamine, based on a story by Nobuko Yoshiya. Takamine plays a...

A Fond Face from the Past is also set in a rural community, specifically a village outside Kameoka, near Kyoto. In some ways this short,...

During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric...

When a group of young geologists declares a mountainside marked for residential development unstable, they are met with scorn on two fronts. On one...

It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous...

Ine Onoda, the eldest daughter of a poor family of farmers, raises a colt from birth and comes to love the horse dearly. When the horse is grown, the...

A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.

Men are being murdered by a psycho called "The Telegian," who uses a matter-transmitting device to locate his victims.

A legendary gangster raises himself out of a small town and gathers followers on his rise to power.

An Ishiro Honda film.

An Ishiro Honda film.

An Ishiro Honda film.

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their...

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He...

In this semi-documentary, an older locomotive driver is tasked with training younger ones and is currently training two in particular. The old man is...

A skilled country doctor's talents are such that he can even perform operations as difficult and novel as removing a patient's kidney for the first...