Kei SatoFilmography

Kinyu Fushuku Retto Jubake

Actors: Jun Fubuki, Hirotaro Honda, Renji Ishibashi

Synopsis: Following up on his critically acclaimed Bounce Ko Gals (1998), director Masato Harada spins this slickly-produced, compelling salary man drama that was a surprise smash hit in Japan. Tapping into the economic malaise and the growing outrage against endless tawdry financial scandals of Japan in Read More

Hiroshima

Synopsis: This Canadian-Japanese co-production uses both vintage historical footage (including armed forces films and period newsreels) and contemporary dramatic reenactments to tell the story of how the scientific and military minds behind the Manhattan Project, under the orders of President Harry Truman (Kenneth Welsh Read More

Ume No Matsuri

Actors: Shiro Sano, Mariko Kaga, Kei Sato, Narimi Arimori

Synopsis: In the remote island of Honshu, far from the bright lights of Kyoto and Tokyo, the boys Yuzo and Chiyo are rivals in love, and are also rivals in their desire to become performers on the ancient Japanese instrument, the shamsien. Yuzo has had the luxury of lessons, Chiyo has had to learn in a more Read More

The Woman Who Rushed to Death

Synopsis: In this drama a woman learns that her husband helped steal a priceless Picasso. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Godzilla 1985: The Legend is Reborn

Synopsis: Nearly ten years after his last screen appearance (in 1975's Terror of Mecha-Godzilla), the Tokyo Terror stomps again -- albeit awkwardly -- in Toho Studios' highly-publicized bid to reestablish the Green Guy's popularity in Japan and overseas. More a remake of the 1956 classic Godzilla: King of the Monsters Read More

Jukai No Mosukiito

Actors: Yuya Uchida, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Kyoko Koizumi, Reiko Nakamura, Junko Miyashita

Synopsis: With a story that many could readily understand, this film is about a divorced policeman whose salary does not expand far enough to support his ex-wife, to handle his bills at the local bar, and to manage all the hand-outs his semi-delinquent daughter demands of him. The man is close to bottoming Read More

Chikuzan Hitori Tabi

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Mitsuko Baisho

Synopsis: After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s the rough-hewn blind shamisien player and folk-song collector named Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a Read More

Zatoichi's Conspiracy

Actors: Shintaro Katsu

Synopsis: In this Japanese actioner, the brave blind swordsman Zatoichi runs across a childhood comrade who has grown up to be a cruel and powerful yakuza who mercilessly steals everything the peasants have. Fortunately, the super-perceptive Zatoichi soon takes care of him and his gang. ~ Sandra Brennan Read More

Satori

Synopsis: Satori is the name of the demon in this Japanese film. Ironically, it's name sounds the same as the word used for enlightenment experiences in the Zen tradition. Even more ironically, the demon strikes at people who are in a state devoid of thought or feeling. This is ironic because many people Read More

Dear Summer Sister

Synopsis: Dear Summer Sister (alternate English title: Summer Sister), released in the US in 1985, was completed in 1972 by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima. Hardly the most important work of this prolific filmmaker, it probably earned a non-Japanese release on the strength of Oshima's 1983 critical Read More

The Ceremony

Actors: Kenzo Kawarazaki, Atsuo Nakamura

Synopsis: This well-known film by auteur director Nagisa Oshima offers a humorous and trenchant commentary on trends in Japanese society. Looking through the eyes of a younger son in a lesser branch of an important Japanese family, we see simultaneously the boy's history, the family's history and the Read More

Inochi Bonifuro

Synopsis: This black-and-white crime drama takes place in a remote rural inn located on an island in a river. It is the headquarters for a smuggling gang and is protected by higher-ups in the government. Even with this protection, the police continue their efforts to put the gang away. Things begin to Read More

Nihon No Seishun

Actors: Tomoko Naraoka, Toshio Kurosawa, Michiyo Aratama, Kei Sato

Synopsis: A man is rendered deaf after he is beaten by his superior officer during World war II. The man goes on to become an inventor and tries to get legal help in securing a patent. He runs into his former tormentor at the law office and again faces the indignities of his ex-commander's cruelty. The Read More

Devil's Temple

Synopsis: This Japanese costume drama is set within a ruined Buddhist temple. A thief is living there with a domineering partner. His wife finds the two and interferes with their relationship. A priest wanders up to the temple. The thief tries to swipe the his golden Buddha. The priest puts a spell upon Read More

Kuroneko

Actors: Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi, Kei Sato, Hideo Kanze

Synopsis: Set in feudal Japan, this atmospheric and violent ghost story (whose title literally translates as The Black Cat in the Bush) begins with the brutal murder of two women by a band of mercenary samurai, whose leader is subsequently tracked down, seduced, and murdered by a young woman possessed by Read More

Death by Hanging

Actors: Kei Sato, Fumio Watanabe, Toshiro Ishido, Masao Adachi, Hosei Komatsu

Synopsis: This sad tale, based on a true story of a Japanese-born Korean student who raped and killed two girls in 1958 and was then hanged in 1963 when he reached maturity, is turned by director Nagisa Oshima into a black farce reminiscent of the darkly satirical, anti-authoritarian films of Luis Buñuel. Read More

Kaette Kita Yopparai

Synopsis: After students prankishly steal the clothes of two people swimming nude in the ocean, the swimmers return to land and wander around au naturel. They are assumed to be Korean illegal immigrants, and are chased and hounded. This comedy takes a rare look at Japanese racism. ~ Clarke Fountain Read More

The Sword of Doom

Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Michiyo Aratama, Ichiro Nakaya

Synopsis: In this epic Japanese samurai adventure, a bloodthirsty young fighter (Tatsuya Nakadai) kills a man in competition and is pursued by the slain warrior's brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Akanegumo

Actors: Shima Iwashita, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Mayumi Ogawa

Synopsis: A Japanese soldier Tsutomu Yamazki deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over in this melodrama from director Shinoda Masahiro. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money. The woman is told by a Geisha Mayumi Ogawa Read More

Ninja Bugei-Cho

Actors: Kei Sato, Hideo Kanze, Fumio Watanabe

Synopsis: Director Nagisa Oshima teams with comic-strip artist Shirato Sampei in this feature. Still pictures are used as some of Japan's more recognizable thespians provide the voices to tell the story. The ninja warriors use their powers to become invisible, walk on water, and climb castle walls. ~ Dan Read More

Zatoichi's Vengeance

Actors: Shintaro Katsu, Mayumi Ogawa, Shigeru Amachi, Kei Sato, Jun Hamamura

Synopsis: This is the 13th feature in the popular film series about the blind, sword-slashing masseur Zatoichi. He enters a town controlled by an evil gang and decides to free the people from the mob's ruthless criminal activities. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide Read More

Shokei No Shima

Actors: Rentaro Mikuni, Akira Nitta, Shima Iwashita

Synopsis: A young man returns to the island where he was held prisoner as a child in this action thriller from Japanese director Masahiro Shinoda. He was sent to the island as a boy so he could not reveal the identities of the military police who killed his family. For 20 years he has planned to seek Read More

Violence at Noon

Actors: Kei Sato, Saeda Kawaguchi, Akiko Koyama, Mutsuhiro Toura

Synopsis: The unstable social milieu of postwar Japan is brought into play in Violence at Noon. Two young women, whose lives are far from blissful, are raped by an equally disenfranchised assailant. Director Nagisa Oshima seems to argue that it is the horrid living conditions endured by the rapist and his Read More

The Pleasures of the Flesh

Synopsis: Director Nagisa Oshima's film uses the "pink" genre to mask an allegory about the materialism of post-war Japan (the original title translates as "Indulgence"). Katsuo Nakamura stars as a man blackmailed by a thief, who makes him hold on to some stolen loot while the thief serves a jail sentence. Read More

Onibaba

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato, Jukichi Uno, Taiji Tonoyama

Synopsis: A landmark in fantasy cinema, this lyrical ghost story is set in medieval Japan amid a bloody conflict between rival fiefdoms. While the warrior Kichi's impoverished wife (Jitsuko Yoshimura) and mother (Nobuko Otowa) wait for his return from battle, they maintain a humble existence by luring lost Read More

Harakiri

Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita, Tetsuro Tamba, Rentaro Mikuni, Yoshio Inaba

Synopsis: This well-regarded Japanese drama follows an aging samurai as he attempts to regain his family's honor. In 17th century Japan, a shift in the country's political structure has thrown the feudal Shogun system into disuse. Impoverished samurai wander the countryside, asking wealthy estate owners if Read More

Cruel Story of Youth

Actors: Yasuke Kawazu, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga, Fumio Watanabe, Shinji Tanaka

Synopsis: Nagisa Oshima's groundbreaking film opens with young, attractive Mako and her friend hitching a ride from an old man. After her friend leaves, the man tries to rape her, and she is saved only by the handsome Kiyoshi. Later, against the background of the tumultuous 1960 U.S./Japan Security Treaty Read More

Human Condition, Part 2: The Road to Eternity

Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Keiji Sada, Jun Tatara, Kei Sato

Synopsis: The second of Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy was titled The Road to Eternity (originally Zoku Ningen No Joken). Picking up where 1958's No Greater Love left off, this 1961 film finds the gentle, pacifistic Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) being sent to basic training camp in Read More

The Sun's Burial

Actors: Masahiko Tsugawa, Yasuke Kawazu

Synopsis: The epidemic of juvenile delinquency in the mean streets of a Tokyo slum is depicted in this sordid story of sex and violence. The group is dwindled by suicide, murder, gang warfare and accidents as they engage in arson and gunplay. Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, the members of the gang Read More