Precisely thirty-years after first bringing star detective Kosuke Kindaichi to the screen in The Inugami Family, acclaimed...
|
|
2006
|
Yoshimitsu Morita's comedy drama Ashura No Gotoku (Like Ashura) tells the story of what happens to four sisters when they...
|
Kotaro Takezawa
|
2003
|
Veteran filmmaker Kihachi Okamoto revives his similarly named 1960s television series about happy-go-lucky avenger-for-hire...
|
|
2002
|
|
|
|
2002
|
Akira Kurosawa was arguably the most important Japanese filmmaker who ever lived; he was certainly among the most revered and...
|
|
2001
|
|
|
|
2000
|
Shortly before his death in 1998, Akira Kurosawa completed a screenplay entitled Ame Agaru, based on a short story by...
|
|
1999
|
Acclaimed filmmaker, actor, and head of the Sogetsu school of Ikebana, Hiroshi Teshigahara spins this sequel of sorts to his...
|
Oribe Furuta
|
1992
|
Peter Mak Tai-kit spins this exuberant, visually dense adaptation from the popular similarly named Japanese anime. The film...
|
Yuen Tai Chung
|
1992
|
|
|
|
1989
|
|
|
|
1987
|
Ran is Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's reinterpretation of William Shakespeare's King Lear. The Lear counterpart is an...
|
Lord Hidetora Ichimonji
|
1985
|
This gripping docudrama is a fictionalized account of what could happen to a Japanese family when one of their sons shames...
|
Nobuyuki Kidoji
|
1985
|
Released outside of Japan as Willful Murder, this is based on an actual 1948 case involving the mysterious death of a...
|
Yashiro
|
1982
|
In this brutal Japanese melodrama, the gangster boss of the town of Shikoku had been in charge since 1921. Though he is...
|
Onimasa
|
1982
|
|
|
|
1980
|
Just as many American studio-era directors found acclaim abroad that was denied them in their home country, by 1980...
|
Shingen Takeda/Kagemusha
|
1980
|
In Hideo Gosha's tale of organized crime in 18th-century Japan, a group of disenfranchised warriors decide to form an...
|
|
1979
|
In order to solve the mystery of a murder of an old governess which takes place at a wealthy Daidoji family's country...
|
Ginzo Daikoji
|
1978
|
Goyokin director Hideo Gosha makes his triumphant return to the samurai genre with this plot twisting, nerve shredding tale...
|
|
1978
|
The battle for good and against evil never ends in this long series of episodes about attempts to capture the phoenix, a...
|
|
1978
|
Kushami (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a teacher given to flights of philosophy as he mulls over life and its meanings, unaware that...
|
Kushami
|
1975
|
Though a farmer and his fellow villagers in this Japanese film resist the effort to turn the unspoiled region in which they...
|
|
1974
|
This Japanese-made film is basically a religious tract for the Nichiren Shoshu Association. The NSA is an atypically...
|
|
1974
|
This well-crafted Japanese animated feature adapts the novel Belladonna by Jules Michelet in a unique manner. The story...
|
|
1973
|
Wolves is set in Japan in the 1920s. The disintegration of the ancient samurai traditions is paralleled with the rise of the...
|
|
1972
|
Samurai Assassin and Japan's Longest Day director Kihachi Okamoto offers a vivid dramatization of the bloodiest battle ever...
|
|
1971
|
This black-and-white crime drama takes place in a remote rural inn located on an island in a river. It is the headquarters...
|
|
1971
|
In this adventure, set in Japan, a Shogun warrior sets off to save the daughter of a Russian count. She is being held...
|
|
1970
|
Misumi Kenji's Zatoichi: The Festival of Fire finds the famous blind swordsman becoming mixed up with a blind but powerful...
|
Ronin
|
1970
|
This Japanese historical drama set during the mid-19th century chronicles the attempts of a brave group to restore their...
|
|
1970
|
Masahiro Shinoda directed this sexy, darkly humorous look at Tokyo's red-light Edo district in 1842, focusing on three...
|
Naojiro
|
1970
|
In this samurai movie, an evil warrior violates his samurai codes of ethics by stealing some gold to pay an unfair...
|
Magobei Wakizaka
|
1969
|
In this Japanese historical drama, a hard-headed painter refuses to allow his daughter to be with his Korean protege and...
|
|
1969
|
After a rancher serves his prison sentence for a crime he did not commit, he contracts a gang of killers to hunt down the...
|
|
1968
|
A pair of luckless would-be warriors find themselves caught in the middle of a skirmish between rival gangsters in this...
|
|
1968
|
A father and son prepare to die for their beliefs in this historical drama set in 18th century Japan. While Isaburo Sasahara...
|
Tatewaki Asano
|
1967
|
Twenty years after the end of World War II, international agents try to apprehend the world's largest diamond in this...
|
|
1967
|
In this epic Japanese samurai adventure, a bloodthirsty young fighter (Tatsuya Nakadai) kills a man in competition and is...
|
Ryunosuke Tsukue
|
1967
|
Also known as Sasaki Kojiro, this sprawling Samurai epic stars Kikunosuke Onoe as a humble peasant youth. The Japanese...
|
|
1967
|
|
|
Okuyama
|
1966
|
The Daphne refers to Hariko Sugimura, a widow with four daughters. Two of the girls still live at home; the other two are...
|
|
1966
|
In this Japanese war movie, a rebellious war hero disobeys orders. For his punishment, the fellow is sent to the Chinese...
|
|
1966
|
This eerie supernatural fantasy from Japan -- a poor man's Kwaidan -- is equal parts samurai adventure film and surreal ghost...
|
Iuemon Tamiya
|
1966
|
Tatsuya Nakadai plays a scheming low-level executive who plays labor against management and uses anyone he can to further his...
|
|
1965
|
In this Japanese costume drama set during the 16th-century, a young woman endures many trials after she falls in love with a...
|
|
1965
|
In this Japanese adventure, a man is kidnapped by the wealthy president of a wartime trading company. He is taken because he...
|
|
1964
|
In this Japanese drama, an attorney is having an affair with his law partner's wife. Things go terribly wrong when during an...
|
Hamano
|
1964
|
Kwaidan is an impressively mounted anthology horror film based on four stories by Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-born writer who...
|
Woodcutter
|
1964
|
Nobuko (Hideko Takamine) is a gentle Japanese woman who endures several ordeals during her adult life in this somber,...
|
Akimoto
|
1963
|
In this Japanese drama, a business executive begins a harmless flirtation with his deceased friend's younger sister. His...
|
Tatsumi
|
1963
|
This well-regarded Japanese drama follows an aging samurai as he attempts to regain his family's honor. In 17th century...
|
Hanshiro Tsugumo
|
1963
|
Director Masaki Kobayashi uses the sharpest-edged knife in this cutting indictment of selfishness, greed, and the competition...
|
|
1962
|
Set in the mid-19th century when the disintegration of a rigid social structure was turning the once wealthy into paupers, or...
|
Hanbei Muroto
|
1962
|
Based on King's Ransom, an "87th Precinct" novel by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter), High and Low stars Toshiro Mifune as Gondo,...
|
Inspector Tokura
|
1962
|
Slow-paced but endowed with understanding, characters of some depth and complexity, and good direction, this slice-of-drama...
|
Heibei
|
1961
|
Toshiro Mifune portrays a Samurai who finds himself in the middle of a feud-torn Japanese village. Neither side is...
|
Unosuke
|
1961
|
|
Kaji
|
1961
|
The second of Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy was titled The Road to Eternity (originally Zoku...
|
Kaji
|
1960
|
Filmmaker Mikio Naruse takes a characteristic dour look at life in When A Woman Ascends the Stairs. The central character is...
|
|
1960
|
In this engaging drama, acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa deftly splices together the nuances of hypocrisy, old...
|
|
1960
|
A slight though effective slice-of-life story, this drama by Miyoji Ieki focuses on a young, struggling couple. They are...
|
|
1959
|
Several cinematic variations on Junichiro Tanizaki's novel about jealousy, voyeurism, and sexual arousal began with this...
|
Kimura
|
1959
|
This docudrama by Kon Ichikawa is based on a real-life incident that took place in 1950. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion...
|
|
1958
|
|
Kaji
|
1958
|
|
|
|
1957
|