Dancing Girls of Izu(1954)

The Kanto Region Is Also Expanding(ja)

A man who was released from prison wanders around the Kanto region and gets involved with the local yakuza.

The Izu Dancer(ja)

While vacationing in the Izu peninsula, a high school student Kawashima becomes intrigued by Kaoru, a pretty young dancer in a troupe of travelling performers, and he tags along with them on their journeys.

September 1923(ja)

Based on the murder of nine street peddlers in the aftermath of the Great Kanto earthquake.

The Grand Master(ja)

Shogi, a Japanese form of chess, is a game that requires skill and determination. When poor sandal-maker Sakata decides to pursue his dream of becoming the Shogi Grand Master Champion, everything is at stake – including his family. What will it cost for Sakata to follow his passion?

Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1(ja)

The story follows Benio "Haikara-san" Hanamura, who lost her mother when she was very young and has been raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. As a result, she has grown into a tomboy - contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions instead of the traditional kimono, and is not as interested in housework as she is in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman's right to a career and to marry for love.

The Scent of Incense(ja)

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.

Hachiko(ja)

The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.

The Insect Woman(ja)

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

The Lights of Asakusa(ja)

Pre-war Asakusa was a riotous district of cabarets, dance-halls and brothels - a striking backdrop for Shimazu's story of innocence and experience. Pretty, young Reiko is the new dancer in an infamous theatre troupe, and her fellow performers try to protect her virtue in a land of vice. Meanwhile, an ageing actor wants to be a hero off stage as well as on, and the troupe matriarch Marie has to keep them all together.

Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 2(ja)

After marrying the head of the military, Benio hears her husband died in Siberia during a war. However after finding out he's alive and fighting against his home land, Benio starts looking for her first love. Wondering why he didn't return and wanting to welcome him back. Hardships will happen and hearts may be broken, as he might have moved on.

The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine(ja)

In the wake of the social unrest caused by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, two female sumo athletes, Kiku and Tokachi, and an anarchist group called the Guillotine Society, spark an unlikely connection.

The Ode to Joy(ja)

Based on the true story of the Bandō prisoner-of-war camp in World War I. It depicts the friendship of the German POWs with the director of the camp and local residents at the stage of Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, in Japan.

One Summer's Day(ja)

Veteran filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi rounds out the second of his two trilogies about his hometown of Onomichi with this film about the budding relationship between a young lad and an eccentric old man. Fifth-grader Yuta (Takuro Atsugi) is a typical city child looking forward to a summer of reading comic books and playing video games. Instead, he is bundled off to his grandparent's house on the Inland Sea. His grandfather, Yuta's parents explain, has been acting strangely as of late -- he eats the offerings in the family altar and once tried to lead attendants at a funeral in a rousing round of calisthenics. Since his mother and father are swamped with work, and his elder sister (Nana Sano) is studying for college entrance exams, Yuta has been asked to look after Grandpa. The old man takes Yuta on a tour of Onomichi, regaling him with 70 years of its history. Along the way, Grandpa slips in and out of the past, increasingly unable to discern between the two.

My Happy Marriage(ja)

An unhappy young woman from an abusive family is married off to a fearsome and chilly army commander. But the two learn more about each other, love may have a chance.

The Izu Dancer(ja)

Love story between a student and girl whose parents are itinerant entertainers. Set in Japan in the 1920's.

Zigeunerweisen(ja)

A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.

Kagero-za(ja)

A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife.

Yumeji(ja)

Following the life of Japanese artist and poet Yumeji Takehisa through the imagining of an encounter with a beautiful widow with a dark past.

Naked Rashomon(ja)

The Flower and the Angry Waves(ja)

A young yakuza in love with the girl who's to marry his clan oyabun, kidnaps the girl before fleeing with her. In Tokyo, he hides under the identity of a worker while the young woman becomes a waitress in a restaurant.