Jun Hamamura

A prostitute and her stepfather are falsely accused of murder, imprisoned, sexually abused and tortured. The real murderer will be discovered - and...

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money...

A nuclear explosion in the far north unleashes Gamera, the legendary flying turtle, from his sleep under the ice. In his search for energy, Gamera...

Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town...

Ever since an accident in the mountains outside town, Takuji's slept in a coma; his neighbors care for him as new events occur every day.

The action takes place in a city where you can live on only 100 yen a day. The "General", who indulged in gambling with his henchmen all day, he was...

A young doctor falls into a despair of developments. He plans to revenge the disgrace inflicted upon his sister, whose engagement was broken as a...

In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a...

In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by...

In Edo Japan, a kabuki actor seeks revenge against the three men who drove his parents to their deaths years ago.

1962 Japanese movie

Ishihara Kiyoshi plans to marry the woman he loves, Chiee, a coffee shop girl. After an accident, Chiee loses her memory. A romance movie whose...

1962 Japanese movie

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady,...

South of Tokyo is a small island until quite recently relatively unchanged since feudal times. Now, however, it is being made into a tourist's...

Senko Tamagawa is a third-year junior high school student, and she is the captain of the badminton club. Her father, Kinzo, remodeled her barn and...

Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a...

Jack Elliot, a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees is now on the down side of his baseball career. With a falling batting average, does he have one...

Film by director Kenji Misumi

Nitani is an undercover drug enforcement agent in Kobe who not only busts two rival drug gangs but also helps one of the more decent hoodlums find...

A greedy developer, in league with a corrupt Shrine Magistrate, brutally tries to drive people out of a tenement building and destroy the shrine in...

A man is wrongfully accused of murder.

Koreyoshi Kurahara's ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking,...

The myth of the Sun Goddess who founded Japanese society is seen through the lens of a modern view of history.

Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological...

A budding gangster enthralls a freeloading young woman, soon taking advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class, middle-aged men.

Set in 1926 when Japanese tradition was much stronger, this drama looks at the inner workings of a small family, especially the relationship between...

Ushimatsu's father told him never to reveal his lower-caste heritage; years later, he now contemplates confiding in an activist fighting against such...

At the beginning of the Showa era, a man who was captivated by a girl he saw through a telescope locked her in a "painting". Visualization based on...

Tateo, young and neurotic, wishes to leave the village his mother has raised him in.

Two infantry regiments of the Imperial Japanese Army—210 men overall—tackled Mt. Hakkoda in the winter of 1902 to prepare for war with...

A young female samurai comes upon a dying messenger and agrees to deliver the scroll he was carrying to its destination. However, unbeknownst to her,...

The sexual experiences of the passionate Sakiko, from her fling with her boss in her first job to her ending up as a prostitute.

The tragic story of Gonza, a handsome ladies man, set in the Tokagawa Period, a time in which appearences are very important. Gonza competes with...

A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.

At a seaside city somewhere in the Tohoku area, the corpses of Nozomi, daughter of an affluent family, and Yamazaki, son of an engineer at the local...

The days leading up to a toddler's second birthday are seen alternately from the child's point of view as well as that of his parents.

A blind traveling musician is abused and oppressed wherever she goes, even as the modern world imposes change around her.

Harsh film about a car dealer who gets into financial trouble.

Sachiko's beloved sister Nobuko was supposed to go to Tohoku when she suddenly dies in a car accident in Hamamatsu. Sachiko begins to trace her...

A female reporter is fired for writing about police corruption; to make money while hiding from the press, she posts a bounty upon herself.

A film about the substantial population of Koreans living in Japan, and the love affair between Kayako, a Japanese girl, and Im, a Korean.

The Taisho era was a time of turbulence in Japan. From new marks of modernity to full-blown riots, a sense of revolution filled the air. The Dam Dam...

Akira and Hiroshi are two lowlives who work at a pachinko parlour. Hiroshi is a ladies' man but always loses at pachinko. Akira is a virgin at 25...

In Osaka's slum, youths without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of...

1962 Japanese movie

Seven years ago, Ishimatsu Toshio, a talented radio producer at Zen Nihon Hōsō, witnessed a crazed drug addict murder his wife and then...

Adaptation of Seicho Matsumoto's novel of the same name.

Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.

1962 Japanese movie

Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give...

Wakae is a 15 year old girl who lived under the same roof with her alcoholic father and stepmom. Her mother had died years ago. She spends her nights...

A young doctor discovers that the city hall of records has a record of his death. He and some friends try to seek out the person who reported it, and...

Nominated for Golden Berlin Bear.

Nishina Saburouta is powerful but corrupted priest. One night, an old samurai who couldn't bear him any more, attempts to kill him, but without...

This is the first volume of a ghost story TV series presented by Nobuo Nakagawa, Saburo Endo and Teruo Ishii. Contains films 1 to 4 in the...

1962 Japanese movie

Takuya witnesses the homicide of the detective leading an investigation into the murder of the chairman of the People’s Economic Association,...

A kindergarten teacher meets a novice magician and together they travel to another city to find love.

Japan, February 1868. As the Tokugawa shogunate declines and the power of Emperor Meiji grows, Gonzo, a soldier of the Restoration Army, returns to...

In the early Meiji era, two contrasting craftsmen, who had been bound by a ten-year strong friendship, suddenly hated each other and face many...

1962 Japanese movie

In this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation's defeat and the...

A touching story following young shamisen string maker, Saku. Beautiful Saku moves to Lake Yogo, known for its production of quality shamisen...

Famous detective Kosuke Kindaichi follows a dying man's words to an enigmatic island, where he meets beautiful twin sisters and tragic events unfold.

Fourth film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.

A young dockworker who owes his life to his boss becomes embroiled in union activity on the Yokohama waterfront. The rebel Saburo works as an errand...

A writer haunted by the death of his wife and threatened by the imagined infidelities of his lovers uses his affairs for the subjects of his novels.

George Mihara was ordered by his grandfather Tom to go to Japan. The purpose was to deliver a $100,000 check to Matsuyama, a Japanese soldier who had...

1961 Japanese movie

A dying businessman intends to will his fortune to his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown, so a bevy of lawyers and...

One day, when Goro (Kiyoshi Atsumi) returns to his poor tenement house from a trip on a deep-sea tuna boat, his neighbor's daughter Haruko (Mitsuko...

Based on the original novel by Tokuda Shusei, adapted by frequent Masumura scribe Kaneto Shindo, this downbeat melodrama features a battle of women...

Japanese horror move from 1978.

A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a...

Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money.

A runaway cat-loving girl begins a love triangle with a reckless older man and a young biker in high school. The film follows their subsequent...

Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts...

Japanese film based on the life of Zen Master Tetsugen Doko.

The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army...

Based on the novel by Naoki Prize-nominated author Taro Takeshita, a thriller full of black humor. A jealous husband murders his adulterous wife,...

Edo Crime Book: Black Claws

Based on a novel by Tsutomu Mizukami, this haunting melodrama focuses on a young bamboo worker who takes his father's prostitute as his wife.

Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was against school regulations, Shinko was the first to...

In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of...

A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the...

It is early summer in the Nekushiro Plains of Hokkaido. A scientist, Ogata, who was dispatched to the same research institute, meets a 14-year-old...

In post-war Japan, a publisher goes to visit her former teacher for help on a modern translation of a legend about a mummified Buddhist monk who was...

Film about the Ashio Copper Mine Incident and Shozo Tanaka.

Agent Jiro Kitami attempts to stop a smuggling ring from shipping arms to Vietcong guerrillas.

Drama about the friendship between a lonely laborer (Atsumi) and a young woman (Hoshi) unable to enter college.

Towards the end of the Second World War, a downed U.S. pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions...

Kaze is a philandering TV producer. His wife and nine of his mistresses conspire to kill him. However each woman would rather keep him alive, as long...

In the third film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto volunteers to be tortured by Yakuza to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader...

Two outsiders start a relationship in a mining town.

In the summer of 1947, various men and women gather at a mansion in the countryside at the invitation of Kazuma Utagawa. They are artists,...

Nikkatsu finally responds to Suzuki's growing discontentment by giving him a bigger budget and a better script. This episodic collection of "real...

When two sisters fall in love with the same man, one must decide to look elsewhere.

A touching story of a girl who sails away from her love to keep her family together.

Japanese drama film.

An investigation into a drug smuggler who is assassinated in front of an insurance building sets two detectives, Sumikawa and Akine, into a sprawling...

About a girl who marries in the middle of the Pacific War, is widowed at 18, and her unflagging struggle to survive during and after the war with her...

Minoru visits his home on Okinoerabu island for the first time in thirty years. Seeing the old man who used to be in love with his mother, Minoru...

Machida (Shintaro Katsu) is in constant trouble because of his instincts to do right every time, even when it endangers his life. A gang hires him...

A story of a shopkeeper and his ex-wife, lives full of tragedy.

After surviving the slaughter of many Christians 350 years ago, a samurai denounces God for ignoring the pleas of believers. He sells his soul to...

A reporter Takuo, who is sleeping in the newspaper room of the Maichō newspaper company, receives a sudden report from a reporter that the...

The heir to a family fortune discovers that a curse has been placed on it, put there centuries before by a band of samurai warriors. Adaptation of...

Based on the novel by Osamu Dazai and distributed by ATG. The story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern...

Ryoji, a wanderer, arrives in a remote mountain town, carrying a shotgun and claiming to be a hunter. He quickly becomes embroiled in a web of...

An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.

Isazo is a traveling gambler and living legend in the world of yakuza, known for his swordsmanship and bravery, his impeccable manners, and his...

A mountain man beheads his many wives to prove his love to an alluring woman he meets in an enchanted forest.

While in vacation in a sea side house, a young man fall in love with a beautiful woman who pretends to live by herself in the sea. The fishermen of a...

A youthful film depicting the sexual awakening of a boy who has just entered adolescence and his heartbreaking romance during the summer holidays...

A fugitive christian "saint" (female, of course!) and a sadistic drug-addled princess both have their eye on Kyoshiro. The fact that a bunch of...

Nakata (Keiichiro Akagi) is a nihilistic young buck who is willing to do anything to get money in his pockets. As he knocks back a couple drinks that...

A police procedural surrounding murder at a bookstore and the private lives of the cops trying to solve the case.

A Tokyo newspaper reporter goes after the Japanese king of cocaine trafficking but he's tricked by a woman who works for the gangster and gets framed...

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan....

A treasury official passed over for promotion and obsessed with careerism interferes in the lives of his three sons, who seek escape from his...

Japanese action film set in Arabia.

The Ginza Whirlwind (Akira Kobayashi) attempts to solve a murder.

Asada Keiko and Kurokawa Saburo are two young college students. When Keiko visits Saburo's house, she meets his father Kokichi and his mother Motoko....

The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to...

A young man goes missing after visiting his girlfriend's isolated country home. His sister and her boyfriend trace him to the creepy mansion, but...

Misawa Ihei (Nagato) is traveling with his wife Tae (Iwashita Shima) who abhors the practice of sword fighting for prize money. Tae is the daughter...

Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially...

Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.

Ide of the Kokusai Rayon Company visits a supermarket and finds cheap shirts being passed off as his company's products. But a closer look reveals...

Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.

A man sets out to search for his brother among the survivors of Hiroshima after an anonymous letter.

A hard working salaryman takes off five days from his busy job and sets off with his wife and two children to visit his parents in his hometown for...

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually,...

Film from 1967.

Young female teacher Kyoko Miyake relocates to a small seaside town with her runaway little sister, but their new life is complicated by hoodlum-like...

Chieko (Momoe Yamaguchi) has been raised as the only child of parents who run a dry goods store. When Chieko was a middle-school student, she learned...

Mainly the story of Shinsuke and his stepmother, ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly...

A couple originally from Okinawa run an inexpensive restaurant in Kobe, with their grade-school daughter, Fuuchan. The movie depicts the warm...

A semi-documentary story about the vicissitudes in the life of an elderly fisherman.

The story of a Japanese man who as a 16-year-old went to Maui to work in the sugar cane fields in order to support his family back in Japan. Now 89...

An opportunistic department store clerk gets involved with three women and attempts to manipulate them so he can move up the social ladder.

After winning big at the races, Torajiro Kuruma wants to take his aunt and uncle on a trip to Hawaii to partly pay the great filial debt he feels he...

Taking the Chilean coup as an example, a group of young officers plan to overthrow the Japanese government on V-J Day. They aim to abolish the...

This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a...

A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha...

A documentary about the lives of actors in the Sakura-tai theatrical troupe, which had arrived in the island of Hiroshima to begin preparations for...

When Sokichi stops providing his long-time lover Kikuyo enough money to pay for the care of their three young children, Kikuyo leaves the children...

Story of romance and rivalry between two ad agencies vying for the same account with a pharmaceutical firm.

A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold drawings, and...

When a lone traveler stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a...

Shokichi, the owner of the clothing store, lives with his daughter Hideko and plans to open an art gallery. One day, Hideko led a handsome art...

A poignant love story between a 29-year-old woman, who has once been a prostitute but is now the mistress of a wealthy jewelry merchant, and a...

Eric, an American, arrives at an international tourist hotel and loses his self-defense Colt. It was Kudaira, a beggar, who discovered it, and...

Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.

A three parts movie following people forgotten by a society that modernizes at the price of expelling part of its individuals.

In the backstreets of Ginza, the boss of a hairdressing salon is found dead, killed by strangulation. The detective on the case soon hears rumors...

Nezumi Kozō is the nickname of Nakamura Jirokichi, a Japanese thief and folk hero who lived in Edo during the Edo period. His exploits have been...

Based on Muneta Hiroshi's military novel. The main character, Yamaguchi Zensuke, is a military dog soldier. He joins the army and winds up sent...

Could I But Live

Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island, where he interacts with the Futori clan, to drill a well to power a sugar mill.

Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the...

On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position of...

A journalist decides to do his own investigation after a series of strange murders are committed during a local election campaign.

Contemporary musical drama film by Yasuzo Masumura.

One of many adaptations of "Onna no isshō", this time by Yasuzo Masumura as a starring vehicle for famed actress Machiko Kyo.

Yumechiyo, a geisha house madam recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, yearns to do something constructive with the little time she has left....

Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.

Tamio Moroi, a young university graduate, works at a large brewery where he is taught to do nothing but look busy. When his father goes insane, he is...

Tetsuo is a young man living in Tokyo, who falls in love with a deaf-mute factory girl. He has always felt jealous of his college-educated brother,...

The movie depicts the complicated romantic feelings of a woman who is attracted to a man other than her fiancé.

A 1960 crime film

A film adaptation of Masatsugu Nobuhiko's novel of the same name, directed by Tasaka Tomotaka and starring Nakamura Kinnosuke. This literary epic...

About 1786 the doings of a demented lord results in many masterless samurai, including Iyemon (Kei Sato) who is used to luxury and cannot adjust to...

A movie-loving nanny lives and works in the home of a university professor and eventually becomes the family's support system, leading a bright and...

A war veteran clashes with a mob boss in this crime saga. When Ryuji returns from the war, he finds himself torn by the death of an old friend - the...

1964 Nikkatsu Theater of Life adaptation.