Ito Soma has talent for playing Tsugaru-shamisen. The music is native to Aomori Prefecture and involves the traditional folk instrument Tsugaru-shamisen, which is a plucked three-string instrument. Ito Soma learned…

A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato, Japan’s greatest flagship during the Second World War.

Hell Virgin is granted permission to live on earth for 7 days, if she promises not to cause armageddon whilst she’s there. She accepts and tries to enjoy her remaining…

Coerced by the evil Witch Raga, Ashura, the Hell Virgin, attempts to unlock the four Earth holes that lead to the Gates of Hell. Together, Raga aims to control the…

A passionate teacher, Kumiko Yamaguchi, a.k.a. Yankumi, is now overseeing the new students of Class 3D of Akado High School, who still have not opened up to her and are…

An ardent culture-vulture youth, previously charged for the murder of a woman when he was young, plans to hold hostage a local bank.

During the 17th Century roving bands of hatamoto were causing trouble in the new capital city of Edo and constantly fought with the townspeople at every turn. The leader of…

A rebel youth joins a duo of entertainers only able to communicate by gesturing; when the female performer is suddenly abducted, he and Takeru must take action.

The year is 1945. After the horrific fire-bombings of the Pacific War levels Japan to the ground, the government decides to consult spiritual psychics to aid them in winning the…

Naoto was ignored by other people. During his school days, Chihiro was the first person who called his name. Naoto dreams of seeing her again and tries to find her….

Little Mute is an orphan traumatized into silence by the death of his father at the hands of a vicious fighting master. Living at the Shaolin monastery, he befriends a…

Fusako, a drug dealer’s young mistress in postwar Japan, loses her tenuous grasp on life upon learning about her lover’s affair.

Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza.

Mod-sixties visuals and black humor mark this wild New Wave masterpiece about a vengeful contractor who hires a series of young killers to target a woman muckraker. Trouble brews when…

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 Bannojo for the honor to…

A young widow, made world weary by her abusive, neglectful husband, finds herself in a minor scandal when she’s seen with her intense, no-nonsense childhood sweetheart.

Jirô wanders the streets with friends committing petty crimes that gradually escalate.

An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in…

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 the husband finds the…

Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His…

When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous friends.

A Japanese war widow recalls her love affair with her deceased husband.

Following a painful breakup, Toey decides to heal his broken heart in Higashikawa town where he meets Oat, who is on his bachelor finale trip. From stranger to friends, romance…

Princess Ito’s clan was banished by Uzu. 1000 years later, in Uzu town, the slaughtered villagers have reincarnated and are gathered in order to have their revenge.

A young Chinese Go board game player arrives in Japan for training. He doesn’t speak Japanese and becomes embarrassed living there. By dropping his Go stones, he happens to meet…

A father curries favor with his bosses to further his career, but his wife has lost faith in him. She returns to her family home while they rent out their…

Edmund Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a lady. But she sees him only as…

At 26, editor Kazama Aiko has reached dead ends in both her lovelife and career. She visits Taiwan to cover a cycling event, and meets a young Taiwanese woman named…

Koreyoshi Kurahara’s ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The…

Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman…

Being a failure as a teacher and a familyman, Shinichi tries to escape everyday live by dressing up as “Zebraman”, the superhero. Although the TV series whas canceled after only…

Following the tragic death of his father, a young boy’s family trains his horse to compete in the local derby.

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat.

The story follows a university student who moves into an apartment building and becomes involved with a waitress. The landlord then attempts to evict the tenants and sell the building…

Emi Ota and her friend Okiku stay briefly at a mountain inn and then return to Tokyo. Later, Nanmura, a soldier on leave, steps on an ornamental hairpin in the…

After a young theology student flees a hit-and-run accident, he is plagued by both his own guilt-ridden conscience and a mysterious, diabolical doppelgänger. But all possible escape routes lead straight…

Italy is usually cited as the anchor of the neo-realist movement in cinema, but Mikio Naruse’s Ginza Cosmetics (1951) is a reminder that Japan had its own output equally rooted…

Three men sentenced to death are spared and changed into “shadows executioners”, a group of ruthless ninja working for mysterious high ranking officials. During their investigation on some illegal business,…

A playwright moves to a rural neighborhood to avoid the distractions of the city, but he discovers there are plenty of ways to get sidetracked in his new home, too.

A sharpshooter kills two prisoners in a police van at night. The guard on the van is suspended for six months; he’s Tamon, an upright, modest man. He begins his…