Kyôka Izumi

'The inner workings of the human psyche are featured in this study of relationships between different leading characters. The action weaves around playwright Matsuzaki (Yusaku Matsuda) -- who is sleeping with Shinako (Michio Okusu), a married woman -- and his other "lover," Ine (Eriko Kasuda), a fairly corporeal spirit. The film is set in 1926, when cinema was silent -- and that era is evoked in Kagero-za.' - All Movies.com

Three controversial arthouse/erotic film directors come together to make an anthology. (imdb)

Taki no Shiraito is a very independent young woman with a famous water juggling act in a travelling carnival troupe. She falls in love with an orphaned carriage driver Kinya Murakoshi, and pledges to put him through law school in Tokyo. She always encloses money in her letters to him, until one hard winter there is no work to be found. (imdb)

In this 40-minute avant-garde film based on a story by the surrealist writer Kyoka Izumi, director Shuji Terayama uses the pretext of a young man's determination to recover the lyrics and music to a song he loved in his childhood in an exploration of widely variant perceptions of reality..... (Eleanor Mannikka)

In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When Kumazawa is arrested, Osen agrees to help Sokichi finance his dream of going to medical school. They live in a humble room, and eventually the only way Osen can find enough money for them is to prostitute herself during the day, without Sokichi knowing. (imdb)

A self-absorbed young actor humiliates an elderly Noh performer, who then commits suicide. His act of cruelty compels his father to disown him, leading the once promising actor to a life on the streets. But his desire to win back the respect of his father and the affection of the dead actor's daughter pushes him toward a more noble existence. Naruse employed a delicately structured mise-en-scene in this family melodrama, which evokes the work of Josef von Sternberg.

Outside of a small village in Japan, a mysterious pond is inhabited by mythic creatures. Their story is of revenge, tragedy, and the power of real love. A classical tale which translates wonderfully to film. (imdb)

The story follows Oshino, a geisha who is trying to start a new life with a lover who is a painter. However, her past filled with debts and pimps catches up to her. (imdb)

A painter makes a lover's suicide pact with the wife of his friend, but does not kill himself; letting her die alone. Five years later, his friend remarries a woman who looks exactly like his dead spouse; who haunts the painter's dreams. (imdb)

A young priest is on a personal pilgrimage for enlightenment through the snow-covered trails of Mt. Koya in Wakayama prefecture, Japan. He is headed towards one of the many sacred gates/temples that are there. Misdirected by a local postman, the priest is sent straying off of the main road and onto the back roads which lead to a small secluded cottage. There he meets a beautiful but bewitching woman whose raw sexuality seems utterly impossible to resist.

For his 1st color film, Ichikawa did an Edo era story of two geishas scheming against each other for control of the Nihonbashi bridge area, and vying for the affections of a young doctor. (imdb)