Mitsuko Kusabue

The death of the Inugami Family head leaves behind a complicated series of relationships, both personal and business, that results in increased danger, some murders and deaths, and a subsequent investigation by Tokyo Private Detective, Kindaichi. (twitchfilm.net)

A father with a steady home life that includes a wife and two children, is shocked to find that his friend's wife has been killed. It becomes apparent that the father was busy having an affair with his friend's wife right up until her death. While everyone is initially stumped to who the killer could be, it is slowly revealed that the aforementioned affair included kinky sex which may have led to the woman's death. (CinemaTalk)

Sanae Sakanishi, widowed at the film's outset is left a substantial inheritance that soon becomes the instigator of much familial discord. (Slant)

A 19 year old girl loses her husband in war. Bombing destroys his family's shop and the widow stays to rebuild it as the rest of the family flee and runs it for 18 years out of love for her dead husband and his mother. After 18 years when a new supermarket threatens to put them out of business, the sisters conspire to turn the shop into a supermarket and get rid of their brother's widow. (imdb)

The life history of a woman who faced disillusion from her husband and disappointment from her son, but lives to welcome her grandson. (bfi.org.uk)

Scattered Clouds, director Mikio Naruse's final film, plays like the melancholy last dance of an extended evening of revelry now teetering on the fine line separating drunkenness and sobriety. It's the cinematic equivalent of a hangover, though the heady haze the film conveys is part of its charm and very much in tune with its deeply saturated color photography, which constantly threatens to spill over its borders and run together in a kind of chaotic emotional release. (KG)

A Wanderer's Notebook, also known as Her Lonely Lane, is director Mikio Naruse's hollow biopic of authoress Fumiko Hayashi, whose work the director often adapted for the screen. (Slant Magazine)

''Sorekawa'' is set in Tokyo in 1909 and is based on a novel by Soseki Natsume, which was published in that year, when the modernization of Japan was well along though far from being universally accepted. Daisuke (Yusaku Matsuda), the 30-ish younger son of a rich and powerful businessman, has broken away from his family to the extent that he lives in his own modest house, though the bills for it and for his servants are paid by the older brother who runs the family business. (nytimes)

A former wrestling champion, Kiwa has become a 'zegen' : He buys young girls from poor families to sell them to geisha houses. He is quite successful but Kiwa, his wife, loathes his work. One day Iwago comes back with a young girl he's bought from a man who wanted to sell her in China. They adopt her and she raises her, as a respectable girl, with her two sons. But Iwago wants to manage the career of a singer who becomes his mistress and the situation becomes very tense in the couple. (torrentbox.com/torrent_details?id=362825&filelist=1 (edited to fit))

Several young women are killed in an isolated village, leading to an intriguing search for their killer.

Set among the matrilineal merchant class of Osaka in the early 20th century, this 1960 family drama by Kon Ichikawa follows the son of a prosperous family (Raizo Ichikawa) as he fathers only boys with various wives and geishas, much to the chagrin of his manipulative grandmother and mother. Ichikawa wrote the script with his wife and frequent collaborator, Natto Wada, and despite its sharp satirical jabs, it carefully notates the hero's ambivalence and regret toward women. (Chicago Reader)

A biopic on the life of Lady Kasuga (1579-1643)

Hideko Takamine is the widow of the oldest son of an extended family -- and runs the family's grocery. The upcoming threat of super-marketization is mentioned in passing -- but not followed through here. Much of the machinations here involve a marriage proposal for one of the younger daughters. (imdb)

Intrepid detective Kindaichi (Ishizaka) tracks down a triple murderer using Haiku poem clues. (Audie Bock)

The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and dumb. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys. (Letterboxd)

Private detective Kindaichi investigates a series of murders in scenic rural Japan.

Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japanese fleet and army to take Port Arthur fails, and a Russian fleet bears down on the Sea of Japan. Admiral Heihachiro Togo sends his fleet to confront the Russians, with results which stun both nations. Meanwhile, Major Genjiro Akashi makes secret negotiations with the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia, negotiations that have repercussions far beyond the conflict at hand.

The wife of a mob leader wants to continue leading the organization after her husband returns from jail a changed man. (moviefone)

After defeat at the Siege of Osaka several survivors attempt to deliver a young prince to safety. (imdb)

A kind of modern dress "Donzoko" "The Lower Depths", about slum life in Osaka, where a greedy widow (Mimasu) takes advantage of her poor roomers, including her own son, who makes a meagre living stripping taxicabs.

A young girl befriends an infant T-rex after her paleontologist father nurtures a lair of lost dinosaur eggs.

The legendary gunman Daisuke Jigen comes to Japan to have his pistol examined.

A 40-year-old gifted architect enjoys living alone and doesn't communicate well with people. He has three female friends. Will he ever marry? (imdb)

This historical biopic follows the life of Japanese heroine Yae Niijima. As Yae dedicates her life to helping others, she becomes a role model for modern women everywhere. (imdb)