Sô Yamamura

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness... (imdb)

A dramatization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that allowed it to happen. (imdb)

When a Japanese car company buys an American plant, the American liason must mediate the clash of work attitudes between the foreign management and native labor. (imdb)

First of a trilogy of films. During the Second World War, a Japanese conscientious objector named Kaji works as a supervisor in a Manchurian prison camp. He hopes to avoid duty as a soldier, but he also hopes to be helpful to the welfare of his prisoners. An escape attempt by Chinese prisoners results in Kaji's arrest for collusion. He faces the possibility of transferral to combat -- or worse

A young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.

Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica. Ushioda and Ochi eventually leave Antarctica, only to return to search for the dogs inadvertently marooned there. (imdb)

Townsend Harris is sent by President Pierce to Japan to serve as the first U.S. Consul-General to that country. Harris discovers enormous hostility to foreigners, as well as the love of a young geisha. (imdb)

This film is about the story of the relationship between a daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara) and the father (So Yamamura) of her neglectful and selfish husband (Ken Uehara). As the father becomes more and more aware of the unhappiness of Hara, he takes ever more unconventional steps to try to rescue his son's marriage. Though the issues of infidelity, abortion and divorce swirl through this film, the tone is remarkably low-key and unmelodramatic (IMDB Comments)

Time travellers from the 23rd century return to 1992 to warn Japan that Godzilla will cause a catastrophic nuclear incident in the 21st century and suggest a way to rid the world of him forever... (imdb)

Michiyo moved to Osaka two years ago, when her husband Hatsunosuke who works at a stock brokerage was transfered from Tokyo. She wash, cook and clean 365 days a year. All the dreams and hopes she had when they got married five years ago seems to be gone. From here on we follow the everyday life of Mr. and Mrs. Okamoto. (imdb)

In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor... (imdb)

Two sisters live with their father. The younger sister is embroiled in an affair and becomes pregnant. The elder sister has run away from her husband and returned with her child to her parent's home. Both sisters are astonished when their mother, long thought dead, turns up alive. The sisters are even more stunned when they learn what their mother's life has been. (imdb)

In the fourth film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin, and battles Retsudo, head of the Yagyu clan, and his son Gunbei. (imdb)

The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theater to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent. (imdb)

About a woman trapped into upholding the family tradition and moral values just after the end of WW2.

Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen. Emperor Hirohito, however, joins with his ministers in asking the unthinkable, the peaceful surrender of Japan. (imdb)

A man travels to Akitsu Springs to die, only to be nursed to health by a young woman who works at the springs. The film follows their lives through the years as the man leaves, grows, and marries, but never stops coming back to Akitsu Springs.

Three short tales from stories by Ichiyo Higuchi. In one, a young woman is degraded by her family after an arranged marriage. Another deals with the troubles heaped upon a young servant by her family and the wealthy people who employ her. Yet another tells of a prostitute and her hopes of finding a new, respectable life. (imdb)

Based on the true story of the trial of four innocent men for the murder of an old couple.

Okuni (played by Michiyo Kogure) is the wife of a samurai, who was murdered (in an underhanded fashion) by a former suitor, Tomonojo (So Yamamura). So she and one of the retainers of her husband, Gohei (Tomoemon Otani, a famed kabuki artist, during a brief stint in the movies) go seeking the murderer, planning to seek revenge. However, the two have no real clue as to where to seek Tomonojo and their quest seems endless. (imdb)

Setsuko is unhappily to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them failed to propose when Hiroshi left for France a few years ago. Now he is back and Mariko (Setsuko's sister) tries to reunite them. She too is secretly in love with Hiroshi. (imdb)

Professor Nishiyama, after studying and interpreting the prophecies of Nostradamus, realizes that the end of the world is at hand. Unfortunately, nobody listens to him until it is too late. As the effects of mankind's tampering of the earth - radioactive smog clouds, hideously mutated animals, destruction of the ozone layer - rage out of control, the world leaders hurtle blindly toward the final confrontation. (imdb)

In Ryokichi Urshiyama (Isao Kimura), a struggling writer who, over the course of the film, sinks into a vicious cycle of despair and drunkenness, Naruse creates a vividly unsympathetic on-screen surrogate. (Slant)

Ishikawa Goemon, a talented young ninja becomes embedded in a twisted scheme to assassinate Oda Nobunaga, an evil warlord bent on ruling feudal Japan with an iron fist. Deceit, treachery and loads of ninjas lurk around every corner as Goemon travels the countryside to complete his task of winning back his honor, and ultimately his life.

The first stage of Nobunaga Oda's (Tomisaburo Wakayama) plan to unify Japan -- a dangerous mission that involved annihilating the Iga ninjas -- was a resounding success. But full unification will come only if he can bring the country's far-flung warlords together. Nobunaga's task is made all the more difficult by a renegade Iga ninja who managed to survive Nobunaga's initial attack and is now hell-bent on revenge.

Okhi is a married writer who seduced a girl, Otoko, when she was sixteen, causing her to become pregnant. However, she miscarries and after a period of emotional disturbance, she becomes an artist. Many years later, Okhi turns up in Kyoto to see her, and surprisingly not bitter. However, Otok's 16 year old student Keiko vows revenge on him. (imdb)

Mieko Takamine is a former ballet star and current ballet teacher married to So Yamamura. The couple have a teen-aged son and daughter. Takamine's affections seem to be engaged by an old friend (Kan Nihonyanagi). Okada is now an advanced ballet student -- but is distracted by her mother's romance (which she is not entirely unsympathetic to) and the illness of her old teacher. (Michael Kerpan)

White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. (worldscinema.com)

Eccentric film about female reporter fired for writing about police corruption. To make money she hides while a weekly magazine offers a prize for her discovery. A bank embezzler and his underlings take advantage of her disappearance to pin the theft on her, as well as the murder of the weak link in their gang. Meanwhile, the cop she got fired is now a private detective and he gets involved in the investigation. (East Asia Film Library)

Zushio and his sister Anju are kidnapped and sold to a cruel slave-master. Will they ever be reunited with their mother again?

On his deathbed, a wealthy businessman announces that his fortune is to be split equally among his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown to his family and colleagues. A bevy of lawyers and associates then begin machinations to procure the money for themselves, enlisting the aid of impostors and blackmail. (criterion.com)

Before government censorship was instituted full force in 1928, the proletarian novel was the ascendant form in Japanese prose. Takiji Kobayashi was the leading writer in this genre, which attempted to expose the oppression of the lower classes, until he was murdered in prison by the government in 1933. So Yamamura's The Crab-Canning Ship is based on one of Kobayashi's better-known novels. A group of sailors is forced to work under unbearable conditions on a Japanese fishing vessel.

His name is Baian; his professions are acupuncture and murder. A needle deftly inserted into the human body can bring relief and healing. For the defense of justice and honor -- and for the right price -- it can also bring instant death. Set in a world of corrupt samurai lords, ruthless merchant princes, fawning geisha, and deadly ninja, Ninja Justice introduces Baian and his friend and accomplice Hikojiro in six tales of murder and deceit, jealousy and revenge.

Diary of a Mad Old Man is the journal of Utsugi, a seventy-seven-year-old man of refined tastes who is recovering from a stroke. He discovers that, while his body is decaying, his libido still rages on - unwittingly sparked by the gentle, kindly attentions of his daughter-in-law Satsuko. He develops an obsession for her feet. (imdb)

A skilled country doctor's talents are such that he can even perform operations as difficult and novel as removing a patient's kidney for the first time in Japan. Unfortunately for him, however, his wife's addiction to gambling is of such a magnitude that he is down to selling his underwear to make money. The image sticks and he becomes known as the 'underwear doctor.' On the other hand, his successful surgery's patient is so grateful he himself wants to become a physician. (imdb)

In 1943, the Aleutian island of Kiska was fortified by a small contingent of Japanese soldiers. When word arrived of an impending attack by an overwhelming force of Americans, the Japanese Navy attempted one of the most daring and unlikely evacuations in military history. This is that story. (letterboxd)

Reporter Goro Arai covers the war for a Japanese newspaper. He follows the activities of Japan's top military leader, Hideki Tojo, and comes to view Tojo as a dangerous military tyrant. But anyone standing in Tojo's way is in danger, and so it proves for Arai. (imdb)

The story of the 47 Ronin. (The Movie Database)

The epic tales of Saotome Mondonosuke, the "Bored Hatamoto" were told in over 25 films. As a hatamoto Mondonosuke has a crescent scar on his forehead, which is a license to go above the law in order to protect the shogunate. In this exciting entry in the series, a vicious plot using ninja to curse the shogun leads to a showdown with the Owari clan, one of the 3 branch families of the Tokugawa. Will Mondonosuke be able to discover who is behind the conspiracy in time to save His... (themovied

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 original work by Ayako Sono was made into a melodrama by a combination of Shinoda Masahiro and Terayama Shuji. (KG)

Starting out with no singing or dancing talents, the young, free-spirited Koen is initially eager to please and happy to do what she is told. With time and experience, however, she gradually begins to notice a change in herself and questions what she wants out of life. (KG)

Sonejiro sacrifices all comfort to devote himself to research. Young housewife Yachiyo is disappointed with her husband Kappei, who is more attracted to mountain climbing and another girl. When Yachiyo's father is introduced to Sonejiro, good will turns evil, and all happiness is at stake. (imdb)

WWII is at an end. Baby boomers are in full bloom. Minister Araki is introducing a healthcare bill that aims to establish "Birth Control Consultation Centers" across Japan. As his speech echoes in the national assembly, his wife receives a different message from the doctor: She is pregnant. (mubi)

A ronin for a hire (Koji Takahashi) and an acupuncturist (Jiro Otama) are members of an assassin's gild in Tokugawa Edo. The ronin is offered a position as a city magistrate by the corrupt magistrate he has been hired to assassinate, and struggles with the possibility of taking an "honest" job that is in reality less wholesome than his work as an assassin. Dr. Baian meanwhile is hired to kill a woman who he begins to suspect may be his own sister, from whom he was separated when still a boy.

After mastering swordsmanship at the dojo of Chiba Shusaku, and being unable to serve a clan due to his illness, Hirate Miki became a ronin who wound up as bodyguard to Shigezo of Sasagawa leading up to an epic battle.

The story of a Christian nun, Kyoko who is the object of affection for two very different men - one the happy-go-lucky yakuza gangster, Haruhiko who is the next-in-line to takeover the ragtag “Tenryu Gumi” gang and the other bumbling police detective Kumashiro. The Tenryu Gumi is a collection of misfits and other troublemakers but are relatively peaceful due to their Christian beliefs. Their bitter rivals are the more traditional “Kuroiwa Gumi”, a much more sadistic and violent group led by god

Tane, the lady proprietor of an inn for amorous couples, lives there with her three children. When her eldest daughter loses her fiancé due to the fact her mother is a mistress, her despair drives her to become a cabaret hostess.

Fujita Makoto, returns as the legendary Tange Sazen, the one-eyed, one-armed samurai who is a champion for the common people. Unflappable, except with the ladies, he fights evil in Shogun Yoshimune's Edo. The kokezaru no tsubo (earless monkey jar) has gone missing with a secret hidden inside that could change the course of history. All of Edo's top swordsmen, including Yagyu Genzaburo and Ooka Echizen are involved as villains pursue their evil quest! Superb swordplay highlights this exciting...

Pierre Marsac, a French engineer working for the Nagasaki shipbuilding yards, has fallen in love both with Japan and a charming Japanese girl named Noriko. But Françoise Fabre, a French journalist and Pierre's former lover, contacts him while visiting the Land of the Rising Sun. They meet again, find out their love might not be dead. Meanwhile, Pierre gradually becomes estranged from sweet, humble Noriko. One day, a typhoon strikes Nagasaki... (Guy Bellinger)

After her marriage breaks up, a young woman moves in with her aunt and uncle and becomes a movie ticket seller. On a train she meets two men - one older and wealthy, the other young and poor - who both fall for her.

Adapted from a poem, which was composed by poet and sculptor Kotaro Takamura, Chieko-Sho is the story of the artist's wife Chieko. The poet meets a woman, who also as an artist illustrates, one day. They marry and have a good life spending many years together. One day, however, she loses her mind and has to be confined to a hospital. The poetry was some of star Hara Setsuko's favorite even before her involvement in the film.