Tomu Uchida

Based on the mystery novel by Tsutomu Mizukami, this intense drama starts with 2 dead bodies found at the site of a shipwreck. They could be among the many victims who perished in the wreck but a gnarled old school detective thinks otherwise. (original uploader & me)

a subversive twist on the samurai genre that begins with a controlled, formally brilliant sequence evoking 17th-century travelers on their way to imperial Edo and climaxes with a chaotic explosion of long-delayed violence. (nytimes)

Story about the lives of poor Meiji tenant farmers.

An examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into a dream sequence imagining an idyllic but implausible future (Senses of Cinema)

A spectrum of characters from all walks of life converge on a bar in post-war Tokyo. Over the course of the night, many of their hopes and fears unfold and change.

The setting is an imaginary first century A.D. in Japan where Yasuna (Hashizo Okawa), an astronomer's assistant, and his love Sakaki (Michiko Saga) are subjected to cruel torture. Yasuna has been accused of stealing a precious manuscript and by the time the torture has ended, he has lost his sanity and Sakaki dies. Wandering in the forest, Yasuna befriends a pack of white foxes who have temporarily taken on human form, and he falls in love with one of them. (Rotten Tomatoes)

A successful textile industrialist from the provinces, who is beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until an indentured peasant prostitute, Tamarazu, takes the unsavoury assignment and treats him with brash tenderness. (imdb)

First part of the famous Dai-bosatsu toge trilogy, based on Kaizan Nakazato's unfinished long series of novels (41 books, written from 1913 to 1941). Set in the last period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Daibosatsu Toge tells the story of Tsuke Ryunosuke, a nihilistic swordmaster who doesnt hesitate to kill anyone, bad or good. (mubi.com)

With his friend Matahachi, Takezo has joined an army on its way to battle. After their side loses, they seek shelter in the isolated home of a widow, Oko, and her daughter, Akemi. Oko seduces Matahachi, who forgets his betrothal to the virtuous Otsu. Takezo returns to the village. Matahachi's family rejects Takezo's report and has him arrested for treason. A monk rescues him from death and sentences him to the study of the samurai code..(IMDB) (imdb)

Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka (1959) places Chikamatsu, the author of the original play, as a character in the drama. Relatively classical at first, the film grows increasingly self-conscious as it proceeds. Chikamatsu, initially an observer taking inspiration for his writing from the events he views, begins eventually to intervene in events, saving the heroine from suicide, substituting a gentler ending for the tragedy which seems likely. (Sense of Cinema)

This is the second installment of the trilogy based on Japan's greatest novel "The Great Bodhisattva Pass", following the life and times of bloodthirsty samurai, Tsukue Ryunosuke. (MUBI)

Master swordsman, Tsukue Ryunosuke is confronted by the families of his victims. Will justice be served for the lost innocent lives? The conclusion of the famed Jidaigeki series is an amazing film, with a completely different perspective on the story from the later versions. (MUBI)

In the second film in the series Takezo embarks on a quest after three years of solitary contemplation.

The movie opens with Musashi visiting the Yagyu clan to seek instruction from the Great Lord Sekishusai, a renowned master strategist and swordsman. It turns out that Sekishusai is mighty difficult to get an audience with, denying all requests for matches. By one of the many astounding coincidences to be found in the Eiji Yoshikawa tale, Otsu has ended up working as Sekishusai's personal assistant. (lardbiscuit.com)

Musashi has defeated and shamed the leader of the Yoshioka fencing school, and now their only chance and redeeming their tattered reputation is to kill Musashi. So they move heaven and earth to take revenge. As the vendetta mounts, Musashi takes up residence with a kind merchant named Honami. Seijuro's brother Denshichiro challenges Musashi to a duel on an evening when Musashi has already agreed (reluctantly) to accompany Honami on a visit to the local pleasure quarters. (lardbiscuit.com)

Early on we find Musashi in a private moment with Otsu by riverside. In contrast with his tender emotions before the big fight, he now tells Otsu she cannot find happiness with a man who's done all the killing he's done. They embrace, then he pulls away and leaves her, apologizing for what he's done. (...) Wandering alone, Musashi comes across a boy named Iori whose father has just died, leaving him an orphan. (...) Musashi decides to stay and help Iori with his farming for a while (...) (lardbiscuit.com)

In the film, Musashi (Kinnosuke Nakamura), hoping to extend his knowledge of the techniques of personal combat, visits the home of Baiken Shishido (Rentaro Mikuni), a bandit who has developed a highly unorthodox way of fighting with ball and chain in one hand and a small very sharp scythe in the other. Musashi first comes upon Baiken's wife (Hideko Okiyama), also adept in her husband's methods, training her baby not to fear the whirling iron ball or the cries of an advancing warrior. (nytimes.com)

An early silhouette animated film by Hidehiko Okuda, Hakusan Kimura and Tomu Uchida. The original story is a Buddhist tale of a young lady who saved a crab (a spiritual being according to Japanese Buddhist faith) from being eaten, and was later saved from danger by the same crab.

Tomu Uchida's "Keisatsukan" tells the story of a young police man, Itami, who met his high school friend, Tetsuo, at a roadblock. As the two rekindled their friendship through a series of beautiful flashbacks of their high school days, the audience are entangled into the complex relationship between between an honest police officer and a gangster.

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan's national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida's rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. (The Movie Database)

Amidst endless construction and aircraft noise, a family whose father died in the war slowly disintegrates, as the daughter and stepmother juggle for position in a country whose future was uncertain. (MUBI)

A teacher suspects a boy, his student, of theft. To make him confess, he tells his class a story from feudal times about a man and an honest porter. In trying to teach a lesson, however, the teacher learns a lesson of his own.

This story is set at the Waseda-Keio regatta. The supporters and atmosphere of student sports at the time are well presented. The protagonist Mochizuki is preparing to participate in the upcoming regatta.