Yoshio Harada

Shogun of the Tokugawa clan is dead. Either of two princes stands to inherit his position. The younger Tadanaga has the support of their mother, as well as the local government. Iemitsu, the elder and rightful heir has a scarred face and speaks with a stutter, making some distrust him as a leader. Iemitsu is supported by Yagyu, the master swordsman who trained both brothers.Masterless samurai wander in from far-n-wide to take up sides in a battle for control of the shogunate. (thelunchmovie.com)

A speculative reconstruction of a never fully explained incident from 1973: the five-day disappearance in Japan of Kim Dae-Jung. Kim (codenamed 'KT') was on a secret fund-raising visit to Tokyo when he was snatched from a hotel room; the film says the kidnappers were Korean CIA men abetted by Japan's army-in-all-but-name, the Jieitai, both working with the tacit approval of the USA. (asianwiki.com)

In a seaside village of Japan during the 1920s, married professor Aochi (Toshiya Fujita) meets up with old friend Nakasono (Yoshio Harada), who's now a drifter accused of murder. Aochi manages to fight off the suspicion surrounding his buddy, but complications arise when they meet bereaved geisha Koine (Naoko Otani). Nakasono is immediately smitten. Aochi is attracted, but wants to stay faithful to his wife. Yet, over time, the mind games between all three escalate in a violently sexual way.

'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

Kazuo Kuroki's Ronin-Gai transpires during the final years of the time when samurais figured prominently in Japanese society. The title town is filled with prostitutes and samurai who have been disgraced. The hedonistic warriors are presented with the possibility of redemption when the women of the town are threatened. (Perry Seibert, Rovi)

The final film in his acclaimed Taisho trilogy, maverick filmmaker Seijun Suzuki directs his bizarre, hallucinatory tale about the tortured inner world of famed 1920s painter Yumeji Takehisa. (rotten tomatoes)

Lady Snowblood (Shurayuki-hime) is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes (in Lady Snowblood I). As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries. (imdb)

The film is about a young Terayama who appears in whiteface along with his mother. The young Terayama deals with his sexual hang-ups due to the onset of puberty. He also slowly drifts away from his clinging mother. (imdb)

Blind from birth, Orin, is a part of a group of blind women singers known as the Goze who devote their lives to art. When Orin is with a man she is no longer welcome and must wander alone.

Paul is on one of his many business trips to Tokyo, as a computer-chip executive from New York, when he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman... (imdb)

Nine escaped prisoners hoping to find redemption in an unsympathetic and constantly changing society. Convinced that a secret buried treasure could be the key to finally realizing their lifelong dreams, a mad bomber, a violent biker, a pornographer, and six other determined convicts acquire a van and set off to find their fortune. Along their arduous journey, the convicts form a unique bond as they attempt to reconcile tragic pasts and make the best of an uncertain..future. (allmovie - Jason Buchanant)

A yearly reunion of a dysfunctional family.

Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gomyo hires Tanigawa as his bodyguard, or yojimbo, to protect him during an inter-clan conflict. Tanigawa quickly rises in stature in the clan, but finds his boss's enemies almost overwhelming. (imdb)

In a tale that is visually stunning in certain segments, director Shuji Terayama (who died before this movie was released) has woven a spell of magic and social reprobation around the forbidden love of two cousins. Su-e and her cousin Sutekichi, a descendant of one of the village clans, live together but have been forbidden by her father to have sexual contact. Like other villagers, he believes that if cousins have children together, the children will suffer serious birth defects. (All Movie Guide)

Seven characters, introduced at the start of the film, get thrown together into the same hotel room: a thief who's stolen a suitcase of money from the mob, his ex-girlfriend, her obsessive boyfriend, the mob soldier sent to retrieve the briefcase, another mobster sent to kill them, master voyeur Captain Banana and his new apprentice, The Mister Yellow. (imdb)

A gangly, withdrawn youth is recovering from a lung ailment at his grandfather's house, while his classmates are working at a nearby war plant. When one of those classmates was fatally wounded in an air raid, Yasuo ran away instead of finding help -- and he has been wracked with guilt ever since. (japantimes.co.jp)

In different parts of Tokyo, four young and seemingly healthy people suddenly die of heart failure at exactly the same moment. Reporter Kazuyuki Asakawa decides to investigate the deaths, and discovers that the four had stayed at a rural inn together just a week earlier. At the inn, he comes across a strange video that ends with a message saying that anyone who watches it will die exactly seven days later. Now the clock is ticking for Asakawa. Can he break the curse in time? (imdb)

Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima. The film takes place during 4 days in the summer of 1948, as the ghost of her father visits Mitsué (Rié Miyama). He had somehow learned that she has fallen in love, and tries to convince her to start her new life. (imdb)

Three people in Tokyo take a surreal voyage of self-discovery through memory and nightmares. "O" intends suicide while talking on a cell-phone with a stranger he meets on line who plans a simultaneous suicide. Events take a horrifying turn. (imdb)

Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. (imdb)

This is the story about a young female golpher and her transformation from young promising teenager, into a media sensation. Think Michelle Wie. During her rise she falls in love with her trainer, gets her own TV show, attracts a female stalker, and has to deal with the pressures that come with being in the spotlight. Funny, dark, and slightly erotically charged, a must for fans of Suzuki! (karagara)

The 25-year-old Yojin (Matsuyama Kenichi, also starring in Kamui) lives with his grandma in a village in Aomori Prefecture. He's training himself to grow vegetables with the help of audio tapes left by his late grandpa and tries to organize his days systematically... but Yojin's head is wired differently. "Not broken," he says, "just different." Yojin's life changes the day he meets Machiko, the primary-school teacher newly arrived from Tokyo. It's love at first sight. (viff.org)

A young outlaw can't escape his rebellious past despite connections to a well to do family.

An aspiring writer tries to find a way to escape his life in a small village.

A blind master swordsman attempts to lead a quiet life with his wife but he is provoked back into battle. (imdb)

Three thieves approaching their twilight years team up with a reckless punk who screws them out of their winnings. Casualties result, but there are still enough men standing to exact bloody revenge. (imdb)

Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.

A detective down on his luck is sent to retrieve a girl from a mysterious resort-cum-cult-commune.

Japanese Fascism Meets Clockwork Orange

A bad cop is engaged in a violent chase to catch a yakuza boss. In his absence his wife runs away with another man, who turns out to be the very same man that her husband is hunting. Once he discovers this, he loses his nerve and turns in his badge. But the chase turns into a personal vendetta where the ex-cop plans to wipe out the entire gang.

Can a sinful man change and find peace? It's unlikely in gang-plagued Japan. Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter (and hired sword), goes straight after protecting a woman in distress: they marry, have a son, and Jokichi pursues his father's craft. After three years, the gangs he embarrassed when he saved his wife find the family and leave Jokichi in grief, vowing revenge.... (imdb)

Thirsting for revenge, Jokichi rashly attempts to assassinate the evil Chogoro but ends up being captured by Yakuza... (imdb)

Two brothers, Jinta and Wataru, are raised in a travelling circus. After an accident, Jinta decides to leave the circus and travels the countryside working as a con-man. After a run-in with a local gang of yakuza, he is invited to join their ranks, where he makes the mistake of falling for a boss's mistress. Wataru stays with the circus and works hard to regain its former glory. (imdb)

Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868). A samurai film in an ironic almost burlesque style, but not without affection for its hero. (imdb)

A married man with a boring job envisions a way to end this misery while keeping his family life. He schemes chloroforming an attractive waitress. He chloroforms her as she sleeps, and he has sex with her. He does the same with other women as well, but returns to the waitress, at times living a token for her. By mistake, he removes his mask and falls unconscious and wakes up in her room and start thinking about what the outcome will be of his foolishness.

Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister as they attempt to survive the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City.

A yakuza hitman gets out of jail and decides to start a new life, but soon his old life catches up with him. (imdb)

The plot gets started when Furiko and Ryumei two members of a park-dwelling hippie gang from Shinjuku, are ambushed by a biker gang. Ryumei stabs one of the thugs to death but is forcibly taken away by his shady politician father, leaving Furiko to take the blame for the crime. She cannot forget him, escapes from prison in order to find him again and is soon joined by her gang in the small town of Kurumi. (imdb)

Zen is the town crank, local kabuki star and proprietor of a venison restaurant in a rural mountain village. When his wife & best friend return to town after having eloped together years earlier, the ties between kabuki and real life are made evident.

This 1991 Japanese film tells the story of a scientist who sets out to create the new "super Adam and Eve", humans who cannot be controlled by their emotions. Of course, the end result it not exactly what the good doctor expects. (Leo Urbina)

A biological weapon is smuggled aboard a high tech battleship named Aegis. Militants are determined to unleash it on Japan. But a brave Chief Petty Officer has other ideas. He and an undercover agent attempt to stop them. (imdb)

A tough police detective is falsely accused of corruption, and goes on the run to clear his name. He is assisted by the beautiful daughter of a rich man. (imdb)

These are Jidai-geki period / folklore type stories that were comissioned by the Kumamoto prefacture of Kyushu island in 1996 and filmed over a period of three years. (letterboxd.com)

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

A boxer attempts to make a comeback after suffering a major head injury.

A police detective tries to investigate the mystery of a victim who was shot in the head, but no bullet was found. (imdb)

Tadao returns from Tokyo to live in his home town. Living with his parents, he gets a job fixing radios and TV sets. He catches up with an old school friend, Tetsuji. One night Tetsuji decides to elope to Tokyo with a bar hostess. (imdb)

The very first V-Cinema production; a stripped to the bone action film about a cop avenging his partner's (the very young Riki Takeuchi) death. (bulletsnbabesdvd.com)

In a melancholic seaside town, the bodies of two lovers who apparently committed double suicide are found on the shore. A local reporter and the dead woman's pimp begin to investigate and find out that something very suspicious is going on. (IMDB).

Fu and Suzu are two pretty anarchist girls, who take to the road. They are off to visit the tomb of a small pig named PUPU. On the way, they meet Suzu's ex-lover, a gay couple, and a golf player; always getting in trouble. But whenever trouble comes, 'TrunkMan' the hero appears to save them. All changes, though, when one of the girls falls in love with TrunkMan.

A black comedy adventure.

A young woman aspires to be a motorboat racing champion.

14-year-old Nakamura is sexually abused by her stepfather. She invents a friend who is coming to her rescue when she really needs it.

Set at the height of the Japanese student rebellion in 1968, the film tells the story of the friendship between two very different men—a fortyish film maniac who spends nearly all his time at the movies and a 19-year-old going through the final rites of passage from adolescence to adulthood.

Japanese action film.

Harada Yoshio delivers a powerful performance as a man consumed by revenge in his screen debut.

Yuji, fresh out of prison on parole, meets a stranger named Nao that asks for his assistance.

Hi no Sakana (火の魚, Fish of the Fire) is a Japanese novel by Murō Saisei; it was first published in 1960 and was later adapted into a single-episode TV drama that was broadcast on NHK Hiroshima in 2009. The story describes the interactions between an elderly author and a young staffer from a publishing company as they collaborate on a book cover design for the author's latest novel.

A middle-aged man discovers an injured refugee woman trembling in the corner of his bar in Kabukicho. He quickly becomes aware that her life is in his hands when he learns she is hiding from the yakuza.

On 9 August 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This film describes the daily life of people the day before that fateful event, their feelings of joy and sadness. For them, tomorrow would never come, the first film in Kazuo Kuroki's 'War Requiem Trilogy,' which also includes 'Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima' (2002) and 'Chichi to Kuraseba' (2004). (imdb)

Jiro Kanzaki is an F3000 driver blessed with acute sensitivity and breathtaking driving techniques. He's a daredevil who feels no fear driving at speeds that even top racers dare not attempt. But unexpected trouble forces this racer to leave his team and return to Japan for the first time in years. (imdb)