Akira Ishihama

An elder ronin samurai arrives at a feudal lord's home and requests an honorable place to commit suicide. But when the ronin inquires about a younger samurai who arrived before him things take an unexpected turn. (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

While under sedation in a dentist's office, a young art student has sex fantasies about naked women, vampires and a beautiful patient he saw in the office. (imdb)

In the tradition of JOY OF TORTURE, this film presents three stores of sadism and perversion taking place in Edo during a time of civil war. The first story is about doomed lovers, the second is about a noblewoman who likes to do it with hairy midgets and imported black slaves because of a certain incident in her past and finally the third story is about the marvel of caesarean section.

The year is 1932, and a woman, whose tenant-farmer fiancé is fighting in China, is raped by the landowners son(Nakadai), who has returned from the war with a crippling injury, and then forced into marriage with him. In four more chapters presented over three decades, their children undertake their own searches for love, while the parents try to make each other as miserable as possible. (imdb)

It's the story of a maladjusted son of a prostitute. The boy is impotent unless he's stoking a loaded gun while making love. It's easy to see some quirky psychological problems here. But in reality, he's unconsciously reacting against his hatred for Americans, a deeply rooted hostility charged by the victimization of his mother at the hands of hungry soldiers on a military base in Yokota. Eventually the young psycho shoots a black GI and is immediately gunned down by American MPs.

The story of a father and two teenaged sons, and the rivalry between the two siblings as they begin to discover the attraction of girls (Hulu)

SINCERE HEART (1953, aka MAGOKORO) was Masaki Kobayashi's second film as a director -- but as with his first, YOUTH OF THE SON, it is something of a hybrid work, influenced heavily by his longtime mentor Keisuke Kinoshita, who wrote the screenplay. The resulting film is a deeply passionate and sentimental drama about a young student (Akira Inshihama) who falls into a hopeless romantic attraction to an invalid girl (Keiko Awaji) whom he can only see from afar. (Hulu)

The lives of a master sculptor and his young apprentice are changed forever when they meet an evil witch during a snow storm. (imdb)

SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE WIDE SKY (1954, aka KONO HIROI SORA NO DOKOKA NI) came near the end of Masaki Kobayashi's formative period as a director -- scripted by the sister of his mentor Keisuke Kinoshita (and scored by Kinoshita's brother), this drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails. (KG)

A widow's decision to return to her ex-lover is met with disapproval from her family. (hulu+)

In one of the best films of this type, famous detective Kindaichi solves a series of mysterious murders in a wealthy family. An excellent blend of intrigue and betrayal, set against the backdrop of wealth, this film is loaded with twists and turns and surprises at every corner. Things are never as they seem, and it will keep you guessing until the very end. A rare treasure of a mystery, like none before or since!

Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza. (Hulu+)

Longtime friends reunite only to find out that their bonds are not as strong as they thought they were. (imdb)

When a family has to relocate due to the war, they are ostracized by their new community.

In Shotaro Ishinomori's own deconstructionist entry in his famous "Masked Rider" series, young Shin Kazamatsuri is transformed into a powerful grasshopper mutant by a scientific institute known only as the "Foundation," which targets him. (imdb)

Golgom and Shadowmoon took over the town of Yubure. A scientist, who has some codes to put a mecha online to destroy Black, escaped. Minami Kotaro (Kamen Rider Black) was shopping with his family and saw the man get out of a truck, looking scared. Kotaro follows the man and ends up saving him. The man tells Kotaro about Yubure, and Kotaro rides to the town to find it all deserted, or is it? Kotaro meets up with a group of people, they tell him of the problem, and he goes straight to the...

1997 V-Cinema film.