Furankî Sakai

A young lord attempts to combat the official corruption endemic to the Shogunate, only to be placed in an impossible conflict of duties... (imdb)

Shipwreck survivors are found on Beiru, an island previously used for atomic tests. Amazingly free of radiation effects, they believe they were protected by a special juice given to them by the natives. A joint expedition of Rolithican and Japanese scientists explores Beiru and discovers many curious things... (imdb)

Iwao Enokizu is a middle-aged man who has an unexplainable urge to commit insane and violent murders. Eventually he is chased by the police all over Japan, but somehow he always manages to escape. He meets a woman who runs a brothel. They love each other but how long can they be together? (imdb)

A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold drawings, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal. The film explores the eternal relationship between artist and producer, and describes the emanicipation of a man who refuses to let himself become the plaything of power and money. (imdb)

The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai is a widower who lacks the ability to earn money, and he lives with his daughter Oei at the house of his friend, Bakin. Hokusai meets a woman called Onao and finds himself uncontrollably attracted to her, but she disappears all of a sudden. One day, an excited Oei brings home a young girl who looks exactly like Onao. Immediately, Hokusai starts to paint, using the young girl as a model.

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation and were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation. This is the situation that The young Shinran discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time.

Five short stories, each covering the same time, the genres of the horror and the comedy.

Comedy about a man stuck in a brothel after he can't pay his bill.

A drummer falls for a pawnbroker's daughter.

Upon the outbreak of a wide scale nuclear war, Japan and its people are caught in the middle.

Zero Mostel plays an inspector on the trail of criminals who have captured a robot called Chatze(sp?) played by Felix Silas. The inspector has delusions that he is a great Samurai warrior and the movie flashes back and forth between present day and ancient times. (imdb)

In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war, achieving nothing because fighting on the losing side, & then beginning his long period of wandering & training, with the goal always in mind of his duel with Kojiro. Part II builds toward that great duel on Ganryu Island, with considerable focus on Musashi's planning & forethought as to how to gain an advantage. (weirdwildrealm.com)

In the 16th Century, a Dutch ship sails the Pacific from the Americas in order to escape the Spanish. Blackthorn is the pilot of the ship and the first to realize the possibilities of Japan. Japan is a feudal society which has a strong presence of the Portugese. A struggle is in the final stages for who will be the Shogun, the leader who, under the emperor, governs the land.

When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence. (KG)

When an amnesiac woman walks into the household of a young samurai no one knows what to make of the mysterious newcomer. However, with her serene beauty and hard working etiquette both the master of the house, who is engaged, and the servants soon come to admire the woman whom they have named Fusa. This changes everything. Still, Fusa and her new friends and family know nothing about her circumstance prior to her arrival.

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)

Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber, father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation, he "attempted to kill a US prisoner", which was an order from his superior. He is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to execution, he writes a long farewell letter to his family "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."

Raised earnestly by his feudal grandfather in the countryside of Choshu, Milkman Frankie is astonished by the strangers he encounters upon his arrival in Tokyo. Frankie possesses a unique combination of clumsiness and undying dedication reminiscent of bushido samurai code.