Ganjirô Nakamura

A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son Kiyoshi, even though Kiyoshi believes Komajuro is his uncle (imdb)

Mr. Ogata lives a complicated life: he's is a pornographer making two skin flicks per day and trying to stay beneath the radar screen of the local mob (imdb)

In a slum flophouse, a collection of beggars and thieves bewail their lot in life, and Osugi, the landlady, fights with her sister, Okayo, over the man they both desire, the thief Sutekichi (imdb)

This is the story of Mama, a.k.a. Keiko, a middle-aged geisha who must choose to either get married or buy a bar of her own. Her family hounds her for money, her customers for her attention, and she is continually in debt. The life of a geisha is examined as well as the way in which the system traps and sometimes kills those in it. (imdb)

Ozu creates a picture about an entire family, enriching the several strands of his story with many anecdotes. The film is unusually rich in character vignettes: at the same time it is one of the director's bleakest films.

Told in an intricate flashback structure, Enjo dramatizes the psychological collapse of Goichi (Raizo Ichikawa), a young Buddhist acolyte from a dysfunctional family who arrives at a Kyoto temple - the Golden Pavilion - for further study. (Wikipedia)

A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his wife. Her older brother tries to marry off his children and hang on to/ extend his farm through an advantageous marriage in the face of threatened land confiscation and the desire of his children to get comfortable urban jobs instead of the backbreaking work in the paddy fields under parental control. (imdb)

A man getting on in years sets out to find a way to resurrect his flagging virility. (imdb)

The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor Keikoh's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother Waka, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. (imdb)

The fourth installment of the legendary Japanese film series starring Ichikawa Raizo, Shinobi No Mono 4: Siege opens to find Tokugawa Ieyasu poised to rule all of Japan. Before Ieyasu can cement his reign, however, he will have to destroy the Toyotomi clan once and for all. The Toyotomi clan is currently besieged in Osaka castle, and Ieyasu's ninja are the only ones capable of penetrating the heavily guarded fortress. (allmovie.com)

Lake of Tears (湖の琴 Mizuumi no Kin?) is a 1966 Japanese film directed by Tomotaka Tasaka. It was Japan's submission to the 39th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. (en.wikipedia.org)

This is essentially the story of Qin from the founding of "China" by his unifying the various provinces, through the building of the great wall on to close to his death.

Set in 1937, this is the story of Asakichi, who is played by Shiuntaro Katsu, best known as being Zatoichi in 26 films. Asakichi has been disowned by his father for gambling, so he heads off to make his living in cockfighting. He, in quick order, wins some money, takes up with a fallen geisha and quickly comes in conflict with the yakuza. Besting their top man, Asakichi, is drawn into the life of a yakuza despite his efforts to remain outside of it. (imdb)

The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting - he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New National Theatre Company, he wants nothing more than to choreograph the swordfights for the modern plays put on by the company. (heroic-cinema.com)

A demon-faced monster seeking revenge appears in the forms of a gigantic ox and a huge spider! The young Genji warrior protects the Fujiwara Clan and the beautiful lady in tragic love! A grand visual epic told with mesmerizing extravagance! (Karagarga)

Satoko is a mistress by trade, or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man...The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner, a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese. (KG)

The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. In the second story, a beautiful young woman is employed by an unscrupulous real estate agent to convince male clients to invest in worthless property. The last story is about a widowed geisha who has no real financial worries and when she falls in love with a forger, she opts to wait for him after he is sent to prison, rather than follow societal or family dictates. (All Movie)

A satirical comedy about a store clerk who falls in love with his boss's daughter. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo. (The Movie Database)

Once upon a time, Okuro(Ayako Wakao), a young female racoon, lived poorly with her drunken father. One day after they'd disguised themselves as parasols, they were wrongly brought to the Racoon Palace, where the young racoon princess (also Ayako Wakao) made a mess around her arranged marriage with the beautiful racoon prince (Raizô Ichikawa). Pretty princess ran away. (The Movie Database)

Ogin, daughter of esteemed tea master Sen no Rikyû, holds unrequited love for one of his married pupils, Ukon. Ukon's strict Christian beliefs, however, lead to friction not just in their relationship, but endanger all their lives. When Lord Hideyoshi wishes to take Ogin as a concubine, they must all choose between fidelity to their beliefs, or love and honor.

One day, a funeral was held at one of the tenements in Asakusa. It was the only son of a wealthy merchant named Matasaburo, who had run away from home with a woman he was in love with and had been living here. But this funeral was actually a kyogen orchestrated by a gardener named Yunosuke, who had planted it without telling his wife, Okinu, in order to bilk his parents out of their money. Matasaburo believed Yunosuke, who said he would dig him up right away, and was buried in the ground.

It follows the murder of a money-lending masseur by an impoverished samurai. The slain masseur's daughter will also fall victim to his curse so that she can become empowered as an agent of her father's vengeance.