Masahiro Shinoda

The legendary samurai Sasuke Sarutobi tracks a the spy Nojiri, while a mysterious figure named Sakon... (imdb)

In 18th Century in Japan, the paper merchant Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura) falls in love for the courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita), but he can not afford to redeem her from her master and owner of the brothel, since he spent all his money in the place with Koharu. Jihei's wife Osan tries to keep her husband with his two children and asks Koharu to leave him. The two lovers make a pact of double suicide to escape from the rigid rules of the Japanese society of 1720 and stay together after death. (imdb)

Mako stars in this action packed drama about a man's struggles.

Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals... (imdb)

The tragic story of Gonza, a handsome ladies man, set in the Tokagawa Period, a time in which appearences are very important... (imdb)

Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when he encounters a strange and beautiful young woman. (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.

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 film revolves around the character of Hachiro Kiyokawa, a farmer turned master swordsman and scholar. We first meet him after his arrest for the killing of a detective working for the Shoganate. As a supporter of the Emperor and a conspirator plotting to destroy the Shogunate and kill all foreigners, he is most wanted by the Shoganate forces who are interested in gaining power thru foreign technology. (imdb)

Bombing during World War II resulted in whole urban populations fleeing to the countryside, and this created a meeting of urban and rural cultures. Shinji (a young boy evacuated from Tokyo) and his new schoolmates (who are villagers) don't exactly know what is going on in the war. They see the B-29 bombers and the glow of cities on fire, but the problems of being separated from one's mother and surviving among one's peers loom larger than international politics. (imdb)

A man captures a beautiful woman and makes her his wife, but the woman is very demanding. Partly a ghost story.

As the great military commander Nobunaga Oda was consolidating his power across Japan, one of his actions was to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one of the survivors has hired a young but skilled assassin to avenge the deaths of his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and kill the supreme ruler of the country. (imdb)

Haruo works in a university hospital trying to work toward a degree in medicine, but is hindered by his hatred of department head Mr. Miyaji. Meanwhile, he decides to get a rival in love out of the way by poisoning him. As the angst-ridden Haruo deals with his problems in his own unique ways, his nagging mother holds out hope that her son will soon return home. (nipponcinema.com)

A trio of characters in Edo intersect during a time of puritanical social reform. A ner-do-well, Naojiro, wants to become an actor and get his face in prints (this was the Japanese version of the supermarket tabloids in olden times) and he wants to marry a geisha but his overbearing mother disapproves. A man who abandoned his wife and child returns to discover tragedy has befallen his small family. A "buraikan" plots to overthrow the despotic lord who is imposing the strict social reforms. (imdb)

Okhi is a married writer who seduced a girl, Otoko, when she was sixteen, causing her to become pregnant. However, she miscarries and after a period of emotional disturbance, she becomes an artist. Many years later, Okhi turns up in Kyoto to see her, and surprisingly not bitter. However, Otok's 16 year old student Keiko vows revenge on him. (imdb)

Set in the docks of Yokohama, a young dock worker tries to break up a waterfront strike out of a misguided sense of loyalty to his crooked boss, but accidentally kills the union leader. (sfs)

Outside of a small village in Japan, a mysterious pond is inhabited by mythic creatures. Their story is of revenge, tragedy, and the power of real love. A classical tale which translates wonderfully to film. (imdb)

A tiny Japanese island serves as a microcosm for the events in the mainland during the time of VE Day.

Japanese film about the Soviet spy Richard Sorge.

This mod-1960s comic book satire on the Japanese obsession with violence and lust for Western culture centres on a vengeful building contractor who hires a series of eclectic professional hitmen to target a female investigative journalist. A sharp, sensory impact crunches figurative meaning in this wild mix of colourful actionand song, scripted by avant-garde directorand poet Shûji Terayama. (acmi.net.au)

The Sun Goddess responsible for the founding of Japan is seen as conniving woman Himiko, who rules a small portion of the Japanese islands in the third century through her influence over several powerful men. When she is killed for reasons of political expediency, the film zooms back to reveal her mourners as figures in modern-day Japan. (allmovie.com)

The story is one of the best known in all of Japanese literature: Young military doctor goes to study in 1880s Berlin and falls in love with a local dancer. Tragedy ensues.

Opens with a journalist reporting on the 1997 Kobe earthquake, as he remembers a trip made as a young boy. Then, he and family took a boat trip from Awaji to Beppu in order to bury the ashes of his elder brother, killed in the just-ended WWII. The lad spends much of the trip trying to talk his elder brother out of running away. They encounter an array of characters on the journey. (imdb)

The film centers on the working class families struggling to survive with menial labor in a rapidly modernizing city. Keiko and Saeko Hibino (Noriko Maki and Chieko Baisho) are sisters who support their parents by working at a local factory. The sisters must bear the burden of their traditional father (Eijiro Tono), who is pressuring Keiko to marry to save the family business, and compete with the modern city girls who get by on their looks to get ahead. (ADC)

The film portrays the romantic lives of a group of young night club entertainers. Though it proved a box-office failure that temporarily relegated Shinoda back to assistant status, he returned to directing the same year, aided by the success of Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth.

An alienated young man flirts with extremism during a major student protest. (Hulu)

A woman brings her injured daughter to the hospital, only to realize that the doctor is the estranged father of her child.

Based on the novel about detective Kindaichi Kousuke by Seishi Yokomizo.

A soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money. The woman is told by a Geisha that she gave up her virginity cheaply. The resort town begins to feel the influence of the modern world as the sabre-rattling that preceded World War II begins to change their lives forever.

Ishihara Kiyoshi plans to marry the woman he loves, Chiee, a coffee shop girl. After an accident, Chiee loses her memory. A romance movie whose original work by Ayako Sono was made into a melodrama by a combination of Shinoda Masahiro and Terayama Shuji. (KG)

A documentary on the 1972 Winter Olympics.