Michiyo Aratama

Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencingschool, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade (imdb)

This film contains four distinct, separate stories. "Black Hair": A poor samurai who divorces his true love to marry for money... (imdb)

In this third part of the trilogy Kaji, a Japanese WWII soldier, finds himself struggling to survive behind enemy lines towards the end of the war.

Second part of a trilogy. Conscientious objector Kaji, now forced to serve in the Japanese army during the Second World War... (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

February 17 to March 3, 1860, inside Edo castle. A group of assassins wait by Sakurada Gate to kill the lord of the House of Ii... (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 father with a steady home life that includes a wife and two children, is shocked to find that his friend's wife has been killed. It becomes apparent that the father was busy having an affair with his friend's wife right up until her death. While everyone is initially stumped to who the killer could be, it is slowly revealed that the aforementioned affair included kinky sex which may have led to the woman's death. (CinemaTalk)

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)

The competing husband and wife voiceovers that open the 1953 Mikio Naruse melodrama Wife set up a character dialectic that never comes to fruition and though the title suggests the resulting imbalance may be intentional, the film still plays out as a deeply flawed examination of marital discord. (Slant Magazine)

During WWII a soldier is beaten so badly by a superior officer he is left deaf. After the war he is an inventor and meets this officer at the patent office. The man is still the bully he was. (imdb)

Why does Nobuchi visit the grave of his old friend Kaji? Why is he so secretive with his wife Shizu ? And how does Nobuchi's friendship with the young student Hioki - for whom the older man acts as reluctant sensei - relate to his time with Kaji? As the Meiji Era draws to a close with the emperor's death and the suicide of General Nogi, a fateful tale of tainted love, failed friendship, and redemptive honor unravels with tragic consequences. (MoC)

An abandoned temple in the mountains outside of the old capital city of Kyoto is the scene of a fated meeting between a traveling priest, two women, and a vicious killer, known thoughout Japan as "Mumyo no Taro". Bloody violence erupts whenever strangers approach the temple. Can the traveling priest bring his belief in the Buddha and rid the three temple residents of the devils that hold their souls?

A young out of work Japanese couple ends up in Tokyo's red light district.

A 36 year old man, bored by everything in his life, get's smashed and unwittingly promises to write a story for a magazine. Stuck for a subject he decides to write about about his ordinary life and his dysfunctional family... to his surprise his musings become a critically acclaimed best-seller... however, in the end, he remains as uninteresting as always.

"Kiri no Hata" revolves around the failings of the Japanese judicial system and the efforts of the sister of a falsely indicted defendant to gain representation by a prominent Tokyo defense attorney. (KG)

One of Japan's most popular stories is the tale of Kutsukake Tokijiro, a traveling gambler who finds that he must take care of the wife and child of a yakuza he had been forced by the code of the gamblers to fight man to man. Tokijiro, having learned the true nature of the boss to whom he was obligated for having spent a night and eaten at the gang's headquarters takes up arms against them in a running battle fought across the back roads of the entire nation.

Tora-san discovers that his family is arranging a marriage for him. He leaves to the countryside where he falls in love with the manager of an inn. Unaware that she is involved with another man, Tora-san confesses his love on a New Year's television program.

Former playmates both long ago abandoned by their parents, recall their youth and fall in love. A young man, deserted as a child by his mother, and a young woman, deserted in childhood by her father, meet and recall their days as playmates. When a romance develops between them, the man's foster parents express their disapproval and the woman's teacher claims they are too young for marriage; and the two lovers part. (The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography)

Haruki Murakami (Masayuki Mori), once lionized as a master painter, is now the president of a thriving camera company where his son Keikichi (Tatsuya Mihashi) is also employed as one of the department heads. His daughter Tamako (Izumi Ashikawa) has suffered from a fragile constitution ever since she contracted polio as a little girl, and spends much of the time secluded in her room where she immerses herself in her drawings. (KG)

Dramatic story of one man trying to make a difference. (imdb)

A Japanese detective, Kikuchi, is framed for a murder and sent to prison. When he is paroled, he joins a private detective agency to investigate his case and investigates Mitsue Takazawa, the wife of a local trading firm whom is really a crime lord responsible for Kikuchi's imprisionment and now sets sights on Setsuko, a woman Kikuchi becomes romantically involved with. (imdb)

A romantic drama starring Jô Shishido & Kinuyo Tanaka.

Sonejiro sacrifices all comfort to devote himself to research. Young housewife Yachiyo is disappointed with her husband Kappei, who is more attracted to mountain climbing and another girl. When Yachiyo's father is introduced to Sonejiro, good will turns evil, and all happiness is at stake. (imdb)

In 1936 Japan, a married man begins a relationship with a prostitute who is working to support her ailing mother.

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."

Ise, a successful entrepreneur, accidentally murders his lunatic wife after he is spotted having an affair with his secretary, Harumi. In his attempt to perfect his crime, he drives to a remote quarry to bury his wife’s body, but along the way, he finds another dead body in the back of his car! Given no choice, Ise dumps both bodies. Meanwhile, Yoshie begins her search for her missing brother, Yoshihiko. After surprising twists and turns, Ise faces his fate. (Avistaz)