Shirô Toyoda

In this Japanese historical drama, a hard-headed painter refuses to allow his daughter to be with his Korean protege and ends up throwing the lad from his house. The girl then escapes to the court of the local ruler who informs the painter that she will only be released if he will paint a mural. He does, but it is a hellish painting. He and the ruler continue to butt heads until both end up committing suicide. (rottentomatoes)

Film based on a non-fiction best-seller which follows a dedicated female doctor as she cajoles patients to leave their homes on a small island to move to the leprosarium where she works. (bourdaghs.com)

A samurai warrior is haunted by the spirit of his first wife. (imdb)

It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. (imdb)

"The Mistress" is the story of a young woman whose relationships with men in the past have been stormy, and who finds herself once again in a bad situation. She becomes the mistress of a wealthy moneylender, believing him to be a merchant who has been recently widowed and that he will soon marry her. She discovers his lies but cannot leave him because of the money he has given to her elderly father.

Marital Relations is particularly rich in such scenes of psychological revelation. Further, Toyoda's films are so constructed that each of these scenes serves a double purpose. The attitude of a person is shown and, at the same time, the point of the scene is often that the changing attitude of one person is being shown as contrast to the changing attitude of another. Thus each of these scenes of psychological revelation also moves the story forward.

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat. (Hulu+)

Lavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.

Two youths - the serious son of a Buddhist abbot and his rakish pal - quarrel over a restaurant keeper's daughter. When one of the youths die the other boy and the girl find they cannot forget him. (The Movie Database)

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own. (The Movie Database)

Based on an original story by Yojiro Ishizaka, this well-made drama is set in a Christian school in a beautiful northern harbor town. Teacher Masaki (Obinata) speaks up for Keiko, one of the girls at the school, every time she causes problems because he feels sorry for her, a child born out of wedlock. Sumi, one of Masaki's colleagues and who is secretly in love with him, strongly disagrees with him about Keiko.

Adapted from Naoya Shiga's novel about the emotional turmoil of a man who suspects that his wife is committing adultery with his father.

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

A story about a little boy who, after his widowed mother decides to remarry, is shuffled about, from relative to relative.

The year is 1936. Ôhinata-mura was a very poor village between deep valleys. Soncho, the village head is trying to collect the village taxes from the villagers but he knows full well that no one can afford to pay the village tax which has been unpaid for years...

Episodic film about life in and around a rural police station, and the people in which it serves.

After her marriage breaks up, a young woman moves in with her aunt and uncle and becomes a movie ticket seller. On a train she meets two men - one older and wealthy, the other young and poor - who both fall for her.