Taiji Tonoyama

This movie takes a look at a very Westernized subarban Japan in the late 50's. It focuses mainly on the daily lives of a small community and the way its members interact (imdb)

After enlisting as a volunteer in a war in 14th century Japan, his wife and mother remain living in a swamp... (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)

After a battle with rival criminals, a small-time gangster is treated by an alcoholic doctor in post-war Japan. The doctor diagnoses the young gangster's tuberculosis, and convinces him to begin treatment for it. The two enjoy an uneasy friendship until the gangster's former boss is released from prison and seeks to take over his gang once again. The ailing young man loses his status as gang boss and becomes ostracised, and eventually confronts his former boss in a battle to the death. (imdb)

In post-war Japan, a man brings a lost boy to his tenement. No one wants to take the child for even one night; finally, a sour widow, Tané, does. The next day, complaining, she takes the boy to his neighborhood and finds his father has gone to Tokyo; it seems the boy has been abandoned. Tané wants to leave him there, but he follows her home... (imdb)

Deals with the intolerably hard life of a family of four, the only inhabitants of a very small Japanese island in the Setonaikai archipelago. (imdb)

Once Tome becomes of a mature age, she leaves home to work at a factory and has an affair with her boss. She later leaves the factory and works as a maid in a Japanese-American household. (imdb comments)

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 woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero, to quell what is evidently a ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women, in an eery, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight. (imdb)

Oshima's most overtly political film, The Ceremony uses the backdrop of Japanese rituals (several weddings and more than one funeral) to mount a scathing attack on Japanese politics. Depicting the story of one family over 30 years, its promotion of a more tolerant society and the freedom that comes with it occasionally makes way for some genuinely moving depiction of everyday family life... (Channel 4)

The Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island to drill a well to provide water for the sugar mill. He is assisted on the island by Kametaro, from the inbred Futori family. Nekichi Futori is chained in a pit that he has to dig, in order to appease the gods for breaking island customs... (imdb)

The decidedly dicey true tale of Iheiji Muraoka, also known as Zegen, the man who became the most powerful pimp in modern Japanese history, a man who could honestly regard himself as "The Boss of the South Seas." (All Movie Guide)

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 sensationalistic and surreal love triangle develops between a serial rapist, his schoolteacher wife, and one of his past victims.

Two boys, whose parents ply their trade by the mouth of a muddy river in Osaka, become close friends. The two families' "businesses" are in fact dining and prostitution. (imdb)

Based on the true story of the trial of four innocent men for the murder of an old couple.

The director takes a very serious subject - the return of Okinawa to Japan from American control - and gives it a pop, almost parodic feel, with a floating camera and free-form narrative.

Three students spend their holidays at the seaside where they are mistaken for Koreans, a minority which is looked down on in Japan (imdb)

A truck driver is reunited with friends from his youth in a seedy bar, and gets drawn into a web of crime.

A young outlaw can't escape his rebellious past despite connections to a well to do family.

It's the evening before the day all brothels must be shut-down, according to the new law, in 1958. At the Kofukuya's (literally, the house that sells happiness), five prostitutes decide to celebrate the day. (imdb)

Rica travels to Misawa to discover that one of her girls has ended up in an insane asylum, and its up to Rica to figure out the reasons why.

A yakuza gang is exploiting girls from a juvenile prison by forcing them to appear in pornographic films. It's up to Rica to stop them.

In this Japanese melodrama, a young painter struggles in all things to remain true to his art and to his friends, a difficult task in a society where such a quest can lead to a truly disastrous individualism. In his case, in late 19th-century Japan, repression and death surround and follow him as his culture painfully adjusts to the changes sweeping through it. (allmovie.com)

It is the story of the ship Kaijin Maru, that is left adrift after losing all means of navigation in a storm, and the four people on it, becoming increasingly desperate as food and water run out.

A married man with a boring job envisions a way to end this misery while keeping his family life. He schemes chloroforming an attractive waitress. He chloroforms her as she sleeps, and he has sex with her. He does the same with other women as well, but returns to the waitress, at times living a token for her. By mistake, he removes his mask and falls unconscious and wakes up in her room and start thinking about what the outcome will be of his foolishness.

Early Kaneto Shindô post-war drama starring Nobuko Otowa and featuring stunning black and white cinematography with Shindô's beautiful use of deep focus to bring depth to the imagery. (KG)

Heinosuke Gosho's darkest and most acclaimed film of the '60s, An Innocent Witch recounts the life of a young woman who is sold be her family into a brothel in a rural fishing village. (huluplus)

Tower of the Lilies is the true story of a group of high school girls on the island of Okinawa, who were mobilized into military service as nurses in the closing months of World War II.

A mother leaves her husband and small village and travels to Kyoto with her teenage daughter. There they become part of the hostess industry tricking male clients out of their funds some of which is sent back to welfare bilking father.

During a long train trip in Japan, a young man tries to talk to an older woman which initially refuses any proximity. After several tries some aspects of her past are unfold and they arrange a meeting.

K is a young student who rents a room in a Tokyo quiet place to deliver the studies. K is attracted by the daughter of the lady of the house, while not openly declare to her. After calling a friend to live in the same house, his feelings for the girl and the friend put him in a complex situation of personal dilemmas. Based on one of the greatest classics of Japanese literature Natsume Soseki writer.

A shipyard worker gets an offer of free lodging in the company seaside rest house. Upon arriving there, he finds out that he also has to take care of a flock of undisciplined youngsters. (imdb)

It is a remake of the French film The Last Adventure (1967) about two men released from prison and one man's girlfriend (Meiko Kaji) search for gold using a diving suit. (wikipedia)

In this one Hibari Misora plays a modern day geisha who has a reputation among the clientele for not liking men very much and refusing to provide any of the "extras" they so want to get from the women in this profession. The viewer is introduced to the character when she stops three bullies from harassing a woman by smacking them and declaring to them "I am Koharu from Yanagibashi. Don't take me lightly". (imdb)

When her husband leaves her for a younger woman, a woman plots revenge against him. (imdb)

A blind samisen player wanders across Japan for 50 years and becomes a musical sensation.

Nobuo is a hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past. (imdb)

During the winter in Toyama in 1962, Tatsuo Mizushima is fretting about his feelings for his classmate Eiko Tsujisawa while agonizing about his upcoming high school examinations. When he was little, he and Eiko had heard that in April of a year when the winter has been very harsh, any couple finding fireflies together needs to get married. However, his family's situation does not allow Tatsuo to continue his worrying about such things for very much longer... (letterboxd)

The story of a selfless mother and her family throughout the decades, from the 1920's to the 1960's. (themoviedb)

A family of weavers deals with an uncertain future after the father commits suicide. (imdb)

A 1949 drama starring Kinuyo Tanaka.

Time; a few years after the surrender of Japan in the Second World War. The country is in ruins, economy devastated, and the vulnerable masses deprived of work; let alone the basic amenities of life. A new order, led by voratius opportunists is in the make where the weak are easy prey to the hydraheaded mountebanks. Betrayed and exploited by their employer, a group of five trainee insurance brokers face the challenge of commuting suicide, or taking the path of felony. (imdb)

Postwar Tokyo. Pin (Jukichi Uno) and Toku (Taiji Tonoyama) live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru (Nobuko Otowa), a slightly demented woman who has run away from a geisha house. (imdb)

Onsen suppon geisha was part of a Hot Springs series, with Sugimoto having debuted in the first installment in 1971. In this one, she's so good at using that super strong vagina of hers that she can fuck guys to death. In the end, she's pitted against a sexual superman and a showdown ensues. There's also a subplot about a mad scientist type who needs vaginal juices to create a potion designed to turn Japanese girls black.

A pair of sisters make a go at life in post-WWII Kyoto; one as a geisha, the other as an office worker.

A young rock singer is not appreciated by her band, and gets a postcard from Japan saying "wish you were here". She takes what little money she has including ex-boyfriend's rent money and goes to Tokyo. She has numerous cross-cultural adventures and ends up singing with a Japanese rock group looking for a gaijin gimmick. They get their fifteen minutes of fame, and our heroine realizes she has no future there, and will hold them back if she stays. Everyone lives happily ever after.

A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse is 90 minutes of boobs, violence, supernatural horror that isn’t scary, funky score, occasional apocalyptic sunsets, and bloody cat attacks. It’s a fun film and never boring, but it isn’t quite as far-out as one would wish, especially when compared to the amazing Wolfguy. Consider it Yamaguchi’s House-lite, Toei Porno style.

“Get them all – girls, school credits, money – without an effort!" These are the rumors that freshman Hachirota Kawachi heard about the pep squad; his reasons for instant enrollment. Hachirota may fall a few screws short of a hardware store, but when it comes to yakuza ties, he has plenty. He is the direct descendant and heir to the notorious Akushin-kai gang. Although this was enough information to keep the pep squad seniors quiet, it’s not quite enough for Aota.

Eros Eterna tells the story of a legendary immortal nun who wanders around encountering several people of various conditions.

High school student Keiko struggles with the pressures of college entrance examinations and a chaotic home life, ultimately succumbing to alcohol, marijuana, gang members, and rape.

Roman Porno from 1973.

For a girl who works in a 3rd rate bar, Ayuko is full of vanity. Nomura, her patron, is besotted by her and it is their habit that they cannot reach a climax unless they peek at a couple, across the way, making love. Intent on climbing up in the world, Ayuko uses all her wiles to get her patron, who is putty in her hands, to move her from her grubby apartment house to a dreamboat of a place. She then tries to find a place to work more befitting her new home but all the elite night clubs will...

Class-A Kyoto, a strip joint in Kyoto, is raided by the police. Shohei, a salesman who happens to be there, gets caught in the middle of it and is fired from his job. Having nowhere else to go, Shohei reluctantly becomes the manager of the place... The film is a comedy full of pathos about the connection between strippers called "special delivery" and the "pimps" who hang on to them.

A young priest is on a personal pilgrimage for enlightenment through the snow-covered trails of Mt. Koya in Wakayama prefecture, Japan. He is headed towards one of the many sacred gates/temples that are there. Misdirected by a local postman, the priest is sent straying off of the main road and onto the back roads which lead to a small secluded cottage. There he meets a beautiful but bewitching woman whose raw sexuality seems utterly impossible to resist.

Kawai Midori’s father left the family a long time ago and since her mother passed away, she has taken care of her younger siblings by herself by working with a group of itinerant camellia oil peddlers. While she is In Izu selling camellia oil, she meets a young student, Katō Yutaka, who asks her to let him take her picture. The peddlers also meet a jazz band, and when Midori sings a song, teased by the band’s star singer Nanjō Haruo, the band members …

Based on a true story, an elderly woman resiliently spends nine months attempting to retrieve her husband’s dead body, fighting government bureaucracy and indifference all along the way.