Toshio Yasumi

A young lord attempts to combat the official corruption endemic to the Shogunate, only to be placed in an impossible conflict of duties... (imdb)

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)

A film about two lovers destroyed by war.

Okuni (played by Michiyo Kogure) is the wife of a samurai, who was murdered (in an underhanded fashion) by a former suitor, Tomonojo (So Yamamura). So she and one of the retainers of her husband, Gohei (Tomoemon Otani, a famed kabuki artist, during a brief stint in the movies) go seeking the murderer, planning to seek revenge. However, the two have no real clue as to where to seek Tomonojo and their quest seems endless. (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)

This is ostensibly a sex-education film -- with hardly any education! -- but it's incredibly beautiful. The spring and early summer scenery in Nagano (probably) echo the budding sexuality of the film's young characters. A good dose of German romantic poetry also adds to the barely sublimated sexual atmospherics. The film isn't perfect; the cast is obviously inexperienced and the film hypocritically avoids a frank discussion of sex.... (imdb comment)

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

Set in the Osaka theater world, the story is dominated by a self-righteous troupe leader (Roppa Furukawa) who bravely risks his popularity by selecting only plays that support the Japanese military cause, and who decides to break up the love affair between his star actor (Kazuo Hasegawa) and a shamisen player (Isuzu Yamada) in order to purify the actor's commitment to his craft. (Dan Sallitt)

Upon the outbreak of a wide scale nuclear war, Japan and its people are caught in the middle.

Made as World War II wore on, This Happy Life is pure wartime propaganda, but of an unusual sort. There's little, if any, militarist feeling expressed - although the most sympathetic character preaches the joys of German cuisine. Rather, the film's mission is to instruct the home front, in great detail, on how to make do with the odd scraps of food and supplies available, and to demonstrate in various ways that people can be happy no matter what straitened circumstances they find themselves in (KG)

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)

Kushami (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a teacher given to flights of philosophy as he mulls over life and its meanings, unaware that his gray cat is observing life at home with his own version of a philosopher's eye. Kushami's relatives dominate the action as they move in and out of romantic liaisons broadly characterized by an unusual combination of satire, slapstick, and vulgarity. (Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide)

An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life. Notable for its exquisite framing and cinematography, An Inn at Osaka allows its complicated plotlines to disappear behind the minutiae of penury and humiliation that Mito and others suffer during the post-war economic and social reconstruction. (mubi.com)

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

Story of a woman, Saiko, who divorces her doctor husband when she is given a baby by a stranger who claims it is the husband's child. Saiko embarks on an affair with her cousin's husband, but a crisis threatens when she discovers that her ex-husband is about to remarry. (BFI)

A boy falls in love with a girl. Neither of them know that she's to be sold to a brothel. (letterboxd)

Hyodo Reiko, a restless young woman whose arthritic left arm makes her feel like an outcast, begins an affair with Katsuragi, an unhappy middle-aged architect whose wife, Akiko, is having an affair with a Young medical student. Intrigued by Akiko, Reiko spies on her; insecure in her relationship with Katsuragi, Reiko taunts him about his wife's infidelity...

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)

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

During Japan's Warring States period three young Tokugawa vassals head their separate ways after Takeda Shingen's forces overran their castle. When they next meet they have all joined opposing sides. (The Movie Database)

Omnibus of love stories from 1947 directed by famous directors, featuring big stars. (The Movie Database)

A Japanese woman, the mistress of an American, falls in love with her servant. (imdb)

Yukiko Nogami is rescued during a mountain blizzard by handsome forester Shinkichi, and the two subsequently fall in love. But when Shinkichi dies in an avalanche, Yukiko leaves the mountains in despair and takes a job in a bar where she becomes deeply involved in the personal lives of several of the patrons. One day she thinks she sees Shinkichi alive, but it turns out to be a gangster named Hayakawa, a man on the run who bears an astonishing resemblance to Yukiko's lost love. (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)

A devoted upper class young lad loves his servant-class girlfriend. The couple run away, with the disapproval of both sets of parents, and live together for a year without marrying around the time of the second world war. (The Movie Database)

Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small inn in the Kyoto suburb of Fushimi.

Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky describes the challenging training of young boys in the Yokaren, a program feeding new pilots into the Army and Navy. By the time of the filming, the pressure of the war had led the government to shorten the training and expand the age range of the recruits. Yokaren was highly selective, and thus an object of great fascination and desire for boys and young men. In this Navy–sponsored film, ... (letterboxd)

Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japanese fleet and army to take Port Arthur fails, and a Russian fleet bears down on the Sea of Japan. Admiral Heihachiro Togo sends his fleet to confront the Russians, with results which stun both nations. Meanwhile, Major Genjiro Akashi makes secret negotiations with the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia, negotiations that have repercussions far beyond the conflict at hand.

It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko. It depicts the decline of the family's upper-middle-class, suburban lifestyle as the specter of World War II and Allied Occupation hangs over.

A 1957 drama starring Kinuyo Tanaka based on a story by Hideji Hôjô

A film based on the works of Nagai S?kichi.

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

With one rickshaw and virtually no baggage, a man returns home from the Philippines. The Meiji era was coming to an end and things at home had changed drastically. Meeting his daughter, who is now four, for the first time, he desperately tries to recover the lost time with his family. (MUBI)

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

Taeko Sayama is happily married, until one day she discovers that her husband, Kunio, is cheating on her with the maid, whom he has impregnated. Meanwhile, one of Kunio's subordinates, Guntarô, is secretly in love with Taeko.

Staying true to the Bard's original vision, this is highlighted by one of the finest swordfights that Toei ever put on film. This amazing motion picture proves that sometimes even the greatest classics, such as Hamlet can be improved upon with the right combination of talented scriptwriters and actors. Okawa Hashizo shines as the young lord in the grips of tragedy beyond compare. (KG)

The two older sisters of the Makioka family, who are already married, are looking for a husband for the third sister, Yukiko. (filmaffinity.com)

A young boy named Chomatsu (Misora Hibari) lives with an old man Denbei near the grounds of Asakusa temple as bell ringers. In their house is an Echigo lion mask, a memento of Chomatsu's deceased father. After several incidents of Echigo lion masks being destroyed in the area, a local kingpin Saheiji shows up at Denbei's demands he hand over the mask, a request Denbei rejects out of pity for Chomatsu. However, after it is accidentally revealed that the mask contains an important map, ...