Yasutarô Yagi

The story involves Katsuta, a yakuza member who falls in love and is torn between giri (duty) and ninjo (humanity)

The struggle of farmers against the greed of the company they rely upon to sell their rice.

An examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into a dream sequence imagining an idyllic but implausible future (Senses of Cinema)

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)

To apply this model of kitsch to a Japanese film from 1946 is to suggest that A Descendant of Urashima Taro constitutes a kind of phantasmagoria of the lost opportunities of a revolutionary democracy based in the collective aspiration for national renewal. As a studio product made under fairly strict terms of censorship, it is a film that does not take itself entirely seriously. (Catherine Russell)

Based on an original story by Ishizaka Yojiro, the film has a reflexive element by which it comments on its own process of taking the materials of everyday life and transforming them into narrative. This realist conceit is enhanced by the rural setting, which is photographed with some care, including the mountainous landscapes and the farmhouse interiors. (Catherine Russell)

An ageing fishing boat, Dai-go Fukuryū Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5") sets out from the port of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It travels around the Pacific, line fishing. While the ship is near Bikini Atoll, the ship's navigator sees a flash. All the crew come up to watch. They realize it is an atomic explosion, but take the time to clear their fishing gear. A short time later, grey ash starts to fall on the ship. By the time the ship returns to port, the sailors have been burned brown.

An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses. (The Movie Database)

A voice over recites the history of the atom bomb attack. Fade to a classroom, a few years after that fateful day. Kitagawa sensei [Eiji Okada] hovers at the front of a classroom filled with very serious students listening to the radio. Cut to young Michiko (Reiko Matsuyama) breaking down and imploring Kitagawa to turn it off. She covers her ears. By the time he comes to comfort her. There are drops of blood on her textbook. She's suffering from radiation sickness. (jfilmpowwow.blogspot.com)

The story centres around a border security team in 1935 Korea. Upon receiving new recruits they hold a welcome party including a restaurant owner and his daughter. The border's commander has a wife (Hara Setsuko) who helps deliver a neighbour's baby. One day a border guard is killed by a Chinese bandit who is hiding in the area. The dead man's sister comes to visit and is given help to further her studies. (imdb)

A film based on the memoir of a 4th grade student who received the grand prize in a writing contest sponsored by Gyeongseong Daily. A boy, whose parents sell brass spoons on the street while his grandmother is sick in bed, never has money for his tuition. Fortunately, his aunt offers to pay for his tuition and his classmates raising funds for him. To top it all off, his parents return a few days later to promise him that they will pay for his tuition the next time. (kmdb)

Amidst endless construction and aircraft noise, a family whose father died in the war slowly disintegrates, as the daughter and stepmother juggle for position in a country whose future was uncertain. (MUBI)

Wada Koji fights to become a boxing champion. (imdb)

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...

A native of Echigo, Gonsuke, is working far from home, and envies his countryman Tomekichi for his excellent reputation at work and his beautiful wife. (mubi.com)