Masao Oda

High and Low

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but dem...

An Autumn Afternoon

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that M...

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes l...

The Ballad of Narayama

In a remote village where food is scarce, elders who reach the age of 70 are carried by their children to the t...

Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji

Tragicomic road movie set during the Edo period. It follows a samurai, his two servants – including spear-carri...

Lucky Adventurer Nobunaga Oda

Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) was a major daimyo during the Warring State period of Japanese history. He was the sec...

A House in the Quarter

With her family suffering from extreme poverty, Yuko, as the eldest daughter, is sold to a successful brothel i...

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai

After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of...

Spring Dreams

When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are...

A Wanderer's Notebook

Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the...

The Orphan Brother

After their father quarrels with local military men, Anju and Zushio are forced to flee, but they are captured...

The Last War

A Japanese family is torn apart by the tensions of an avoidable nuclear world war between the superpowers.

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of h...

Black River

A love triangle develops between a benevolent student, his innocent girlfriend, and a cruel petty criminal, all...

Points and Lines

Based on Matsumoto Seicho's classic mystery novel of the same name, the story centers around a group of detecti...

Happiness of Us Alone

The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion,...

Miyamoto Musashi IV: The Duel at Ichijo-ji Temple

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the...

The Lost Alibi

Suspense drama about a married salaryman whose affair with one of his co-workers is compromised when, returning...

The Daughters of the Saotome Family

1962 Japanese movie

Woman of Design

Story of romance and rivalry between two ad agencies vying for the same account with a pharmaceutical firm.

Fountainhead

A botanist woos the secretary of an industrialist whose company threatens the local water supply.

Beyond the Green Hills

Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was against schoo...

The Twilight Story

In this Japanese drama, a village girl goes to Tokyo and becomes a sex worker to support her ailing mother. Whi...

Summer Clouds

A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview he...

Dotanba

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A so...

The River Fuefuki

In a time of continuous civil wars ravaging the fields of feudal Japan, the eldest son of a very poor peasant f...

A Carpenter and Children

A carpenter, Shigetsugu, learns a lesson of love and humanity from five orphaned children and an affectionate w...

A Woman's Life

A woman remembers her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.

Miyamoto Musashi: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights

The remake of Yoshikawa's novel continues with the second installment in which Takezo, soon to be Miyamoto Musa...

Different Sons

In the middle of the period of high economic growth in Japan, a family is thrown into disarray over work, money...

Snow in the South Seas

Japanese soldiers stranded in Manokwari, New Guinea, improvise a theater play to keep their spirits up and endu...

Shinran, Part II

Continuation of the biographical film about the monk Shinran, based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. Shinran, bo...

Run, Genta, Run!

A touching story about a young boy, Genta, who bravely takes on life's challenges in hopes of finding a better...

Hidden Fangs

Set in a juvenile detention center and depicted with a documentary touch.

Yukiko

Chikuhō no kodomotachi

A drama film based on Ken Domon's photography of the children around the Chikuho coal mines.