Released Date:
1964-09-22
Languages:
Japanese, English
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
99 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.3 (370 Reviews)
Director:
Kon IchikawaGenres:
DramaKeiji Hasebe
Kon Ichikawa
Yukio Mishima (novel)
Natto Wada
Released Date:
1961-05-12
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
107 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.3 (401 Reviews)
Director:
Kon IchikawaGenres:
DramaKeiji Hasebe
Kon Ichikawa
Jun'ichirè Tanizaki (novel)
Natto Wada
A man getting on in years sets out to find a way to resurrect his flagging virility.
Released Date:
1961-02-01
Languages:
Japanese, Mandarin, Russian
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
181 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.5 (2602 Reviews)
Director:
Masaki KobayashiZenzè Matsuyama (screenplay)
Masaki Kobayashi (screenplay)
Jumpei Gomikawa (novel)
Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army; he revolts against the abusive treatment spent to the recruit Obara that commits suicide; he also sees his friend Shinjè Ittèhei defecting to the Russian border; and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.
Released Date:
1959-12-14
Languages:
Japanese, Mandarin
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
208 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.5 (3297 Reviews)
Director:
Masaki KobayashiZenzè Matsuyama (screenplay)
Masaki Kobayashi (screenplay)
Jumpei Gomikawa (novel)
In the World War II, the pacifist and humanist Japanese Kaji accepts to travel with his wife Michiko to the tiny Manchurian village Loh Hu Liong to work as supervisor in an iron ore mine to avoid to be summoned to the military service. Kaji works with Okishima (Sè Yamamura) and he implements a better treatment to the laborers and improves the mine production. When the feared Kempetai (The "Military Police Corps", the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945) brings six hundred Chinese POWs to the mine, Kaji negotiates with their leaders expecting them to control their comrades. However the methods of Kaji upset the corrupt system in the site, and the foreman Furuya (Kèji Mitsui) plots a scheme to use the naive Chen (Akira Ishihama) to turn off the electrical power of the barbwire fences to allow the prisoners to escape. When seven prisoners are falsely accused of an attempt of fleeing, a cruel Kempetai sergeant uses his sword to behead the prisoners. When Kaji protests, the POWs react sparing the lives of four prisoners but Kaji is arrested and tortured. When he is released, he is summoned to join the army and accused of being Red.
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
103 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.2 (187 Reviews)
Director:
Keisuke KinoshitaGenres:
DramaReleased Date:
1970-08-05
Languages:
Japanese, Mandarin, Russian
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
190 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.8 (2540 Reviews)
Director:
Masaki KobayashiZenzè Matsuyama (screenplay)
Kèichi Inagaki (screenplay)
Masaki Kobayashi (screenplay)
Jumpei Gomikawa (novel)
Part three of a trilogy. After the Japanese defeat to the Russians in the last episode, Kaji, the Japanese soldier and humanist protagonist, leads the last remaining men through Manchuria . Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines. Ultimately, he finds himself in the exact opposite position he held in the first episode: then a labor manager, Kaji is now a prisoner of war, forced to work for the Russians, whom do not seem to hold to the Communist ideals in which Kaji himself had put his faith.
Released Date:
1961-09-13
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
110 min
Rated:
UNRATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.3 (66442 Reviews)
Director:
Akira KurosawaGenres:
DramaAkira Kurosawa (story)
Akira Kurosawa (screenplay)
Ryèzè Kikushima (screenplay)
Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two gangsters, he plays one side off against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper's abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.
Released Date:
1964-08-04
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
133 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.7 (16879 Reviews)
Director:
Masaki KobayashiShinobu Hashimoto (screenplay)
Yasuhiko Takiguchi (novel)
Yasuhiko Takiguchi
Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri (self-inflicted disembowelment). An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to commit the act. There, he learns of the fate of his son-in-law, a young samurai who sought work at the house but was instead barbarically forced to commit traditional hara-kiri in an excruciating manner with a dull bamboo blade. In flashbacks the samurai tells the tragic story of his son-in-law, and how he was forced to sell his real sword to support his sick wife and child. Tsugumo thus sets in motion a tense showdown of revenge against the house.
Released Date:
1964-02-24
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
107 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.4 (221 Reviews)
Director:
Masaki KobayashiGenres:
DramaKèichi Inagaki
Norio Nanjo (novel)
On his deathbed, a wealthy businessman announces that his fortune is to be split equally among his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown to his family and colleagues. A bevy of lawyers and associates then begin machinations to procure the money for themselves, enlisting the aid of impostors and blackmail. Yet all are outwitted by the cunning of the man's secretary (Keiko Kishi), in this entertaining condemnation of unchecked greed.
Released Date:
1963-05-07
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
96 min
Rated:
UNRATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.2 (18367 Reviews)
Director:
Akira KurosawaRyèzè Kikushima (screenplay)
Hideo Oguni (screenplay)
Akira Kurosawa (screenplay)
Shègorè Yamamoto (novel)
A group of idealistic young men, determined to clean up the corruption in their town, are aided by a scruffy, cynical samurai who does not at all fit their concept of a noble warrior.
Released Date:
1963-11-26
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
143 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.4 (16497 Reviews)
Director:
Akira KurosawaHideo Oguni (screenplay)
Ryèzè Kikushima (screenplay)
Eijirè Hisaita (screenplay)
Akira Kurosawa (screenplay)
Evan Hunter (novel)
An executive mortgages all he owns to stage a coup and gain control of the National Shoe Company, with the intent of keeping the company out of the hands of incompetent and greedy executives. He needs the same money, though, to pay the ransom that will possibly save a child's life. His resolution of that dilemma -- the certain loss of the company vs. the probable loss of the child -- makes for one distinct drama, and an ensuing elaborate police procedure makes for a second.
Released Date:
1967-06-09
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
124 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
(3926 Reviews)
Director:
Hiroshi TeshigaharaKèbè Abe (screenplay)
Kèbè Abe (novel)
A businessman facially scarred in a laboratory fire receives psychotherapy from a psychiatrist, and obtains an amazingly lifelike mask from the doctor. Soon after being fitted for the mask, he seduces his wife and succeeds. But his wife claims she was aware all along who he was and believed that both were just masquerading together as most couples usually do in different ways. Strangely enough, his personality seemingly begins to change after he puts on the mask as if the mask has influenced his personality. His new identity does not enable him to reintegrate into society after all. A subplot is inserted in fragments. A good-natured young woman, the right side of whose face is disfigured, has been hurt by others' inquisitive eyes and insults, and has been shunned by men. She asks her older brother, the only man who understands her pain and solitude, to make love to her, hiding from him the intent of killing herself after then.
Released Date:
1968-06-22
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
115 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
7.6 (1691 Reviews)
Director:
Kihachi OkamotoKihachi Okamoto (screenplay)
Akira Murao (screenplay)
Shègorè Yamamoto (novel)
Two ronin - an ex-samurai and an ex-farmer - get caught up a local officials complex game of murder and betrayal.
Released Date:
1971-09-06
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
124 min
Rated:
PG
IMDB Ratings:
7.8 (1273 Reviews)
Director:
Hideo GoshaTatsuya Nakadai plays a samurai overcome with guilt over his unwitting part in a massacre of a small village. Now a ronin, he learns of a scheme by his old clan to repeat the same crime. determined to stop them, he endures great hardships in an attempt to atone for his earlier mistakes.
Released Date:
1971-09-11
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
121 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.4 (228 Reviews)
Director:
Masaki KobayashiYasuko Miyazaki (screenplay)
Shègorè Yamamoto (novel)
The story takes place in feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world was strictly prohibited. An idealist suddenly appears in an isolated inn (the one that the title refers to), the head-quarters of a group of smugglers, with stolen money intended to ransom his loved one who is forced to work in a brothel.
Released Date:
1973-06-30
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
93 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.4 (464 Reviews)
Director:
Eiichi YamamotoYoshiyuki Fukuda
Jules Michelet (novel)
Eiichi Yamamoto
After being banished from her village, a peasant woman makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability.
Released Date:
1980-10-06
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan, USA
Runtime:
162 min
Rated:
PG
IMDB Ratings:
(21937 Reviews)
Director:
Akira KurosawaMasato Ide
Akira Kurosawa
When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty living up to his role and clashes with the spirit of the warlord during turbulent times in the kingdom.
Released Date:
1985-06-01
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan, France
Runtime:
162 min
Rated:
R
IMDB Ratings:
8.3 (70330 Reviews)
Director:
Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa (screenplay)
Hideo Oguni (screenplay)
Masato Ide (screenplay)
William Shakespeare (play)
A story of greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji has decided to step aside to make room for the younger blood of his three sons, Taro, Jiro, and Saburo, the Lord's only wish now being to live out his years as an honored guest in the castle of each of his sons in turn. While the older two sons flatter their father, the youngest son attempts to warn him of the folly of expecting the three sons to remain united; enraged at the younger son's attempt to point out the danger, the father banishes him. True to the younger son's warning, however, the oldest Son soon conspires with the second son to strip The Great Lord of everything, even his title.
Released Date:
1987-08-01
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
107 min
IMDB Ratings:
8.2 (2523 Reviews)
Director:
Seijirè KèyamaKaneto Shindè (screenplay)
Kaneto Shindè (story)
The true story about a dog's loyalty to its master, even after his death.
Released Date:
1992-04-11
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
142 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.2 (132 Reviews)
Director:
Hiroshi TeshigaharaGenpei Akasegawa
Masaharu Fuji (novel)
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Released Date:
1985-10-27
Languages:
Japanese
Countries:
Japan
Runtime:
146 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.1 (197 Reviews)
Director:
Hideo GoshaGenres:
DramaHideo Gosha
Tomiko Miyao (novel)
Kèji Takada
Join our mailing list and get access to expert analysis, trivia, and recommendations that will elevate your movie-watching experience.