Kei Satō
Birthday: Born in 1928-12-21 in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Deathday: 2010-05-02
TV Credits
草燃える
Character: Hiki Yoshikazu
The story chronicles the life of Hōjō Masako during the Kamakura Period....
葵 徳川三代
Character: Mashita Nagamori
The 39th NHK Taiga Drama is Aoi Tokugawa Sandai. It is James Miki's dynamic and colorful tale of three generations of the Tokugawa dynasty--from its founder Ieyasu to Iemitsu, the third Shogun who solidified the Tokugawa power base....
太閤記
Character: Akechi Mitsuhide
Based on the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (February 2, 1537 – September 18, 1598) a Sengoku period daimyo who unified Japan....
想い出づくり。
Character:
The drama depicts the daily lives of three women of the marriageable age who are desperately trying to make some memories before they get married....
必殺仕掛人
Character:
A shikakenin was an under-the-cover trade that undertook killing in Edo. Hanemon of Otowa, an agency that introduced laborers and maids, was also one of these. Katsugoro Iseya was a timber dealer who had come in as a client. His target was the constructions magistrate Hanno, and the Tatsumiya who sipped on the benefits. Hanemon who had a stong code towards killing, where he would only kill those who do no good to be in the world, accepts this request. Baian Fujieda, a needle doctor would carry o...
水滸伝
Character: Kao Chiu
The Water Margin is a Japanese television series based on Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. The novel details the trials and tribulations of 108 outlaws during the Song Dynasty. This adaptation follows Lin Chung and his clashes with the local government official Kao Chiu. The Water Margin is famous for its, sometimes obscure, but memorable philosophical quotes, such as "Do not despise the snake for having no horns,for who is to say it will not become a...
ほんまもん
Character: Sadamichi Yamanaka (Konoha's grandfather)
...
ザ・商社
Character: Shigeru Yasuda
An economic drama depicting the struggle and collapse of a Japanese general trading company. The US branch president of a trading company challenges Japan's internal power struggle and the North American oil market....
ライスカレー
Character:
Set in the majestic Canadian wilderness, the drama depicts the adolescence and love of three young men who were on a high school baseball team together....
十九歳
Character:
Daisuke dropped out of high school, and his motorcycle was the only thing that helped him cope with his loneliness. His parents find a new high school where he can ride his motorcycle to school, but he is forced to live in a dormitory. The students in the dormitory are all young people with bitter memories of dropping out of high school. The prefect of the dormitory is a teacher who is passionate about their physical education. The drama depicts the fierce clash between a nineteen-year-old rebel...
水曜ドラマスペシャル
Character:
“Monday Drama Special” (Getsuyou Drama Special) is a long-running drama that aired on TBS every Monday from 21:00 to 22:54 (JST) from October 2, 1989 to March 19 , 2001 . program....
國語元年
Character:
Set in 1874 at the residence of an official of the Ministry of Education of Japan who was ordered with establishing a common national spoken language, this humorous drama focuses on how the national language used today was created....
チョッちゃん
Character: 北山俊道
The 38th NHK Asadora. Based on the autobiography of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's mother....
稲垣吾郎の金田一耕助シリーズ
Character: Sabee Inugami
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プロハンター
Character:
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協奏曲
Character:
Love and ambition collide when two brilliant architects compete for the same woman and the glory of success in their highly competitive field. Kakeru, a young dreamer just entering the professional world, starts out with the goal of building a magnificent church. The story unfolds when a world-famous architect, whom Kakeru idolizes but has never seen, collapses in front of him on the beach. The skillful portrayal of the intertwined loves and professional trials of these characters makes for a su...
人間の証明
Character:
TV series produced by MBS and TOEI, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Seiichi Morimura....
眠狂四郎円月殺法
Character:
Starting out in Edo, as Kyoshiro travels west toward Kyoto, he encounters some of the most dangerous obstacles in his career. Signs that the Tokugawa shogunate was vulnerable began to appear during the reign of 12th Shogun Ieyoshi. The Satsuma and the 13 Western non-Tokugawa lords began to act in suspicious ways. Minister Takebe, under orders from shogunate councilor Mizuno, attempted to quash this unrest. Nemuri Kyoshiro, a loner headed west, unwittingly becomes involved in the struggle....
卒業
Character:
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揺れる想い
Character:
The wife of a lawyer and her twice-divorced sister-in-law scheme to break up her brother's marriage in this hard-edged drama of misdirected passion. The quirky characters who fill out the cast include a youthful entrepreneur and the heroine's father, a police officer who would do anything to make his daughter happy....
運命峠
Character: Asahina Genzaemon
Akizuki Rokurōta was born as a child of Tokugawa Ieyasu, but since he is a twin with Tokugawa Iemitsu he is not allowed an official place within the Tokugawa family. Sent away as an adopted son, he continues his wandering journey. One day, he accidentally encounters Toyotomi Hideyori's son Toyotomi Hideya, his mother Katsura-no-miya Renko and their maidservant Sasaka, survivors of the Shogunate attack on Osaka Castle years before who are now fleeing from their refuge in Kyoto. The Tokugawa Shogu...
野性の証明
Character:
A girl survives a massacre of villagers by Japanese soldiers in a remote mountain village, and a member of the Self-Defense Force who stumbled upon the scene of the massacre during training - this suspenseful drama depicts a huge conspiracy in the Tohoku region centered on these two people....
白虎隊
Character: Tanaka Tosa
Byakkotai was part of Aizu's four-unit military, set up in the domain's drive to finalize its military modernization, in the wake of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. The other three units were Genbutai, Seiryūtai, and Suzakutai. Each of the four was named after the protecting gods of compass directions. Byakkotai was meant to be a reserve unit, as it was composed of the young teenage 16 to 17 year old sons of Aizu samurai in a group around 350, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869)...
子連れ狼
Character: Retsudo Yagyu
Ogami Itto is a master swordsman who holds a position of high power in the Tokugawa Shogunate. Highly trusted by the Shogun, he serves as the official decapitator, assisting lords and samurai who have been ordered by the Shogun to commit seppuku. One day, Itto’s wife and members of his household are brutally murdered by a clan seeking to avenge their lord’s execution, which had been carried out by Itto. In the wake of the attack, two items are left in Itto’s home: his unhurt infant son, Daigoro...
東京の秋
Character:
A unique drama that contrasts the lives of a family of elite salarymen in Tokyo and a family of landowners in Tokorozawa, Saitama, while exploring the timeless themes of drama such as human happiness, love and marriage in their everyday lives, told in a straightforward narrative style....
Movie Credits
Onibaba
Character: Hachi
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai....
Kwaidan
Character: Ghost Samurai (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup....
Zatoichi's Vengeance
Character: Boss Gonzo
Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town harassed by gangsters, he finds that "Taichi" was the man's young son. Along his travels he also met a blind monk who makes Zatoichi question his murderous lifestyle. In trying to help the town, Zatoichi kills some gangsters and becomes a hero to the boy. He must make a choice of whether to use non-violence and set a good example, or violence and s...
The Night of Martial Law
Character:
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The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
Character: Shinjô Ittôhei
Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against the recruit Obara. He also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division....
Kuroneko
Character: Raiko
In the Sengoku period, 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 an Onryō ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women in an eerie, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight....
Epitaph to My Love
Character: Shinji Tsuda
Ishihara Kiyoshi plans to marry the woman he loves, Chiee, a coffee shop girl. After an accident, Chiee loses her memory. A romance movie whose original work by Ayako Sono was made into a melodrama by a combination of Shinoda Masahiro and Terayama Shuji....
Violence at Noon
Character: Eisuke Oyamada
Two young women must come to terms with the fact that a man they're deeply linked to is a murdering rapist....
Japanese Godfather: Ambition
Character: Sekino
An ambitious Kansai yakuza don moves in on Tokyo using financial and political tactics, sparking conflict with a local criminal association....
Eleven Samurai
Character: Secretary Mizumo
The lord of the Oshi fief is killed by his trespassing neighbour, the cruel and despotic Nariatsu, son of the former Shogun. After an investigation, the Oshi clan is blamed for what happened and sentenced to be disbanded. Eleven of the best samurai of the clan refuse the sentence and are willing to give their life for justice....
The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf
Character: Shimizu
A seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate salaryman leads a double life as a vicious criminal by night. In a delicious scheme of payback, he seeks to dominate the corporation that employs him by day....
Zoku aizen katsura
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler
Character: Kazutaka Okada
Kaiji Ito moves to Japan after graduating from high school. Unable to find a job and frustrated with society at large, Kaiji spends his days gambling, vandalizing cars, and drinking booze. Two years later and his life is no better. A debt collector named Endo arrives to collect money owed. The debt collector offers two choices to Kaiji: spend 10 years paying off his loan or board a gambling boat for one night to repay his debt & possibly make a boat load of money. Could the debt collector Endo a...
Magnitude: Bridge to Tomorrow
Character:
A drama about a father and his son centered around the Great Hanshin earthquake....
Hanzo the Razor: The Snare
Character: Shobei Hamajima
Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Itami enforces the law without regard to status. He shows inadequate respect to the treasurer, who wants him dead....
Godzilla 1985
Character: Gondo
Originally released in Japan as "The Return of Godzilla" in 1984, this is the heavily re-edited, re-titled "Godzilla 1985". Adding in new footage of Raymond Burr, this 16th Godzilla film ignores all previous sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1956 "Godzilla King of the Monsters", which also featured scenes with Burr edited into 1954's "Godzilla". This film restores the darker tone of the original, as we witness the nuclear destruction of giant lizard terrorizing Japan....
Samurai Spy
Character: Takanosuke Nojiri
Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more pers...
Women and Miso Soup
Character:
Temari, a geisha, dreams of opening a small restaurant with her little brother....
Okashina yatsu
Character: Shamoji
...
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide
Character: Otoko
A sex-obsessed woman, a suicidal man she meets on the street, and a gun-crazy wannabe gangster become trapped in an underground hideaway....
The Perfect Education
Character: Lawyer
Schoolgirl Kuniko is kidnapped by a middle-aged man Iwazono when she is jogging. He tells her that he had a failed marriage which leaves him a deep and everlasting scar in his mind. He kidnaps her in search of a perfect marriage and intends to lock her in the room and 'educate' her to perform perfect sex where body and soul are united....
Kyōkatsu
Character:
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I Want To Live Once More: Shinjuku Bus Fire Incident
Character: Nakajima
On the night of August 19, 1980, a bus was set on fire by the vagrant Hirofumi Maruyama at the Shinjuku West Exit Bus Terminal. In the burning flames, Mitsuko, who was exhausted by her affair, suddenly thought of suicide. As a result, she escaped too late from the bus and suffered a serious injury. From there, she was hospitalized for a long time. As she gradually recovered, the wife of her affair partner, Soroku Sugihara, died of cancer. Soroku proposed to Mitsuko again, and they lived togethe...
The Sword of Doom
Character: Kamo Serizawa
Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. It’s a way of life that leads to madness....
Pleasures of the Flesh
Character: Police inspector
A corrupt businessman blackmails the lovelorn reprobate Atsushi into watching over his suitcase full of embezzled cash while he serves a jail sentence....
Pitfall
Character: Reporter
A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls....
Zatoichi's Conspiracy
Character: Magistrate
Zatoichi, the famed blind swordsman, returns to his home village for the first time in many years. He is befriended by Omiyo, who had the same wet-nurse as Zatoichi. He also encounters a boyhood friend, Shinbei, who now is wealthy and appears not to remember Zatoichi. Shinbei seems to be interested in repaying the villagers' debts, but is in reality manipulating the ownership of a now-valuable rock quarry. Zatoichi learns of the subterfuge and confronts his old friend, who has a score of yakuza ...
Akizakura - Cosmos
Character:
A touching drama about human life and love A 24-hour probation has been given to a man who should have died!...
Evil Spirits of Japan
Character: Murase / Ochiai
Murase is a bodyguard of yakuza group. Ochiai is a police officer who once was a student activist. When they meet, they are surprised how identical they look....
The Ceremony
Character: Sakurada Kazuomi, Grandfather
Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades....
The Man Who Stole the Sun
Character: Dr. Ichikawa
A high school science teacher is the butt of all his students' jokes, until their bus is hijacked on a school trip. But something more sinister lurks beneath the surface: he's building an atomic bomb in his apartment....
The Ninja Hunt
Character:
Four ninja are hired to fight against the Shogunate’s plot to abolish the Gamo Clan, the regional barons struggling to reinstate their young heir Tanemaru as their Lord....
Sword Devil
Character: Secretery Kanbe
Hanpei is a gentle young samurai that loves flowers. One day, he witnesses an old man's quick draw of the sword. He is so impressed that he becomes the old man's pupil. Soon, Hanpei's skill of sword comes to attention of his lord. The lord orders him to assassinate a man......
Inn of Evil
Character: Yohei
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....
Cruel Story of Youth
Character: Akira Matsuko
A budding gangster enthralls a freeloading young woman, soon taking advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class, middle-aged men....
Death by Hanging
Character: Prison warden
A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next....
Human
Character: Hachizo
The ship Kaijin Maru is left adrift after losing all means of navigation in a storm. The four people on the ship are becoming increasingly desperate as food and water run out....
The Crimes of Kiyoshi Ōkubo
Character: Police Inspector
Arrested and interrogated by the police for a murder, Kiyoshi Ōkubo remembers his past and ends up confessing to several murders. Inspired by the true story of the serial killer who raped and killed eight women in Japan in 1971. The case moved the whole country....
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
Character: Himself
In Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the lives of a young man prone to theft, a young woman he meets at a bookstore, and a kabuki actor intersect....
The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor
Character: Police Chief
A lower-middle-class policeman lives decadently, chasing cheap beer and girls at the same time he's running from loan sharks and his personal expectations....
Three Resurrected Drunkards
Character: Y Chong - iru
Three students spend their holidays at the seaside where they are mistaken for Koreans, a minority which is looked down on in Japan. The action develops into a crime story....
Band of Ninja
Character: Sakagami Shuzen
A young boy joins a band of ninja during a peasant uprising, all depicted through an experimental form of filming pages from the original manga set to sound....
Ronin-gai
Character: Iseya
Near the end of Japanese civil war, several disgraced ronin living in Edo's red light district attempt to regain their honor by defending a brothel from a hostile militia bent on wiping out local prostitutes....
Bored Hatamoto: The Kaga Conspiracy
Character:
The crescent shaped scar on his forehead is a license given him by the Shogun to kill anyone he deems to be a villain. A strong performance that reflects well upon his father, with interesting stories, these films are required viewing. When Saotome hears rumors of a Daimyo's plot to overthrow the Shogun, he launches an investigation. With the help of his sister Kikuji, his stewart, Kinai and a mysterious woman they begin to unravel the web of treachery....
Station
Character:
A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers....
Devil's Temple
Character: Priest
An abandoned temple in the mountains outside of the old capital city of Kyoto is the scene of a fated meeting between a traveling priest, two women, and a vicious killer. Bloody violence erupts whenever strangers approach the temple. Can the traveling priest bring his belief in the Buddha and rid the three temple residents of the devils that hold their souls?...
Secret High School Girl: After School Activity
Character:
A banker and a high school girl start a brothel in the snowy countryside of Hokuriko....
Lost Love
Character: Nogami
At a seaside city somewhere in the Tohoku area, the corpses of Nozomi, daughter of an affluent family, and Yamazaki, son of an engineer at the local nuclear power-plant, are found tied-to on a beach, as if they intended to commit double suicide. Nogami, a reporter, begins to investigate....
Day Dream
Character: Dentist
Loosely based on a 1926 short story by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, the film opens as an artist and a young woman are in a dentist's waiting room. Though he is attracted to the woman, he says nothing to her. They are later in the same examining room. When he is given an anesthetic, he begins to imagine a series of scenes in which the woman undergoes various forms of sexual abuse, including rape and torture. When the artist recovers from the anesthetic, he finds clues showing that he may not have been ha...
The White Tiger Battalion
Character:
The Byakkotai was part of Aizu’s four-unit military, set up in the domain’s drive to finalize its military modernization, in the wake of the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. The other three units were Genbutai, Seiryūtai, and Suzakutai. Each of the four was named after the protecting gods of compass directions. Byakkotai was meant to be a reserve unit, as it was composed of the young teenage 16 to 17 year old sons of Aizu samurai in a group of around 350, who fought in the Boshin War (1868–1869)....
Hymn to a Tired Man
Character: Suzuki
Zensaku, middle-aged and deaf in one ear, learns that his son's fallen for the daughter of a war officer responsible for the maiming....
Golden Partners
Character: Ohkawa
A motorcycle cop and a freelance photographer, having learned the location of 1 billion yen's worth of the Imperial Navy's gold, team up to salvage it....
Life of Hishakaku 3
Character:
Third part in Tadashi Sawashima's Theater of Life trilogy....
My Way
Character: Koide, Chief of Police
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....
Wakasama samurai torimonochō o keshō kumo
Character:
Movie directed by Sadatsugu Matsuda...
Taboo
Character: Narrator (voice)
Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path....
Azumi
Character: Tenkai Nankôbô
In war-torn Japan, the Tokugawa Shogun, desperate to restore peace to his people, orders the assassination of the hostile warlords. A beautiful young woman is raised from birth with nine other orphans, to become an assassin. Her name is Azumi, the ultimate assassin....
Super Gun Lady: Police Branch 82
Character: Gorô Onodera , Military Commentator
Mika Hino is a sharp-shooting investigator that belongs to the infamous "Gator Branch.” When an executive board member of a trading company is accused of being involved in a bribery, Mika is assigned to keep watch over him. A few nights later her target is found dead outside of his 30 floor office building. With an apparent suicide note as evidence, local police conclude the case as a suicide. Mika’s assignment may have ended in failure, but her mission has just begun......
Homicide
Character: Asaichi Isobe
This film tells about the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Aikawa, the head of the Bureau of Military Affairs, about the beginning of the incident 2.26 and the execution of young officers....
Asian Blue: Ukishima-maru Incident
Character:
Asian Blue focuses on Koreans brought to Japan to work in forced-labor brigades during World War II...
Women of Tokyo
Character: Tamio Yamada
...
Your Life
Character:
A moodo/akushon yakuza picture with heavy emphasis on poignant seishun romance....
A Story from Echigo
Character:
A sake factory worker on holiday returns to his home town, where he rapes the wife of one of his co-workers in the forest. The other man returns home to find his wife changed and suspects that she has been unfaithful....
Where did Sharaku go?
Character: Tōshūsai Sharaku
Writer Jippensha Ikku hears Tsutaya Juzaburo, a wholesaler of picture books, mutter on his deathbed, "Where has Sharaku gone?" He begins to figure out the true identity of Sharaku, who disappeared after about 150 portraits of actors he created came out....
The Curse of the Ghost
Character: Iyemon
About 1786 the doings of a demented lord results in many masterless samurai, including Iyemon (Kei Sato) who is used to luxury and cannot adjust to the hand-to-mouth conditions & piecework of umbrella making. Having hired ruffians to make him look like a superior swordsman, he arranges for himself the opportunity of a profitable marriage. He hires the half-blind masseur Takuetsu (Sawamura Sounosuke) to seduce or rape his wife (Kyoko Mikage), so that she can be divorced or killed for adultery. Bu...
Irezumi
Character: Hatamoto Serizawa
Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality seems to transform under its influenc...
Erotic Liaisons
Character: Nemoto
A low-key private detective agency in Paris is run by Rie and her lover and partner Kishin, two ex-pats who tick along between cases by giving guided tours of the city to busloads of Japanese tourists. After the wealthy Okuyama hires them to trail his French mistress Lorraine whom he believes to be having an affair, feeble-willed Kishin finds himself seduced by this femme fatale and way out of his depth in a seamy underworld of rich Japanese businessmen, S&M games and huge piles of money....
Bad Reputation: The Two Notorious Men Strike Again
Character:
...
The Whispering of the Gods
Character: Father Togawa
Rou has returned to the monastery he was raised in. As he listens to the whispering of the Gods through his germanium radio, Rou defies God in every which way and puts religion to the test....
The Killing Game
Character: Shoichi Katsuda
The second movie of Tôru Murakawa's "Game" trilogy. After making a sensational hit, a hitman has gone into hiding for five years. When he comes back he bumps into two women that he has spared five years ago. Two rival yakuza bosses hire Narumi to kill the other. Will Narumi's sense of chivalry entrap him again?...
Captive's Island
Character:
Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when he encounters a strange and beautiful young woman...
Night and Fog in Japan
Character: Sakamaki
Uninvited guests crash a former student radical's wedding and accuse him, his bride and other guests of ignoring their political commitments....
Harakiri
Character: Masakazu
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, an...
The Sun's Burial
Character: Sakaguchi, doctor
In Osaka's slum, youths without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of blood. Alliances constantly shift. Tatsu and Takeshi, friends since boyhood, reluctantly join Shin's gang. Shin's an upstart and moves his gang often to avoid the local kingpin. Hanoko is a young woman with ambitions: first she's in the blood business with her father, then she joins forces with Shin. She soon breaks off that partnership, even though ...
They Were Eleven
Character:
An NHK adaptation of the famous manga by Moto Hagio....
Dear Summer Sister
Character: Shinkô Kuniyoshi
14-year-old Sunaoko travels from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa, with her father’s young fiancée Momoko in search of her half-brother whom she has never met. Their guide, a beer-guzzling ex-soldier, takes them to the locale’s tourist attractions, quickly delving into the underlying scars of the island’s wartime history....
Live Today, Die Tomorrow!
Character:
Michio Yamada, a recent school graduate, is sent to Tokyo to work as a fruit-packer in a department store as part of a government programme. He takes a gun from a house on an American base and uses it to kill several people. The scene changes to Yamada's childhood. Yamada is born the child of a reprobate and a weak-willed woman. As a boy Yamada, experiences poverty and the rape of his sister at first hand....
A Diary of a Woman Doctor
Character:
1973 Toei movie....
Conflagration
Character: Director Fukami
Global South guerrillas hijack the Japanese oil tanker Arabian Light, threatening to blow it up in Tokyo Bay, unless the Cabinet complies with an economically devastating ultimatum....
Roadside Stone
Character: Shogo
The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, cold-hearted father and a submissive mother. The year is 1910 and the place is a small Japanese village. Goichi is suffering because he wants to go to school, but his family is too poor to afford that luxury. Even when a kind friend agrees to help out, Goichi's father refuses to give in to his son's request for an education. Instead, he sends Goichi off to work as an indentured servant for a cold-he...
The Inheritance
Character: Cop
A dying businessman intends to will his fortune to his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown, so a bevy of lawyers and associates scheme to take advantage of the situation....
Choji Snack Bar
Character: Yoshino
Eiji lives a quiet life running a small Izakaya with his wife. He spends his days cooking for and serving the lively residents of his small hometown....
Dead Angle
Character:
Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the 1950s....
Cold Rice, Osan, Chan
Character:
Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money....
The Third Ninja
Character:
Three Iga ninja are on a hunt for Chidoken, a Takeda ninja sent out to assasinate Lord Nobunaga....
Appassionata
Character:
This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art s...
The Paper Crane
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A wandering vagrant, Hantaro, risks his life to save a beautiful blind girl and her father from con artists....
Tokyo Trial
Character: Narrator
One of the major documentaries on a specific chapter in modern Japanese history, this look at the trial of Japanese militarists accused of war crimes is excellently handled by director Masaki Kobayashi. Kobayashi and his assistants had to plough through 30,000 reels from the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal which took place between May, 1946 and November, 1948. It took two days to read the charges against the 100 alleged war criminals in the docket (only 28 top officials are ac...
Glorious Fights
Character: Yuzo Gondo
A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He fiercely battles violent elements in southern Japan like there is no tomorrow....
The Yagyu Military Art: One Eyed Swordsman
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In the fourth film in this exciting series, and the first since losing his left eye, Yagyu Jubei is charged again with the task of protecting the Yagyu Secret Scrolls. The two scrolls are held in separate locations to assure their safety. Within them there is information other than the techniques of the Yagyu Shin-kage style. They contain a secret that could throw the country into turmoil. Clan founder Yagyu Sekishusai had split the scroll into two parts to prevent its contents from being known ...
The Return of Godzilla
Character: Chief Editor Gondo
After a fishing boat is attacked, the sole surviving crew member realizes it is none other than a resurrected Godzilla. However, efforts to bring the story to light are suppressed by the Japanese government amid growing political tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, who are both willing to bomb Japan to stop the monster....
High Seas Hijack
Character: T.V. Director Fukami
Terrorists hijack an oil tanker and threaten to blow it up unless Japan meets their demands....
Shingo's Ten Duels
Character: Inoue Kawachi-no-kami
The classic tale of the shogun's illegitimate son Aoi Shingo is told in three parts as he strives to become the greatest fencer in Japan, while his father Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune seeks to reunite with his lost son. When the secrets of Shingo's birth are revealed to him, it sets off a series of events that bring him to cross swords with members of the shogun's inner circle in a series of duels that could change the destiny of Japan....
Surgical Designs in Flames
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A story of the skilled brain surgeon, Todo, whose talent and ambition are put to test through a series of high risk surgical procedures....
Yagyu Military Art: Jubei's Redemption
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In the fifth installment, Yagyu Jubei must prove the innocence of his family who is suspected of conspiring to take Shogun's life....
Duel of Blood and Sand
Character: Katsumaki
Frustrated with the bad behavior of his lord, Inaba Yajuro (Otomo) declares that he is leaving the clan and sets off on a journey that leads him into a small town besieged by a violent group of brigands. In a kind of homage to Kurosawa's 7 Samurai, the townspeople have been unable to defend themselves and Inaba sets out to teach them how to stand up for themselves. Meanwhile the vile Lord Yasumasa has sent the 4 finest swordsmen in the clan out to hunt Inaba down and kill him. Led by the...
Yakuza Ladies
Character: Hitoshi Awazu
While her husband is in prison doing time, Tamaki, the wife of a yakuza capo, runs her spouse’s gang with an iron hand. Meanwhile, Makoto, her younger sister, marries a member of a rival band after being raped by him. The two sisters, united by blood ties but married to enemy yakuzas, will ultimately have to decide whose side they’re on....
Dioxin from Fish!
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A black comedy about a former Rock'n'Roll singer, who becomes the mayor of Tokyo....
The Execution Game
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The third movie in Tôru Murakawa's Game trilogy about a hitman. Narumi is set up by a mysterious woman. Abducted and tortured, Narumi is forced to take on a difficult job. The target is a veteran killer as good as him....
Volunteering for Villainy
Character: Iwai
Two outsiders start a relationship in a mining town....
Target
Character: Ichiro Hamada
Two killers revenge a wirepuller of the underworld in Yokohama....
The Hopi Prophecy
Character: Narrator (voice)
This film describes how the Hopi and Navajo tribes in the southwestern United States have responded to the resource colonization of their lands that have been repeatedly plundered for plutonium and uranium, or—in their words—“carving out the earth’s vital organs.”...
Tokyo Bay
Character: Takeyama
An investigation into a drug smuggler who is assassinated in front of an insurance building sets two detectives, Sumikawa and Akine, into a sprawling investigation through Tokyo's underworld....
Yakuza Graveyard
Character: Teramitsu Abara
A police investigator cracks down on yakuza business, but once he realizes the police are in negotiations with certain factions, he sides with his own syndicate of choice....
Professional Killers – Assassin's Quarry
Character: tyobei(Izuya)
An assassin is mistaken for a doctor and threatened by a band of masterless warriors, but they realize their mistake and retreat into the darkness. Days later, he is asked to kill the doctor's brother. What secrets are these men hiding?...
Mother
Character: Dr. Koiguchi
A divorced woman enters a marriage arranged by her mother in exchange for money to save the life of her seriously ill son....
Chase That Man
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The story of the desperate struggle between the police and a large crime syndicate....
Assignment Cloud
Character: Nishida
A sequel to the popular "The School of Spies", this film continues the adventures of one of the graduates who is assigned to crack a powerful spy ring working out of Kobe. Various people are suspected but, finally, it seems that an Army captain and his geisha friend might lead them to the ring....
Sasuke and His Comedians
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Osaka in the early 1600s, aftermath of the historical Battle of Sekigahara; a group of orphan children are wandering through the battlefield scavenging for armour when they encounter a young boy named Sasuke with magical powers he says came from a meteor that crashed onto the Earth…...
Gang Warfare
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Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai
Character: Saburobei Konoe
After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords....
Miyamoto Musashi: The Duel at Ichijo Temple
Character: Otaguro
In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent....
Drunkard's Paradise
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A father and son are both heavy drinkers. However, the son dies in an accident at a bar, leaving behind a fiance…. A unique social satire that focuses on why people drink alcohol....
Incidental Murders
Character: Ieraishan Tatsu
The daughter of the wealthy Soga family is kidnapped and her fiance is murdered. But the kidnappers, Tatsu and Sanko are unaware that Tatsuko is the heiress to a fortune. Two strong-arm brothers, Kosaka and Takeshi, learn of her identity and join the gang in an effort to shake down the tycoon for ten million yen. Upon joining forces, their first move is to rid themselves of the driver whose identity is known to the police because of a cap which he left behind at the scene of the crime. Upon obt...
The Yagyu Military Art: Yagyu List
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When the country is in peril, Lord Yagyu Tajima summons his son Yagyu Jubei to retrieve the mystical Yagyu Scroll in order to save all of Japan. This time, Jubei must stop the evil plot of Lord Hayato-no-sho, who secretly plans on overthrowing the Shogunate. This is the most exciting film in the long-running series about one of the greatest swordsmen in Japanese history. Konoe Jushiro gives one of his finest performances in this classic tale....
Shimane Prison Riot
Character: Prison Guard
Japan, 1948: Hiroki Matsukata stars as a man facing a nine year prison sentence. He incites prisoners of Shimane Prison to the biggest riot in jail history. A fighter by heart, he sees a way out of any situation, but will he survive this, the gutsiest assault ever attempted?...
Kachô Shima Kôsaku
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Based on the comic book by Kenshi Hirokane...
Kyoto Assassin
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A dark tale of murder and revenge set in old Kyoto....
Japanese Godfather: Conclusion
Character: Sekino
The three-film saga comes to a conclusion as three leaders of the underworld battle it out to determine who will become Don of Japan....
The Wicked Reporter 2: The Rebirth of Horserace Betting
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The continuing adventures of Matsuzaki, a racing tipster for a sports paper. Matsuzaki befriends a mysterious old track bettor named Tokudaiji. The man turns out to be a well-connected millionaire and invites Matsuzaki to his home....
Cross-Currents
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A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety....
League of Gangsters
Character: Takamoto
A yakuza is released from prison after serving a long sentence. He immediately sets about creating a new gang and attempts to pull off a huge ransom score....
The Christian Revolt
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In the year 1637 in Shimabara of Tokugawa-era Japan, oppressed peasant Christians revolt against the shogunate with the aid of a charismatic Christian rebel leader Shiro Amakusa....
Demon Spies
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Deep in the mountains of feudal Japan, a group of children endure cruel and unorthodox training in order to become the Shogunate's most secret and deadly weapons - the Demon Spies! Their true identities are hidden - even from each other. Behind their demon masks, they are educated in the deadly arts of infiltration, espionage, assassination - and seduction! If they survive to become strong enough to kill their teachers, they will become - the Demon Spies! Sent on a suicide mission to uncover a d...
The Beast to Die
Character: Endo
A policeman is murdered and his gun, stolen, used to commit the next crime. Detective Kashiwagi, who is leading the investigation, learns that the author of the killings “walks like a dead man”. Kashiwagi runs into Date, a former correspondent in the Vietnam War. There, Date discovered hell and something snapped in his mind....
Young Boss
Character: Izo
After a yakuza boss is assassinated by a rival, his naval officer son returns home to take over the gang....
A Japanese Demon
Character: Psychiartist
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Good-for-Nothing
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Yoshida's first feature follows the lives of young students against a background of jazz, emptiness and boredom. The plot is fairly simple: a "good-for-nothing" from a poor background falls in love with the young secretary of his rich friend's father. The woman senses good in him and tries to lead him on the right path....
Dear My Love
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Too shy to speak out the word of appreciation, too busy to show that you care... Many excuses lie between each and every couple, when they look back the distance created during the long years in which they took each other for granted... Love Letters sent from husbands to wives and from wives to husbands, quietly voice their unspoken appreciation for each other over the years that they have shared. The original idea comes from the postcard project "Love Letters at Sixty" which has brought a wave ...
Flower and Dragon
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Kingoro Tamai moves with his wife and son to the port city of Wakamatsu. He organizes the Tamai-gumi, a stevedore group, to vie for work with two other powerful groups. Gingo is Tamai's chief rival who falls in love with the latter's wife and tries to kill Tamai....
The Revolt
Character: Narrator (voice)
When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miyagi, tries to honor his dying wish to rescue his sister. Upon finding Kaoru at a party working as a geisha and later rescuing her from committing suicide, Col. Miyagi allows her to move in with him. Over time, the two grow close, but in spite of Kaoru's growing feelings for him, Col. Miyagi is unable to bring himself to return her love. On the nigh...
Song of my Life
Character: Masanobu Kurosawa
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Let Him Rest in Peace
Character: Daishi Shimoyama
A man returns to his seaside roots to confront a yakuza boss. Along the way, he charms young men, softens a hard woman and busts a few heads....
Business Trip
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Prayer Beads
Character: (segment "Echoes")
This horror anthology is featuring nine independent episodes, each 30 minutes long, that are revolving around bad karma and terror....
The Imperial Navy
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A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato, Japan's greatest flagship during the Second World War....
Bitter End of a Sweet Night
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An opportunistic department store clerk gets involved with three women and attempts to manipulate them so he can move up the social ladder....
Last Friends
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Following the lives of three college rugby players drafted to serve in the military during WWII. Though they believe their service will help to benefit their loved ones back home, they are unprepared for the hardships of war. Through their shared trials and sacrifices, they grow closer as friends, and hope to return together to better days. This movie was released in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII....
Outlaw: Goro the Assassin
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On a cold winter day, Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) and Masahiko murder the mob boss of Meishin-Kai. The deed costs them time in prison, but Goro had no shred of regret. When Goro is released 2 years later, Masahiko is dying in prison hospital and entrusts his last wish; "find my sister and take care of her." Goro leaves as a free man with a mission, but soon finds that he might have been better off in jail....
The Flower and the Dragon
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A story of manly life and the beauty of conjugal love. A story about a man and a woman establishing a family of longshoreman, centering on their love and struggle....
Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu
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In turbulent 16th-century Japan, the leaders of a minor fief have their child taken from them as a political hostage. His mother and his clan endure years of tribulations until he can return....
The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma
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The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma is a movie about a haunted blood-thirsty Bakufu officer who might have killed Ryoma Sakamoto....
The Strange Tale of Oyuki
Character: Detective
A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise....
Naked Ambition
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Wicked woman Ogin is a concubine of a powerful feudal lord Tayu. At first Ogin gains power by poisoning lawful wife of Tayu. To gain more power Ogin let her lover Isogai Iori, kill whoever interrupts her. Film it is based on Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's novel "Kyofu Jidai"....
Green Requiem
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Expelled from the Kanto Mob
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In the late Taisho era. Umeshima Jinbei, the president of the Kanto Umeshima Kai, divided the area into the Kuroda family to the south and the Takeuchi family to the north in order to protect the security of Kame no Ii, which had opened up in place of the Yoshiwara brothel that had been burnt down in the earthquake, and had the Kuroda family rule their respective territories. Chichibu Yasaburo, the small head of the Kuroda family, had a good reputation as the mainstay of the family and was trust...
Group Burglars Break the Magistrate's Office
Character: Kinjiro Takeuchi
Eight villains, former pirates, gather to attack the magistrate's office. They develop a plan and begin their actions in secret, making full use of their special abilities. In the end, their plan goes beyond what was intended and turns into a good deed for many people. A masterpiece of historical drama, full of breathtaking thrills and action....
Flower and Dragon: Duel of the Sea Caves
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The sequel to "Flowers and Dragons". Kingoro Tamai founded a family in the port of Wakamatsu. He unites people with his courage, and revolts against the entrepreneur Oki Nakashi, who is teeming with vices. Kingoro and his family are also forced to fight against the Ezaki-Gumi group, which is opposed by Tomoda Kizo, who is trying to control the port of Wakamatsu....
Clouds at Sunset
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A Japanese soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money....
Lone Rebel
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Nomi-gumi, who plans to control Tama City, has begun to hurt Takase-gumi. Muraki, an executive, was entrusted with the destruction, but he was a brother of Takase-gumi's substitute, Tsukada. Muraki, who missed Tsukada and the old days at Tsukada's wife Shizue's shop, took the future of turning to the enemy painfully....
Sensen fukoku
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War between North Korea and Japan...
Bullet Wound
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Yuzo Kayama is an American-Japanese operative working for the US to uncover an arms deal between an American seller and Chinese communists, and to take out both parties. After almost getting assassinated himself, he takes a wounded civilian with him despite living in a world where no one can be trusted....
The Tattooed Hitman
Character: Yukio Yamaji
The most dangerous hired gun in Kyushu's underworld has managed to trigger a vicious gang war, and now, there's a contract on his life. Though nobody is more skilled in the arts of dealing death, can the tattooed hitman fend off the entire Japanese mafia as he searches for the man who wants him dead?...
Bloody Record of the Shinsengumi
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Young Master Yakuza: Edoite Goblin
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Festival of Dreams
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Knock Down
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Bored Hatamoto: Letter of Death
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Bored Hatamoto film...
Tabaruzaka
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Known as the ”Last Samurai” Saigo Takamori was a stout giant of a man with a huge head and a neck like a bear. As the leader of Satsuma’s anti-Western faction, he was instumental in establishing the Sat-Cho Alliance dreamed of by Sakamoto Ryoma. After the fall of the Tokugawa, Saigo rose to major prominence before falling in disfavor. In 1876 Saigo Takamori resigned from his government post and went back to Kagoshima. He founded a local military school and dissatisfied samurai gathered around hi...
The Great Villains
Character: Ichiro Yasui
Psychological noir drama involving the tangled web of a disgraced yakuza, an innocent school girl, a blackmailed singer, and a corrupt lawyer....
Neo Faust
Character: Dr. Faust
Short anime adaption of the Osamu Tezuka manga Neo Faust....
A Man Worth the Money
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Empire of Passion
Character: Orator
In a small Japanese village at the end of the 19th century, a rickshaw driver's wife takes on a much younger lover and the two conspire to murder him....
Detective Heiji
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Police detective Heiji is assigned to catch the masked Maboroshi gang of robbers who have terrorized all of Edo, leaving few clues as to their leader's identity....
The Dawn of Asia
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The Dawn of Asia (アジアの曙) is a TV drama consisting of thirteen episodes about the trans-China/Japan collaboration of revolutionaries in the early twentieth century. It was Nagisa Oshima’s rare attempt to direct a TV drama in a social atmosphere in which Japan was embracing postwar prosperity as well as the effects of permeating mass media. Making an effort to reach out to the mass audience through a seemingly conventional method of filmic representation, Dawn of Asia takes up the epic of trans-As...
The Tattooed Lord
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