Akaji Maro

Or Utopia (2024)

Japan, 2024. The Earth is dominated by a mysteriously giant creature (That Thing) and the group of 12 survivors has formed an uneasy community out of necessity to survive Two years later, Hirayama, the hotel owner, is found dead. Is it suicide or murder? A ...

A Day Begins (2024)

We Are Aliens (2024)

One day, while Seiya was calling everybody on the phone to tell them "It's me, thank you" on the rooftop of a building, a strange creature with emerald-blue fur, something he had never seen before, descended from the sky. The creature, along with its compa ...

Kaidan. Strange Stories of Japanese Ghosts (2023)

An exploration of the spirit world as portrayed in the height of the J-horror era of the late '90s. ...

Love Will Tear Us Apart (2023)

Wakaba saves her classmate Koki who was being bullied. From then on, people who are involved with Wakaba are killed one after another. When the murderer is found out, Wakaba realizes what true love is. ...

We Make Antiques! Osaka Dreams (2023)

A treasure appears in front of antique dealer Norio Koike (Kiichi Nakai) and potter Sasuke (Kuranosuke Sasaki). The treasure is Hideyoshi Toyotomi's chawan (procelain tea bowl) called Houou, that has been missing. ...

Doomsday Detective (2022)

Shinjiro, who runs a humble detective agency using a coffee shop in a certain town as his office, gets into trouble at a dark gambling den and is forced to take on a troublesome job by Kyoichi, an executive of the Kasahara clan, a yakuza gang he knows well ...

Tonbi (2022)

Yasuo (Hiroshi Abe) grew up as an orphan. He married a woman he loved and they had a son Akira (later played by Takumi Kitamura). Yasuo's life seemed great at the time, but his life totally changed after his wife died in accident. Since that time, Yasuo, w ...

Ox-Head Village (2022)

Having launched a social media prank about a haunted building, three girls suddenly vanish. ...

Lupin's Daughter: The Movie (2021)

Hana Mikumo (Kyoko Fukada), born into the "L Family," a family of thieves for generations, falls in love with Kazuma Sakuraba (Koji Seto), the son of a family of police officers for generations. While hiding her true identity, she dreams of living a normal ...

Dreams on Fire (2021)

Fleeing to Tokyo with the hopes that she can fulfil her dream of becoming a dancer, Yume is met with the harsh reality that success isn't something that comes quickly or easily. Whilst juggling her job as a hostess in Tokyo's red-light district, Yume throw ...

Under the Turquoise Sky (2021)

Takeshi grew up spoiled in an affluent family. One day his businessman grandfather Saburo sends him to the grasslands of Mongolia where he is to search for a daughter born out of Saburo's relationship with a local woman after the Second World War. ...

Ghost Master (2019)

Akira Kurosawa is a nerdy movie buff who works on low budget romantic comedies while dreaming of becoming a horror master. After being abused by his mentor, "the master" he finally decides he's had enough and opens a door allowing an evil spirit to wreak r ...

SHANAŌ: Les Garçons-Bonbons 3 (2019)

The third movie in Léona Hirota's 'Candy Boys' series. ...

Katsu Fūtarō! ! (2019)

Birdsong (2019)

Tokyo. Asuka, a young cleaning lady working the night shift, is ready to pay a high price to achieve her dream of becoming a music star. She manages to perform on a TV-talent show, but all her sacrifices backfire when she is accused of murder and is forced ...

Fly Me to the Saitama (2019)

People from Saitama Prefecture are persecuted and, because of this, they hide the fact that they are from there. In Tokyo, Momomi Hakuhodo is a male high school student and the son of the Tokyo governor. Physically, Momomi Hakuhodo looks like a girl. One d ...

Uta Monogatari: Cinema Fighters Project (2018)

Six Stories based on Six Songs. ...

Sekigahara (2017)

The background to and depiction of a watershed battle in Japanese history, at Sekigahara in 1600, when Tokugawa Ieyasu's Army of the East defeated the Army of the West of Ishida Mitsunari. The story includes the intrigues and shifting loyalties of the vari ...

Neko Ninja (2017)

Kagerota is a young ninja who embarks on his first mission: stealing the goldfish from a wealthy samurai. He succeeds, but then a mysterious fat cat starts following him. His distinctive red nose leads Kagerota to believe that the feline stalker is actuall ...

The Projects (2016)

Whether it's someone mixing burnables and recyclables or noise from a neighbor's domestic spat, there's always something occupying the residents of a housing project in the suburbs of Osaka. However Hinako (Naomi Fujiyama) and Seiji (Ittoku Kishibe) couldn ...

En moi (2016)

A movie director goes to the Paris Opera to shoot his new film. Lacking inspiration, he looks for ways out of his solitude and fear of failure. With each step forward, his imagination reveals itself to him, and mysterious characters lead him towards his de ...

The Emperor in August (2015)

In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ja ...

Kakekomi (2015)

Kakekomi tells the stories of Edo women in the 1800s that escape abusive husbands and lovers by taking refuge in Tokeiji, a monastery in Kamakura. ...

Tales of the Bizarre 25th Anniversary Spring Special: Popular Manga Artist Competition (2015)

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the series. In this work, we collaborate with five popular manga artists such as Go Nagai, Junji Ito, Eiichiro Oda, Kazuo Umezu and Masayuki Ishikawa. ...

A Light in the Distance (2015)

Mado wakes up in the morning finding all the people disappeared. Hearing a strong typhoon might strike, everyone has escaped the disaster. She checks her school, but no one is there. She meets her classmate, Fujii, unexpectedly. Fujii asks Mado to find a s ...

Disconcerto (2014)

Set within the fictional city of Mahoro, Keisuke Tada runs a "benriya" - a general problem solver for hire. His assistant is his former high school classmate Haruhiko Gyoten. A big crisis then occurs for them. ...

Zipang Punk Goemon Rock III (2014)

Goemon Ishikawa steals a golden statue from Yukari Kukai with female thief Neko no Me Ogin, but Private Detective Shinkuro Akechi chases after Goemon Ishikawa and Neko no Me Ogin. Detective Shinkuro Akechi discovers that there is a code hidden within the ...

TAP: Perfect Education (2013)

In Okinawa, a down-and-out middle-aged yakuza underling named Shidara kidnaps and confines a high school girl named Yui, the daughter of a fellow yakuza's mistress. ...

Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)

In Japan, gonzo filmmakers hatch a three-pronged plan to save an actress's career, end a yakuza war and make a hit movie. ...

SPEC: Heaven (2012)

Saya Toma is a female detective with an IQ of 201. Takeru Sebumi is a career detective with a distinguished background. They work on cases by postulating the "SPEC" of the unknown criminals and then deduce the criminal's unknown "SPEC" to make arrests. A m ...

The Pod of Good Fortune (2012)

Ryosaku, a struggling actor, endures daily abuse from his wicked wife. One day, the janitor of his apartment gives him a 'The Pod of Good Fortune'. And his life begins to go awry. The sudden death of his abusive wife...suspicion of murder...an impulsive co ...

Hanezu (2012)

Woodwork artist Takumi moves to the small village Asuka in Nara Prefecture. He remodels old homes and lives a peaceful existence with nature. Takumi then meets Kayoko, a woman who went to the same school as Takumi. Kayoko is fascinated with the color crims ...

Crazy Camel (2012)

'Many people have a preconception about butoh — that it is performed by dancers whose bodies are painted white. So when we debuted our current program, 'Crazy Camel,' in France, and we came on stage covered in gold-colored powder, the fans and experts th ...

Tenshi tsukinuke rokuchoume (2011)

Noboru (Taku Manabe) finds himself in a very difficult situation. The factory he's been working at has gone bankrupt. He heads to the factory's office to demand his last paycheque, but it turns out some gangster thugs are there demanding money as well. Now ...

Sukiyaki (2011)

Kenta Kurihara (Tasuku Nagaoka) is sent to prison for battery. In his cell he is referred to as the "newcomer." Meanwhile, Kenta is bummed out with simple meal offerred in prison. The four other prisoners in his jail cell have no problems eating his food. ...

Tada's Do-It-All House (2011)

In Mahoro, the fictional suburb of Tokyo, Tada works as a general problem solver for hire. One day, former classmate Gyoten appears unannounced. Both men are over 30 years old and divorced. With no explanation, Gyoten suddenly asks to spend the night at Ta ...

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2011)

A former assassin, known simply as The Bride, wakes from a coma four years after her jealous ex-lover Bill attempts to murder her on her wedding day. Fueled by an insatiable desire for revenge, she vows to get even with every person who contributed to the ...

Yakuza Weapon (2011)

After four years overseas, Shozo returns to Japan to avenge his yakuza boss who was assassinated by his own treacherous top man, Kurawaki. The resulting battle leaves both men severely injured, and Shozo awakens in a mysterious medical facility to find his ...

Postcard (2010)

Toward the end of World War II, middle-aged soldier Keita is entrusted with a postcard from a comrade who is sure he will die in battle. After the war ends, Keita visits his comrade's wife Yuko and bears witness to the tragic life she has led. ...

Kazura (2010)

Bald Moriyama wants a new image and buys a wig. It works: suddenly he has a career and a girlfriend. But, as Moriyama will soon learn, life gets complicated when you have to keep a secret. ...

Golden Flower: What Is Hidden Is the True Flower, What Is Gone Is the Butterfly (2009)

Nursing home "Yuyoso". Many lonely old people live there, including botanist Taro Makiso, a physicist, an actor, a bar mom, and a chef. Maki has spent most of his life studying botany, and has lived without regard for entertainment, drinking, women, or eve ...

Dark Harbour (2009)

Manzo is a fisherman in a small seaside community who lives and works alone, but longs for a relationship and maybe a wife. When a sign is posted advertising a matchmaking party with city women, all the men gussy themselves up and videotape themselves for ...

Asahiyama Zoo Story: Penguins in the Sky (2009)

Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido, is the northernmost zoo in Japan. The unpopular zoo welcomes a new zoo keeper, young Yoshida (Yasuhi Nakamura), who has more affection for insects than people after years of being bullied at school when he was young. Yoshida soon ...

Shaolin Girl (2008)

A Shaolin-trainer young woman returns to Japan to resuscitate her grandfather's defunct martial arts school. ...

Be a Man!! Samurai School (2008)

Momotaro and Hidemaro are 1st-years at Otokojuku, a private boys school where true men are made. Momotaro, proficient in academics and martial arts becomes good friends with Hidemaro an underachieving weakling. Omito Date, former student leader, plans his ...

The Naked Summer (2008)

The Naked Summer is a film that documents young artists' effort and growth while training and preparing for a performance of Butou that is praised internationally as a unique art form. Butou was born about 40 years ago as a form of modern dance that pursue ...

Pacchigi! Love & Peace (2007)

In 1974, during the height of the recession, a Japanese Korean family relocates to Tokyo to raise money and seek better treatment for their ill son. ...

Awakening (2007)

After the unexpected death of her husband a new life begins for Toshiko. 30 years of a happy marriage seem to suddenly vanish as she finds out that her husband had lived a double life. Struggling between her anger and the chance to begin a new chapter for ...

Piledriver (2007)

GARO Special: Beast of the Demon Night (2006)

In the aftermath events of GARO: Chapter of the Black Wolf, Saejima Kouga sets out to the northern district upon reassignment. While hunting down Horrors, a young priestess named Rin informs Kouga that she's been sent by Priest Amon to save a presumed dead ...

Damejin (2006)

An off-beat comedy about 3 'damejin' (useless persons), who don't work and spend their lives doing nothing. They actually don't want to work. When they hear 'in India one can live without working' they take it seriously. They begin to raise the money to go ...

The Whispering of the Gods (2005)

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. ...

Into a Dream (2005)

Low-profile theatre troupe actor Mutsugoro Suzuki begins an oneiric journey home, marked by his quest to find the one responsible of infecting him with a STD. ...

The Motive (2004)

Four people are discovered brutally murdered in an up-scale high-rise apartment. All the victims appear to be family, but as the investigation deepens it is discovered that one of the victims isn't related to the family. ...

Wild Flowers (2004)

Real pro wrestlers Mizuho Ishikawa, Cutie Suzuki and Emi Tojyo star alongside newcomer Miki Suzuki as the women tag teams, and they are managed reluctantly by Yoshinori Okada, forced to take over as manager of his mom's struggling female wrestling team. ...

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

The Bride unwaveringly continues on her roaring rampage of revenge against the band of assassins who had tried to kill her and her unborn child. She visits each of her former associates one-by-one, checking off the victims on her Death List Five until ther ...

Akame 48 Waterfalls (2003)

A man is trying to flee from his past, and he ends up in an underworld filled with strange characters. He finds a job skewering meat in a dirty old room in a shabby old house filled with prostitutes, gangsters and a weird old tattoo master. He clearly does ...

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance. ...

9 Souls (2003)

After discovering a hole in their crowded cell, nine prisoners escape their confinement to track down the key of the universe, which a fellow prisoner known as the Counterfeit King said he had hidden. ...

Samurai Resurrection (2003)

Shiro Amasuka, dead leader of the Shimbara Revolt is resurrected from hell with the desire of overthrowing the shogunate for killing his companions. To do this , he resurrects an army of living dead swordsmen. Between him and his goal, only Yagyu Jubei sta ...

Ginji the Slasher (2003)

In prison for 50 years after massacring his corrupt workmates with a samurai sword in 1945, Ginji Sonesaki (Riki Takeuchi) is given the nickname of Ginji the Slasher. On his release he finds himself on the streets living with the homeless hiding from a man ...

Jam Films (2002)

Jam Films is a 2002 suite of 7 shorts produced by Sega/Amuse. ...

Madness in Bloom (2002)

Yamaguchi, Ichikawa and Kosuge dress in white military-style uniforms to "clean" the streets of Shibuya from bad elements. After rightist gang boss, Aota takes an interest in the three, the boys gradually become influenced by him, but start to go their di ...

Drive (2002)

Kenichi Asakura is an uptight, hyper-square salesman. One day, three bank robbers commandeer his van. They are in hot pursuit of their fellow robber who has snatched the money. Unfortunately for the bank robbers, Asakura never drives over 40 km/h speed lim ...

Shangri-La (2002)

Shangri-La follows the lives of a group of homeless people in Japan who run into a man who nearly commits suicide and decide to help him out of his financial troubles. Using their various ingenious resources they embark on a complex scheme to blackmail a c ...

KT (2002)

This movie is a political/espionage thriller, based on a real kidnapping incident of Korean politician, Kim Dae-Jung. ...

Toy Reanimator (2002)

Set in a toy store specialized in antique toys, a boy works in the toy store and is obsessed with tin toys. There's one particular tin toy he loves more than the rest. In walks a girl wearing shades, and starts telling her own story, a weird and fascinatin ...

Suicide Club (2001)

When the bizarre mass suicide of 54 high school girls throwing themselves in front of a subway train appears to instigate a string of suicides around the country, Detective Kuroda strives to find the answer, which isn't as simple as he had hoped. ...

Utsushimi (2000)

While butoh master Akaji Maro is in rehearsal and fashion designer Shinichiro Arakawa prepares for the Paris collection, Sion begins a movie about a high school girl who falls in love... with a restaurant cook she's never even spoken to. Soon the artists' ...

Swing Man (2000)

A man is assaulted by someone with a bat and attempts to figure out why. ...

The City of Lost Souls (2000)

Brazilian-Japanese gangster Mario rescues his Chinese girlfriend Kei as she's about to be deported from Japan. Desperate to escape, he hides in Tokyo's booming Japanese-Portuguese community and seeks passage from the country from a Russian mobster. To meet ...

Persona (2000)

Into the bully-infested home room class struts a fearless, ceramic-masked student. Squarely confronting a gang of ruffians, it is soon discovered that behind the mask is none other than Danta, an otherwise weakling student who has heretofore been picked on ...

Making of Gemini (2000)

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Shin'ya Tsukamoto's film "Gemini". ...

Monday (2000)

A simple funeral turns a man's world Topsy turvy. He wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened a day before. ...

Nagaremono Yokohama Yakuza War (2000)

The life and death of the men who are bound by violence. ...

Gemini (1999)

When his mother's untimely death quickly follows his father's, a doctor begins to believe a killer may be targeting him and his amnesiac wife. ...

The Night the Angel Turned Away (1999)

Kikujiro (1999)

Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide a ...

Shin-Karajishi Kabushiki-Kaisha (1999)

Remake of Chusei Sone's 1983 comedy about a yakuza family trying their luck in show business. ...

Will to Live (1999)

It is based on the story of The Ballad of Narayama updated to the present day, with the substitution of putting a parent into an old people's home for the abandonment of the original. The film won the Golden St. George and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 21st Mo ...

Pornostar (1998)

A young man decides one day to start killing yakuza. After he kills his first two he gets roped into helping a wannabe gangster and his bumbling underlings to perform a hit. While things work out in the beginning, this young psychopath quickly becomes more ...

Female Ninjas Magic Chronicles: Legend of Yagyu Part 1 (1998)

Yuko Moriyama stars in this ninja period piece as one of seven women determined to exact revenge on the evil lord Akinari Katou and "The 7 Spears", the band of soldiers he commands. Trained assassins and skilled in sorcery, these men took over the Aizu pre ...

Unlucky Monkey (1998)

A dark and strange comedy about a bank robber with bad luck. Bungling a bank robbery turns out to be a profitable mistake for Yamazaki, an amateur crook who ends up with 80 million yen after a string of improbable accidents. But having so much cash doesn't ...

The Outer Way (1998)

The cop Himuro is picked as scapegoat by his superiors because of their own involvement in sokaiya gangster practices. ...

Hanako of the Toilet (1998)

When a young girl discovers that her new middle school is the same one her sister mysteriously disappeared from eleven years before. She and her new friends join forces to fight the evil force that threatens them all. ...

The Haunted Lantern (1998)

Wife in former life plagues husband as ghost in the present ...

Guard Dog (1997)

A tough and violent battle ensues between Hikaru Gotokuji, who's been assigned as the bodyguard for a popular young entertainer, and the ex-mercenary who is aggressively intent on assassination. ...

Lie Lie Lie (1997)

Hatano is living as an insomniac freelance typesetter alone in his bayside apartment. One day, Aikawa, a high school classmate he hasn't seen in over ten years, shows up on his doorstep bearing a bag of clams. Though he claims to be the director of a fast- ...

Cat's Eye (1997)

Three cat burgling sisters have to go up against the police and a Chinese crime syndicate in order to rescue their kidnapped father. ...

Postman Blues (1997)

Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finge ...

An Angel with Many Scars (1997)

An odd journey starts as Mitsuru, a private detective, and a boy, whom a dying mobster entrusts to him, decide to go to northern Japan in search of the boy's mother, and the detective's buddy Hisashi joins them later. ...

Moonlight Serenade (1997)

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II. ...

Born to Be Baby (1997)

A detective, a mysterious beauty Ekin and other characters appear in the film. It creates a mysterious visual world that takes us one step further into the world of Ekin. This is the second art documentary film produced by the Museum of Art, Kochi, follow ...

Dangan Runner (1996)

A would-be bank robber forgets his mask on his first big heist, and then botches an attempt to shoplift a replacement mask from a nearby convenience store. The store's clerk, a washed-up rock star, chases the thief and literally runs into a Yakuza to whom ...

That's Cheating! The Biggest Plan in History? (1996)

The setting is the prestigious, traditional Japan University of Science. Mitsugu Kimura, a top-achieving student, is a resident of Sigma House, a student dormitory. Mitsugu is joined by a group of unique, problematic students with the lowest grades, but Si ...

The Trap (1996)

When a hooded stranger appears in private eye 'Mike' Hama's office with the cryptic challenge "I want you to look for me," Hama is drawn into a string of bizarre serial murders that have Yokohama's police baffled and the city terrified. ...

Known As! Pissken (1996)

The thug is now back in Shaba as a legendary hitman! ...

Hell Bento: Uncovering the Japanese Underground (1995)

An exploration of underground Japanese counter-culture including the Yakuza, the nationalists, the gay and lesbian community, the bikers and the homeless. ...

A Last Note (1995)

A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. ...

Boxer Joe (1995)

A docudrama about the boxer Jôichirô Tatsuyoshi. The documentary part follows Tatsuyohi for 18 months, from his comeback from an eye injury to his match against Yasuei Yakushiji in 1994. A fictional part follows a restaurant owner, fan of Tatsuyohi, wait ...

The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995)

Broke, with his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama's past, returns to town, the fuse is l ...

Heisei Irresponsible Family: Tokyo de Luxe (1995)

The members of the Ameya family are all scammers. After their election scheme goes bust in their hometown, they move from Shikoku to Tokyo and resume their fraudulent activities. Everything carries on smoothly until the eldest and the fourth sons' modus op ...

The Nearest Place to the Sky (1994)

Kitagawa, a top salesman with an impressive record, is hiding a dark secret—he borrowed the 9 million yen of his record from loan sharks. One day, while being pursued by the yakuza, he escapes to a rooftop where he unexpectedly meets a mysterious elderly ...

Uneasy Encounters (1994)

A five-part comedy and horror anthology ...

The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994)

Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. ...

This Is Shinogi (1994)

An office worker who happens to end up helping a yakuza ...

All Under the Moon (1993)

A Korean taxi-driver interacts both humorously and tragically with his customers and employers in '90s Tokyo. ...

The Room (1993)

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room. ...

Check (1991)

Set in Osaka's Shinsekai, the film depicts the lives of Ayumu Tobita (Hidekazu Akai), who makes a living as a shogi gambler (shinken-shi), and Ryuzo Kayama (Masaya Kato) who aims to become a professional player. ...

Yumeji (1991)

Following the life of Japanese artist and poet Yumeji Takehisa through the imagining of an encounter with a beautiful widow with a dark past. ...

Ready to Shoot (1990)

A middle-aged man discovers an injured refugee woman trembling in the corner of his bar in Kabukicho. He quickly becomes aware that her life is in his hands when he learns she is hiding from the yakuza. ...

Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis (1990)

"Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis" is a visually striking film portrait shot on location in Japan with the participation of the major Butoh choreographers and their companies. Although Butoh is often viewed as Japan's equivalent of modern dance, in actual ...

Circus Boys (1989)

Two brothers, Jinta and Wataru, are raised in a travelling circus. After an accident, Jinta decides to leave the circus and travels the countryside working as a con-man. After a run-in with a local gang of yakuza, he is invited to join their ranks, where h ...

Knockout (1989)

A Japanese boxer stages a dramatic and dangerous comeback after suffering brain damage in the ring. ...

Shinran: Path to Purity (1987)

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Var ...

Mitsugetsu (1984)

Tetsuaki's struggling to write a novel while his mother fades; Mitsuko's engagement has been forced upon her unwillingly; the two individuals run away to share their grief. ...

The Dropout (1982)

Detective Seiji Otaki is determined to find the psychopathic killer of a young woman who was ostensibly a student but in reality a high-priced prostitute. Even though he has been taken off the case for beating up a suspect, he refuses to let it go and recr ...

Kagero-za (1981)

A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife. ...

Zigeunerweisen (1980)

A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways. ...

The Love and Adventures of Kuroki Taro (1977)

Taro Kuroki, 42, is a stuntman with a samurai's heart. He loves adventures, plays pranks with the police, tries to cure a cat lady by reversing her trauma, and finally, rescues his niece who is about to be lured into prostitution. ...

Evil Spirits in the Darkness (1971)

The film depicts the youth of Kinzo, a heretic painter who worked in Tosa during the late Edo period, and the hurricane-like inner side of his life. ...

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969)

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 Notorious Concubines (1968)

Based on the Chinese classic "Jin Ping Mei". Original Japanese cut directed by Koji Wakamatsu and produced by Shochiku. Set in Song-dynasty China, Wu Song rises to fame and becomes a guard captain. He is captivated by his brother's wife, Pan Jinlian, whose ...

Crazy Love (1968)

Correlated with Susan Sontag's theorization of kitsch as well as employing the queer lingo of "camp," this film's relentless equal opportunity pop-art montage shattered the foundations of conventional cinema, making it a true document of the Shinjuku under ...

The Pistol That Sprouted Hair (1968)

Shirō raids the office of the organization that attacked his lover, wreaking havoc and escaping with a stolen handgun. In retaliation, the organization hires two killers to get rid of Shirō. The duo begin to develop a strange kinship with their target... ...

Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands (1967)

A wealthy real estate investor is forced to watch the rape of his girlfriend and then is sent a film showing the fact. He hires a hitman, Sho, and shows him the film, so that the detective can get rid of the criminals. But the boss of the criminal band is ...

Crazy Camel (2012)

'Many people have a preconception about butoh — that it is performed by dancers whose bodies are painted white. So when we debuted our current program, 'Crazy Camel,' in France, and we came on stage covered in gold-colored powder, the fans and experts th ...

Sexual Beast Sacrifice (1984)

Tomio, a college student, lives in a Western-style house where strange people live, such as his landlady Yukiko and her older brother Kishi, the crook Hosoda, and his idiot wife Tamae, Miyamoto, who lost both legs in the war, his mistress with tattoos, Noz ...