Asakazu Nakai

Ran (1985)

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons. ...

Love and Separation in Sri Lanka (1976)

A Japanese businessman is sent to Sri Lanka and meets a beautiful Japanese woman with a past. They befriend an old Japanese-Indian widow who has an estranged son in Japan. ...

Dersu Uzala (1975)

A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia's unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods. ...

The Origin of Twenty Years Old (1973)

On June 24, 1969, Etsuko Takano, a 20-year-old third-year student at Ritsumeikan University, jumped in front of a train and died instantly. She left no suicide note, but did leave over a dozen diaries. This film is based on her writings. ...

Shiosai (1971)

Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo. Yasuo spreads unpleasant gossip about his rival, and Hatsue's father forbids her to see Shinji. But when t ...

Wakare no uta (1971)

Richness, severity and pureness of love is beautifully and sentimentally depicted. ...

Take Care, Red Riding Hood (1970)

A high-schooler involved in turn-of-the-decade student movements works to escape his comfort zone and apply himself. ...

Konto 55: The Weaknesses of the Century (1968)

A Toho film featuring the comedy duo Konto 55, (コント55号), comprised of comedians Kinichi Hagimoto and Jiro Sakagami. ...

Judge and Jeopardy (1968)

It is based on the story "The Lawyer" by attorney Hiroshi Masaki and his account of Japan's "Headless Murder Case" in which a police officer beat a suspect to death during the Pacific War. ...

The Daphne (1966)

Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their long-suffering mother. The mother and her brother try various schemes to find husbands for them. ...

Red Beard (1965)

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Bear ...

The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers (1964)

Five swindle stories, taking place in five international cities: Tokyo, Japan ("Fumiko's Five Benefactors" by Hiromichi Horikawa); Amsterdam, The Netherlands ("A River of Diamonds" by Roman Polanski); Naples, Italy ("The Road Map" by Ugo Gregoretti); Paris ...

High and Low (1963)

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur's son but demand the ransom anyway. ...

Musume to watashi (1962)

The End of Summer (1961)

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth. ...

Girls of the Night (1961)

In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life. ...

Eternity of Love (1961)

A Hiromichi Horikawa movie ...

The Blue Beast (1960)

The ruthless and ambitious Yasuhiko uses his charm to manipulate and exploit those around him to climb the corporate social ladder. After securing a position at a prestigious firm through deceit, he callously discards the women who helped him and embezzles ...

The Dangerous Kiss (1960)

Starring Akira Takarada as a lightweight boxing champion. ...

The Lost Alibi (1960)

Suspense drama about a married salaryman whose affair with one of his co-workers is compromised when, returning from a clandestine meeting with his lover, he runs into a neighbor who is later accused of murder. Questioned by police about the neighbor, and ...

The Enchanting Devil (1959)

Thriller directed by Seiji Maruyama ...

I Want to Be a Shellfish (1959)

On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. ...

The Big Boss (1959)

Ryuta and Mineo Komatsu are brothers, both yakuza (gangsters). Mineo, although complicit in crime, even murder, wants out of the gangster life, hoping to become a successful singer instead. Ryuta loves his brother, but Mineo's possible defection presents p ...

All About Marriage (1958)

Ultra-perky model likes single freedom but feels ryosai kenbo ("good wife, wise mother") pressure, exemplified by her bored-to-tears sister. ...

A Bridge for Two Alone (1958)

A Dangerous Hero (1957)

A film by Hideo Suzuki. ...

Throne of Blood (1957)

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit' ...

I Live in Fear (1955)

An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring t ...

Seven Samurai (1954)

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with ...

Mr. Pu (1953)

A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl. ...

Husband and Wife (1953)

A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife. ...

Ikiru (1952)

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life. ...

Who Knows a Woman's Heart (1951)

Ikeuchi was captain of the K - University ice hockey team. The daughter Shikotsuko of Ginza 's western restaurant "Piccolo" was also a female student at K University and was a figure player. They had a dream of being dispatched to Oslo in the Olympic Games ...

Dancing Girl (1951)

The troubled relationship between a writer and his ballet teacher wife, who has for years loved another man, finally leads to the breakup of the family. ...

Elegy (1951)

Wataru Naohiko who has the prosecutor general as his father became a young composer and its symphony "saint" invoked the world echoed. But his disciple Uchiyama and his best friend prosecutor Daisuke Toki accused his music as a sesame of pause-only techniq ...

Clothes of Deception (1951)

The story of two sisters in post-war Japan. One is a geisha and the other works for the tourist board. ...

Escape from Prison (1950)

Stray Dog (1949)

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo's sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of c ...

The Blue Mountains: Part II (1949)

Continuation of The Blue Mountains: Part I. Released a week later. ...

The Blue Mountains: Part I (1949)

Teacher Yukiko finds herself in opposition to conservative faculty and villagers after defending a student for being in a relationship with a young man from Tokyo. ...

Actress (1947)

During the late Meiji period, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu, a scholar who brought European realism to the Japanese stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marria ...

One Wonderful Sunday (1947)

Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope. ...

No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)

After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan. ...

The Brick Factory Girl (1946)

This film focuses on Koreans living in Japan. The filmmaker's humanism comes across in the portrayal of a girl living in a shabby tenement, the warmth of a Korean girl she meets, and the friendliness of this Korean girl's family. ...

Yoki na onna (1946)

1946 Toho film directed by Kiyoshi Saeki ...

Three Women of the North (1945)

The story of an airport and its air traffic control crew in a remote and northern Japanese town. Three of the air traffic controllers are female with one of them working with her dead fiancé's sister. The engaged man had gone to war and never returned. ...

Battle Troop (1944)

Three IJN flyers Mikami (Susumu Fujita), Kawakami (Masayuki Mori) and Murakami (Akitake Kono) are good friends, and they are all renowned for their torpedo techniques. Mikami is posted as a staff officer at a base on an island in the Pacific. Kawakami and ...

Nichijô no tatakai (1944)

The Song Lantern (1943)

A self-absorbed young actor humiliates an elderly Noh performer, who then commits suicide. His act of cruelty compels his father to disown him, leading the once promising actor to a life on the streets. But his desire to win back the respect of his father ...

Banzuiin Chōbei (1940)

A jidaigeki film on Banzuiin Chōbei produced in 1940 and directed by Yasuki Chiba. ...

Hideko the Cheerleader (1940)

Hideko, a young Baseball fan, determined to cheer for her favourite baseball team by creating a new song for them. ...

The Scent of Pheasant’s Eye: An Episode from the Tales of Flowers (1935)

Mitsuo the Counselor's son marries writer Miyoko, however a tender romance blossoms between Miyoko and Mitsuo's sister Kaoru. When the family falls to bankruptcy, heartache ensues; Miyoko's illness worsens and she is sent to a sanatorium, separating the lo ...

A. K. (1985)

An intimate chronicle of the shooting of Ran (1985), a film directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. ...