Iwao Ōtani

Dora-heita (2000)

A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption. ...

Heat Wave (1991)

Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi household and has fallen victim to gambling herself. ...

The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma (1987)

The Man Who Assassinated Ryoma is a movie about a haunted blood-thirsty Bakufu officer who might have killed Ryoma Sakamoto. ...

Death Shadows (1986)

Three men sentenced to death are spared and changed into "shadows executioners", a group of ruthless ninja working for mysterious high ranking officials. During their investigation on some illegal business, one of them, called "Yazuke the Viper", finds his ...

Tracked (1985)

When a fugitive begins a romance with the woman hiding him from the law, it becomes uncertain whether he will ever escape the shadow of his heinous crimes--or the detectives hot on his trail. ...

Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971)

Zatoichi is a blind massage therapist and swordsman who finds out that something troubling is taking place on the outskirts of town. After discovering who the guilty parties are -- an accomplished Chinese martial artist named Wang Kang and his youthful att ...

Mission: Iron Castle (1970)

The Shinobi-no-Mono series was so successful that Daiei Studios dipped into the well one more time, making the best 60′s B&W ninja movie ever seen in the otherwise color-dominated year of 1970. Issei Mori directs Hiroki Matsukata as the reluctant lea ...

The Magoichi Saga (1969)

Lord Oda Nobunaga gains control of nearly all of Japan and tries to enlist the aid of Magoichi and his 3.000 gunners. ...

Devil's Temple (1969)

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 prie ...

Sleepy Eyes of Death 12: Castle Menagerie (1969)

Just when you think Kyoshiro's life can't get any stranger, someone starts running around raping and murdering, and leaving notes proudly proclaiming that he did it. Tracking down the real culprit will take him along a twisted trail that involves the Shogu ...

Zatoichi and the Fugitives (1968)

Zatoichi runs afoul of some evil fugitives, working for a corrupt law official. ...

Zatoichi Challenged (1967)

Ichi is staying at an inn when a woman dies. Her dying wish is that Ichi take her son to his father, an artist living in a nearby town. After arriving in the town, Ichi finds out that the father has been forced by a local boss to create illegal pornography ...

The Homely Sister (1967)

In the 19th century Edo period, sisters Oshizu and Otaka have sacrificed their personal happiness to work and care for their ailing father. Otaka falls in love, but can't accept a marriage proposal since her older sister needs to marry first. When Oshizu l ...

Sleepy Eyes of Death 9: Trail of Traps (1967)

The Son of the Black Mass returns in this ninth installment in Daiei's longstanding Nemuri Kyoshiro series. This time Raizo Ichikawa as Nemuri is called to see that a gold statuette of the Virgin Mary gets safe passage to Kyoto from the prying hands of a s ...

The Sisters and I (1967)

Two sisters, Kyoko and Hisako, run a restaurant in Kyoto. But an incident with the latter's fiancé puts their relationship, and the future of their cuisine in jeopardy... ...

Spy on the Masked Car (1967)

An industrial espionage film. ...

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage (1966)

Zatoichi's trek through 88 temples to atone for his violent past is interrupted as he stumbles into a village terrorized by a violent yakuza boss. ...

Shinobi No Mono 5: Return of Mist Saizo (1964)

[Period covered: 1616] On May 8th, 1615 the summer campaign of Osaka has reached the climax. This film takes place immediately following 'Ninja 4: Mist Saizo, Last of The Ninja'. Staying one step ahead of the Shogun's forces, "Mist" Saizo tries to save the ...

On the Road Forever (1964)

A wandering gambler strolls into a village searching for his father's killer, unaware that the village is run by criminals who sell the poorest peasants into slavery. ...

The Third Shadow Warrior (1963)

In the mountain regions of Hida, the dreams of a peasant named Kyonosuke, who longed to be a samurai, come true when he becomes one of three doubles, of shadows, of Lord Yasutaka. After months of intense and cruel training, he faces his destiny when the Lo ...

An Actor's Revenge (1963)

In Edo Japan, a kabuki actor seeks revenge against the three men who drove his parents to their deaths years ago. ...

The Fencing Master (1962)

The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting – he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New ...

The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)

The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing. ...

Three Young Samurai (1961)

During Japan's Warring States period three young Tokugawa vassals head their separate ways after Takeda Shingen's forces overran their castle. When they next meet they have all joined opposing sides. ...

Satan's Sword (1960)

The Dai-bosatsu toge trilogy is based on Kaizan Nakazato's unfinished long series of novels (41 books, written from 1913 to 1941). Set in the last period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Daibosatsu Toge tells the story of Ryunosuke Tsukue, a nihilistic swordmast ...

The Blind Menace (1960)

This is the story of a blind masseur who tricks people, steals, and kills; he is the anti-Zatoichi. ...

Enchanted Princess (1959)

Once upon a time, Okuro (Ayako Wakao), a young female racoon, lived poorly with her drunken father. One day after they disguised themselves as parasols, they were wrongly brought to the Racoon Palace, where the young racoon princess (also Ayako Wakao) made ...

Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion (1958)

During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government suppor ...

Taira Clan Saga (1955)

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei. ...

Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954)

When the wife of a 17th-century Kyoto scrollmaker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves truly falling for one another. ...

The Great White Tiger Platoon (1954)

The Great White Tiger Platoon was part of the Aizu clan's last ditch efforts to stop the advance of Imperial troops after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Meant to be a reserve unit as it was made of the young, 16-17 year old sons of Aizu samurai. Their ...

The Woman in the Rumor (1954)

After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much. ...

Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho. ...

A Geisha (1953)

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people. ...

Ugetsu (1953)

In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady ...

This Way, That Way (1952)

An intellectual couple in a staid and tedious marriage are surprised when the wife's niece, who has run away from home, turns up unexpectedly to stay with them. Their mundane lives are sent into disarray by the emotional and energetic Ako. ...

Miss Oyu (1951)

Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu ...

Judge of the Ashuras (1951)

Rashomon (1950)

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife. ...

Kōfuku no genkai (1948)

The eldest daughter of the Takamatsu family, Atsuko, a widow, returns home due to not getting along with her late husband's family. On the other hand, the youngest daughter, Yukiko, is in love with a teacher older than her, much to her father's chagrin. Al ...

The Woman Who Opens the Door (1946)

Rashômon at 65 (2015)

A short documentary visiting some of Rashômon's key locations, featuring interviews with former staff from the Daiei-Kyoto Studios. ...

A Testimony as an Image (2002)

In this documentary, script supervisor Teruyo Nogami, who first worked with Akira Kurosawa on RASHOMON, catches up with many members of the crew, including cowriter Shinobu Hashimoto and assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka. They talk about the screenplay's ev ...