Kaneto Shindō

The Dreadful (2026)

In medieval England, Anne and her domineering mother-in-law Morwen struggle to survive on the outskirts of society. But when a man from Anne's past returns from war, a curse begins to take shape through a mysterious knight and threatens to destroy them all ...

Hachiko (2023)

This is the story of a puppy that touched hundreds of millions of people around the world. Hachiko is a cute Chinese pastoral dog. He met his destined owner Chen Jingxiu in the vast crowd and became a member of the Chen family. With the passage of time, th ...

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. ...

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

Professor Wilson discovers a lost Akita puppy on his way home. Despite objections from his wife, Hachi endears himself to the family and grows to be Parker's loyal companion. As their bond grows deeper, a beautiful relationship unfolds. ...

Teacher and Three Children (2008)

The 95-year-old director shot the film in his hometown of Ishiuchi, Hiroshima. The story is based on a teacher he had when he was a child. ...

The Battleship on the Ground (2007)

Writer/Director Kaneto Shindô recounts his time spent in the Japanese Navy in WWII. He tells about the harsh training, grueling conditions, and tragic losses which are reenacted in black & white sequences. ...

Owl (2003)

A mother and daughter are stranded in small, isolated cabin, and are starving to death. In order to survive, they plan to entice men that happen to stray to their cabin with sex, and kill them. All goes well until a local cop shows up and, then, an old rel ...

A Single Drop of Water in a Mighty River (2001)

The story opens with Yukiko and her business partner in Moscow searching for Russian items for their store in Tokyo. There they meet a Russian translator, Nicholai, played by Sergei Nakariakov - a trumpeter from Russia. Some months later after they have r ...

By Player (2000)

The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoya ...

The Perfect Education (1999)

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 Geisha House (1999)

Set in a Kyoto geisha house during the post-WWII era, the young Omocha begins her rigorous apprenticeship within the traditional community of geiko and maiko. She must navigate complex internal rivalries and a strict social hierarchy while the house strugg ...

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 ...

Solitude Point (1998)

Yukie is a romance story about an American veteran (Bo Swenson) of the Korean War veteran and his undying love for a beautiful Japanese nurse named Yukie (Mitsuko Baisho) who marries him despite her parents' objections. ...

The Life and Love of Kenji Miyazawa (1996)

A biographical drama depicting the life full of love and suffering of the writer and poet Kenji Miyazawa, who celebrated his 100th birthday in 1996. ...

A Last Note (1995)

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

Faraway Sunset (1992)

Faraway Sunset tells the story of the famed bacteriologist who is known to have discovered the agent that cause syphilis, and for his relentless search for a cure to yellow fever. As a toddler, his mother's neglect had caused an accident to his left hand, ...

The Strange Tale of Oyuki (1992)

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 ...

Crossroads in Tokyo (1991)

A three parts movie following people forgotten by a society that modernizes at the price of expelling part of its individuals. ...

Don't Mind (1990)

Set in downtown Tokyo, it depicts the activities of a weak youth baseball team, the Chidori Boys, and the ordinary people who live there. ...

Sakura-tai Chiru (1988)

A documentary about the lives of actors in the Sakura-tai theatrical troupe, which had arrived in the island of Hiroshima to begin preparations for the staging of a play just before the atomic bombing. ...

Hachiko (1987)

The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death. ...

Actress (1987)

Story of famed Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, with an emphasis on her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi. ...

Tree Without Leaves (1986)

Haru, an aging scriptwriter, has isolated himself somewhere in the woods of Nagano to work on his first novel. As the last surviving member of his kin, he intends to chronicle the family he grew up in. ...

Black Board (1986)

Takeshi Yasui, a junior high school student is found dead in a river. The police investigate it as a murder related to bullying. The dead boy turns out to have been murdered by two of his schoolmates, who he had been bullying. ...

The Horizon (1984)

Hideo is sold in marriage to a Japanese farmer in San Francisco to settle her family's debt. Over the next 20 years, the couple works hard and raises 4 children. After Pearl Harbor is attacked, they are interned with other Japanese immigrants in a camp, lo ...

Tsumiki kuzushi (1983)

A conflict between parents and their delinquent daughter. ...

The Women of Osaka Castle (1983)

A television drama aired on November 3, 1983 as a special project to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Yomiuri Television and the 30th anniversary of the founding of Nippon Television. ...

Nezumi Kozo Jirokichi hissatsu no shiraha (1983)

A gripping and entertaining historical drama that follows the actions of the thief Nezumi Kozo Jirokichi during the Edo period. ...

Shadow Conspirator (1982)

One night, Genjiro Tsurumi, a former ronin comes across a man being attacked by a group of assassins. The dying man is an official secret agent carrying a secret letter addressed to General Matsudaira. Genjiro meets with Matsudaira, who informs him of the ...

Rennyo and His Mother (1981)

Rennyo was the key figure responsible for the restoration of Shin Buddhism in Japan, in particular the Honganji lineage that had a slump in its fortunes during the Middle Ages. According to the legend, his motivation was a pivotal childhood incident at the ...

Edo Porn (1981)

The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin. ...

The Phantom Thief Nezumi Kozo and the Tattooed Judge (1981)

Magistrate Toyama no Kin-san is ordered to catch the phantom thief Nezumi Kozo, who is robbing daimyo and wealthy townspeople. Under the name of Nezumi Kozo, there is a small wholesaler Jiro. And once Toyama and Jiro, when they were young, were comrades wh ...

Drive for the Future (1980)

Magnitude 7.9 (1980)

A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored. ...

The Three Undelivered Letters (1979)

A young Japanese-American man arrives at his grandmother's old hometown in Yamaguchi, begins to stay at her family's elite but dysfunctional household, and gets entangled in a sinister plot of murder. ...

The Strangling (1979)

The men who surround and torment the young protagonist (demanding teacher, owner of the company that rapes his own daughter, despotic and uncompromising father) are opposed to women (victims of men) as embodiment of salvation. ...

Horror of the Giant Vortex (1978)

Japanese horror move from 1978. ...

The Incident (1978)

The body of Sakai Hatsuko, a woman of 23 who has been slain with a knife, has been found in a forest. Some days later, Ueda Hiroshi, a 19-year-old shipyard worker, is arrested and charged with the murder. At Ueda's trial, a complex story unfolds. ...

A Young Female Instructor (1978)

A junior high school teacher is raped by several students inside the school. ...

Dangerous Liaisons (1978)

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 18th-century epistolary novel 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' is adapted to a contemporary setting. An abominable and burning jealousy and an evil relationship between a man and a woman unfold in the nature of a game. Eventually, jea ...

Document 8.6 (1977)

Documentary on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Shindo personally interviews survivors and attempts to interview the commander of the B-29 that dropped the bomb. ...

The Life of Chikuzan (1977)

After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s, the rough-hewn blind shamisen player and folk-song collector named Takahashi Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with ...

The Perennial Weed (1975)

A detective wonders that his sister is a murder suspect. ...

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975)

In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi. ...

My Way (1974)

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. ...

Rika 3: Juvenile's Lullaby (1973)

Reform schools are a way of protecting society by ridding it of lawless juvenile delinquents. But who's protecting the juvenile delinquents from corrupt reform schools? Rica could be considered a bit of an expert on reform schools, having spent most of her ...

Rika 2: Lonely Wanderer (1973)

Rica wanting a fresh start leaves her friends and past life behind or at least that is what she thinks as trouble always seems to find her. Rica's looks into a ship that exploded and everyone who survived this disaster who comes in contact with her dies. R ...

Hymn (1972)

The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings. ...

Rika: The Mixed-Blood Girl (1972)

First film of a trilogy following the dramatic life of Rika, a half-Japanese/half-American woman who becomes the tough-as-nails leader of an all-girl crime gang. ...

The Iron Crown (1972)

A woman takes revenge on her husband after he leaves her for a younger woman by harassing the couple with unwanted phone calls at night. ...

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (1972)

A war widow determined to clear the name of her disgraced husband, who was court-martialed for desertion and executed. Official records have been destroyed, and the ministry that distributes benefits continues to deny her a pension. Twenty-six years after ...

Sweet Secret (1971)

A dynamic woman who aspires to be a writer, living a wild life in constant search of freedom while indulging in lust with four men. ...

The Battle of Okinawa (1971)

The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army divisions to defend it at all costs. The mission quickly degenerates as vital resources and troops are div ...

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. ...

Live Today, Die Tomorrow! (1970)

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 ...

Strange Affinity (1970)

Heat Wave Island (1969)

Nobuko Otowa plays a former Seto Inland Sea island farmer who has moved to the mainland in order to find work, but instead ends up dead. The film begins with the discovery of her corpse, which leads to an investigation that uncovers the narcotics, prostitu ...

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 ...

Thousand Cranes (1969)

The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasunari. ...

Strong Women, Weak Men (1968)

After the closure of a coal mine leaves her husband unemployed, Fumiko travels from Kyushu to Kyoto with her daughter Kimiko, and they become hostesses at a cabaret. ...

Kuroneko (1968)

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 ca ...

The House of the Sleeping Virgins (1968)

About an establishment where old men pay to sleep besides young girls that had been narcotized and happen to be naked, the sleeping beauties. The old men are expected to take sleeping pills and share the bed for a whole night with a girl without attempting ...

The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka (1967)

The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined to win his love that they volunteer as subjects for his experiments ...

A Fallen Woman (1967)

The daughter of a Prime Minister turns down the proposal of a young teacher when she falls for the wrong man. Despite the continual degradation by the man she loves, she is unwilling to leave her awful relationship. ...

Libido (1967)

After an elderly man is discharged from a hospital following a misunderstood, life-affirming impulse toward a fellow patient, he finds himself caught between his wife's empathy and his children's judgmental scorn. As his health wavers, he and his wife atte ...

Two Wives (1967)

After a random encounter at a bar, two couples collide. Two men, two women, embroiled in a love-and-hate drama that threatens to engulf them. The sexual anxiety between the interwoven couples tautens right up to the nearly unbearable tension of the climax. ...

Drunken Harbor (1966)

Third film of the yoidore hakase series ...

Fighting Elegy (1966)

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group. ...

Dynamite Doctor Returns (1966)

Second movie in the yoidore hakase serie ...

Lost Sex (1966)

A well-respected drama teacher confesses to his housekeeper that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has left him impotent. With the coming of spring, the sympathetic housekeeper suggests that the Master observe the Yobai , a custom in which the young men of a ...

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. ...

Dynamite Doctor (1966)

Film by director Kenji Misumi ...

Irezumi (1966)

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 f ...

Conquest (1965)

Provincial 14th century governor Moronao, attracted to the wife of a court magistrate, tries to seduce her and when she rejects his advances plots to send her husband into battle. ...

Seisaku's Wife (1965)

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of poverty. ...

Nezumi Kozo Jirokichi (1965)

Nezumi Kozō is the nickname of Nakamura Jirokichi, a Japanese thief and folk hero who lived in Edo during the Edo period. His exploits have been commemorated in kabuki theatre, folk songs, jidaigeki, and modern pop culture. ...

Onibaba (1964)

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 aff ...

Manji (1964)

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture. ...

Suruga Yūkyōden: Gambling Hall Robbery (1964)

A Public Benefactor (1964)

The intense selfishness of a man brings him fame and fortune but not happiness. ...

Mother (1963)

A divorced woman enters a marriage arranged by her mother in exchange for money to save the life of her seriously ill son. ...

The White Peaks of Mt. Fuji (1963)

Azusa has just been discharged from the hospital and is frolicking on the beach in Jushi, finally getting her freedom. Her older sister, Kozue, looks after her. Her father Shuhei moved from Tokyo to Jushi to provide a peaceful environment for his sick daug ...

Maiko and the Assassin (1963)

19th century Japan, at the end of the Edo period. A samurai falls in love with a young woman while taking up arms to overthrow the local shogunate. ...

The Navy (1963)

A tale of two best friends in the WWII era Japan. Takao is a young man enthusiastic about joining the navy to fight for his country. He convinces his best friend Shinji to join him. As it turns out, however, Takao's poor health prevents him from entering t ...

When Women Lie (1963)

Three stories about the relationship between men and women: "Playgirl" (Masumura/Shirasaka), "Company No. 2" (Yoshimura/Kasahara), and "San Nyotai" (Kinugasa/Shindô). ...

Elegant Beast (1962)

A greedy, materialistic family attempts to cover-up the embezzlement committed by the son while keeping their other schemes active. They discover there are other, equally conniving players involved. ...

Human (1962)

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. ...

Hell's Assassin (1962)

1962 Japanese movie ...

The Lucky General (1962)

The action takes place in a city where you can live on only 100 yen a day. The "General", who indulged in gambling with his henchmen all day, he was running his business and hitting him with a taxi turned out to be a trifle for him. A unique work, filled w ...

The Whale God (1962)

A fishing village is terrorized by a giant whale, and the fishermen are determined to kill it. ...

Destiny's Son (1962)

In Edo-period Japan, Shingo is born the son of an assassin who was executed for murdering her lord's concubine. Decades later, his adoptive family is massacred for keeping the secret. Armed with an unbeatable swordfighting technique, Shingo embarks on the ...

This Madding Crowd (1962)

Ano sura no hate ni hoshi hama tataku (1962)

1962 Japanese movie ...

Sabakareru Echizen no kami (1962)

1962 Japanese movie ...

Black Lizard (1962)

The cunning detective Akeichi must foil a kidnapping plot orchestrated by the notorious jewel thief known as Black Lizard. ...

Stolen Pleasure (1962)

High-end cabaret hostess Masuko discovers her long-term lover is actually married. Determined to secure her future, she aggressively manipulates him into divorcing his wife, only for their new marriage to be destabilized by the arrival of her young niece. ...

Their Legacy (1962)

Heitaro, who had served his firm loyally for 30 years, reaches the retirement age. He has four unmarried daughters and decides to split his retirement allowance he has received from his firm into 500,000 yen for each daughter as a wedding dowry. He conside ...

Haitoku no mesu (1961)

As the Clouds Scatter (1961)

A provincial bus driver plans to marry his conductress, but one night he glimpses the woman he once loved, which throws him into turmoil. ...

A Design for Dying (1961)

Shikiko Oba is nimble with her fingers and teaches dressmaking and designing. Among her pupils are Rinko, Katsumi and Tomie. Ginshiro, who is as shrewd as the shrewdest of the older generation of dyed-in-the-wool Osaka businessmen, steps into picture and ...

Challenge to Live (1961)

An employee at an oil cartel (Mihashi) is haunted by an act years before when he euthanized a fellow soldier when the two were adrift at sea during the Pacific War. Matters are complicated further when he falls in love with the soldier's younger sister (Ts ...

The Matsukawa Incident (1961)

Satsuo Yamamoto's filmic depiction of the famous 1949 Matsukawa Incident. ...

The Wayside Pebble (1960)

In Meiji era Japan a sixth grade boy is smart, likable and confident and owing to his academic success liked by his teacher. Things are not going well at home, however, where his father does not work leaving the mother to toil . With the boy's family havin ...

The Naked Island (1960)

A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops. ...

Devotion to Railway (1960)

A human drama of crew and passengers on a special express train named "Sakura" from Tokyo to Nagasaki... ...

Master Fencer Sees the World (1960)

A historical drama that depicts the touching beauty of world obsession and human love in the style of light comedy, in the center of which is a young man who has a master license menkyo kaiden in the art of swordsmanship, but weak against lies and women. A ...

A Woman’s Uphill Slope (1960)

Tradition and modernity clash when a young woman inherits a sweet-making firm in Kyoto. ...

The Gambling Samurai (1960)

Chuji Kunisada returns to his home village to find that Jubei Matsui, the corrupt magistrate, has been responsible for virtually destroying Kunisada's family. A final tragedy leads Kunisada to join with a band of rogues living in the forest in robbing from ...

The Great Road (1960)

The story of a certain engineer from his youth until he retired from the Japanese National Railways after the war . ...

The Bride from Japan (1959)

A young Japanese-American comes from California looking for a bride, going on blind dates with three candidates from Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya. ...

Break Down that Wall (1959)

A man is wrongfully accused of murder. ...

Talented Woman (1959)

Set in an old merchant house in Kyoto, the film traces the passing of an era through the story of a parent and child. ...

Diary of Forsaken Love (1959)

Follows the life of Tsuru, the poor daughter of farmers in Shinshu, Japan. ...

Lucky Dragon No. 5 (1959)

An ageing fishing boat, Dai-go Fukuryu Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5") sets out from the port of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It travels around the Pacific line fishing. While the ship is near Bikini Atoll, the ship's navigator sees a flash. All the crew come ...

The Ladder of Success (1958)

A biting portrait of the world of classical Japanese dance: an ambitious young woman (Wakao Ayako) shoves aside her mentor (Kyo Machiko) on her way to the top. ...

The Naked Sun (1958)

A young, struggling couple are making every sacrifice so they will one day in the not-too-distant-future, have enough money to get married. As they have agreed on this procedure, it comes as a shock to the young woman to find out from her husband-to-be tha ...

Face in the Dark (1958)

Japanese suspense film. ...

A Grain of Wheat (1958)

The film depicts a group of boys and girls who graduate from a local junior high school and head to Tokyo to find employment, and the teachers who watch over them. Co-written by newcomer Shigeki Chiba and Kaneto Shindo, the film was directed by Kozaburo Yo ...

The Lowest Man (1958)

A young offender who is already guilty of many crimes is sentenced again for rape. Upon his release from prison, a year later, the victim waits to kill him. ...

Night Drum (1958)

Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially greeted by the effusive welcome of his family, spiteful whispers also reach his ear about an adulterous affair ...

The Precipice (1958)

Kosaka drops to death while ice climbing with his friend Uozu to see the sunrise on the New Year's Day. The investigators try to find the cause of the death, then discover that the cut rope was made in the factory for which Uozu's brother works. ...

Sorrow Is Only for Women (1958)

The beauty of the Japanese family system is portrayed through the women who greet a woman who went to America thirty years ago to visit her grave. ...

Forbidden Lips (1958)

A youth lyrical story of pure love of a girl who grew up in the Kyoto Gion quarter, with a geisha mother and sisters Maiko and a college student. ...

On This Earth (1957)

Ichiro's family used to be a large landowner, but now he is living in poverty with his mother. His mother works hard to get her son through school. Under such circumstances, Ichiro meets Wakako, the daughter of a wealthy man, and they fall in love with eac ...

Harbor Rats (1957)

A scrap iron carrier arrived at Tokyo bay. The ship swarmed with the stevedores, the souvenir seller and the hookers. The crews of ship were oppressed by arrogant captain and his officers. The crews caused an uprising. A manager of stevedore ordered his em ...

Who's the Real Killer (1957)

Film about a car dealer who gets into financial trouble. ...

Actress (1956)

Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness. ...

The Shadow of Fear (1956)

In the backstreets of Ginza, the boss of a hairdressing salon is found dead, killed by strangulation. The detective on the case soon hears rumors about the murder. ...

How Sorrowful (1956)

The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when her parents accuse him of cashing in on her misfortune. ...

Ryûri no kishi (1956)

Ryûri no kishi ...

Love is Lost (1956)

Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya. ...

Wedding Day (1956)

Shinsaku was once a renowned playwright, has now been left behind by journalism and is living a lethargic life in Oiso. His family is concerned with Shinsaku regaining his old vigor as a writer and Sakie, his daughter, finding a suitable match, while the ...

Warriors of Ako: Scroll of Heaven, Scroll of Earth (1956)

Chronichles the story of the Forty-seven Ronin. ...

The Motherless (1955)

Japanese drama film. ...

The Beauty and the Dragon (1955)

​A powerful priest uses his magical abilities to imprison the rain gods within a waterfall, causing a devastating drought. The imperial court sends a princess to his remote mountain retreat to seduce him and break his spiritual concentration. ...

If Indeed One Loves (1955)

The film consists of three short stories. Tomiko, the heroine of the first story, "The Flower Girl" (dir. Kozaburo Yoshimura), is a little girl who bears the unbearable burden of caring for her family. Tomiko's father has been unable to find work for a lon ...

The Wolves (1955)

A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a plan to rob a cash delivery truck in order to provide for their families. ...

Sisters (1955)

Keiko and Toshiko are sisters who leave their mountain home, where their parents live in a hydroelectric plant company house to study in the city. They stay with their kind-hearted aunt and her jovial but heavy-drinking carpenter husband. Keiko, the 17-yea ...

Women of Ginza (1955)

At Shizumoto, a geisha shop not far from Ginza, a group of geisha are going about their day, putting up a modest resistance to the tragedies of life. The proprietress, Ikuyo, is a ridiculously good-natured woman who gives money to a poor but brilliant youn ...

Turbid Youth (1954)

Shigeki Kachi, Tosuke Satomura, and Nanako, who belong to the theater company Vuanbert around Dosa, withdrew at the indignation of the chairman Hayashi and seeked their own careers in the film industry. ...

Ditch (1954)

Postwar Tokyo. Pin and Toku live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru, a slightly demented woman who has run away from a geisha house. ...

Cape Ashizuri (1954)

Among Yoshimura's complex and political works, this episodic film, set in the early 1930s, follows the life of a young left-wing student activist disenchanted by the increasingly hawkish state of Japanese society. ...

Love and Duty (1954)

Each one of us lives differently. So, there are many tragedies and comedies in our lives. She feels many conflicts in living her life between truth and love. ...

Onna no issho (1953)

Based on "Une vie" by Guy de Maupassant ...

Before Dawn (1953)

Yokubo (1953)

Nobuko Otowa won the Blue Ribbon for the Best Actress for this movie among others. ...

Miniature (1953)

Ginko, a poor cobbler's daughter, becomes a geisha to support her family. She passes from one geisha house to the next, trying to find love and hope in the process. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't escape her sad fate. ...

Murahachibu (1953)

A villager's family is ostracized after he makes an accusation of rigged elections ...

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land (1953)

Onna Hitori Daichi wo Yuku (A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land, Kinuta Production, 1953) was the second feature film directed by Kamei Fumio, who is known as a master of documentary films, and followed his "Haha Nareba Onna Nareba(Become a Mother, Become a Wo ...

Reminiscence (1953)

Kazuo Miyagawa's prizewinning black-and-white cinematography draws out the moral shadings of Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata's 1952 novel Thousand Cranes, a quietly devastating story of a young man, orphaned during the war, who stumbles into a passionate ...

Violence (1952)

Children of Hiroshima (1952)

Shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath. ...

Sisters of Nishijin (1952)

A family of Kyoto textile workers struggles after tragedy. ...

Izayoi kaidō (1951)

Story of a Beloved Wife (1951)

Story of a Beloved Wife is an autobiographical work based on Shindo's first marriage. Jūkichi Uno stars as a struggling screenwriter, and Nobuko Otowa stars as the wife who supports him through his early struggles. ...

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. ...

The Tale of Genji (1951)

Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his heart is broken by Awaji does Genji realizes how much pain he himself has caused. ...

Who Will Judge Me? (1951)

Directed by Senkichi Taniguchi ...

The White Orchid (1951)

A Japanese adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story Boule de Suif, directed by Kimura Keigo ...

Judge of the Ashuras (1951)

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. ...

Shojohou (1950)

A beautiful but sad romantic melodrama about three sisters who are uninhibited, pure and lovely, and who stand tall like the peaks of a place that has endured the winds and snow of love! Eisuke Taniguchi (Shimizu), president of Towa Electric Works, has th ...

The Rainbow-Colored Flower (1950)

Ebihara is a budding novelist entangled in a complicated web of relationships with three women from three different generations: Kazue, a coquettish teenage war orphan who tries to offer herself for money but is instead taken in by Ebihara, Koyabu, a middl ...

A Man from Akagi (1950)

The Bells of Nagasaki (1950)

The film portrays the experiences of Takashi Nagai as a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. ...

Alps Story: The Wild (1950)

1950 Japanese film ...

Pursuit At Dawn (1950)

This little seen early work by Ichikawa was produced during the director's Shintoho period (1947-51). Written by Kaneto Shindô and featuring Ryô Ikebe as a young policeman it is part crime drama, part social study. Definitely not an undiscovered masterpi ...

Spring Snow (1950)

The Yoshikawa family is a typical small town family. With only the father's and daughter's salaries to support the family's six members, life is not easy. ...

Ishimatsu of the Forest (1949)

The tale of a feudal swordsman who cynically takes no responsibility for anything, relegating it to others, and then taking the credit. ...

Here's to the Young Lady (1949)

A matchmaker looks to unite a young woman from a wealthy Tokyo family with the humble owner of an auto garage. ...

Flame of My Love (1949)

In 1880s Japan, women's struggle for equality rages on. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government. ...

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 Most Beautiful Day of My Life (1948)

Life and love in corrupt postwar Tokyo, as a young couple struggles against both the law and the mob. ...

Great X (1948)

A 1948 Japanese film. ...

Temptation (1948)

A young lawyer falls in love with the daughter of his former professor, whom he's hired to tutor his children. ...

The Ball at the Anjo House (1947)

After Japan's defeat in the war, the Anjo family lose their peerage and wealth. Since their mansion is due to pass into the hands of a creditor, the family holds one last ball before leaving. ...

Marriage (1947)

In postwar Japan a young woman is unable to marry her sweetheart because her family's in difficult circumstances and needs her income to keep afloat. ...

The Woman Who Holds the Key (1946)

Shochiku melodrama about the lives of the humble people living in the poor tenement called the Ryuheiso. ...

Waiting Woman (1946)

Waiting woman ...

Victory of Women (1946)

Representing a destitute mother in an infanticide trial, a female lawyer attempts to convince a conservative prosecutor of the benefits of Japan's democratized post-war legal system. ...

The 47 Ronin (1941)

In the early 18th-century, Lord Takumi-no-kami Asano, feuding with Lord Kira, tries to kill his opponent in the corridors of the Shogun's palace. The Shogun sentences Asano to seppuku and deprives the palace and lands from his clan, but does not punish Kir ...

Japanese Cinema: New Territories (2011)

This documentary by Hubert Niogret looks at the revival of Japanese cinema during the 1990s. ...

The Battleship on the Ground (2007)

Writer/Director Kaneto Shindô recounts his time spent in the Japanese Navy in WWII. He tells about the harsh training, grueling conditions, and tragic losses which are reenacted in black & white sequences. ...

What's a Director? (2006)

Works commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Japan mapping Supervision Association ...

By Player (2000)

The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoya ...

I Lived, But... (1983)

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to wor ...

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975)

In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi. ...

Hymn (1972)

The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings. ...

Onibaba : Film Location (1964)

This rare silent black & white and color Super-8 footage was shot with the camera of actor Kei Sato (Hachi in the film) during the production of Onibaba ...