Kazuo Kitamura

Beauty (2008)

Set in a small Nagano village in the 1930s, the film follows Hanji, a young boy captivated by a local kabuki performance. Inspired by Yukio, Hanji learns kabuki with Utako. As they grow, they become skilled actors, performing in a final kabuki before World ...

Japan Sinks (2006)

In the aftermath of a major earthquake, scientists predict that Japan will sink into the sea. As further disasters follow, politicians plead with other countries to take refugees, while scientists struggle to save Japan itself. ...

Island of Light (2006)

Hiromi, attends junior high school in Tokyo. The combination of getting bullied on campus and her fathers death causes her to stop attending school. One day she is invited by her online friend, Kenmun, to visit him on Ishigaki Island. Hiromi sets out to me ...

Henshin (2005)

Henshin tells the story of Junichi, a young boy who is forced to go through a life-saving brain transplantation. By his side, his girlfriend Kei is watching over him all the time. Junichi seems to recover complete from this operation, but while Kei is thri ...

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade (2005)

Even though Gennosuke and Oboro are from rival ninja villages, they are secretly in love. At an annual conference with the Lord, it is dictated that a competition--a fight to the death--will take place between the five best shinobi from each village. Genno ...

The Woman Changed Her Clothes at the Bus Stop (2003)

A woman in a bright green coat, Mizue (Toda Naho), gets off the bus at Shikaoi Town in Hokkaido. She has followed her former salsa dance partner, Arisaka (Endo Kenichi), to his hometown. Arisaka, who is about to start a new life, is troubled, and soon thei ...

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)

A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers. ...

Yakuza Ladies: Companions in Hell (2001)

When her husband is betrayed by his fellow yakuza and jailed, his wife takes over and fights to prevent his expulsion from the clan. 14th installment of the 16-film franchise. ...

Darkness in the Light (2001)

A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade. ...

Amateur Singing Contest (1999)

Traditional Japanese pop singer Reiko (Muroi) decides to enter a well-known TV program for amateur singers along with a confused teenager (Ôtomo) and a 40-year-old father of four (Bito). ...

Free and Easy 9 (1997)

Hama-chan's sales department gets a new supervisor, a hard-working taskmaster that's the very opposite of carefree, irresponsible Hama-chan. The veteran employee decides to find his boss, a divorced father, a new wife. The supervisor loves a bar hostess "m ...

Shohei Imamura: The Free Thinker (1995)

Documentary about Japanese film director Shohei Imamura. ...

Kita no kuni kara '92 Sudachi Part 1 (1992)

There is a man who divorced his wife. He moved to rural Hokkaido from Tokyo where he lived with his family without running water or electricity. He has his son and daughter in tow and works hard for them. The folk in the area try to help. A couple of years ...

The Shootist 3 (1991)

The biggest crisis has come to Matsushita, a shootist who has passed through numerous shrines! ...

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. ...

Tales of a Golden Geisha (1990)

Nayoko, a good-hearted geisha, brings luck to the men she sleeps with, even though most are scoundrels who don't deserve it. ...

Festival of Dreams (1989)

Company Executives (1989)

A fierce succession battle ignites at a newspaper company when the president passes away. ...

Green Requiem (1988)

Secret Agreement: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secret Leak Incident (1988)

TV film about the "Nishiyama Incident", a scandal surrounding the 1972 return of Okinawa to Japan. Produced to commemorate the 20th anniversary of TV Asahi in 1978 and released theatrically by Office Henmi in 1988. ...

The Geisha (1983)

Yokiro was the most successful Geisha house in Western Japan during the first half of the 20th century and remains open to this day. At its peak, it was home to over 200 geisha, however behind the fabulous facade, there were many battles - between family m ...

The Longest Tunnel (1982)

After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this project Akutsu becomes involved with Tae Makimura leading to his estrangement from his wife. ...

Lake of Illusions (1982)

A free-spirited girl living in a Japanese province spends her time working in a brothel and running with her dog. When her routine is shattered she gets on a path of hate and self discovery. ...

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1982)

This film stays very faithful to the original down to the smallest details, save for the kangaroo-rat that suddenly appears twenty minutes into the movie and subsequently follows Aladdin around, serving no purpose in the story but fulfilling the role of to ...

Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981)

A high-school girl inherits a declining yakuza organization, which seeks to repair its fortunes under her leadership. ...

Eijanaika (1981)

The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a ...

The Detective Journey (1980)

A comedy directed by Mitsumasa Saito about a pair of clumsy detectives who solve a case they become involved in by chance. Shosuke Ikashima and Ryuji Kabaya, who repeatedly screw things up, encounter a real robbery during a bank robbery simulation training ...

The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)

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. ...

White Love (1979)

Kobasashi was learning Spanish so that she could go to Spain to look for her father who had left the family. She fell in love with her language teacher Ken. Finally she found her father in Madrid and she also met Ken's ex-girl friend Taeko there. Ken came ...

Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police. ...

Taro the Dragon Boy (1979)

Patterned after Japanese art and silk screens, Taro, The Dragon Boy is an animated feature about Japanese mythology and cultures, focusing on Taro, a young boy who has to make a voyage to a distant lake to save his mother, who has been turned into a dragon ...

Monument to Holy Service (1978)

A rural high school takes part in a mountain-climbing exercise and are caught in a sudden typhoon. ...

The Wild Daisy (1977)

Teenage cousins Masao and Tamiko fall in love when she comes to his riverside brewery house to take care of his sickly mother. Family objections ensue as Tamiko is older than Masao, and the two cannot marry in peace. ...

Solar Eclipse (1975)

When bribe money from a rigged election funnels into a dam construction project, collusion, lust, greed and even murder are on the ballot. ...

Wings of Love (1975)

Japanese drama film. ...

Moeru otoko Nagashima Shigeo: eikō no se-bangō 3 (1974)

Documentary on baseball player Shigeo Nagashima ...

Touch of Love (1974)

My Voiceless Friends (1972)

A man who survived the war carries the will of his comrades in arms, walking across the country visiting the bereaved families. ...

Summer Soldiers (1972)

During the Vietnam War, an American G.I. deserts his base in Japan and escapes to Tokyo with the help of his Japanese bar hostess girlfriend. In the capital he gets involved with an anti-war organization while dodging the military police. ...

The Pirates of Buban (1972)

By going to the Philippines, Imamura comes to meet people living in an extreme poverty. He discovers very quickly that some communities are under the control of cruel & armed pirates. Imamura will come to meet those men in order to understand their positio ...

Wakare no uta (1971)

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

Kigeki Ijiwaru Daishougai (1971)

The Militarists (1970)

This tremendous blockbuster hit from 1970, showing the rise to power of Tojo Hideki, is perhaps the most important film to come out of Japan since the 7 Samurai! Interspersed with actual footage dating back to the 1930's and throughout the Great Pacific Wa ...

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Amer ...

Vixen (1969)

Michi's first encounter with Nobuyuki Ishida, secretary to the chairman of a private school, takes place in the drawing room, when she attempts to swindle him out of two million yen for alleged rape by his son. Akie, Ishida's wife and the chairman's daught ...

Only Child (1969)

The Woman Killer (1969)

Japanese crime film. ...

Profound Desires of the Gods (1968)

Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island, where he interacts with the Futori clan, to drill a well to power a sugar mill. ...

Age of Japanese Guerrillas (1968)

Kinta (Nabe Osami) is Japanese by birth, but raised by a Chinese man. He stowsaway to Japan to see his girlfriend Yukiko but gets picked up for vagrancy in Shinjuku and thrown in jail. Helped by a yakuza and a prostitute, he goes on a search for Yukiko but ...

Women and Miso Soup (1968)

Temari, a geisha, dreams of opening a small restaurant with her little brother. ...

Neon taiheiki (1968)

The Great Villains (1968)

Psychological noir drama involving the tangled web of a disgraced yakuza, an innocent school girl, a blackmailed singer, and a corrupt lawyer. ...

Impasse (1967)

Shingo and Ritsuko have a baby: Takashi. They happen to be a happy couple, but soon Ritsuko wants to know who is the true father of Takashi, born by artificial insemination. ...

Three Seconds to Zero Hour (1967)

"I like shady dealings," purrs undercover superspy Yabuki en route to infiltrating a sadistic, trigger-happy gang of international jewel thieves. Gone renegade from the shadowy espionage bureau that honed his killer instincts to a razor's edge, the implaca ...

Japan's Longest Day (1967)

Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight ...

I'll Never Cry! (1966)

The rehabilitation of a delinquent on leaving reformatory. Her redemption comes through a boy in a wheelchair; by his rehabilitation, growing comes in courage along with her patient, she grows by finding meaning in her own existence. She finally sees a new ...

Warm Current (1966)

The Pornographers (1966)

Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husban ...

A Chain of Islands (1965)

When a US army sergeant is found drowned in Tokyo Bay, an investigation is launched to determine how and why he lost his life. The investigation uncovers a black market scheme involving counterfeit money, murder, and conspiracy. ...

Cold Rice, Osan, Chan (1965)

Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money. ...

That Cute Girl (1965)

The Soundless Cry (1965)

Shinichi is not only poor, he is also deaf, and leads a joyless life with his sick mother. His one happiness is his friendship with a girl who works in a bar nearby. Then, one day, his mother dies after drinking the medicine that Shinichi himself gave her. ...

Kwaidan (1965)

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 ...

Whirlpool of Flesh (1964)

During the war a university professor meets a girl and marries her. Very soon however, it is apparent that their needs are not matched. He would much rather be translating Shakespeare than attending to her, and she has a secret in her past - one that resul ...

Night Scandal (1964)

Japanese Toei Production directed by Yûsuke Watanabe. ...

Intentions of Murder (1964)

The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life. ...

The Scent of Incense (1964)

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble. ...

The Hunter's Diary (1964)

Leaving his wife in Osaka, Honda leads a double life in Tokyo – after spending the day as an elite businessman, he flirts around in the evenings. He even rents a secret apartment where he keeps record of his girl hunts in his diary, the 'Hunter's Diary'. ...

Night Scandal in Japan (1964)

The sexworker who works in Turkish baths plans to make her fortune on the stock market, open a beauty salon, and marry her boyfriend. However, her plans are turned upside down by the arrival of her half-sister, and her boyfriends unfaithfulness. ...

Ukyunosuke's Reverse Ichimonji Cut (1964)

In this exciting sequel to the popular samurai-ninja movie Ukyunosuke On Patrol, his mission to avenge his father's death continues. His discovery of a mysterious note written by his father, Inspector Sena, held a clue to the inspector's murder 18 years ag ...

Warrior of the Wind (1964)

A suspenseful Ninja fantasy based on Shiba Ryotaro's novel, woven with the mysterious fate and romance of Shinzo and a beautiful Princess who find themselves at the center of an intrigue surrounding the legendary land of Yasurai in the mountains of Kumano. ...

Yearning (1964)

War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment. ...

Ukyunosuke on Patrol (1963)

This is one of the most powerfully effective ninja films that dispenses with the silly magic of earlier efforts, and concentrates on an excellent story with expert fighting. Sena Denemon is the rarest of government officials, a man of integrity, sent on a ...

The Insect Woman (1963)

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life. ...

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. ...

Fresh Leaves (1962)

Keiko is pretty and intelligent but her home life is not a happy one. Never having known a father's love, she develops a possessive attachment to Mr. Mazaki, the new mathematics teacher. ...

The Man With Starry Eyes (1962)

1962 Japanese movie ...

Till Tomorrow Is (1962)

Natsuko's daughter Saori is born blind in 1941, just before her father is drafted. Despite an attempted surgery and years of struggle, her condition proves permanent. Growing up, she faces stigma and danger but eventually finds hope and love with a fellow ...

The Rokumeikan (1961)

TV drama based off the play of the same name by Yukio Mishima. ...

The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)

After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his old life, he faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his men sneak behind enemy lines. ...

The Lovelorn Geisha (1960)

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself 'already dead'. ...

The Rokumeikan (1959)

TV drama based off the play of the same name by Yukio Mishima. ...

An Inlet of Muddy Water (1953)

A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about the difficult situation a young woman finds herself in. ...