Kokuten Kōdō

Godzilla (1977)

A re-edited Italian-language dubbed version of the original Godzilla, using as a basis the U.S. version, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956), plus WWII newsreel footage and clips from other science fiction films. The re-edited film was then colorized ...

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 ...

The Hidden Fortress (1958)

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains. ...

The Eleventh Hour (1957)

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan's national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida's rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure o ...

Case of a Young Lord 6: Mermaid Murder Case (1957)

The sixth episode of Hashizo Okawa's "Wakasama Samurai" catch series. ...

Untamed Woman (1957)

A woman marries, gives birth to a stillborn child, and divorces, falls in love with a hotel-keeper, only to find herself subordinated to his drive for success, takes up with a tailor who cannot console himself with her strong personality. ...

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman (1957)

An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote tribe as a god, and how it was discovered by modern man after it raided a skiers shelter following an aval ...

The Fighting on The Trial (1957)

Hanjiro of Kusama searches for his little sister Oyuki, who went missing after being desecrated by Hikosaku Tokurai three years ago. The first film in a series about the adventures of the wandering yakuza Hanjiro from Kusama. ...

Godzilla, the Monster of the Pacific Ocean (1957)

Obscure French version of the original Godzilla. The film combines elements of the original Toho version and the American King of the Monsters! in a unique assemblage exclusive to the Francophone market. Released by Les Films du Verseau. ...

The Horse Boy (1957)

A humble page fathers a child by the daughter of a clan official and is banished. Years later, the child, now a stable boy, is reunited with his father, but feudal codes threaten their happiness. Uchida's poignant masterpiece condemns the inflexible class ...

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' ...

Love on Rainbow Island (1956)

Japanese counterpart to Romeo and Juliet ...

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which ...

Street of Shame (1956)

Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law. ...

A Rainbow at Every Turn (1956)

Momoko and Asako are half sisters, daughters of the famous architect Tsuneo Mizuhara, who also have another half sister in Kyôto, Wakako, whom they have not had. While Asako is a sweet young lady, Momoko, the eldest, goes out with whomever she wants, thus ...

Three Women Around Yoshinaka (1956)

The story of Yoshinaka during the tumultuous period of warring related to us in the Heike Monogatari. Close in setting to Kinugasa's famous Gate of Hell (1953). ...

The Kuroda Affair (1956)

This adaptation of a Hideji Hojo novel, about the historical uprising of the Kuroda clan in 1633, is told through the eyes of retainer, Daizen. As his clan's new leader, Tadayuki, becomes increasingly militant in his opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate, D ...

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956)

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight K ...

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 ...

Miai Ryokou (1955)

A chance ride in a car leads to an unforgettable relationship. A misunderstanding leads to more misunderstanding... Love and thrills in this coming-of-age romance film. ...

Ticket to Hell (1955)

Japanese crime film ...

Beast Man Snow Man (1955)

Three competing parties all race against time to track down an elusive creature known only as the Snowman. ...

The Phantom Horse (1955)

Following the tragic death of his father, a young boy's family trains his horse to compete in the local derby. ...

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he ...

Godzilla (1954)

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. ...

Jirocho in Disgrace (1954)

Asakusa at Night (1954)

A young scriptwriter with a yakuza upbringing, an iron-fire dancer, a young painter, and a pure-hearted downtown girl fall in love in Asakusa in this entertaining tale of love and action. ...

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 ...

Red-Light Bases (1953)

Story about a poor Japanese woman living near an American army base who resorts to prostitution. ...

The Blue Revolution (1953)

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. ...

Fighting Yasubei (1952)

Yasube Nakayama left the clan and lives in Edo. One day, Yasubei visits his uncle Rokuroemon Kanno to borrow money from a moneylender in the amount of 13 ryo in order to save Oteru, the daughter of a merchant. However, the next day, Rokuroemon was killed i ...

Forty-Eight Man (1952)

Jidai-geki by Kiyoshi Saeki ...

Third Class Executives (1952)

1950s Japanese comedy. ...

Sword for Hire (1952)

Soldiers Hayate and Yaheiji secretly escape from their besieged castle. Hayate has left behind his lover, Kano. On his way, Hayate is wounded and cared for by O'Ryo, who falls in love with him. But when Hayate accidentally kills her caretaker, he flees, wi ...

Vendetta of a Samurai (1952)

Mataemon Araki, a renowned swordsman, helps a young man find vengeance. ...

Sasaki Kojiro (1951)

Director Hiroshi Inagaki's early version of the life and death of famed swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. Otani Tomoemon gives a brilliant performance as Sasaki Kojiro, who rises from humble beginnings to national fame, and a young Toshiro Mifune appears as the leg ...

Early Summer (1951)

In postwar Tokyo, Noriko lives with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her social life, her more traditional family worries about her single marital status at the advanced age of 28. 40-year-old business associate Takako proposes, Nori ...

The Blue Pearl (1951)

The Blue Pearl depicts the interplay between a young man from Tokyo and two ama (pearl divers; literally "women of the sea") in a superstitious coastal town. Though raised within the same tradition-bound crucible, the two women – Noe and Riu – are port ...

The Idiot (1951)

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda's saintly compassion exposes ever ...

Carmen Comes Home (1951)

A rural village elder plans an event on the return of a farmer's daughter from the city, unaware that she has become a Westernized burlesque artist. ...

Home Sweet Home (1951)

The Ueki family may not be wealthy, but smiles are never in short supply. The father is awarded prize money for 25 years of service to his workplace, but has it stolen on the way home from the ceremony... ...

Conduct Report on Matashiro: The Devil Princess and Winter Rain (1951)

Jidai-geki by Nobuo Nakagawa. ...

Red Peony of Night (1950)

A romantic melodrama about the shifting relationship between Ryosuke and Miki as their precarious employment and social circumstances shift around them. ...

Scandal (1950)

A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer. ...

Town of Violence (1950)

An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses. ...

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. ...

Snow Trail (1947)

Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman and her father, as well as Honda, a mountaineer. The inn folk do not realize the ...

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. ...

Five Tokyo Men (1945)

Newly released from the army, five men return to Tokyo to find no place to live in the bombed-out city, food and necessities rationed out by people who don't care, and a thriving black market. ...

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two (1945)

A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must recon ...

Sanshiro Sugata (1943)

A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo's spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falli ...

Dance of the Capital (1942)

Hiromasa Nomura World War II era film ...

Green Earth (1942)

Set in Qingdao, China, a Japanese company locates an office there and begins work and cooperation with a local Chinese company for business. Many Japanese engineers also move to China, with their families, for the company in order to construct a canal. The ...

Musashibo Benkei (1942)

A 1942 Jidaigeki by the veteran jidaigeki filmmaker Kunio Watanabe about the legendary warrior Musashibo Benkei with Hideko Takamine portraying Minamoto no Yoshitsune (who is, of course, a man). The film climaxes in the famous encounter/fight btw Benkei ...

The Battle of Kawanakajima (1941)

This epic depicts the battle between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The focus of the story is the struggle by the unit leader in charge of the main supply wagons and the supply troops to transport materiel to the Uesugi army. To this are added episodes ...

Dancers of Awa (1941)

Jurobei, a kaisen tonya (wholesaler in port) in Awa, was wronged and killed on the day of the Dance Festival by the evil merchant & the chamberlin. His brother (Kazuo Hasegawa) vowed vengeance on the day of his brother's death. So every year the villains a ...

The Seven Changes of a Paper Crane (Part 2) (1941)

The story is based on the serial novel by Tsunoda Kikuo. ...

The Seven Changes of a Paper Crane (Part 1) (1941)

The story is based on the serial novel by Tsunoda Kikuo. ...

Oath on the Burning Sands (1940)

A Japanese army engineer (Hasegawa) on the mainland must put his personal feelings for a beautiful Chinese woman (Ri) aside if he is to succeed at building a highway through the "bandit"- (aka anti-Japanese militia-) infested hinterlands. ...

Zoku Hebihimesama (1940)

Bellflower (1940)

Following Flower Picking Diary (1939), Tamizo directed another film starring Hideko Takamine, based on a story by Nobuko Yoshiya. Takamine plays a poor young girl, trying to become a teacher on her quest to become independent to be able to look after her y ...

Song of the White Orchid (1939)

Song of the White Orchid was a co-production of Toho and Mantetsu, the railway that served the colonial region of Manchuria, and the first film in the Kazuo Hasegawa/Shirley Yamaguchi (Ri Koran) "Continental Trilogy." Handsome Hasegawa (representing Japan) ...

Old Songs (1939)

Set against the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, two Osaka families navigate the radical social shifts of the early Meiji Era. As the merchant class ascends to economic prominence, the former samurai class faces a steady decline in status and traditional structure. ...

Blizzard Ronin (1939)

The film tells about the life of the former vassal of the Ako clan - Fuwa Katsuemon Masatane. ...

Nangoku taiheiki (1937)

Japanese film. ...

Yoru no hato (1937)

Okiyo runs a restaurant in Asakusa. She struggles with the times and the relationships around her. ...

Yukinojō henge, Kanketsu-hen (1936)

dir: Teinosuke Kinugasa ...

An Actor's Revenge (1935)

An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as Yukinojô Henge. ...

Bored Hatamoto Judges 100,000-koku (1935)

Bored Hatamoto film #7 ...

Bored Hatamoto on the Nakasendo (1935)

Bored Hatamoto film #6 ...

Bored Hatamoto on a Rampage (1933)

Bored Hatamoto film #5 ...

The Loyal 47 Ronin (1932)

This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As t ...

Chûshingura - Zempen: Akahokyô no maki (1932)

Yûreitô (1932)

Japanese horror movie from 1932. ...

Bored Hatamoto Returns to Edo (1931)

Bored Hatamoto film #4 ...

Bored Hatamoto Appears in Sendai (1931)

Bored Hatamoto film #3 ...