Takeo Kimura

Golden Flower: What Is Hidden Is the True Flower, What Is Gone Is the Butterfly (2009)

Nursing home "Yuyoso". Many lonely old people live there, including botanist Taro Makiso, a physicist, an actor, a bar mom, and a chef. Maki has spent most of his life studying botany, and has lived without regard for entertainment, drinking, women, or eve ...

Life Improvement Club (2008)

Arata Furuta plays a disgruntled saleryman fed up with being stepped on at home and at work, decides to get revenge on those who do bad things by killing them, only to gain a group of followers. ...

The Clone Returns Home (2008)

Kohei Takahara, an astronaut who dies in the line of duty, is legally resurrected as a clone: however, contrary to the scientists' expectations, he reverts to his childhood memories when his twin brother drowned sacrificing his life for Kohei. Kohei's clon ...

Dreaming Awake (2008)

Recently appointed dean at a film school, Kimuro Hajime develops a special concern for one of his students, Daisuke. The brash, headstrong young man is fixated on with the Second World War. He feels a sense of frustration at the irrational sacrifice of you ...

Tombstone of the Fireflies (2008)

Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister as they attempt to survive the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City. ...

Sex Is No Laughing Matter (2008)

Mirume is a 19 year old college student who falls in love with Yuri, an almost 40 year old art teacher at his university. Yuri isn't your typical college professor, having a quirky sense of humor and unpredictable personality. When Yuri invites Murume to h ...

Matouqin Nocturne (2007)

A baby, John, who was abandoned in the church with a horse-headed koto on his side. His grandfather was once a Morin Khuur player and died in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The brilliantly colored images have an avant-garde charm while hiding the sadness ...

The Blossoming of Etsuko Kamiya (2006)

In Kagoshima, in the final days of World War II, an offer of marriage comes to Etsuko Kamiya, who lives with her brother and his wife. The offer comes from Nagayo, but Etsuko is attracted to his friend, Akashi. ...

Old Salmon (2006)

A musical film by Takeo Kimura, renowned as one of Japan's foremost art directors, known for his work on Seijun Suzuki's films. The story unfolds through a chain of abstract imagery and metaphors. An old queen is trapped within the rocks, alongside a woma ...

The Face of Jizo (2004)

Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima. The film takes place during 4 days in the summer of 1948, as the ghost of her father visits Mitsué (Rié Miyama). He had somehow learned that she has fallen in l ...

The Soul Odyssey (2003)

A young man is on an inner journey as he searches for meaning in love, eroticism and marriage. He boards a train, and all the clocks are mirrored from then on, as if looking at them from the inside. He travels to a homey village, meets a potential fiancée ...

The Sea Is Watching (2002)

O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai. ...

Pistol Opera (2001)

An assassin fends off numerous attacks from her comrades, who are trying to move up in rank by killing off the competition. ...

Closed Ward (2001)

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. ...

To Love (1997)

Mitsu works in a factory and has a crush on Tsutomu, a young man she met on the Tokyo streets. One day the two go out, and after some deception, Tsutomu manages to have his way with her. Coming from a broken home, he is frightened by love, so he cruelly al ...

Cat's Eye (1997)

Three cat burgling sisters have to go up against the police and a Chinese crime syndicate in order to rescue their kidnapped father. ...

The Trap (1996)

When a hooded stranger appears in private eye 'Mike' Hama's office with the cryptic challenge "I want you to look for me," Hama is drawn into a string of bizarre serial murders that have Yokohama's police baffled and the city terrified. ...

How Old Is the River? (1995)

Three brothers, their father missing and tensions boiling, gather at their rural summer house; soon enough, they're unexpectedly joined by a female cousin. ...

The Breath (1995)

Haida, once a famous private detective, is now down and out and running out of reasons to live. One day, while engaging in a group volunteer project to clean up a river, he loses what's left of his will to live and lets the water carry him away. He ends up ...

Deep River (1995)

A group of Japanese tourists try to forget their pasts and find themselves in India. ...

The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995)

Broke, with his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama's past, returns to town, the fuse is l ...

The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994)

Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. ...

Yearning (1993)

Set during the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kaede is the former mistress of a wealthy merchant. When he dies, she is forced out on the street and forced to give up her young daughter to the merchant's family. ...

About Love, Tokyo (1992)

In Tokyo, a Chinese exchange student gets involved in rigged pachinko schemes and meets a Chinese girl raised in Japan. When they're caught cheating by a former yakuza now running a pachinko parlor, a tense triangle forms as money, power, and personal ties ...

Luminous Moss (1992)

A headmaster and a novelist, looking for inspiration, regard a strange natural phenomenon before sharing stories of their own. ...

Shikibu monogatari (1990)

Toyoichi Otomo suffers from psychological and spiritual troubles after a horrific industrial accident. He lives with his elderly mother and wife near Mt. Aso in rural Kyushu. He seeks solace in a small religious group run by Buddhist nun Chishu-bo who clai ...

The Legend of Zipang (1990)

Jigoku Gokurakumaru is a samurai on the run. One bounty hunter hoping to collect the sizeable reward is Teppo Oyuri, a comely lass who is an ace shot with her pearl-laden pistol. Before she can set her sights on Gokurakumaru, he is attacked by a hoard of s ...

Takeshi: Childhood Days (1990)

A story of childhood life during wartime Japan. Takeshi, the intelligent son of a fisherman, is the schoolyard bully. When his cousin comes to stay with his family to avoid bombing raids, Takeshi at first treats him well, then begins bullying him too. Take ...

Circus Boys (1989)

Two brothers, Jinta and Wataru, are raised in a travelling circus. After an accident, Jinta decides to leave the circus and travels the countryside working as a con-man. After a run-in with a local gang of yakuza, he is invited to join their ranks, where h ...

Death of a Tea Master (1989)

Years after the death of legendary tea master Rikyu, his disciple Honkakubo attempts to resolve the mystery of the master's death. ...

Tokyo: The Last War (1989)

The year is 1945. After the horrific fire-bombings of the Pacific War levels Japan to the ground, the government decides to consult spiritual psychics to aid them in winning the war. Unfortunately, the resentment and agony of the souls of the fire-bombing ...

Dogra Magra (1988)

A young man kills his bride on the day of his marriage and goes insane. He wakes up in an asylum with no memory, left in the hands of two mysterious doctors who relate his condition with his biological identity. ...

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988)

A demonic reincarnation of a Japanese general from the 10th century appears in the early 20th century Tokyo with a mission to destroy the blooming city. ...

The House of Wedlock (1986)

Tokiko Enomoto finds out that her husband Kazuya, who mostly lives at an apartment near his work while she and their children live at home, has been having an affair with a live-in mistress, Ryōko, at his apartment. Tokiko tells her two sons, Tarō and Ji ...

The Sea and Poison (1986)

Two interns and a nurse are interrogated by American MPs for their involvement in an atrocity during the war: the vivisections of a downed American air crew. ...

Monster Heaven (1986)

An anthology of strange horror tales featuring yokai. It begins with astronauts finding a katana on the moon. ...

Beyond the Shining Sea (1986)

Heartbroken Ukiko takes refuge with a relative after a devastating breakup. While away, she makes a dangerous match with the husband of her frigid cousin. ...

To Sleep So as to Dream (1986)

An aging silent film actress hires a private eye and his wacky but helpful assistant to track down her missing daughter, Bellflower. The two follow a succession of bizarre, obscure clues, until they track down the location of the kidnappers and the daughte ...

Tampopo (1985)

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Inte ...

Fire Festival (1985)

Tatsuo, a reverent lumberjack, seeks to disrupt plans to build a marine park on his family land, instead promoting his traditions in reactionary ways. ...

Capone Cries a Lot (1985)

Umiemon is a naniwa-bushi singer who travels with his wife to the United States in hopes of achieving fame and fortune. ...

Sexual Crime (1983)

Three people whose lives have taken a turn for the worse retreat into a world of erotic dreams made flesh in this drama from director Sai Yoichi. An executive with a large industrial corporation finds his job and his future is on the line when his firm is ...

A Bridge of Tears (1983)

Japanese drama film. ...

Rope and Breasts (1983)

A husband and wife are on the road doing a traveling BDSM show at various seedy locations. The wife is getting bored with the show and wants to quit. But while on tour in Kyoto a wealthy man and his proper looking wife invite them to do a private show. Lit ...

Yukko no Okurimono: Cosmos no Yō ni (1982)

1982 Japanese film directed by Tengo Yamada. ...

The Go Masters (1982)

Ten years before the outbreak of the Second World War in Asia, a Japanese Go master and his Chinese rival meet in China to play a game of Go (loosely described as an Asian version of chess). It soon becomes evident that the Chinese master's son is the most ...

Willful Murder (1981)

The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical ...

The Wandering of the Naked General: The Kiyoshi Yamashita Story (1981)

Sent to an institution for mentally handicapped children by his parents, he began creating artworks using torn strips of paper. After running away to avoid army conscription, he began his wanderings around Japan, encountering many scenes which he would rec ...

The Woman (1980)

Erotic drama ...

Drive for the Future (1980)

Barefoot Gen Part 3: Battle of Hiroshima (1980)

Second live action "Barefoot Gen" sequel. ...

Zigeunerweisen (1980)

A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways. ...

An Ocean to Cross (1980)

Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin. ...

The Skies of Haruo (1977)

1977 Japanese film directed by Tengo Yamada. ...

Barefoot Gen: Explosion of Tears (1977)

First live action "Barefoot Gen" sequel. ...

Preparation for the Festival (1975)

Tateo, young and neurotic, wishes to leave the village his mother has raised him in. ...

Sandakan No. 8 (1974)

A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8. ...

The Long Darkness (1972)

The relationship between Tetsuro, a university student from a disgraced, burdened family, and Shino, a waitress supporting her impoverished relatives. The couple decides to marry despite the significant emotional and social hardships each faces, viewing th ...

Bad Girl Mako (1971)

Patronized by a gang ruling the city, Mako delinquently plays around a night club every night with her bad company. One night, a guy Hideo gets closer to her for one-night stand, and they consequently fall in love. However, Hideo is killed by the gang. Mak ...

The Cleanup (1969)

A real all-star cast turns out for this modern yakuza yarn. ...

Gambler's Dilemma (1969)

The love story between a traveling guest and a geisha who inadvertently becomes the leader of her father's yakuza clan, after his death. ...

Savage Wolf Pack (1969)

A professional hunter, Tetsuya, returns from Alaska to find that his hometown had become a lawless slum. He is shocked to learn that his younger sister had committed suicide after being raped by unknown men. One day, he rescues a girl from being attacked b ...

Monument to the Girl's Corps (1968)

In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the fiery breaths of war hadn't yet reached Okinawa Normal School for women. Nothing seemed the least bit out of the ordinary, as Kazuko and her friends enjoyed ...

Man of a Stormy Era (1968)

The early years of the Showa period were turbulent times for Japan. The country suffered financial crisis and famine, women worked under intolerable employment conditions, and political corruption was a major issue. Out of fear that the great nation would ...

Song of my Life (1968)

Outlaw: Gangster VIP 2 (1968)

Goro (Tetsuya Watari) wants to put his dark past behind. He heads to Hirosaki City to offer his condolences to Yumeko and to reunite with Yukiko (Chieko Matsubara), but finds that Yumeko is fatally ill. Although Yukiko was taking care of her, she is presse ...

Outlaw: Gangster VIP (1968)

Goro had grown up in the yakuza world. As an active member of the Mizuhara family crime syndicate, he expressed his loyalty by always putting himself in the forefront of every battle. Violence never bothered him. However, after being sentenced to three yea ...

Velvet Hustler (1967)

A young yakuza hitman named Goro does a job and needs to hideout away from Tokyo for a while. He hangs out with loose women and hard men and always manages to stay one step ahead of the law. In his exile, he comes under suspicion for a murder and meets the ...

Massacre Gun (1967)

Kuroda is a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers, hot-headed Eiji and aspiring boxer Saburo, the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no o ...

Branded to Kill (1967)

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin. ...

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. ...

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for- ...

Carmen from Kawachi (1966)

Like a girl runaway, Tsuyu moves to Osaka to work as a bar hostess. She meets the owner of a model school, Yoko, and seriously thinks about becoming a fashion model. Yoko tells her that she can move in to Yoko's house to take lessons, while making a living ...

Tattooed Life (1965)

After his own gang sets him up to kill a rival mobster, a hit man is forced to flee with his younger brother. ...

Born Under Crossed Stars (1965)

A young man with a strong sense of justice is torn between two girls: the flighty Taneko and the serious Suzuko. With wisdom, courage and honor in a Japanese spirit of manliness he wins the day. ...

Story of a Prostitute (1965)

Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story ...

The Call of Blood (1964)

Two brothers seek revenge on the yakuza responsible for the death of their father. ...

Gate of Flesh (1964)

In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post–World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumble ...

The Flower and the Angry Waves (1964)

A young yakuza in love with the girl who's to marry his clan oyabun, kidnaps the girl before fleeing with her. In Tokyo, he hides under the identity of a worker while the young woman becomes a waitress in a restaurant. ...

Kanto Wanderer (1963)

Handsome young Katsuta tries to follow the yakuza code, but even his boss doesn't believe in it. Diamond Fuyu is less ethical, and allows the idiotic Tetsu to trick a schoolgirl he fancies, Hanako, into a type of bonded prostitution. Because of gang confli ...

The Incorrigible (1963)

Based on the loosely autobiographical novel of the same name by Toko Kon. Ken Yamanouchi stars as Togo Konno, the titular bastard. ...

Notorious Bastard (1963)

When Tornado Joe is wrongly accused of distributing counterfeit banknotes, he gets on a mission to clear his name and challenge the mastermind behind this scheme. ...

Attack Squadron (1963)

Lt. Col. Senda resists the idea of sending Japanese fighter pilots on suicide missions. He believes that what is really necessary for Japan to regain momentum in the war is for the air force to gather its most brilliant pilots into an elite squadron and us ...

Glass-Hearted Johnny (1962)

Joe Shishido is an ambitious bike racetrack tout who becomes inadvertently involved in a triangle with a vulnerable prostitute (Izumi Ashikawa) and her brutal yakuza pimp (George Ai). ...

Dahil Sa Iyo – The Song of Sad Love (1962)

The Black Scar (1961)

A yakuza frames another yakuza who goes to jail for 5 years. When he is released he goes to seek revenge only to fall in love with the daughter of the man who framed him. ...

A Killer Without a Grave (1961)

Nakata (Keiichiro Akagi) is a nihilistic young buck who is willing to do anything to get money in his pockets. As he knocks back a couple drinks that he knows he won't be able to afford, a former marksman-turned-bad, Ishioka approaches him. Ishioka is look ...

He Killed Dad (1961)

The lives of two brothers, Kunio and Akira Kasahara, are changed forever when their father is murdered. Kunio sets out on a manhunt to avenge his father and will stop at nothing until he finds the killer. Setsuko, Kunio's fiancée, is unable to keep up wit ...

The Call of the Foghorn (1960)

A sailor is stuck in the harbor due to an engine failure in his boat, and he learns that a friend of his has died, reportedly from suicide. He begins to investigate the matter himself, and finds there may be more to the story... ...

Wind of Volcano (1960)

An airplane loaded with 50 million yen for the reconstruction of Amami Oshima crashes en route from Kagoshima, Kyushu, but neither the money nor the remains of the pilot can be found. ...

The Ghost of Iwojima (1959)

The monologue and mysterious death of a man who survived and returned from Iwo Jima. A newspaper reporter writes an article about "The Man from Iwo Jima" asking the people who were close to him about his character and the painful memories off all those inv ...

The Echo of Love (1959)

A pure love melodrama movie. ...

The Fugitive (1959)

An action drama similar to Wyler's "The Desperate Hours", adapted by Seiji Hoshikawa of "Tasogare no Tokyo Tower" based on Shinji Fujiwara's original work. Jiro, who had been unable to rehabilitate because of the stigma of having criminal record, stopped ...

The Stream of Youth (1959)

A Slope in the Sun (1958)

The young Takako Kuramoto has come to Tokyo to study and starts working for the rich Tashiro family as tutor of the daughter, Kumiko, while she receives attention from her two older brothers, Yukichi and Shinji. Meanwhile, the exact parentage of Shinji com ...

Birth of a Jazz Maiden (1957)

Kawai Midori's father left the family a long time ago and since her mother passed away, she has taken care of her younger siblings by herself by working with a group of itinerant camellia oil peddlers. While she is In Izu selling camellia oil, she meets a ...

Confession (1956)

Cell No. 8 (1956)

A man and a woman meet through a strange fate. This unique melodrama depicts the course of their budding love in a corner of the big city. ...

Policeman's Diary, Part 2 (1955)

From runaway brides to a typhoon, the continued adventures of Ushikata police station. ...

A Hole of My Own Making (1955)

Nobuko is a widow who lives with her stepchild Tamiko and her brother Junjiro. The family's gatekeeper, Komatsu, is attracted to Tamiko, but she is encouraged to marry a doctor and he is afraid to tell her his feelings. ...

The Maid's Kid (1955)

In order to pay back Mrs. Kajiki for her good deed in the past, Hatsu moves from her village in Akita to Tokyo to start working as a maid for her family. She grows close to their youngest son Katsumi, experiencing things that will change her view on life. ...

Policeman's Diary (1955)

Lending money, job hunting for civilians and babysitting. All these things are usually not listed on a policeman's job description. But for the officers of this local police station, it's part of their daily routine. One day, patrolman Yoshii (Hisaya Moris ...

The Moon Has Risen (1955)

Mokichi Asai is a widowed father living in Nara with three daughters—Chizuru, Ayako, and Setsuko. The youngest, Setsuko, plays matchmaker for her older sisters, leading to humorous and awkward romantic entanglements. ...

The Black Current (1954)

A reporter Takuo, who is sleeping in the newspaper room of the Maichō newspaper company, receives a sudden report from a reporter that the missing Akiyama JNR president was found dead. ...

A Certain Woman (1954)

The Wild Geese (1953)

A young woman, who must support her father as a middle-aged man's mistress, finds herself falling in love with a student closer to her age. ...

Kanpai! Tokyo Musume (1952)

Romantic comedy about a love triangle between two girls who fall in love with a reliable young doctor. ...

The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (1952)

The Singing Baseball Kid (1951)

A musical comedy about a spirited orphan who forms a youth baseball team and gets caught up in a mix of sports, singing, and crime when he tries to return a star player's lost money. ...

From the Ruins: Making 'Gate of Flesh' (2005)

Made for in 2005, this video interview features director Seijun Suzuki and production designer Takeo Kimura. These longtime collaborators discuss the making of GATE OF FLESH. ...

Seijun Suzuki: kabuki & yakuzas (2002)

Film director and screenwriter Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), who in the sixties was the great innovator of Japanese cinema; and his collaborator, art director and screenwriter Takeo Kimura (1918-2010), recall how they made their great masterpieces about the Y ...

I've Heard the Ammonite Murmur (1992)

A young geologist is traveling by train to visit his sister in the countryside after having received a mysterious letter from her. ...