A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a...
Kiyoko (Takamine Hideko) and her husband want to open a coffee shop. She becomes increasingly close to the bank clerk (Mifune Toshiro) she's asked for a loan.
When a rare species of butterfly is found in a mysterious valley in Japan, a pair of entomologists go to investigate and find more. They discover Varan, a giant monster, who decides to leave the valley and head straight for Tokyo.
Tashiro coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako. In an effort to further relieve his...
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess...
Considered one of the finest late Naruses and a model of film biography, A Wanderer’s Notebook features remarkable performances by Hideko Takamine – Phillip Lopate calls it “probably her greatest performance” – and Kinuyo Tanaka as mother and daughter living from hand to mouth in Twenties...
Charged with insubordination for punching a superior, Sergeant Kosugi is shipped to China in the last desperate days of the Second World War. His commander, Captain Sakuma, is vicious and dictatorial. Sakuma places Kosugi in charge of training for combat what once was the military band. Kosugi must...
Coach Shimamura of the hapless Sparrows baseball team is pleased to obtain a hot new pitcher named Onishi. But when Onishi begins a romantic relationship with the coach's daughter Michiko, Shimamura becomes angry with the young man, lashing out at him when he disobeys instructions during a game. In...
In the middle of the period of high economic growth in Japan, a family is thrown into disarray over work, money, and romance. Their father's sudden unemployment later in life causes friction among the siblings of the Akagi family. Kensuke, a salaryman at a top company, refuses to support his...
Living in a house that has lost its man to the war a year earlier are the widow and her child. Four of the dead man's friends gather to have an anniversary wake. Some time following the ceremony one of the attendees marries the widow. Soon another friend of the deceased and his family also make the...