Masao Mishima

When a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.

Several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.

The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back.

A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.

The story takes place in feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world was strictly prohibited. An idealist suddenly appears in an isolated inn (the one that the title refers to), the head-quarters of a group of smugg...

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.

Brilliant and extremely realistic retelling of the day in Hiroshima that the bomb dropped and following days.

After killing a high-ranking officer in an illegal duel, a low-ranking samurai is declared insane and challenged to a fixed duel by the vengeful clan to which his dead opponent belonged to.

A bored young student falls for the young secretary of his rich friend's father. She senses some good in him and tries to make him discard his aimless lifestyle.

A few days in the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a young, smart boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza. A woman devoted to other people's needs, she will end by taking part herself in one of the many disguises of Ginza.

This is a classic early Japanese Ninja movie. The Iga ninjas are a dying breed as Toyotomis rule allows Japan to experience some peace. Juzo, an Iga ninja who had vowed revenge for the death of his family, is hired by a rich weapo...

A successful textile industrialist from the provinces, beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until i...

When we last saw the intrepid ninja Ishikawa Goemon (Raizo Ichikawa), he was about to be boiled alive. But a good ninja is both hard to find, and even harder to kill. With the help of the enigmatic Hattori Hanzo, Goemon lives to s...

A shogunate secret agent is sent to investigate a secret deal with a Dutch warship involving repeating rifles to be used in an uprising against the Shogun, but finds there's more going on than previously suspected.

When a post-war high school girl is seen with an older boy many find the nontraditional notion unacceptable and try to trick the girl and also assail her right to continue the relationship. Cue her teacher who not only supports th...

In this sequel to Aoi sanmyaku (1949) the focus is not on the students', but the teachers' life. When one day a love letter is discovered it escalates into case over which teacher and students clash. The incident blows up and ther...

During the 17th Century bands of hatamoto, samurai vassals of the Tokugawa shogunate, were causing havoc in the new capital city of Edo. Opposing them was Banzui-in Chobei,whose sole aim was to save Edo from the hatamoto as their ...

Wartime film dealing with a Japanese torpedo bomber squadron at war. The film opens with the Battle of Midway, The enemy carriers and ships are sunk with the IJN suffering minimal losses. However, the enemy has yet to surrender. ...

A photo taken of Takakura and Shindo both sporting full-upper-body tattoos, something not the common in pre-1963 yakuza films.