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 the first sound version of the classic...
Meiji Tenno portrays the buildup to the Russo-Japan War. In addition to showing the political events that led to war, it also shows the era from the story of a farm family in rural Japan that sends their son off to war. As such, it could be considered an anti-war movie, showing how, while war is...
During the Warring States era, Hozoin Kakuzenbo and Yagyu Tajima-no-kami, being best friends, spend their days acquiring skills of the spear, sword and martial arts. Hozoin loses a series of matches with master swordsman Kozumi Ise-no-kami. Bitterly ashamed, Hozoin embarks on a journey, trying to...
After the massacre of Christians at Shimabara, followers of Amakusa Shiro band together in a plot to overthrow the shogunate in order to exact revenge on the Tokugawa. At the same time there is a succession dispute in the Kuroda clan, as one faction tried to usurp the rightful heir and take over...
Famed detective Dandy Sashichi tries to solve who's behind the serial murders of six beautiful women under the aegis of local showman Ibaragiya. The film opens with the sextet humiliating a respected painter's portraits of them, driving the man to a suspicious suicide. Later, while celebrating...
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 involving an itinerant woman.
Ryosuke Kotaki's life motto was his grandfather's will, "Study, make money, drink alcohol, and win the first prize". So, first of all, he went to Osaka to win the first prize with favorite shogi. In the car, he hit it off with a woman named Okichi and decided to live in the Shogi Kaisho, which is...
In 1870's Tokyo, Den steals to support the daughter of her first marriage and her consumptive second husband. She falls in love with a young policeman, but is coerced into becoming the mistress of and procurer for a vice boss.
