Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor.

Ninja, a Band of Assassins

1962

Japanese

7.0

♡ 8

Satsuo Yamamoto Director

Takeshi Katô as

Raizô Ichikawa as Ishikawa Goemon

Shiho Fujimura as Maki

Tomisaburô Wakayama as Oda Nobunaga

Warlord Oda Nobunaga seeks to unite a fractured Japan. A young man trained in the arts of ninjitsu is manipulated by a ninja master into attempting to assassinate the warlord before he completes his task.

The House of Hanging

1979

Japanese

6.1

♡ 4

Drama

Mystery

Thriller

Kon Ichikawa Director

Masao Kusakari as

Takako Irie as Chizuru

Takeshi Katô as Todoroki

Yoshiko Sakuma as Yayoi

This time, Kousuke investigates a murder in a hospital. The murderer leaves misleading evidence to divert Kousuke's attention on the case. Suspicion and doubt clouds Kousuke's mind.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

1973

Japanese

7.4

♡ 13

90%

Kinji Fukasaku Director

Tatsuo Endô as

Takeshi Katô as

Takashi Ebata as Constable Maekawa

Nobuo Kaneko as Yamamori

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

The Thick-Walled Room

1956

Japanese

7.1

♡ 4

60%

Action

based on memoir or autobiography

crime against humanity

Masaki Kobayashi Director

Takeshi Katô as

Shinichirô Minami as

Unpei Yokoyama as

Kô Mishima as Yokota

A group of rank-and-file Japanese soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victims of a nation refusing to bear its burdens as a whole.

Police Tactics

1974

Japanese

7.3

♡ 5

Kinji Fukasaku Director

Takeshi Katô as

Mizuho Suzuki as

Tatsuo Endô as Aihara

Nobuo Kaneko as Yamamori

As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.

Only on Mondays

1964

Japanese

6.7

♡ 1

Action

Drama

Kô Nakahira Director

Takeshi Yoshida as

Harold Conway as Minister

Mariko Kaga as Yuka

Takeshi Katô as Yuka's sugar-daddy

Yuka is a “good-time girl” from Yokohama who is persuaded by her papa to sleep with a foreign business executive so that he can close an important deal. Nakahira presents a shrewdly observed portrait of a modern, sexually assertive woman—an unsettling character for a changing but still patriarchal society.

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Sword of the Beast

Ninja, a Band of Assassins

The House of Hanging

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

The Thick-Walled Room

Police Tactics

Only on Mondays