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7.0

♡ 6

75%

Hiroshi Aoyama as

Misako Watanabe as Okiwa

Kei Satô as Takanosuke Nojiri

Eiji Okada as Tatewaki Koriyama

Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.

Chinmoku

1971

7.1

♡ 3

17th century

based on novel or book

christianity

jesuits (society of jesus)

History

religious persecution

Eiji Okada as Inoue Chikugonokami

Tomo'o Nagai as Official

Kappei Matsumoto as Prisoner official

Yoshio Inaba as Prisoner official

Two Jesuit priests encounter persecution when they travel to Japan in the 17th century to spread Christianity and search for their mentor.

Killers on Parade

1961

6.6

♡ 5

Ichirô Sugai as

Yûsuke Kawazu as

Masaaki Hirao as

Keijirô Morozumi as

A vengeful contractor hires a series of young killers to target a woman muckraker. Trouble brews when an amateur marksman shows up his eclectic competition.

A Flame at the Pier

1962

6.8

♡ 3

Harold Conway as Johnson

Toshio Hosokawa as Party guest

Masaomi Kondô as Port Worker

Mariko Kaga as Yuki

A young dockworker who owes his life to his boss becomes embroiled in union activity on the Yokohama waterfront. The rebel Saburo works as an errand boy for a shipping company and vents his frustrations by plucking on the guitar.

Our Marriage

1962

6.9

♡ 4

Romance

Eijirô Tôno as

Reiko Minakami as

Noriko Maki as

Sadako Sawamura as

When two sisters fall in love with the same man, one must decide to look elsewhere.

Dry Lake

1960

6.8

♡ 3

student protest

Reiko Minakami as

Sadako Sawamura as Aki Katsura

Hizuru Takachiho as Fumie Sono

Kayoko Honoo as Setsuko Kitamura

A reckless student contemplates terrorism in a prescient film that confirmed Shinoda as a fearless member of Shochiku's iconoclastic New Wave. At the height of student protests, Shimojo takes his aggressions to another level, beset by seemingly insoluble feelings of alienation.

Demon Pond

1979

7.0

♡ 11

based on play or musical

Fantasy

Romance

taishō period

Norihei Miki as Catfish Messenger

Ryûnosuke Kaneda as Diet Member

Tsutomu Yamazaki as Gaukuen Yamazaki

Fujio Tokita as The Crab

When a lone traveler stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants, including lovers Akira and Yuri, in their hands.

Punishment Island

1966

7.0

♡ 4

Mystery

Kei Satô as

Taiji Tonoyama as

Shima Iwashita as Aya, Daigoku's daughter

Rentarô Mikuni as Daigoku

Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when he encounters a strange and beautiful young woman

The Petrified Forest

1973

7.0

♡ 6

Masami Horiuchi as

Sayoko Ninomiya as

Shima Iwashita as

Shin Kishida as

Follows a young med student's relationships with two women: a dangerous affair with a childhood friend and his mother's struggle to rebuild their estranged relationship.

Gonza the Spearman

1986

7.0

♡ 3

based on play or musical

edo period

jidaigeki

restless in peacetime

Chôichirô Kawarasaki as Jinbei

Shima Iwashita as Osai

Misako Tanaka as Oyuki

Haruko Katô as Oyuki's nanny

The tragic story of Gonza, a handsome ladies man, set in the Tokugawa Period, a time in which appearances are very important. Gonza competes with Bannojō for the honor to perform the tea ceremony to celebrate the birth of an heir to the lord of their clan. To see the sacred tea scrolls Gonza promises to marry the daughter of the family which possesses them, even though he is unofficially engaged to another. When studying the scrolls with Osai, the mother of the house, Bannojō sneaks into the house and steals their obis and runs through the town proclaiming the two as adulterers.

Sharaku

1995

6.6

♡ 4

Kimiko Yo as

Chôichirô Kawarasaki as Santo Kyoden

Hiroyuki Sanada as Tonbo

Shirô Sano as Utamaro

A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold drawings, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal. The film explores the eternal relationship between artist and producer, and describes the emanicipation of a man who refuses to let himself become the plaything of power and money.

Love New and Old

1961

6.6

♡ 1

Miyuki Kuwano as

Yûsuke Kawazu as

Masayuki Mori as

Bunta Sugawara as

A woman brings her injured daughter to the hospital, only to realize that the doctor is the estranged father of her child.

Moonlight Serenade

1997

6.7

♡ 2

Chôichirô Kawarasaki as

Masahiko Nishimura as

Michiko Hada as Komachi

Kimiko Yo as Woman Gambler

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II.

With Beauty and Sorrow

1965

6.7

♡ 1

based on novel or book

Romance

Misako Watanabe as Fumiko Ôki

Mariko Kaga as Keiko Sakami

Kaoru Yachigusa as Otoko Ueno

Kei Yamamoto as Taichiro Ôki

When the man who seduced the famous painter Otoko as a teenager--and then wrote a bestselling novel about it--reappears in her life, her pupil--and lesbian lover--hatches a plot to destroy the man and his family.

Pale Flower

1964

7.7

♡ 9

92%

Seiji Miyaguchi as Gang leader

Eijirô Tôno as Gang Leader

Isao Sasaki as Jiro

Mariko Kaga as Saeko

A gangster gets released from prison and has to cope with the recent shifts of power between the gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

Sapporo Winter Olympics

1972

7.1

♡ 2

A documentary about the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan.

Ballad of Orin

1977

7.3

♡ 3

Kotoe Hatsui as

Yoshio Harada as Big Man

Rie Yokoyama as Kaneko

Kaoru Kobayashi as Torazo

A blind traveling musician is abused and oppressed wherever she goes, even as the modern world imposes change around her.

Himiko

1974

7.0

♡ 8

Fantasy

History

Rie Yokoyama as Adahime

Chôichirô Kawarasaki as Mimaki

Rentarô Mikuni as Nashime

Masao Kusakari as Takehiko

The myth of the Sun Goddess who founded Japanese society is seen through the lens of a modern view of history.

Double Suicide

1969

7.6

♡ 7

100%