Teinosuke Kinugasa

Remake of Naruse Mikio’s 1943 film “The Song Lantern.Read More »

The story follows Oshino, a geisha who is trying to start a new life with a lover who is a painter.Read More »

Episode I: Playgirl Mariko Hayashi has a way with men and her little yellow book is filled with details of prospective husbands.

Episode II: Office Wife Outwardly Shinko is a television actress and does not admit that Yamada, her personal sponsor, has used his influence to give her a part in the series. Yamanaka had fallen completely under her charms, but …

Episode III: Three Women Tashiro is the sort of man whom women love not too wisely but too well. There was Tokie, his wife, then Yasuko, who had left her sweetheart for him and never let him forget it. Michiyo Ito had taken up with him on a two months’ basis, but she had followed him back to Tokyo at the end of his business trip.Read More »

Period action/melodrama. In 1840, retainers of the Tokugawa Shoganate harshly compete with each other in deciding the successor of the 14th Shogun Iemochi. Among them is Lord Nakano, known as the Baron of Mukōjima. To establish his grandson, Inuchiyo, as the most promising candidate, he makes efforts to get the official permission from Ienari, a retired Shogun, but who is still seizing power in place of sickly Iemochi. For Nakano, the most reliable underling is his daughter-in-law, Lady Omiyo, who has long been gaining Ienari’s favor. But not only because Ienari has problems in his health for his age, but because Omiyo’s servant, Tomi, is indeed a spy sent by Shimada Matazaemon, the rival of Nakano, he cannot advance the scario as he originally planned. Read More »

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Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu, a scholar who brought some of European realism to the Japan’s stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society.Read More »

A Buddhist priest becomes also a magician, dedicating himself to the protection of life wherever it’s needed, whereupon he finds himself in direct service of the Queen. Political intrigue tightens around him as it is increasingly assumed that he harbors ulterior motives. Set in Japan’s Nara Era (710 – 794 A.D.), the story is loosely based on Mikado (Empress) Koken-Shotoku and Dokyo, a Yamabushi (mountain warrior monk who practices a rugged, intense form of Vajrayana Buddhism founded by his master, Do-en).Read More »

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From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious swordsman named Noriyuki Gennojo has crossed Naruto’s waters to uncover the Awa clan’s secrets. He puts his life on the line after finding a testament of Awa’s secrets, written in blood by a dying man. Joining Noriyuki are a female ninja who loves him, and the beautiful daughter of an enemy who’s sworn to kill him. Awa’s defenders willl stop at nothing to prevent the blood-soaked letter from reaching the shogun.Read More »

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Here is the 1935/1936 original version of “An Actor’s Revenge”, which was hugely popular at that time and a high point in Kazuo Hasegawa’s career. In fact, he even chose to remake this film as his 300th film work, helmed by Kon Ichikawa.

The original film has 3 parts and runs 310 mins long, released. However, like most pre-1945 jidaigeki, it has been seized and re-edited by GHQ during the occupation era. And now, only this truncated version which runs only 97 mins exists.Read More »

Synopsis:
In 1159, during an attempted coup, one of the court’s ladies in waiting disguises herself as the lord’s wife, and a loyal samurai conveys her from the city. This diversion allows the royal family to escape. After the coup fails, the samurai asks his lord to let him marry the woman as his reward. The lord grants the request and then discovers she is already married to one of the ruling family’s lieges. The samurai clings to his desire, importuning her to leave her husband, then challenging the husband to release her. Although the husband stays calm and she stays faithful, the samurai remains intemperate and stubborn, with tragic consequences.Read More »