Tatsuya Nakadai
Publisher
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Pub. Date
1973.
Language
日本語
Description
After being banished from her village, a peasant woman makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability. A classic-animated gem from Japan adapted from the novel, Belladonna by Jules Michelet, the story concerns a love affair taking place in the Middle Ages shadowed by witch-trials and the Inquisition.
Publisher
Cinelicious
Pub. Date
[2016]
Language
日本語
Description
The setting is a village in medieval France. On the day of their wedding, Jean and Jeanne visit the lord of the village to pay a tribute. Instead of receiving the tribute, the lord and his vassals rape her, and the marriage is marked with misery and unhappiness. One day, a tiny creature visits Jeanne, an evil spirit. In time, the spirit seduces her body and soul. Eventually, Jeanne makes a contract with the evil spirit and becomes a sorceress.
4) Kagemusha
Series
Criterion collection volume 267
Publisher
Criterion
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
Reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic about a peasant impersonating a nobleman in battle. Kagemusha is presented in its original 180 min. uncut Japanese version, not the shortened "international version" presented by 20th Century Fox.
In 16th century feudal Japan, a thief is saved from execution to train as a double for one of the warlords, Shingen. Three warlords, Shingen,...
Series
Criterion collection volume 280
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2005]
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade.
6) Yōjimbō
Series
Criterion collection volume 52
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2010]
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage.
Publisher
AnimEigo
Pub. Date
©2008.
Language
日本語
Description
At the dawn of the Showa Era in 1929, Emperor Hirohito has granted amnesty to almost 400 prisoners. One of those men, Seiji, formerly a henchmen for one of Japan's toughest gangs, must now learn to adjust in a new world where his former boss is dead and the rival boss has absorbed his entire gang.
Series
Criterion collection volume 53
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2010]
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
The jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a "proper" samurai on its ear.
10) Karamiai
Publisher
The Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2013]
Language
日本語
Description
On his deathbed, a wealthy businessman announces that his fortune is to be split equally among his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown. A bevy of lawyers and associates begin machinations to procure the money for themselves, resorting to the use of impostors and blackmail. Yet all are outwitted by the cunning of the man's secretary, in this entertaining condemnation of unchecked greed.
11) Kwaidan
Series
Criterion collection volume 90
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2000]
Language
日本語
Description
Consists of four stories of the supernatural based on Japanese folk material. In The black hair, a poor young samurai leaves his first wife to marry a rich woman. When he is unhappy in his second marriage, he returns to his first wife, who at first appears unchanged from when he last saw her. In The woman of the snow, a woodcutter is spared by a mysterious ghost-like woman in the snow, but must promise never to tell anyone what he has seen. In Hoichi,...
12) Ningen no jōken
Series
Criterion collection volume 480
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
2009.
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
Tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage.
Series
Criterion collection volume 480
Publisher
The Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
日本語
Description
Tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage.
14) Kuroi kawa
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2013]
Language
日本語
Description
Examines the rampant moral corruption on and around U.S. military bases in Japan following World War II. Kobayashi spirals out from the story of a love triangle that develops between a good-natured student, his innocent girlfriend, and a coldhearted criminal to reveal a nation slowly succumbing to lawlessness and violence.
Series
Criterion collection volume 24
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
©1998.
Language
日本語
Description
A complex crime thriller in which a wealthy shoe manufacturer's chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own, and he faces a moral dilemma -- should he pay the ransom anyway and risk losing his position?
16) Ran
Series
Criterion collection volume 316
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
©2005.
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles. The two eldest sons are quite happy, but the youngest thinks his father has gone mad, and predicts that it won't be long until the two older brothers are fighting with each other.
Series
Criterion collection volume 395
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2007]
Language
日本語
Description
Okuyama, after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations.
Series
Criterion collection volume 24
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
©2008
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
A complex crime thriller in which a wealthy Japanese shoe manufacturer's chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own, and he faces a moral dilemma.
Series
Criterion collection volume 377
Publisher
Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2007]
Language
日本語
Formats
Description
A young widow with family obligations, Keiko is the madam of an upstairs bar in the exclusive Ginza district of Tokyo in 1960. As she approaches 30, she realizes that her life is at a crossroads: she must either go into business and open her own bar or marry.
Publisher
Wellspring
Pub. Date
c2002.
Language
English
Description
A revealing look at the acclaimed director featuring extensive clips from his greatest films and includes interviews with James Coburn and Clint Eastwood along with longtime associate Teruyo Nogami, actresses Machiko Kyo and Isuzu Yamada, actor Tatsuya Nakadai, director Kon Ichikawa and critics Tadao Sato and Donald Richie.