The residents of an impoverished farming village in 16th-century Japan, anticipating an attack by bandits after harvest, hire seven rōnin to defend them. Upon arrival, the warriors set about to... more
Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo. One of Akira Kurosawa's classic screen achievements takes form in this compelling tale of the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife in medieval Japan. The crimes... more
Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama. The patients at a poor medical clinic and a sharp but overbearing doctor teach an enthusiastic young intern hard lessons about the true meaning of practicing medicine. In... more
Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho, Toshie Negishi. Eight mythical, dreamlike vignettes thematically united by their concern with man's relationship to nature tell stories of animal weddings, ghosts of... more
Kazuo Hasegawa, Machiko Kyo, Yataro Kurokawa. As payment for providing an escape for a Japanese lord under attack, an 11th-century samurai warrior asks for the hand of a lady-in-waiting. Although the... more
Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani, Tamio Kawachi. A longtime Japanese gangster refuses to give up antiquated codes of honor, much to the distress of his Mob bosses and other gangs.... more
From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan. In an effort to attract youthful... more
The original silent drama from Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, "A Story of Floating Weeds," follows a travelling theatre troupe's visit to a seaside town and the group's leader's emotional reunion... more
Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura. The inhabitants of a small village hire seven samurai to protect them from bandit attacks. When the samurai arrive, a spectacular series of battles begin. Directed by... more
A Tokyo detective's (Koji Yakusho) investigation of a series of grisly and bizarre murders, committed by seemingly average citizens who can't explain their motives, leads him to a mysterious and... more
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu's perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning (Ohayo) tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking as an act... more
Actor Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) dearly loved his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), despite her infidelities-and her abrupt death pushed him to mental collapse. Offered a comeback staging of... more
Meiko Kaji, Tishio Kurosawa, Masaaki Daimon. Yuki is a Japanese "born-in-prison" female assassin who is trained from birth to avenge the murder of her father and the rape and imprisonment of her... more
Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo. One of Akira Kurosawa's classic screen achievements takes form in this compelling tale of the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife in medieval Japan. The crimes... more
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashis indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? a stream of consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava?... more
Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa. A disgraced samurai and executioner travels the country, hiring himself out as an assassin while seeking personal revenge against the hit squad who killed his... more
Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato. This first film by Hideo Gosha is among the most canonized chambara (sword-fighting) films. An origin-story offshoot of a Japanese television series of the same name,... more
Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Minoru Chiaki. In this feudal Japan-set adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, a vicious samurai warrior rises to power he cannot fully wield, and the curses of ancient... more
Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura. This great samurai epic tells the story of a princess under the protection of a brave and resourceful general who is pursued by enemies of her clan. In Japanese with... more
Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Daisuke Ryu. A petty criminal takes the place of a dying warlord in 16th-century Japan to fool those that plan to assassinate the ruler and inspire his followers... more
Years before Akira Kurosawa changed the face of cinema with such iconic works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, he made his start in the Japanese film industry with four popular and... more
Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida, Hiroko Ito. An entomologist misses his bus in the middle of a desert to get home to Tokyo. After descending into a sand-pit hut to lie with a mysterious desert woman, he... more
The late Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu directed 53 films over the course of his career; these are some the finest from his artistic prime. Includes Early Spring (Haruko Sugimura. 1956/145 min.),... more
Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko. The renowned director, Akira Kurosawa, combines poetic imagery and complex flashbacks to tell the story of a man who vows to make his final days meaningful after he... more
The lyrical, profoundly moving STILL WALKING is the most personal work to date from contemporary Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda (MABOROSI, AFTER LIFE, NOBODY KNOWS). Fashioned as a tribute to his... more