Typhoon Club

Typhoon Club 1985

6.54

Offering a caustic immersion into the lives of disaffected junior high students on the cusp of adulthood, the film takes place over the five-day period before, during, and after a ferocious, seemingly-liberating typhoon, which six of the students endure while marooned in their school.

1985

Funeral Parade of Roses

Funeral Parade of Roses 1969

7.60

In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.

1969

Distant Thunder

Distant Thunder 1981

6.80

A young man living on growing tomatoes in a greenhouse in a residential area. Tomato cultivation is as doomed as his personal life where he tries to keep alive his romance with the eccentric Kaede and parents selected fiancee Ayako.

1981

Pastoral: To Die in the Country

Pastoral: To Die in the Country 1974

7.50

A director faces creative block while working on his latest film - a reimagination of his adolescence growing up in a mountain village in rural Japan.

1974

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets 1971

7.40

An experimental, psychedelic odyssey through Japanese subculture experienced via the eyes of a disillusioned young man, who must contend with intense familial dysfunction, psychosexual alienation, and existentialist malaise.

1971

Death by Hanging

Death by Hanging 1968

7.40

A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.

1968

Zigeunerweisen

Zigeunerweisen 1980

6.61

A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.

1980

Demons

Demons 1971

7.70

Tells the story of the samurai Gengobe, who seeks revenge after falling prey to the schemes of a geisha and her husband.

1971

Ecstasy of the Angels

Ecstasy of the Angels 1972

5.50

A militant revolutionary group is torn apart by betrayal as its members descend into paranoia and sexual decadence.

1972

The Youth Killer

The Youth Killer 1976

6.50

Though his parents help him run the family business, Jun still feels persecuted by their love; when they bar him from meeting with his girlfriend, tensions increase.

1976

Farewell to the Ark

Farewell to the Ark 1984

7.00

A surreal, isolated village sees its inhabitants gradually leave behind their mutual traditions and superstitions as they leave for the city. Among them are two cousins who love each other and who get into a quarrel with other villagers.

1984

The Family Game

The Family Game 1983

6.70

A sendup of the stereotypical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor, played by the prototypical bad boy actor Matsuda Yusaku, proceeds to blow the entire family apart.

1983

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief 1969

4.60

In Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the lives of a young man prone to theft, a young woman he meets at a bookstore, and a kabuki actor intersect.

1969

This Transient Life

This Transient Life 1970

7.50

Near a remote Buddhist monastery, a young man falls in love with his sister and gets her pregnant. After a monk finds out, the young man becomes an assistant to a master sculptor, only to proceed to complicate matters with his affairs.

1970

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Emperor Tomato Ketchup 1971

5.60

In a Japanese colony, children overthrow their parental guardians and attempt to form a new society. Their plan spirals out of control and they are soon lost in a web of sexual deviation and violence.

1971

Death at an Old Mansion

Death at an Old Mansion 1975

6.10

A woman and her bridegroom are found murdered in their bed the day after their wedding. It had snowed overnight and the killer left no tracks. It is up to an amateur detective to figure out what happened. Carefully and systematically, he pieces together the clues in this locked room mystery.

1975

Heroic Purgatory

Heroic Purgatory 1970

6.90

Rikiya Shoda is an engineer working for the Atomic Agency in Japan. One day, his wife Nanako returns home with a lost teenager called Ayu. A man, pretending to be the father, comes to get her back; Ayu keeps telling him that Rikiya and Nanako are her parents. Through this disruption, Rikiya suddenly starts remembering his youth as a revolutionary.

1970

Empire of Kids

Empire of Kids 1981

5.00

Following a stint in reform school, Ryu (Shinsuke Shimada) returns to his home, the Minami area of Osaka, accompanied by his new friend Ko (Takeshi Masu). He's greeted by his friends, Chabo (Ryusuke Matsumoto) and Ken (Bang-ho Cho). They seek to forge their own path through a multitude of rival gangs in Kita and Minami, including the Hokushin Alliance, backed by the yakuza, the Hope Association, and various other minor factions, including Zainichi Korean groups. What follows is a wild, fast-paced story of violence, revenge, betrayal, and discrimination, that never loses its sense of humor.

1981

Himiko

Himiko 1974

7.10

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

1974