Jigoku

Jigoku 1960

6.44

A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.

1960

Stray Dog

Stray Dog 1949

7.51

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

1949

The Life of Oharu

The Life of Oharu 1952

7.80

In Edo Period Japan, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.

1952

An Inn at Osaka

An Inn at Osaka 1954

7.30

An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life. Notable for its exquisite framing and cinematography, An Inn at Osaka allows its complicated plotlines to disappear behind the minutiae of penury and humiliation that Mito and others suffer during the post-war economic and social reconstruction.

1954

Mother

Mother 1952

6.81

A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.

1952

Black Cat Mansion

Black Cat Mansion 1958

6.80

The descendant of the servant of a cruel and vicious samurai returns to the town where she was born, only to find that a cat who is possessed by the spirits of those murdered by the samurai is trying to kill her.

1958

Love Letter

Love Letter 1953

6.75

A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.

1953

The Ghost of Yotsuya

The Ghost of Yotsuya 1959

6.60

This horror tale relates the consequences of a Japanese legend which tells of a man who has to betray his wife in order to achieve power.

1959

Evil Brain from Outer Space

Evil Brain from Outer Space 1966

4.80

An evil brain from outer space unleashes monsters with deadly diseases on Earth with trying to conquer the universe. Superhero Starman must battle them all to save his planet.

1966

Tokyo Booty Nights

Tokyo Booty Nights 2004

3.50

Yuji and Akiko are newlyweds. Yuji dreams of being a movie star. He lands the lead role in a Pink Eiga soft-core sex film. The director requires him to have sex with the actress. Akiko goes to her high school reunion and is raped by a drunken guy, and then hooks up with her ex-high school love. A dark and comedic look at contemporary relationships and the pitfalls of married life. The story was written by Locarno International Film Festival, Golden Leopard Prize Winner, Masahiro Kobayashi. (Pink Eiga)

2004

Enoken’s Boxing Generation

Enoken’s Boxing Generation 1949

1

Near the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926), Enokichi, a popular figure in the world of boxing entangled in the Yakuza business.

1949

Invaders from Space

Invaders from Space 1965

4.22

A bunch of pernicious salamander men from the planet Kulimon in the Moffit Galaxy plan on taking over Earth by unleashing a lethal plague on mankind. It's up to valiant superhero Starman from the Emerald Planet to save the human race before it's too late.

1965

Atomic Rulers

Atomic Rulers 1965

3.90

Super criminals are planning to infiltrate Earth with mass nuclear destruction! Only Starman can defend civilization by thwarting evil!

1965

Underwater Murder

Underwater Murder 1958

1

The film marked Yōko Mihara's debut as the star of Shintoho's series of ama films, a role she took over from Michiko Maeda.

1958

Black Line

Black Line 1960

5.50

Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.

1960

The Ghost of Kasane

The Ghost of Kasane 1957

6.70

A blind masseur visits a samurai to request the return of a loan. The samurai kills him in anger, then has his servant dump the body in the Kasane swamp. However, the ghost of the masseur returns to haunt the samurai, who kills his wife by mistake and then goes to the swamp and drowns himself. 20 years later, the masseur's daughter unknowingly falls in love with the samurai's son who has been brought up to be a servant. After she is horribly disfigured in an accident, he plots to run away with another woman, but the path of their escape lies by the Kasane swamp...

1957