Gamblers and Racketeers (1964)

High and Low

In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake.

Always - Sunset on Third Street

Teenage Mutsuko comes to Tokyo for work but ends up at a repair shop. She befriends the owner's family. Neighbors Hiromi, writer Chagawa with admirer Junnosuke strive alongside them in postwar Tokyo's evolution.

Tokyo Story

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Late Autumn

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

The Symbol of a Man

In 1936, under the war clouds over the Manchurian border, 60-year-old Shozaburo Oshima is concerned about the future of his only son, Ryuji, who has refused to follow in the footsteps of his gambler father and decided to become a doctor. Ryuji leaves home to work at a clinic at a dam construction site where he finds the treatment of the laborers intolerable. But when he challenges the boss, who thinks nothing of murder, he discovers to his astonishment that he is safe because of his father's reputation. Torn between filial piety and his ideals, Ryuji is told of the murder of his father by men of a rival gang. He experiences another shock when informed that the woman behind the rival gang is his true mother who was forced to leave his father due to an unwritten code among gamblers.

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: The Traitor Shall Die

The ninth and final film in the Contemporary Tales of Chivalry series.

Kabei: Our Mother

Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.

The Scent of Incense

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.

BAUS: The Ship's Voyage Continues

Plot unavailable

The Makioka Sisters

This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.

Kids on the Slope

Two different students—a successful but aloof academic and a rebellious but kindhearted delinquent—form a friendship through their love of jazz music.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

The Blood of Wolves

Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.

An Autumn Afternoon

Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

I Want to Be a Shellfish

1944, in the depths of World War II. Toyomatsu Shimizu is a completely typical barber from a remote sea-side town who lives frugally but happily with his wife Fusae and their five-year-old son. Eventually, though, the army beckons and he is drafted. One day an officer on the battle-field orders him to kill a captive U.S. soldier. Although Toyomatsu lacks the spirit to kill the man, and only wounds him in the arm, the victorious U.S. soldiers will not accept this, and Toyomatsu is arrested and tried as a war-criminal. And he receives the cruelest sentence possible...

Life of Hishakaku 2

Upon his release from the prison, Hishakaku joins the Kikkyo family who is struggling to regain their turf from their rival, Domoto family. To reciprocate the kindness of the Kikkyos, Hishakaku heads to meet the leader of Domoto, Osumi, and finds himself emotionally involved with her.

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice

The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet and rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.

"BLOW THE NIGHT!" Let's Spend the Night Together

"BLOW THE NIGHT!" Let's Spend the Night Together is a 1983 Japanese docu-drama shot on 16mm film starring actual Yanki gang members as many of the main characters.

Third Generation Boss

Based on Kazuo Taoka's autobiography, this film follows a Kobe gangster as he builds the small Yamaguchi-gumi into Japan's largest criminal clan.

Ruthless Gambler

Unlike traditional gangster movies, it is a gangster swashbuckler that mixes romance and humanity with a yakuza lover as the main character. A young man who heard that his former boss was killed is imprisoned by slashing his family's minions, and his lover is tortured by the enemy, but rescued by the imprisoned young man's nemesis.

Showdown at Nagasaki

When Keiji Takama returns to Nagasaki, he finds many changes. The rights of the entertainment field that had been held by his family have been taken over by the Matsui Group, a new gangster setup. So he becomes head of the Takama Group to regain lost territory. With the cooperation of all the Bosses from Tokyo to Nagasaki, who had known his father, Keiji recovers the rights to put on shows at the City Hall. As he had feared, however, Matsui begins to interfere with his plans. Keiji's men are furious, but he knows better than to take up the cudgels with Matsui at this important time. Whatever Matsui does, Keiji goes one better. Frustrated and bitter, Matsui calls in the help of Koiwa, a killer. Now, having tried his best to oust Keiji but finding that he is made of sterner stuff than he had counted on, he decides to have Koiwa do away with him for good.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War

Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics

As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima

Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.

This Country’s Sky

In suburban Tokyo in 1945, years of war and concentrated air raids by US forces have left the city in tatters and the population poor, tired, and hungry. The 19-year-old Satoko and her mother bide their time working nominal jobs and trying to stave off hunger. A displaced aunt turns up looking for shelter, but she is just another hungry mouth to feed. Satoko is becoming a woman and is drawn to the only eligible man in the neighborhood. This is a decidedly quiet film that focuses on a single character and her survival in dire circumstances in the spring of her life.

The Crazy Family

Shortly after moving to the suburbs, the Kobayashis start to come undone. Convinced a family curse is at the root of their erratic behavior, the man of the house takes it upon himself to course-correct before it takes the last of their sanity.

Mori, The Artist's Habitat

Vegetation thrives in painter Morikazu's garden, which is home to creatures that serve as models for his paintings, including numerous bugs and cats. A sweet and heartwarming day begins for Morikazu, who gazed at these garden creatures on a daily basis for over three decades, and those who love him.

Fighting Elegy

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.

Scoundrel

Shimamura is a violent street thug who joins the yakuza & is merciless & unscrupulous on his rise, lacking any sense of either duty or chivalry. When imprisoned, he is repeatedly transferred from one prison to another, because no one can handle him.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode

While Hirono is in prison, his rival Takeda turns his own crime organization into a political party, whose two executives stir up new tensions in their thirst for power.

The Drifting Gambler

8th part of the Gamblers / Bakuchi-uchi series.

A Gambler's Certain Death

Part 7 in the Gambling Den series. This time Koji Tsuruta is a gambler who feels sympathetic towards a woman whose naive husband is driven to a debt trap by a rotten gambling den owner (Tatsuo Endo) and his dishonest card dealer (Isamu Nagato). The plot is standard stuff and features too much talk, but there's also a decent balance between melodrama and lyricism in the form and storytelling. Tsuruta was a perfect fit for these kind of roles, with the stoic and emotional sides nicely mixed in his screen persona.

Gift of Fire

Towards the end of WWII, the Navy gave the Kyoto University's physics lab the secret of a bomb that makes use of nuclear fission energy. While doing research to save Japan, the researchers there wonder if they should promote the development of weapons as scientists. Research enthusiast Ishimura Osamu tries to experiment purely but is at the mercy of the time period. His brother, Hiroyuki, also has to face the truth of the war. Asakura Setsu wants only to talk about the future. A story based on historical facts about youth during the tragedy of war.

Naked Rashomon

A marquis' mistress becomes pregnant with fraternal twins. He keeps the boy, but sends his bodyguard to dispose of the mother and the girl. Years later…

Contemporary Tales of Chivalry: Forbidden Love

The story of a lone wolf struggling with human compassion and duty.

The Perennial Weed

A detective wonders that his sister is a murder suspect.

Outlaw Killers: Three Mad Dog Brothers

The great Bunta stars as a gangster who is sent to jail for the sake of his gang, but when he’s released he finds everything completely changed and his gang has swept him aside for being too violent. He tries to start a new life with his two ”brothers” but can’t seem to escape old affiliations

Coup d'Etat

A freestyle biopic of Ikki Kita, the ultranationalist intellectual whose ideas inspired the failed military coup in 1936.

A Modern Yakuza: Three Decoy Blood Brothers

When a large crime syndicate seeks to invade Gifu's underworld, three brothers and their yakuza family are the only ones that stand in their way.

The Story of a Man Among Men

During the Showa era, a young yakuza survives war and injury and rises to become a clan boss with the help and respect of his sworn brothers.

Shimamori Tower

Together with Shimada Akira (Hagiwara Masato), the last appointed governor of Okinawa during the war, Arai Taizo (Murakami Jun), the chief of police of Okinawa Prefecture, goes beyond his duties and strives to protect the lives of the citizens of the prefecture. As the ravages of war intensify, the two, who each carried a heavy cross during the Battle of Okinawa, desperately devote themselves to saving the lives of the Okinawan people, with the belief that "life is precious." A human drama, set in Okinawa at the end of World War II, depicting the preciousness of human life. Directed by Igarashi Sho of One Step on a Mine, It's All Over.

Air Girl

Komari Sano's parents ran a small Tokyo factory that manufactured aircraft parts. With her parents' influence, Komari Sano dreamed of becoming a pilot. During World War II, her older brother died as a kamikaze pilot and her parents died during the bombing of Tokyo. Komari Sano became an orphan and lived with her aunt. Her aunt ran a ryotei (high end traditional restaurant). After the war, all aerial activities were initially banned in Japan. After long negotiations with the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, Sizuo Matsuki, who is the security chief of Civil Aviation Bureau, finally launched Japan's civil aviation. Komari Sano applies for the position of a cabin attendant.

Naval Port Child: Yokosuka Cleaning 1946

Post-war Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Adults who are swayed by the US military stationed in the country and swayed by US intentions cannot afford to care about children who should be protected. The war orphans, who had no choice but to survive on their own, were used to shining shoes for American soldiers, picking up cigarettes, and sometimes committing crimes. However, at some point, they came across a "cleaning" job. They work hard instead of committing crimes and earn money by being appreciated by people. The orphans begin to regain their smiles through experiences that make them feel like they should be alive. The children started to have a modest dream of "renting a house and living" with their own earnings, but they were attacked by an even harsher reality...

The Drudgery Train

In this offbeat coming-of-age tale, a charming, rebellious high school dropout named Kanta befriends the kind, provincial Shoji. The two bring out the best in each other, each gaining confidence from their friendship - especially regarding pursuit of the opposite sex. The working class Kanta becomes a sort of unruly anti-hero, maintaining his pride, defiance, and self-assurance even as his prospects seem increasingly grim.

Fate Deals the Card of Death

Seijiro and Shizue meet in Niigata and fall in love. Seijiro has to go back to Tokyo soon after, and they promise each other to meet again a year later. However, Seijiro gets jailed for five years. Unable to find him, Shizue gets married to a yakuza boss who can help her family business.

Between the White Key and the Black Key

In an audacious reworking of the biopic, this ensemble drama sees jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi’s memoir cleverly reinterpreted into a surreal and playful story about chasing dreams, disillusionment and the inner lives of professional artists. Closer to playing two sides of the same coin than tackling a dual role, Ikematsu Sosuke embodies two versions of Minami – the naïve upstart and the jaded pro – who magically cross paths as they become entangled with a cast of colourful characters in the seedy alleyways and jazz clubs of Ginza over a single night.

Asakusa Kid

Before he hit it big, Takeshi Kitano got his start apprenticing with comedy legend Fukami of Asakusa. But as his star rises, his mentor's declines.

Farewell to the Land

Yukio is an ex-farmer working as a dump-truck driver in Kashima. Haunted by the drowning of his two young sons, whose names he has had tattooed on his back in penance, and locked in a sibling rivalry with his traditional but urbane younger brother who lives in Tokyo, Yukio has become an amphetamine-addicted loner at odds with his family, friends and colleagues.

Showdown of Men 2

Part two.

The Flower Girl

The country is occupied by the Japanese imperialists. Koppun is selling flowers at the market to get some money to buy medicine for her sick mother. Her brother is imprisoned, her father dead and her sister blind.

Tonbi

Yasuo (Hiroshi Abe) grew up as an orphan. He married a woman he loved and they had a son Akira (later played by Takumi Kitamura). Yasuo's life seemed great at the time, but his life totally changed after his wife died in accident. Since that time, Yasuo, who never experienced parents' love himself, has to raise his son Akira alone.