A Samurai's Sorrow (1993)

Lost in Translation

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Zatoichi

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

The Hidden Fortress

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

Suicide Club

When 54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train it appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer to this mystery, which isn't as simple as he had hoped.

Love and Other Cults

Ai's mother sends her to live with a cult commune, where she remains for seven years. After the cult is broken up by the police, Ai struggles to fit in with society.

The Last Samurai

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

Hello World

A shy high schooler in Kyoto meets a man claiming to be his future self, who tells him he’s hacked into the past to save their first love.

Moon Rabbit

Seven-year-old Rio visits her grandparents in Japan for the first time. She observes the beauty and unfamiliarity of the household, sensing a distance between her American family and the Japanese relatives. When her mother, Seiko, reveals an open secret during tea, the children are excused from the room and something happens behind closed doors.

The Courier

At the beginning of the 19th century, Japan was under a policy of national isolation. A group of Dutch scholars who wanted to open the country secretly completed a copy of a map of Japan under shogunate control. They sent a young Dutch scholar, Michi-an, as a secret envoy to deliver the copy of the map to the Dutch. Michi-an, hiding himself and making his way through the deserted winter mountains, but the mountain guardians, led by Takayama, had begun hunting in the mountains with a description of Michi-an's appearance arranged by the shogunate.

Strange Circus

The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear.

Golden Peacock Castle, Part 2

The struggles of the Golden Peacock Clan continue as they seek to reclaim their home and prevent the evil Gondaiyu from taking their most prized treasures.

Golden Peacock Castle, Part 4

The righteous young men, who were separated by the all-out attack of sorcery, are saved by the friendship of a young Sengoku warlord, and now launch an all-out attack on Gondayu, who has usurped the regent's position. An exciting and heated battle unfolds. This is the grand finale of a golden period drama that mobilizes all the popular youth stars.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

Ito

A shy country girl chooses a part-time job at a maid cafe where she serves customers while dressed up as a maid.

Kokoda

A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.

The Ukishima Maru Massacre

22nd of August, 1945. Japan lost the war and they loaded an 8,000 person Joseon laborer force onto a ship called the Ukisima to take them to the Busan Port. However, the ship sunk into the water due to an unknown blast. This is the story of thousands of Joseon people who dreamed of returning to their families and how they died.

Baian the Assassin

This is an ensemble period drama adapted from Shotaro Ikenami's popular novel, featuring the famous Kabuki actor brothers Kinnosuke Manya and Katsuo Nakamura, who made the transition from the Kabuki world to the film industry, and a cast of gorgeous and diverse faces. The Edo period. Nagato Abe, a Hatamoto (a feudal lord), is annoyed by his son's bad behavior, and when it becomes a hindrance to his own career, he asks Otowaya Hanemon, a black marketeer, to assassinate his son. The target is then taken care of by the assassin, Umeyasu. In order to keep his mouth shut, Nagatomon no Mamoru also attempts to take Otowaya's life. Nagato's brother-in-law, Omiya Sahei, a corrupt merchant from the Kamigata region, also plans to replace Otowaya as the head of Edo's black market business, so Umebayashi and his fellow trapper Hikojiro set out to eliminate them.

March Goes out Like a Lamb

The time spent between professional Shogi player Kiriyama and his three stories helps to heal his wounds. As he prepares to secure another win in an upcoming tournament, the father who left the three sisters appears and disturbs the peace.

Tattoo

Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

Migawari Mission

Kozukenosuke Kira is slashed with a sword by Ako Daimyo, who holds deep contempt towards Kozukenosuke Kira. Ako Daimyo then kills himself. Both of their families now fall into a big crisis. At this time, a vassal for the Kira family comes up with an extraordinary solution. The plan calls for Takaaki Kira, who is the younger brother of Kozukenosuke Kira, to pretend he is his older brother and deceive the shogunate. Takaaki Kira looks virtually identical to his older brother.

In the Wake

Baffling serial killings unfold in which the victims are tied up and left to starve. Tone was just released from prison after finishing his sentence for another crime, and he surfaces as a suspect but detective Tomashiro can't nail down conclusive proof.

Kubi

Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to control Japan where rival warlords battle by waging war against several clans. His vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears.

The Great White Tower

The story contrasts the life of two doctors, former classmates and now both assistant professors at Naniwa University Hospital in Osaka. The brilliant and ambitious surgeon Goro Zaizen stops at nothing to rise to a position of eminence and authority, while the friendly Shuji Satomi busies himself with his patients and research.

Love Never to End

He is Kikuji Murao (Etsushi Toyokawa), a former best-selling novelist who has had a decade-long dry spell that has reduced him to university teaching and magazine hackery. After divorcing his wife (Reiko Takashima) and leaving behind his teenage daughter (Shihori Kanjiya), he meets Fuyuka Irie (Shinobu Terajima), a housewife and mother of three who is a longtime fan.

The Mad Fox

A court fortune-teller loses his mind after a conspiracy leads to the death of his lover. Hope appears to be on the horizon after he becomes romantically involved with his dead lover's twin sister, but more complications arise thanks to a chance encounter with a clan of shape-shifters.

The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue

Mika works as a nurse by day; by night she entertains covetous men at a girls' bar. Shinji is blind in one eye and ekes out a living as a construction worker. Young and grown-up at the same time, they both lead a lonely existence, but somehow their paths keep miraculously crossing under the Tokyo sky.

Moonshadow Ninja Scroll: Twenty-One Eyes

A wave of terror is threatening to unseat Shogun Yoshimune. Police stations are erupting into flames, convicts escaping from prison, houses robbed and vandalized, streets teeming with panicked citizens. Is Ijyuin Tanomo, highly-placed official of Owari clan, secretly using deadly ninja to foment riot and rebellion? Narumiya Shinbei, a lone samurai spy adept at ninjutsu must uncover the hidden hand orchestrating these shocking crimes. Shinbei enlists a small band of dedicated ninja to lay siege to the enemy’s stronghold, where his own sister works as an undercover agent. Now, ninja must fight ninja in a last desperate battle to save the shogunate.

Haru

A young Tokyo businessman joins an online movie forum and develops a special bond with one of its members through back and forth e-mails.

7 Secretaries: The Movie

The seven secretaries who consist of the "Shadow Army" enjoy peaceful days. They receive a new request from Koichi Ogata, who runs a ramen restaurant in Nagano prefecture. He is furious at land development that is carried out by Alps Raicho Group. The Alps Raicho Group and their Alps Raicho Resort are run by the Tsukumo family. That family exerts tremendous influence around the region. The Tsukumo family seem like a well mannered family, but, in reality, they are a vicious family who will do anything for their own interests.

Millennium Mambo

Vicky recalls her romances with her exes Hao Hao and Jack in the neon-lit clubs of Taipei.

Cherry Blossoms

After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi...

The Karate Kid Part II

Summoned by his dying father, Miyagi returns to his homeland of Okinawa, with Daniel, after a 40-year exile. There he must confront Yukie, the love of his youth, and Sato, his former best friend turned vengeful rival. Sato is bent on a fight to the death, even if it means the destruction of their village. Daniel finds his own love in Yukia's niece, Kumiko, and his own enemy in Sato's nephew, the vicious Chozen. Now, far away from the tournaments, cheering crowds and safety of home, Daniel will face his greatest challenge ever when the cost of honor is life itself.

Kikujiro

Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.

March Comes In Like a Lion

Rei Kiriyama is a 17-years-old shogi (Japanese chess) player. He debuted as a professional shogi player when he was in middle school. He lives by himself in Tokyo, because his parents and younger sister died in an traffic accident when he was little. One day, Rei Kiriyama meets three sisters who are his neighbors. The three sisters are Akari Kawamoto, Hinata Kawamoto and Momo Kawamoto. This is his first meeting with someone outside of the shogi world in many years. Having meals with the Kawamoto family brings warm feelings to Rei Kiriyama. As Rei Kiriyama continues his shogi career, his interactions with his neighbors allows him to grow as a shogi player and as a person.

Black Rain

Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.

The Third Murder

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

The Silent Sword: Loyalty and Honor

Keinosuke (Masakazu Tamura) is a ronin (wandering samurai) who lives on the streets although he is a nobleman. There’s just one woman in this world that he loves, Shiho (Emi Wakui) but when he meets her again, she is already someone else’s wife. Her husband is a key person in the Chushingura incident. Love reignites between Keinosuke and Shiho but they get caught up in the spiral of fate of the Chushingura incident...

In the Realm of the Senses

A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.

John Rabe

A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.

Edo Purebreed

Action and adventure abound in this story of friendship between two rival firefighters, Kichigoro and Jirokichi in old Japan. When Mukai Sadayu, the vassal of Kaga Clan's accounting officer, Shinagawa Daihachi demands that Omon serve him tea in his mansion and she refuses, the clan's samurai abduct her setting in motion a series of events that will bring the two firefighters into a world of danger and excitement. Jirokichi, leader of the Edo firefighting team "Ha-gumi" must first rescue Omon from the clutches of the vile Kaga Clan's retainers.

Mom's Celestial Robe of Feathers

"There are many things that I don't like. The traffic jam on the way to Naha, my debt-ridden father, my best friend's boyfriend, milk, and my hometown, Shioya-wan. Why did my beautiful mother marry my father?" Ruri tried to escape from these thoughts as she faced an uncertain future. Then, one day, she learns of her mother's past, but…

Sasaki Kojiro

Ronin Sasaki Kojiro pursues his ultimate goal of becoming a master swordsman. Along the way he encounters another great swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi.

Kunisada Chuji

Kunisada Chuji is a common folk hero who looks out for poor people in the country who are at the mercy of corrupt officials. Intent on fulfilling a dying wish from one of his henchmen, Asataro, to find a decent home for his young nephew, Chuji descends from his hide-out in the mountain, and heads to the city in spite of numerous dangers that await him there.

Case of the Hidden Coin

A mysterious coin found at a murder scene stirs the curiosity of young actress detective Oshichi and her brother Hyoma, who set out on a private investigation to unveil the secrets hidden behind the coin.

Dawn of the Felines

A story of three escort girls living in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. They work at the same escort service while feeling lonely in their urban lives.

Coin Laundry

On this special night at a coin laundry, people of different characters meet to influence, inspire or change each other's lives.

Umami

Following a near-death experience France's leading chef throws himself into a quest seeking the flavor that has confounded his life since he was defeated by a Japanese chef's bowl of noodles as a young man.

Battle Royale

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Drive Into Night

A surprising and humanistic drama that questions the meaning of happiness through the strange fate of one man who caused an accident. One night, a taciturn and clumsy man working at a scrap iron factory in the suburbs of Tokyo, causes an irreparable accident with his colleague. The two try to hide the incident but the man’s fate takes a turn for the worse and his colleague and family are faced with threats to their survival. A psychologial thriller that reveals the ills of Japanese society along with the darknesses of the human heart based on a script full of surprises written by the director Dai Sakō. Tomomitsu Adachi, who plays the lead role, exudes an eerie charm, and is flanked by many of Japan's best supporting actors such as Yutaka Matsushige and Shohei Uno.

Sasaki Kojiro, Part 2

The conclusion of the story of famed swordsman, Sasaki Kojiro. After surviving a series of daring adventures, Kojiro seems to have finally discovered the ultimate happiness in life when he is reunited with Tone, the love of his life. However, his days of happiness are overshadowed by an upcoming duel with his fateful enemy Miyamoto Musashi.

Hideko the Bus Conductress

Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the dwindling number of passengers when her job and the bus company itself are at stake.

Memoirs of a Geisha

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Little Peach

Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.

Castle of Revenge

The film vividly shows the misadventures of Oishi Kuranosuke and the human dramas inside the castle, which lead to the surrender of Ako Castle after seppuku by its lord Asano Takumi-no-kami and the termination of his family's power. This is the first film of the Ako Castle trilogy.

Golden Valley

A samurai thief fights a gang of ghostly thieves using scorpions for treasure in the unexplored Shinano region, which is guarded by a descendant of the Heike clan.

Lady Snowblood

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.

Nobody Knows

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the suicide bombing of a young girl and is forced to undergo retraining. However, unbeknownst to him, he becomes a key player in a dispute between rival police divisions, as he finds himself increasingly involved with the sister of the girl he saw die.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Dolls

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

The Shogun's Vault I

Tomizo, a master storehouse-breaker who has been released from prison in Denmacho after serving five years plans to break into the Edo Castle gold storehouse to avenge the death of his father, who died a violent death at a gold mine on Sado Island. With the help of Hanji, a playboy who took care of him in prison, as his partner, Tomizo decides on the night of fireworks to be held in Edo Castle as the day to carry out his plan. Kanpei, a wise man, is suspicious of the plan.

Whipmaster: Ballad of Murder

Ryotatsu, the wayward Priest blinded by Shinkai, the Wicked Priest, has his own story in this ultra-violent tale from the era of the Meiji Reconstruction. When a woman leaves her blind son at the Monastery, Ryotatsu is forced to teach the boy how to cope as a blind person in old Japan. When he takes the child with him on the road to find the boy's mother, they run afoul of not only yakuza gangsters, but some corrupt army officers have been trying to sway public opinion against the Satsuma rebels by posing as members of Saigo Takamori's group. It's a bloody mistake for them to underestimate the strength of the Blind Priest, and he'll make them pay with their lives!

The Great War of Archimedes

It is the early 1930s and the command of the Japanese Imperial Navy determines to construct the world's biggest and most formidable battleship, Yamato. One of the admirals, Yamamoto Isoroku, disagrees. He recruits the upstart and mathematics' expert Tadashi Kai who discovers there are discrepancies between the official cost estimates and the actual figures. They soon find out that they have stumbled upon a conspiracy.

Mothra vs. Godzilla

Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra's fairies arrive and are aided by the journalists in a plea for its return. As their requests are denied, Godzilla arises near Nagoya and the people of Infant Island must decide if they are willing to answer Japan's own pleas for help.

To End All Wars

Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.