Tōru Murakawa

Directing

Tōru Murakawa

Born

1937-03-22 (89)

Place of birth

Yamagata, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Tōru Murakawa is a Japanese film director. He is most famous for his collaborations with the actor Yūsaku Matsuda in both film and television.

Known for

Kyotaro Nishimura's Mystery: Railway Inspector 16 poster
NR

Six high school tennis clubmates, including railroad investigator Noriko Hanamura, are going on a day trip to Kawaguchi Lake. However, one of them, Ayako Hirayama, does not show up even after the arranged time for the meet-up has passed. Magazine writer Yumi Tachiki, who planned the trip, calls Ayako but gets no answer, so Noriko and the others, believing Ayako will catch up with them, proceed to their destination. Even though Yumi and Noriko call Ayako many times, she does not answer. Yumi receives an urgent work request after arriving at Tenjozan Park by ropeway, so Noriko and the others return to Tokyo leaving Yumi at the mountain. None of them had any contact with Ayako the entire day. That night, Noriko receives a call from the Yamanashi Prefectural Police informing her that Yumi's body has been found stabbed in Tenjozan Park. One of the ropeway employees happened to witness a mysterious woman wearing a hat and a mask following Yumi down the mountain trail that evening...

Kyotaro Nishimura's Mystery: Railway Inspector 16

2016

Abunai Deka Returns poster
8.8

No synopsis available yet.

Abunai Deka Returns

1996

New York Undercover Cop poster
3.8

Allegedly based on a true story, this film follows the life of Toshi, a Japanese man living in America and working with the New York City police. After being recommended for undercover work, Toshi decides to go after a gang lead by Hawk. Hawk and Toshi soon become friends, although Hawk's second-in-command, Tito, is suspicious of the newcomer. Will Toshi be able to bring the gang down, or will his cover be blown before he can finish the assignment?

New York Undercover Cop

1993

The Shootout poster
7.0

A run-in with the police once again puts three former reformatory inmates on the wrong side of the law. Their situation becomes increasingly desperate as events spin out of control, culminating in an audacious hijack at sea...

The Shootout

1982

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf poster
6.3

A seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate salaryman leads a double life as a vicious criminal by night. In a delicious scheme of payback, he seeks to dominate the corporation that employs him by day.

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf

1979

The Beast to Die poster
5.8

A Nietzschean journalist who covered the Vietnam War, Lebanese Civil War and other conflicts becomes mentally unstable and goes on a spree of robbery and murder.

The Beast to Die

1980

Behind the camera

Kyotaro Nishimura's Mystery: Railway Inspector 16 poster
NR

Six high school tennis clubmates, including railroad investigator Noriko Hanamura, are going on a day trip to Kawaguchi Lake. However, one of them, Ayako Hirayama, does not show up even after the arranged time for the meet-up has passed. Magazine writer Yumi Tachiki, who planned the trip, calls Ayako but gets no answer, so Noriko and the others, believing Ayako will catch up with them, proceed to their destination. Even though Yumi and Noriko call Ayako many times, she does not answer. Yumi receives an urgent work request after arriving at Tenjozan Park by ropeway, so Noriko and the others return to Tokyo leaving Yumi at the mountain. None of them had any contact with Ayako the entire day. That night, Noriko receives a call from the Yamanashi Prefectural Police informing her that Yumi's body has been found stabbed in Tenjozan Park. One of the ropeway employees happened to witness a mysterious woman wearing a hat and a mask following Yumi down the mountain trail that evening...

Kyotaro Nishimura's Mystery: Railway Inspector 16

2016

Abunai Deka Returns poster
8.8

No synopsis available yet.

Abunai Deka Returns

1996

New York Undercover Cop poster
3.8

Allegedly based on a true story, this film follows the life of Toshi, a Japanese man living in America and working with the New York City police. After being recommended for undercover work, Toshi decides to go after a gang lead by Hawk. Hawk and Toshi soon become friends, although Hawk's second-in-command, Tito, is suspicious of the newcomer. Will Toshi be able to bring the gang down, or will his cover be blown before he can finish the assignment?

New York Undercover Cop

1993

The Shootout poster
7.0

A run-in with the police once again puts three former reformatory inmates on the wrong side of the law. Their situation becomes increasingly desperate as events spin out of control, culminating in an audacious hijack at sea...

The Shootout

1982

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf poster
6.3

A seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate salaryman leads a double life as a vicious criminal by night. In a delicious scheme of payback, he seeks to dominate the corporation that employs him by day.

The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf

1979

The Beast to Die poster
5.8

A Nietzschean journalist who covered the Vietnam War, Lebanese Civil War and other conflicts becomes mentally unstable and goes on a spree of robbery and murder.

The Beast to Die

1980

Revengence Superlady poster
6.2

A woman seeks vengeance against the man who killed her entire family.

Revengence Superlady

1986

The Execution Game poster
7.5

The third movie in Tōru Murakawa's Game trilogy about a hitman. Narumi is set up by a mysterious woman. Abducted and tortured, Narumi is forced to take on a difficult job. The target is a veteran killer as good as him.

The Execution Game

1979

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 66: Kushiro-Obihiro Murder Route poster
NR

The strangled dead body of Hiroshi Hatano, accounting section chief at the longstanding apparel company Edaka International, is discovered in his apartment in Tokyo. At the scene, Inspector Totsugawa and Detective Kamei find out that a mysterious email stating "I'll be riding the Super Ozora 5 tomorrow" was sent to the victim's cell phone the night before. The sender, Manami Furuya, an employee of Edaka International's Planning Section, has strangely terminated her cell phone service and hasn't shown up to work that very morning. Immediately afterwards, Totsugawa is astonished to receive a report from the Hokkaido police stating that the body of a man, stabbed to death, has been found on the Super Ozora 5 limited express. The man is Yuuki Nakamura, a bar employee from Tokyo, who seems to have flown from Haneda Airport to Sapporo and then boarded the Super Ozora 5, which connects Sapporo and Kushiro. Totsugawa has the feeling that this can't be a coincidence...

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 66: Kushiro-Obihiro Murder Route

2016

Distant Justice poster
5.5

After his daughter is kidnapped and his wife murdered by drug dealers, a man finds that the gang is protected by corrupt politicians, and sets out to wipe out the gang and expose the politicians.

Distant Justice

1992

The Most Dangerous Game poster
6.3

The first movie of Tôru Murakawa’s “Game” trilogy, in which an assassin hired to recover a kidnap victim becomes embroiled in a vicious power struggle between two large corporations over a sizable government defence contract.

The Most Dangerous Game

1978

The Killing Game poster
7.5

The second movie of Tôru Murakawa's "Game" trilogy. After making a sensational hit, a hitman has gone into hiding for five years. When he comes back he bumps into two women that he has spared five years ago. Two rival yakuza bosses hire Narumi to kill the other. Will Narumi's sense of chivalry entrap him again?

The Killing Game

1978

Dead Angle poster
8.0

Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the 1950s.

Dead Angle

1979

Playful White Fingers poster
4.7

A girl falls for a pickpocketer who gets arrested, so she hooks up with his ex-girlfriend and his ex-cellmate.

Playful White Fingers

1972

Playful White Fingers poster
4.7

A girl falls for a pickpocketer who gets arrested, so she hooks up with his ex-girlfriend and his ex-cellmate.

Playful White Fingers

1972

No More God, No More Love poster
7.0

Released after seven years in prison, an inveterate thug goes from strength to ruthless strength as he makes his way through a succession of dubious jobs, illegal schemes, and brutal romances.

No More God, No More Love

1985

Kyotaro Nishimura's Travel Mystery 67: Murder in Hakone - Leaves & Mountains poster
NR

Detective Kamei of the First Investigation Division receives a request from lawyer Shinichi Nakamura, the son of his deceased close friend, to re-investigate a car accident. Akiko, the wife of Yasuo Furuki, a painter from Hakone, died in the accident 5 months earlier by crashing into a guardrail. Nakamura's client, Akiko's younger sister Yuki Izeki, suspects that she was actually murdered by Furuki for insurance money. Overwhelmed by these thoughts, Yuki had sent an email reading "I'll never forgive that man. I'm going to kill him and avenge my big sister," announcing a murder to Nakamura. In the middle of their conversation, Nakamura receives a call from Hakone PD confirming that Yuki had turned herself in that morning...

Kyotaro Nishimura's Travel Mystery 67: Murder in Hakone - Leaves & Mountains

2017

Saraba Abunai Deka poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Saraba Abunai Deka

2016

The Hidden Trail of the Beasts poster
7.6

A star tennis player takes revenge on the blackmailers out to ruin his athletic career.

The Hidden Trail of the Beasts

1981

Futari no onna poster
NR

After Emiko, a bookstore owner, is driven to suicide by loan sharks, her orphaned son Eisuke decides to take his revenge on them. As Eisuke has no relatives, he is taken in by Keiko, who keeps an eye out for him due to his unusual behavior. One day, Eisuke breaks into the loan company with an improvised gun. In the moment, Keiko ends up becoming Eisuke's accomplice and helps him succeed in the robbery. However, the two are surprised when they hear something on the TV news that differs from the truth.

Futari no onna

1983

Angel and Devil Beauty poster
NR

Based on Edogawa Ranpo's "Daydream."

Angel and Devil Beauty

1983

The Beauty of the Sundial Mansion poster
NR

A shadowy figure roams the attic of an old Western-style mansion every night. A famous detective takes on the mystery surrounding a woman who was once the lover of a former member of the nobility.

The Beauty of the Sundial Mansion

1988

The Phantom Beauty of Kobe Rokko poster
NR

While out for a stroll, the famous detective Kogoro Akechi enters a museum and encounters a woman staring at a poster of someone who looks exactly like him. The woman is the renowned art photographer Fujiko Maiya...

The Phantom Beauty of Kobe Rokko

1989

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 72 poster
6.0

University professor Kenzo Oshima (Hisamatsu Nobumi) is stabbed to death by someone in an alleyway in Tokyo, and Inspector Totsukawa (Takahashi Hideki) and Detective Kamei (Takada Junji) of the Metropolitan Police Department's Investigation Department's Investigative Division 1 arrive on the scene. According to the first finder, the victim died after saying "Totsukawa...". Oshima was famous as the leading authority on mitochondria, but he had never met Totsukawa... Totsukawa is puzzled, but begins to investigate, and discovers that a suspicious man has been caught on a security camera near the crime scene. Seeking a clue, Totsukawa and his colleagues interview associate professor Hayase Yumi (Kurotani Yuka) and the president of a biotechnology company, Koji Nakazono (Nakamura Shunsuke), who was assisting them in their research, to find out what happened. They find out that the man caught on the security camera is none other than their childhood friend, Akaike Shogoro (Matsuo Satoshi).

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 72

2020

The Chaser poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Chaser

1989

Target poster
10.0

Two killers revenge a wirepuller of the underworld in Yokohama.

Target

1980

Love and Death at Fuji Speedway poster
4.5

The movie was inspired by real life test driver Yukio Fukuzawa, who on 12 February 1969 lost control of his Toyota 7 at Fuji Speedway near Nakahinata, Japan and fatally smashed into a signpost. In the movie Kei Kiyama’s pop singer character meets Tôru Minegishi’s doomed racer when he happens along as she’s throwing her own records into the sea. From there things get even cheerier.

Love and Death at Fuji Speedway

1972

Love and Death at Fuji Speedway poster
4.5

The movie was inspired by real life test driver Yukio Fukuzawa, who on 12 February 1969 lost control of his Toyota 7 at Fuji Speedway near Nakahinata, Japan and fatally smashed into a signpost. In the movie Kei Kiyama’s pop singer character meets Tôru Minegishi’s doomed racer when he happens along as she’s throwing her own records into the sea. From there things get even cheerier.

Love and Death at Fuji Speedway

1972

Break Out poster
7.8

An accidental shooting on the job and a recent divorce take a toll on the personal and professional life of a Japanese detective. Just as it seems he can't go any lower, he is suspended from the force for disregarding orders to halt his criminal investigation of a Congressman. However, even this setback won't stop the determined cop from getting to the bottom of the scandal.

Break Out

1988

Rule of Revenge ROGUE COP poster
NR

The detective with the highest arrest rate. In fact, he was a vicious detective who communicated with the gangsters!

Rule of Revenge ROGUE COP

1992

Single Girl poster
NR

Story set in Yokohama.

Single Girl

1983

Beauty in the Flames poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Beauty in the Flames

1984

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 68: Disappearing Woman in Yamagata poster
NR

Inspector Totsugawa of the First Investigation Division goes to Tsuruoka in Yamagata to attend the wedding of the son of Inspector Mukai, his former colleague who now works for the Yamagata Prefectural Police. While sightseeing at Mt. Haguro after the ceremony, he notices a young woman drawing him in her sketchbook. She introduces herself as Yuka Shiraishi and says she came to draw the Dewa Sanzan. Signing the drawing of Totsugawa next to the five-story pagoda with her initial, a 'Y' in the corner, she gives it to him as a present. The next morning, the corpse of a young woman who has been stabbed is discovered in a forest in Tsuruoka. When Totsugawa, on his way back, hears that a sketchbook signed with a 'Y' was found at the scene, he follows Mukai there. However, the body is not Yuka, the woman Totsugawa had met, and while no items pointing to her identity are found, the sketchbook is the same one Yuka had the day before.

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 68: Disappearing Woman in Yamagata

2017

Mottomo Abunai Deka poster
8.5

Taka and Yuji find evidence in a 15-year-old case, but the statute of limitations expires in four days and they're hunting illicit gun manufacturers.

Mottomo Abunai Deka

1989

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hamuretto wa yukue fumei

1981

No artwork available
NR

While returning from a business trip to Hokkaido, Detective Kamei of the MPD greets a middle-aged traveler in the waiting room of Minami-Wakkanai Station but is ignored by him. On the limited express to Asahikawa, the same man happens to entrust Kamei with a floppy disk before dying. The floppy contains his investigative notes on a murder that happened two years ago...

Kyotaro Nishimura's Travel Mystery - Soya Honsen Murder Incident

2001

The Lowly Ronin: Hanayama Daikichi poster
NR

Low-caste former samurai Hanayama Daikichi and his gambler friend Hanji of Yaizu, come to a once peaceful post town of Kofu. A town now filled with gamblers, prostitutes, and unscrupulous opportunists, all drawn by the smell of blood and the scent of newly-mined gold. Daikichi brings a little girl whose father has been butchered by yakuza assassins, hoping to find her family. Intrigue and violence follow the group as they must ward off a deadly female spy and a mysterious ronin with a violent past. Tension mounts as all these forces come together to unravel a secret which will unleash a wave of violence that could destroy them all.

The Lowly Ronin: Hanayama Daikichi

1995

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Munesue keiji no kuroi matsuri

2015

Go!! Karate Club poster
NR

Adapted from a manga and anime of the same name.

Go!! Karate Club

1990

Melancholy Flesh Business: Sensuous Zone poster
7.0

Nikkatsu Roman Porno

Melancholy Flesh Business: Sensuous Zone

1972