Shintarō Ishihara

Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking.

Set within the Aokigahara forest on Mount Fuji, a famous location for suicides. Follows the love and life between a man and woman.

Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.

After the son of a wealthy man is kidnapped, a tenacious young reporter decides to find the culprit.

Starring Akira Takarada as a lightweight boxing champion.

The film tells the story of a group of high school boxing team members who spend their days drinking, sailing and chasing girls, and who more often than not spend their nights getting into brawls. In particular, it focuses upon Tatsuya, a sullen young man, who falls in love with Eiko, a proud upper-class girl.

A female reporter is fired for writing about police corruption; to make money while hiding from the press, she posts a bounty upon herself.

A wealthy young man, engaged through family arrangement, meets a humble shop girl after she finds his lost ring. Their growing affection challenges class boundaries and family expectations, leading to a sincere romance that defies convention.

Drama of a disillusioned youth, with writer-actor Ishihara starring as the young man at odds with his bickering parents and scheming brother, while finding little happiness when he begins a liaison with an older woman.

Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when he encounters a strange and beautiful young woman.

In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.

Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking.

A former boxer gets involved with a club hostess trying to escape the clutches of her gangster employer.

No synopsis available yet.

While in vacation in a sea side house, a young man fall in love with a beautiful woman who pretends to live by herself in the sea. The fishermen of a nearby village think she is a monster, the female of a shark killed many years before, responsible for many disappearances.

A wealthy young man, engaged through family arrangement, meets a humble shop girl after she finds his lost ring. Their growing affection challenges class boundaries and family expectations, leading to a sincere romance that defies convention.

Story of a textile designer-turned featherweight boxer (Kubo) who, a la Champion ( 1949), loses everything as he battles his way to the top.

Story of a textile designer-turned featherweight boxer (Kubo) who, a la Champion ( 1949), loses everything as he battles his way to the top.

Udaka is a new, post-war city where corruption has already taken hold. A persistent district attorney wants to arrest and convict Katsumata, a laughing, self-confident thug. The D.A. gets an anonymous letter about the suicide five years' before of a city council member. Evidence about the case leads the D.A. to Tachibana, struggling to go straight after involvement with the mob and a prison sentence for killing the man responsible for the rape and suicide of his fiancée. One of Tachibana's friends is Keiko, the daughter of the dead councilman and the ward of another powerful official. How do these stories connect?

Drama of a disillusioned youth, with writer-actor Ishihara starring as the young man at odds with his bickering parents and scheming brother, while finding little happiness when he begins a liaison with an older woman.

Executive management of a major Tokyo construction company are getting bumped off one after another. It seems obvious that it is a former partner of the company with a long-standing grudge who is responsible, but he died in the first ten minutes of the movie. Or did he? This may aptly be described as a giallo-noir for the unrelenting string of murders by a mystery man and the black-and-white gritty urban setting.

No synopsis available yet.

A segment of “Love at Twenty” is a weird, grotesque and clumsy tale of obsessive and morbid love.

Taku Shinjo spins this rural drama about ancient taboos and encroaching modernity. Takamine (Gitan Otsuru) is a big-city workaholic sent to a small remote island to seal a business deal. His predecessor almost managed to convince the island's 17 inhabitants to sell their stake and make way for a resort hotel -- that is, before he died under dubious circumstances. Takamine finds the islanders polite and kind but unwilling to discuss business; instead, they tell him to become an islander. So the city-slicker stuffed shirt loses his tie and starts to help the women plant and the men fish. He soon makes his acquaintance with Takako (Mitsuko Baisho), the widowed daughter of the island's chief. She lives alone with her crazed son who is kept Jane Eyre-style chained to a stake. One moon-lit night, their mutual attraction boils over, resulting in a naked, passionate roll on the beach.