Acting

Katsuya Ishimaru

Acting credits

Vampire Monster Mansion poster
NR

A sequel to "Vampire Dead Beauty Carving", featuring the same members from the previous work, including scriptwriter Koji Takada, director Hideaki Onishi, and cinematographer Shigehira Suzuki.

Vampire Monster Mansion

1961

Castle of Flames poster
7.2

In 17th century Japan, Young Lord Masato returns after years abroad to find everything changed: his peace-loving father has died in what he soon finds to be mysterious circumstances, and his mother's married to his uncle, whose ruthless ambition is causing turmoil in the kingdom. Not knowing who to trust, Masato feigns madness, vowing to get to the truth, even though his act causes distress to the girl he loves, who's waited for him all these years. The ghost of his father turns up now and then to show him the way. Meanwhile a peasant revolt is brewing... It all ends tragically.

Castle of Flames

1960

Merciless Blade Part 2 poster
NR

The second film in the 1953 trilogy based on the long novel series The Great Bodhisattva Pass.

Merciless Blade Part 2

1953

Tales of Young Genji Kuro poster
7.0

Genji Kurô is a master swordsman and entrusted with protecting the ancient sword Kaen by the Otsubo family.

Tales of Young Genji Kuro

1957

Miyamoto Musashi poster
7.3

In this first episode, we are introduced to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he became the man of legend. His beginning are not exactly auspicious. He sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of the historic battle. He and his friend Matahachi manage to escape the slaughter although the latter is wounded in his leg. They stumble across the young Akemi who makes her living with her mother Oko by robbing corpses of their armor and anything else they can sell. Oko takes it into her head to seduce Matahachi, which she does first by skillfully sucking the gangrene from his blood, and then just by sucking.

Miyamoto Musashi

1961

The Kuroda Affair poster
9.0

This adaptation of a Hideji Hojo novel, about the historical uprising of the Kuroda clan in 1633, is told through the eyes of retainer, Daizen. As his clan’s new leader, Tadayuki, becomes increasingly militant in his opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate, Daizen is forced to reconcile his loyalty to the clan with his loyalty to Tadayuki, who seems dead set on entangling the clan in destructive conflict. The Kuroda Affair’s mise-en-scène is said to have influenced future Toei director Eiichi Kudo. The film also features two of the greatest stars of Japanese period cinema, Chiezo Kataoka and Ryutaro Otomo.

The Kuroda Affair

1956

Flowers on the Road poster
5.0

Yae and Kiku, daughters of drapers in Edo, must travel to Kyoto in place of their sickly fathers to attend to some businesses affairs. On their way to Kyoto, the two ladies are ambushed by a group of bandits. However a good Samaritan named Santaro comes to their rescue. Santaro is aiding a young samurai named Sanshiro who is on an official mission to deliver a message to a noble in Kyoto. When Yae and Kiku discover that a gang of assassins is after Sanshiro, they decide to help Sanshiro to complete his mission.

Flowers on the Road

1961

Sedge Hat poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sedge Hat

1957

No artwork available
6.5

This is the story of Gonpachi, a ronin who falls in love with the daughter of a man he had killed many years before.

Drenched Swallow Gonpachi

1958

The Happy Wanderer poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Happy Wanderer

1956

Restoration Fire poster
7.0

Megastar Kataoka Chiezo is Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi in this realistic tale of Japan’s inner battles that led to the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Excellent performances and extremely good swordplay highlight this glimpse into the heart and soul of Japanese history. Although known as “Razor Blade” Hijikata, the vice-commander is a man of deep conviction with a little-known sense of humanity. Starting after the famed Ikedaya Incident, in which they saved Kyoto from Choshu’s plot to burn the city to ashes, they work hard to change the public’s view of them as merciless killers to their true mission of protecting the shogun. This is an extraordinary tale of blood and guts! From the pen of award winning author Shotaro Ikenami (Bandit Vs. Samurai, Hunter in the Dark, Misumi's The Last Samurai)

Restoration Fire

1961

Red peonies on the skin poster
NR

Genjiro was a samurai in the past, but he became a Yakuza, a dandy with a tattoo of red peonies, he helps his younger brother who is caught up in a conflict with Hatamoto.

Red peonies on the skin

1957

Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji poster
7.4

Tragicomic road movie set during the Edo period. It follows a samurai, his two servants – including spear-carrier Genpachi – and the various people they meet on their journey, including a policeman in pursuit of a thief, a young child and a woman who is to be sold into prostitution.

Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji

1955

Souls in the Moonlight III poster
6.6

Master swordsman, Tsukue Ryunosuke is confronted by the families of his victims. Will justice be served for the lost innocent lives? The conclusion of the famed Jidaigeki series is an amazing film, with a completely different perspective on the story from the later versions. While the international audience is more familiar with the “Sword of Doom” and “Satan’s Sword” versions of Daibosatsu Toge (The Great Bodhisattva Pass), the “Souls in the Moonlight” trilogy casts an entirely different light on Ryunosuke and his motives. Can this brutal killer be brought to justice, or is living his life as a blind wanderer a more terrible fate? His sword skills have not diminished, nor has his desire to kill!

Souls in the Moonlight III

1959

Shingo's Original Challenge, Part 3 poster
NR

The adventures of Aoi Shingo continue. Shingo is finally given permission to officially meet his father, the Shogun. However, his journey is disturbed by those who wish to claim his life. This is the third part of "THE 10 DUELS OF YOUNG SHINGO", following the first 2 parts (which were actually done as one movie). The tension mounts as young Shingo must face obstacles the like of which he had never before seen. And, can he avenge the death of his master? The man to whom he owes everything.

Shingo's Original Challenge, Part 3

1960

The Eleventh Hour poster
7.4

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.

The Eleventh Hour

1957

Lord Mito poster
5.4

This most celebrated all-star movie version of the popular series features Tsukigata Ryunosuke as Mito Komon, the sage who wanders the countryside rectifying government corruption along with his faithful attendants Suke and Kaku.

Lord Mito

1957

Ninjutsu-tsukai to sennin masume poster
10.0

A two-part series of ninjutsu films directed by Masahiko Izawa, director of Yagyu Bugeichou (1961), based on an original scenario by Yasuo Yokoyama.

Ninjutsu-tsukai to sennin masume

1961

No artwork available
6.0

Lord Gennosuke and Princess Yoshi are to be betrothed to one another, however Gennosuke is already in love with Suzue who is from a lower caste. The order has been sent from up on high that if Gennosuke won't change his mind then Suzue must be dealt with one way or another. When spearmaster, Fuwa Mondo, a Ronin and all around happy guy stumbles into the plot, things get a little hokey-pokey.

The Spear of Heroism

1961

Abekobe dōchū poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Abekobe dōchū

1962

Whistling Drifter poster
NR

Friendship between good samurais and aborigines in Hokkaido.

Whistling Drifter

1961

The Unleashed Lord poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Unleashed Lord

1959

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Furisode Mansion poster
NR

The fourth episode of the popular detective series starring Tomisaburō Wakayama. Featuring mysterious ronin, enigmatic bon vivants, and melancholic daughter geishas, as they become entangled in a series of strange deaths occurring one after another at the Furisode Mansion. With the astute reasoning and Hōzen-ryū stick technique of the puppet showman Sakichi of Kanda Otamagaike, the threads of the mystery are gradually unraveled.

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Furisode Mansion

1960

Lord Mito: All Star Version poster
8.3

In 1691 a terrible fire broke out in Denmacho, Yotsuya, burning down the towns around it, up to the shores of Shibaura. A month and a half later, another fire broke out, this time in Komagome, burning down the two gates of Asakusa and Sujikai, and continuing on into the night. As the government Elders consider evidence that these fires were arson, a fire breaks out in Hirakawa-cho, outside of Hanzo Gate. Nishonmaru catches on fire and burns down completely. When this rash of fires even strikes Kyoto, the task of finding who’s behind the arson, and stopping them falls to the Shogun’s uncle, the Elder Lord of Mito. Together with his trusted bodyguards, Kaku and Suke, the trio set of to save Japan from this scourge of evil. Featuring virtually all of their most famous stars, this is the best film in the Toei series about Mito Komon, one of Japan’s most popular historical figures who traveled through the country incognito to check on the people and fight injustice.

Lord Mito: All Star Version

1960