Michino Yokoyama

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

Contemporary comedy.

When Sergeant Okubo's brother is murdered at a Japanese outpost in Northern China during the Second World War, Okubo poses as a war correspondent and seeks out his brother's killer.

Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal followers (now Ronin, masterless Samurai) dedicate their lives to avenging his death.

A drummer falls for a pawnbroker's daughter.

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.

An Ishiro Honda film.

No synopsis available yet.

Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.

A contemporary comedy.

When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of random events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three days in their home.

Three girls go on a trip after a friend commits suicide and learn about friendship.

Just when Hideki thinks he will lose his virginity, he gets hit by a car, and dies. God gives him a 2nd chance by placing his mind into the body of Sachiko's best friend, a girl. Can he convince Sachiko of his love?

Ryuta and Mineo Komatsu are brothers, both yakuza (gangsters). Mineo, although complicit in crime, even murder, wants out of the gangster life, hoping to become a successful singer instead. Ryuta loves his brother, but Mineo's possible defection presents problems for the gang, and Ryuta realizes he must kill his brother if he wants to survive.

A film about the life of Kiyoshi Yamashita, a Japanese painter with disabilities.

The mythical adventures of the legendary Chinese trickster Monkey, who must outwit a variety of wily demons who stand in the way of him and his fellow Buddhist travelers. Though portrayed as a literal, if rather anthropomorphized, monkey in the original legends, this film substitutes the spindly comic actor Norihei Miki, sans makeup.

Nayoko, a good-hearted geisha, brings luck to the men she sleeps with, even though most are scoundrels who don’t deserve it.

Place your bets! Japan's greatest gambler, Koji Himuro (Akira Kobayashi), faces off against an international cabal of gamblers with only his wits and his incredibly skilled left hand against every conceivable way to cheat someone in a game.

The 18th "Ekimae" feature.

A promising post-graduate literature student is transformed into a psychotic killer following the suicide of his father and a sleazy affair by his mother with a younger man.

A "hustler's hustler" (Takarada), works his way up the corporate ladder at a camera company. His biggest scheme involves winning the business of a foreign visitor by setting him up with a beautiful "model" (Tsukasa), actually a bar hostess, but the plan backfires when the would-be executive falls for the woman himself.

No synopsis available yet.