Koreyoshi Kurahara

Directing

Koreyoshi Kurahara

Born — Died

1927-05-31 — 2002-12-28

Place of birth

Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Known for

Directing

Credits

40 titles

Over the course of his varied career, Koreyoshi Kurahara made meticulous noirs, jazzy juvenile-delinquency pictures, and even nature films. His free-form approach to moviemaking was perfectly suited to the radical spirit of the 1960s, when he was one of the biggest hit makers working at the razzle-dazzle, youth-oriented Nikkatsu studios.

Known for

Antarctica poster
7.2

Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica.

Antarctica

1983

I Hate But Love poster
7.0

A celebrity, dissatisfied with his personal and professional lives, impulsively leaves fast-paced Tokyo to deliver a much-needed jeep to a remote village. When his controlling manager, the woman he loves, follows, the two must reconcile while dodging reporters.

I Hate But Love

1962

Gate of Youth poster
7.2

The story of Shinsuke, a young man who lives through a stormy life as a poverty-stricken coal miner. Ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of his life. Shinsuke's father a group leader at the mine, dies while bravely using dynamite to rescue a group of trapped Korean miners. Several older men attempt to help he and his mother cope, including a friendly Harley-riding yakuza boss. This movie has it all, drama, romance, sex, yakuza and violence! It is based on a story by Hiroyuki Itsuki that was originally serialized in the magazine Shukan Gendai in 1969-70.

Gate of Youth

1981

Intimidation poster
7.2

Koreyoshi Kurahara's ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The marvelously moody Intimidation is an elegantly stripped-down and carefully paced crime drama.

Intimidation

1960

Black Sun poster
6.4

Akira, a young, jazz-obsessed drifter, returns to his squat, a ruined church, and finds Gill, a wounded African-American GI, on the run after the death of a white GI. Despite terrible misunderstandings and culture clash, Akira agrees to help Gill escape towards the sea, dodging military police along the way.

Black Sun

1964

Spring Bell poster
7.2

Rokuheita Narumi is fascinated by oriental art and works as the director of the Saho Art Museum in Nara. His wife, Noriko, is unable to leave Tokyo, despite his wishes, and the two live separately. Feeling lonely and neglected by her husband, she immerses herself in the depraved life of the city and continues to have a loveless relationship with a doctor, Katsumori. One day, Narumi arrives in Tokyo and learns of Noriko's affair, but he cannot divorce her for the sake of their child, so he devotes himself to his work.

Spring Bell

1985

Behind the camera

Antarctica poster
7.2

Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica.

Antarctica

1983

Antarctica poster
7.2

Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica.

Antarctica

1983

I Hate But Love poster
7.0

A celebrity, dissatisfied with his personal and professional lives, impulsively leaves fast-paced Tokyo to deliver a much-needed jeep to a remote village. When his controlling manager, the woman he loves, follows, the two must reconcile while dodging reporters.

I Hate But Love

1962

Gate of Youth poster
7.2

The story of Shinsuke, a young man who lives through a stormy life as a poverty-stricken coal miner. Ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of his life. Shinsuke's father a group leader at the mine, dies while bravely using dynamite to rescue a group of trapped Korean miners. Several older men attempt to help he and his mother cope, including a friendly Harley-riding yakuza boss. This movie has it all, drama, romance, sex, yakuza and violence! It is based on a story by Hiroyuki Itsuki that was originally serialized in the magazine Shukan Gendai in 1969-70.

Gate of Youth

1981

Intimidation poster
7.2

Koreyoshi Kurahara's ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The marvelously moody Intimidation is an elegantly stripped-down and carefully paced crime drama.

Intimidation

1960

Black Sun poster
6.4

Akira, a young, jazz-obsessed drifter, returns to his squat, a ruined church, and finds Gill, a wounded African-American GI, on the run after the death of a white GI. Despite terrible misunderstandings and culture clash, Akira agrees to help Gill escape towards the sea, dodging military police along the way.

Black Sun

1964

Spring Bell poster
7.2

Rokuheita Narumi is fascinated by oriental art and works as the director of the Saho Art Museum in Nara. His wife, Noriko, is unable to leave Tokyo, despite his wishes, and the two live separately. Feeling lonely and neglected by her husband, she immerses herself in the depraved life of the city and continues to have a loveless relationship with a doctor, Katsumori. One day, Narumi arrives in Tokyo and learns of Noriko's affair, but he cannot divorce her for the sake of their child, so he devotes himself to his work.

Spring Bell

1985

The Glacier Fox poster
7.8

Director Koreyoshi Kurahara chronicles a year in the lives of Flep and Leila, two foxes living in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, where the freezing winters are long and the mild summers short. After Flep defeats another male fox to become Leila's lifelong partner, they mate and raise a litter of five kits. With their family complete, the group must contend with human interference in their habitat, such as chicken farms and snowmobiles, and struggle against the debilitating cold of winter. The animals experience both triumph and tragedy, as the law of this harsh land proves – only the strong survive.

The Glacier Fox

1978

The Glacier Fox poster
7.8

Director Koreyoshi Kurahara chronicles a year in the lives of Flep and Leila, two foxes living in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, where the freezing winters are long and the mild summers short. After Flep defeats another male fox to become Leila's lifelong partner, they mate and raise a litter of five kits. With their family complete, the group must contend with human interference in their habitat, such as chicken farms and snowmobiles, and struggle against the debilitating cold of winter. The animals experience both triumph and tragedy, as the law of this harsh land proves – only the strong survive.

The Glacier Fox

1978

Thirst for Love poster
7.0

A young wealthy widow becomes sexually involved with her father-in-law, while harboring a destructive obsession with the family gardener.

Thirst for Love

1967

Thirst for Love poster
7.0

A young wealthy widow becomes sexually involved with her father-in-law, while harboring a destructive obsession with the family gardener.

Thirst for Love

1967

I Am Waiting poster
6.5

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

I Am Waiting

1957

Love in Ginza poster
5.0

Hanjiro is a struggling painter that shares a tiny apartment in the back streets of Ginza with his jazz pianist friend who works at a bar. When he and his sweet heart, Hisako decide to get married, Hanjiro is faced with a tough decision. Needing to buy a ticket back home to tell his mother the good news, he compromises his creative principles for love and sells his portrait of Hisako. Hisako heads to the station to see him off, but gets hit by a car...

Love in Ginza

1962

Woman from the Sea poster
8.0

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.

Woman from the Sea

1959

The Third Dead Angle poster
NR

Yoshikawa and Kaji are alumni - Yoshikawa leads a life loyal to his company Toho Corporation, whilst Kaji works in the underground world for Aoyama, a fixer trying to buy Toho out. One day, Yoshikawa is ordered to take a look into the information leakage which had resulted in a serious fall of the company stock price. Following his order, Yoshikawa reunites with Kaji but their relationship gets complicated through the presence of Akiko, the daughter of Kubo, chairman of Toho Corporation. There is an obvious financial conspiracy and several men are killed - Who is the true mastermind behind all the plots?

The Third Dead Angle

1959

Hiroshima poster
8.3

Hiroshima is a 1995 Japanese / Canadian film directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara and Roger Spottiswoode about the decision-making processes that led to the dropping of the atomic bombs by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the end of World War II. Except as actors, no Americans took part in the production. The three-hour film was made for television and evidently had no theatrical release, but is available on DVD for home viewing. A combination of dramatisation, historical footage, and eyewitness interviews, the film alternates between documentary footage and the dramatic recreations. Both the dramatisations and most of the original footage are presented as sepia-toned images, serving to blur the distinction between them. The languages are English and Japanese, with subtitles, and the actors are largely Canadian and Japanese.

Hiroshima

1995

Gate of Youth 2 poster
10.0

Mid 50s: the trials and tribulations of Shinsuke Ibuki, freshly arrived in Tokyo from Kyushu.

Gate of Youth 2

1982

The Warped Ones poster
7.1

A juvenile delinquent gets out of the pen and immediately embarks on a rampage of untethered anger, most of it directed at the girlfriend of the journalist who helped send him up.

The Warped Ones

1960

The Flame of Devotion poster
6.8

The tragic tale of Kiyono, a young woman from the mountain who fell in love with Takuji, a fisherman's son, and her devotion to him during a time of war.

The Flame of Devotion

1964

The Age of Our Own poster
NR

Minami Yasuo, a college student, lives with Yuriko who has become the mistress of a foreigner named Wilson. Whenever Wilson comes, Yasuo spends his time in the tea-shop "La Gana." Yasuo is asked by his brother Shigeru to teach French to Akiko, a young girl who is studying French songs. Yasuo then learns that he is the winner of an essay contest and will be offered a scholarship to study in France. Akiko, is now pregnant and Yasuo promises to break with Yuriko.

The Age of Our Own

1959

Two in the Amsterdam Rain poster
8.0

Sakuda is a Japanese expat working in Amsterdam. When his company gets exposed for exporting fire arms to Italy that are later repurposed for war in Africa, he finds himself involved in a major complot alongside Ryo, a woman from his native village whom he falls in love with.

Two in the Amsterdam Rain

1975

Strawberry Road poster
9.5

Hisa Ishii and his brother Akira emigrate from Japan to the United States. They settle in rural California and start a strawberry farm, slowly integrating themselves into the life of the community, which includes Japanese-Americans of both lengthy and brief residence.

Strawberry Road

1991

Umi e, See You poster
10.0

Team DANKAI are set to compete in the Paris-Dakar Rally, an off-road endurance race spanning thousands of miles and multiple continents. Prior to the event, DANKAI leader Mizuki is ordered by their sponsor to add popular celebrity Ryuichi Yoshii to the roster for publicity. This exacerbates DANKAI's resentments and baggage. Needing a steady hand to mediate dispute and navigate their support vehicle, Mizuki recruits legendary retired mechanic/driver Eiji Honma to the team. Soon Honma discovers his ex-wife Kei is also participating in the rally, alongside her current husband, the bullfighter Antonio Vázquez. Honma's truck also comes to include stowaway passenger Yuko Takei, Yoshii's pop star girlfriend who is trying to salvage their relationship.

Umi e, See You

1988

Safari 5000 poster
7.2

A Japanese racing driver for Nissan named Godai (Yujiro Ishihara) have a rivalry with a French driver named Pierre (Jean-Claude Drouot). Godai is enlisted to race in an annual endurance race, The East African Safari Rally. Peripheral to this is the story concerning Godai's former lover Yuko (Ruriko Asaoka), a fashion designer, and her friend Anna (Emmanuel Riva), who happens to be Pierre's wife.

Safari 5000

1969

The Heart of Hiroshima poster
9.0

One morning, Kazue is nearly knocked over by a motorbike in front of an instrument store, breaking all the records that she was carrying. The two connect instantly and begin seeing each other every day. However, Iwai, Yukio’s foster parent, is concerned - Yukio had been exposed to the atomic bomb when he was four years old and had been showing symptoms of atomic radiation, hospitalizing him in the Genbaku Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Hospital. Unfortunately, nobody knows when the symptoms may return. When Yukio passes out from anemia during work, he decides to part with Kazue. A couple of days later, Yukio tells her of his destiny at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, but Kazue passionately encourages him.

The Heart of Hiroshima

1966

Michi poster
1.0

A married long-distance truck driver falls for a significantly younger waitress at a roadside diner. Their affair brings tragedy to themselves and those around them.

Michi

1986

Sunset Sunrise poster
8.1

Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara in 1971, Sunset Sunrise (Hi wa shizumi, hi wa noboru) is a “hippie” road movie chronicling the trek that a handful of people take in order to reach Katmandú, the capital of Nepal.

Sunset Sunrise

1973

Sunset Sunrise poster
8.1

Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara in 1971, Sunset Sunrise (Hi wa shizumi, hi wa noboru) is a “hippie” road movie chronicling the trek that a handful of people take in order to reach Katmandú, the capital of Nepal.

Sunset Sunrise

1973

Song of Dawn poster
NR

Musical actress Noriko feels frustrated by the futility of her affair with a married man. Then she is offered a role in a new production that appears to mirror her own private life... An excellent work that stylishly depicts its gradually evolving heroine.

Song of Dawn

1965

Gambler in the Sea poster
NR

Joe, a master diver, explodes his fighting spirit and friendship across raging seas and scorching deserts in this gorgeous and entertaining epic.

Gambler in the Sea

1961

A Turning to Hell poster
NR

Maki, a porter at the Sakura Hotel, finds a body in Room No. 2 and picks up a piece of paper on which is written "one-third of the key", also the part of a key. From a newspaper he learns that the dead man is an official who has been detained as a suspect in a bribery case involving 150,000,000 yen and that another suspect named Matsunaga is still in custody. Maki realizes that if he can obtain the other two-thirds of the key, he will be a multi-millionaire.

A Turning to Hell

1959

The Man Who Rode the Typhoon poster
NR

This typhoon spectacle is bursting with the charm of tough guy Yujiro, a student of architecture at Hokkaido University, who takes on a conspiracy involving a mysterious accidental death at a construction site.

The Man Who Rode the Typhoon

1958

Glass-Hearted Johnny poster
NR

Joe Shishido is an ambitious bike racetrack tout who becomes inadvertently involved in a triangle with a vulnerable prostitute (Izumi Ashikawa) and her brutal yakuza pimp (George Ai).

Glass-Hearted Johnny

1962

I Fly for Kicks poster
NR

"Is there anything interesting going on?" Yūjirō Ishihara is a pilot who has broken free of his dreary life and is following his dreams and Ruriko Asaoka is a dancer trapped in her banal existence who is falling in love with him but hates him at the same time for not being afraid to be free while cannot. The two clash with tragic consequences.

I Fly for Kicks

1963

The Shadow of Fear poster
NR

In the backstreets of Ginza, the boss of a hairdressing salon is found dead, killed by strangulation. The detective on the case soon hears rumors about the murder.

The Shadow of Fear

1956

Mexico Drifter poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mexico Drifter

1962

That Young May Be Eternal poster
NR

A forbidden love between a young teacher and her student. As a fragile boy’s heart and body are swept into a storm of passion, the film captures the joys and anguished longings of youth.

That Young May Be Eternal

1961

Yabure Kabure poster
NR

Ambitious action drama about a young man living a carefree life of women and money, struggling to crawl out of the mire, and his lover who tries to save him at his own peril.

Yabure Kabure

1961

Showdown in the Storm poster
8.0

A lively coming-of-age movie about the activities of Mr. Yu-chan, a teacher who helps the weak and discourages the wicked.

Showdown in the Storm

1958

Light The Explosives poster
NR

Three young men face off against corrupt officials and Yakuza in order to complete a reclamation project of the coastal embankment, who try to derail the project every step of the way until a tsunami hits, putting everyone in danger.

Light The Explosives

1959