Classic Japanese Cinema
Classic films of Japanese Cinema. In no particular order. Will be added to.
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- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.Kurosawa's classic masterwork. Touches on multiple levels of timeless personal, social, and moral issues.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneEijirô TônoTatsuya NakadaiA crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.Mifune Toshirō shines.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMisa UeharaMinoru ChiakiLured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.Amazing warrior action film.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira TeraoJinpachi NezuIn Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.King Lear in Warring States Japan. Better than any Shakespearean production.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsDenjirô ÔkôchiSusumu FujitaYukiko TodorokiSugata, a young man, struggles to learn the nuance and meaning of judo, and in doing so comes to learn something of the meaning of life.The development of the martial art of judō with gripping human drama.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsDenjirô ÔkôchiSusumu FujitaRyûnosuke TsukigataSugata returns to prove his judo mastery in a match against Western opponents.Not as good as the first but an important film for Kurosawa.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.Based on Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's classic short story. Also reflected the post-war confusion of the Japanese public. Essential.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMinoru ChiakiIsuzu YamadaA war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle.MacBeth in medieval Japan. Personal favorite.
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsTomisaburô WakayamaFumio WatanabeGô KatôThe story of a Ronin (i.e. a masterless samurai) who wanders the countryside of Japan with his small child, having various adventures.First in the classic "Lone Wolf and Cub" series based on the legendary comic.
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsTomisaburô WakayamaKayo MatsuoMinoru ÔkiTrailed by a clan of female ninja, Ogami is paid to assassinate a clan traitor accompanied by three killers known as the Gods of Death.
- DirectorBuichi SaitôStarsTomisaburô WakayamaYoichi HayashiMichi AzumaOgami is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin. Gunbei Yagyu, an enemy samurai, happens upon Ogami's son, and sees his chance for revenge.
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsTomisaburô WakayamaGô KatôYûko HamaOgami Itto volunteers to be tortured by the yakuza to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader to kill an evil chamberlain.
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsTomisaburô WakayamaMichiyo YasudaAkihiro TomikawaFive warriors challenge Ogami to duels. Each holds a part of information needed to complete the assassination of a mad clan leader.
- DirectorYoshiyuki KurodaStarsTomisaburô WakayamaAkihiro TomikawaJunko HitomiIn the sixth and final film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, the final conflict between Ogami Itto and the Yagyu clan is carried out.
- DirectorTokuzô TanakaStarsRaizô IchikawaTamao NakamuraShinobu ArakiNemuri Kyoshiro, a youthful and cynical ronin with unparalleled skill, is approached by both sides in a game of corruption, ambition, and double crosses. The leader of the Kaga clan, who thinks he has killed his smuggling partner, fears that the shogunate will discover his illegal activities. He learns of evidence that will prove his guilt. Meanwhile, his partner is not dead, and, assisted by a master of Shorenji boxing, is looking for revenge and for his loot. The Kaga leader sends the beautiful Chisa to enlist Nemuri's aid. The unexpected happens: the hard-bitten Nemuri falls in love. Can he protect her, topple the criminals, and avoid the boxer's deadly skill?First in the "Nemui Kyoshiro" series. Only included the first few here.
- DirectorKimiyoshi YasudaStarsRaizô IchikawaKyôko AzumaRyônosuke AzumaThe shogun's illegitimate son decapitates a peasant which draws in nomadic Nemuri Kyoshiro into more sword-fighting adventures when he's blamed for the beheading.
- DirectorKazuo IkehiroStarsRaizô IchikawaMichiko AiAkira AmemiyaThis film of the sleepy-eyed ronin series has the quite reluctant hero refuse to come to the assistance of a Japanese Christian in an age of both proselytizing and persecution, but later come around and render the services of his sword following a series of events, with the involvement of a malevolent princess, that lay to bare hypocrisy in many forms.
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsShintarô KatsuMasayo BanriRyûzô ShimadaThe adventures of a blind, gambling masseur who also happens to be a master swordsman.First of the most legendary of all "chambara" sword-play series staring the beloved Katsu Shintaro. Dozens of these were made, included the first few.
- DirectorKazuo MoriStarsShintarô KatsuYaeko MizutaniMasayo BanriThe blind masseur and swordsman, Zatoichi, learns of a powerful political figure's secret and is quickly tailed by a group of killers.
- DirectorTokuzô TanakaStarsShintarô KatsuMiwa TakadaMasayo BanriA yakuza gang targets the blind masseur Zatoichi after he defeats their group in a wrestling match. Meanwhile a long lost love of Zatoichi's returns to his life.
- DirectorKimiyoshi YasudaStarsShintarô KatsuShiho FujimuraRyûzô ShimadaZatoichi promises to deliver a maiden safely home but finds two dangerous gangs have a mysterious interest in the young girl.
- DirectorKazuo IkehiroStarsShintarô KatsuShôgo ShimadaMikiko TsubouchiZatoichi is mistaken for a thief. To clear his name he must find and defeat the real villain.
- DirectorKazuo IkehiroStarsShintarô KatsuTatsuo EndôTakashi EtajimaAfter being wounded in a fight, Zatoichi is nursed to health by a young woman and her father. Now indebted to the family, he works to protect their ferry business from local thugs.
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsShintarô KatsuSaburô DateKôji FujiyamaWhen Zatoichi witnesses the murder of a young mother he promises to deliver the baby to the father. Along the way he gains the help of a reluctant criminal.
- DirectorMasahiro MakinoStarsChikage AwashimaShinobu ChiharaNizaemon KataokaYukinojô, a traditional impersonator of females in a kabuki troupe (onnagata), courts and takes revenge from the three nobles who twenty years ago forced his parents to commit suicide.