Kin Sugai
Also Known As: Кин Сугай, Кин Сугаи, Kin Sugai
Biography: Kin Sugai (菅井きん Sugai Kin) (28 February 1926 – 10 August 2018) was a Japanese actress. She won the award for best supporting actress at the 9th Hochi Film Award for The Funeral. Sugai is famous for her role in the jidaigeki drama Hissatsu series.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Adult: No
Birthday: February 28, 1926
Age: 99 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: August 10, 2018
Popularity:
Known For:
Kwaidan
Overview: Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.
Genres: Horror Fantasy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-01-06
Popularity:
Pigs and Battleships
Overview: In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-01-21
Popularity:
Dodes'ka-den
Overview: This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1970-10-31
Popularity:
High and Low
Overview: In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake.
Genres: Drama Crime Mystery Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-03-01
Popularity:
A Woman's Life
Overview: A woman remembers her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-11-16
Popularity:
Police Precinct Part 14
Overview: An elderly woman, Ume Matsumoto, informed the First Investigation Department that her son Hirasaka, who runs a shoe store, had disappeared. The detectives had a bad feeling which hit the mark, an unidentified drowned body is identified as Hirasaka. Some prime real estate he owned was also mysteriously sold. Suspecting that this is a planned murder and fearing the escape of the criminal, the Department begins to investigate secretly, without creating an investigation headquarters.
Genres: Mystery Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-06-21
Popularity:
Kusa wo karu musume
Overview: 1961 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-10-25
Popularity:
The Funeral
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-11-17
Popularity:
Haru no sanmyaku
Overview: 1962 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-02-17
Popularity:
Ie Naki Ko
Overview: "Don't pity me, just give me money." A smart little girl, Suzu, for the sake of her beloved sick mother, has no choice but to attempt all ways to fork up the money required for the operation. It includes stealing, cheating and almost anything that could yield cash. However, deep within her is a sadness unseen by many.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1994-12-17
Popularity:
The Akasaka Sisters: Soft Touch of Night
Overview: Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-11-20
Popularity:
The Pornographers
Overview: Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1966-03-12
Popularity:
Stolen Desire
Overview: A rambunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki theatre with strip shows.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-05-20
Popularity:
Musume to watashi
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-04-01
Popularity:
Police Precinct Part 17
Overview: The murder took place at a hotel in Matsushima. The victim is a woman about 28 years old. The suspect is a young man who visited her the night before, and the evidence, in addition to shoe horns and handkerchiefs, is soap with the name of the tavern. When detectives at Shiogama Station followed the man's tracks, it turned out that he had come from Ueno.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-09-13
Popularity:
The Soundless Cry
Overview: Shinichi is not only poor, he is also deaf, and leads a joyless life with his sick mother. His one happiness is his friendship with a girl who works in a bar nearby. Then, one day, his mother dies after drinking the medicine that Shinichi himself gave her. It is discovered that the pills contained poison. He is apprehended on suspicion of murder and taken away for interrogation, unable to defend himself - being deaf and dumb - or even to proclaim his innocence.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-01-30
Popularity:
Foundry Town
Overview: Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-04-08
Popularity:
The Long Darkness
Overview: A delicate study of the relationship between two disillusioned young people, shot in atmospheric monochrome among Tokyo's decaying lumberyards and the inhospitable snowscapes of the north.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-05-25
Popularity:
Fire Festival
Overview: Tatsuo, a reverent lumberjack, seeks to disrupt plans to build a marine park on his family land, instead promoting his traditions in reactionary ways.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-05-25
Popularity:
Haru's Journey
Overview: Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2010-05-22
Popularity:
This Transient Life
Overview: Near a remote Buddhist monastery, a young man falls in love with his sister and gets her pregnant. After a monk finds out, the young man becomes an assistant to a master sculptor, only to proceed to complicate matters with his affairs.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1970-08-08
Popularity:
Sir Galahad in Campus
Overview: The first instalment in Toho's popular Wakadaishō (Young Guy) series.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-07-08
Popularity:
A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era
Overview: Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-07-14
Popularity:
I, the Executioner
Overview: Police investigators investigate the link between a serial killer's machinations and a teenage boy who committed suicide.
Genres: Thriller Horror Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-04-13
Popularity:
The Great Japanese Pick-Pocket Club
Overview: A crime story (with strong elements of comedy) that pits a determined detective against a gang of pickpockets in Osaka. The detective (played by Keiju Kobayashi) and the leader of the gang (played by Norihei Miki) have an interesting wartime backstory together that fuels much of the story.
Genres: Crime Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-11-22
Popularity:
Tracked
Overview: When a fugitive begins a romance with the woman hiding him from the law, it becomes uncertain whether he will ever escape the shadow of his heinous crimes--or the detectives hot on his trail.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-10-26
Popularity:
The Body
Overview: The sexual experiences of the passionate Sakiko, from her fling with her boss in her first job to her ending up as a prostitute.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-11-08
Popularity:
My Hobo
Overview: Story of a resourceful hobo (Kobayashi), a con woman (Takamine) who pretends to be a victim of the Nagasaki A-bomb, and two orphaned children who become a most atypical Japanese family.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-11-23
Popularity:
Girl Boss: Escape From Reform School
Overview: Girl Boss Ruriko and her cellmates escape from a greedy corrupt reform school that's more interested in cheating the government out of money than reformation. Each having their own reasons for escaping, they go their separate ways. With the help of a young mechanic, who's also on the lam, Ruriko tries to realize her dream of leaving the island of Japan behind. But the authorities are always one step behind her...
Genres: Action Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-05-24
Popularity:
Modern Children
Overview: After their father dies, his children try to get by on a house boat.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-02-02
Popularity:
Eighteen Years in Prison
Overview: A former soldier is caught working the black market and sent to prison while his partner escapes and goes on to become a gangster, but their paths cross again as they both fall in love with the same woman.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1967-02-24
Popularity:
Police Precinct: The Woman Without A Face
Overview: A tragic drama - a dismembered torso of a woman rises up on the banks of the Arakawa River. The body is only the torso. Her legs were discovered on the opposite bank. The only clue, a man was trying to throw something in from a car with a license plate number three days ago at Shin-Arakawa Ohashi Bridge...
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-02-18
Popularity:
Father
Overview: A middle-aged man's family loses patience with him as he struggles with his seemingly directionless life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1988-04-29
Popularity:
Police Precinct Part 12
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-01-27
Popularity:
Gassan
Overview: Akira leaves for the Mt. Gassan foothills before winter's onset, visiting the local temple and interacting with the residents all while falling for fair Fumiko.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1979-10-20
Popularity:
Two Hearts in the Rain
Overview: Love story of a working-class boy and girl.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-03-27
Popularity:
Kigeki ekimae onsen
Overview: 1962 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-07-29
Popularity:
Detective
Overview: The first film with Tetsuro Tamba as a detective. An exciting drama about the pursuit of a criminal, which takes place in Yokohama. Tamba enthusiastically plays a police inspector who pursues a criminal who kidnapped his sister.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-12-05
Popularity:
High School Geisha
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-09-21
Popularity:
Gozamareji
Overview:
Genres: Horror Thriller Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2003-04-26
Popularity:
The Washing Machine
Overview: Kizaki, who moved to Tokyo from the Kansai region to become a manga artist, is assigned to work at a used electrical appliance store where he works part-time as a store keeper and repairman. One day, a woman comes to the store drenched from the rain. She is Setsuko, the only daughter of the store's president and a returnee. Since then, Setsuko often comes to the store. Kizaki becomes concerned about Setsuko, but Setsuko has something to do with Oshi, a senior who used to work at the store...
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1999-04-24
Popularity:
Young Swordsman
Overview: This Japanese action-adventure is set in the 17th century when all forms of swordplay were banned. One fighter, an excellent swordsman believes the law is unfair. His brother keeps his opinions about the law to himself. The swordsman vents his frustration by cutting off the thumbs of an enemy. The fighter is then banished. To live, he becomes a thief. To restore the family's lost honor, the other brother is forced to challenge the fighter to a duel.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-08-31
Popularity:
幻の殺意
Overview: Adaptation of the Shôji Yuki novel.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1971-04-15
Popularity:
Sandakan No. 8
Overview: A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.
Genres: Drama War History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1974-11-02
Popularity:
Tokyo Untouchable: Escape
Overview:
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-03-15
Popularity:
The Viper Brothers Rage Again
Overview: Part 2 in a long running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves.
Genres: Action Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1971-10-01
Popularity:
Yellow Tears
Overview: The movie is centered around five friends as they end up spending the summer of 1962 shackled up together in a tiny studio apartment in Tokyo. The five friends are Eisuke - the manga artist, Shoichi - the singer, Ryuzo - the novelist, Kei - the painter and Yuji – the 5th wheel (?). The friends spend the summer in pursuit of their own ideals of personal freedom - being able to do what they want. In the process of pursuing their dream they learn firsthand that however ideal it may seem, its not as easy as they think.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2007-04-14
Popularity:
One Summer's Day
Overview: Veteran filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi rounds out the second of his two trilogies about his hometown of Onomichi with this film about the budding relationship between a young lad and an eccentric old man. Fifth-grader Yuta (Takuro Atsugi) is a typical city child looking forward to a summer of reading comic books and playing video games. Instead, he is bundled off to his grandparent's house on the Inland Sea. His grandfather, Yuta's parents explain, has been acting strangely as of late -- he eats the offerings in the family altar and once tried to lead attendants at a funeral in a rousing round of calisthenics. Since his mother and father are swamped with work, and his elder sister (Nana Sano) is studying for college entrance exams, Yuta has been asked to look after Grandpa. The old man takes Yuta on a tour of Onomichi, regaling him with 70 years of its history. Along the way, Grandpa slips in and out of the past, increasingly unable to discern between the two.
Genres: Fantasy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1999-07-03
Popularity:
Kewaishi
Overview: Director Mitsutoshi Tanaka's adaptation of a manga by Shotaro Ishinomori was an official selection at the 5th Shanghai International Film Festival and won the award for Best Screenplay at the 14th Tokyo International Film Festival.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2002-02-09
Popularity:
Hadaka no Machi
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-07-23
Popularity:
Red Beard
Overview: Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-04-03
Popularity:
Godzilla
Overview: Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.
Genres: Thriller Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-11-03
Popularity:
The Approach of Autumn
Overview: A single mother from the country raising a 6th grade boy comes to Tokyo, leaves the boy to live with his uncle's family, runs a struggling grocery store, and works a local inn. The boy befriends a girl, the daughter of the innkeeper.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-10-01
Popularity:
Ikiru
Overview: Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-10-09
Popularity:
The Bad Sleep Well
Overview: In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-09-19
Popularity:
Hachiko
Overview: The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1987-08-01
Popularity:
A Wanderer's Notebook
Overview: Considered one of the finest late Naruses and a model of film biography, A Wanderer’s Notebook features remarkable performances by Hideko Takamine – Phillip Lopate calls it “probably her greatest performance” – and Kinuyo Tanaka as mother and daughter living from hand to mouth in Twenties Tokyo. Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, the novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, A Wanderer’s Notebook traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the twentieth century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-09-29
Popularity:
The Inheritance
Overview: A dying businessman intends to will his fortune to his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown, so a bevy of lawyers and associates scheme to take advantage of the situation.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-02-16
Popularity:
A Scream from Nowhere
Overview: In 1930, the chance meeting of a novelist and one of his fans opens the door to a series of mysterious events culminating in the death of a wealthy industrialist who may have been leading a double life.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1977-06-18
Popularity:
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
Overview: After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.
Genres: War Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-01-28
Popularity:
Run, Genta, Run!
Overview: A touching story about a young boy, Genta, who bravely takes on life's challenges in hopes of finding a better life for himself and his sickly mother.
Genres: Family Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-11-22
Popularity:
The Woman Next Door
Overview: A 1981 TV movie based on a short story by Kuniko Mukoda, starring Kaori Momoi and Jinpachi Nezu. A housewife is slowly tempted by a mysterious man who she overhears one day through the wall of her apartment.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1981-05-01
Popularity:
Appassionata
Overview: This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for "pine" and "green") from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight. The novel portrays the remainder of her stormy life, during which she is impregnated by her teacher and raises a fatherless child; through it all she devotes herself to her painting, undaunted.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-01-14
Popularity:
The Time of Reckoning
Overview: "The Time of Reckoning" transforms a screwball-comedy plot into a sober study of a successful businessman with serious relationship problems involving three women: his wife of ten years who announces she is pregnant by another man; a mistress who wants to have a baby with him; and an ex-lover who claims he fathered her son.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-06-29
Popularity:
The Last Song
Overview: Junkichi is the son of a rich landlord, while Koyuki is the daughter of a poor lumber worker. The mismatched pair soon finds love, and against his father's wishes, Junkichi decides to run away with Koyuki to start a new life. But when Junkichi is called off to war, they make a pledge to sing the song of engagement everyday until they are able to reunite
Genres: Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1975-12-20
Popularity:
Stakeout
Overview: Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-01-15
Popularity:
An Innocent Witch
Overview: Ayako, a young woman from a rural fishing village, is sold by her family into a brothel when her father takes ill. There, she is quickly stripped of her innocence and illusions.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-10-30
Popularity:
Ballad of a Workman
Overview: A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-08-12
Popularity:
The Lost Alibi
Overview: Suspense drama about a married salaryman whose affair with one of his co-workers is compromised when, returning from a clandestine meeting with his lover, he runs into a neighbor who is later accused of murder. Questioned by police about the neighbor, and blackmailed by his lover's neighbor, the salaryman's lies lead him on a path to destruction.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-03-13
Popularity:
Donden Family (Pretend Divorce)
Overview: A housewife whose memoir of divorce is selected becomes an editorial staff member, something she has always dreamed of. However, her divorce is a fabrication. Unable to back out, the couple decides to "fake a divorce"...
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date:
Popularity:
The Wolves
Overview: A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a plan to rob a cash delivery truck in order to provide for their families.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-07-03
Popularity:
Gone in the Rain
Overview: Ayako (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is a free-willed college girl who shares a room with Takako and Kimie. They each have a clear vision of what they want from their career and love life. Soon, their room share takes a turn, when ideals begin to clash with reality.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-03-17
Popularity:
Nezumi Kozō kaitō den
Overview: Japanese comedy film.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-12-28
Popularity:
Joke with a Sorrowful Heart
Overview: This is a sad and beautiful story about a father who is a popular comedian and a son who suffered by an incurable disease.
Genres: Family Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-04-26
Popularity:
Flames of Blood
Overview: The story is set in Bakumatsu and revolves around the Bunta Sugawara character, a yakuza (of course :) but instead of a modern yakuza/gangster, he's a gambler/bakuto). After he kills someone and gets wound, is saved by a blind woman (Mitsuko Baishô), who took care of him. They has a happy time under the protection of the Tomisaburo Wakayama character, an oybun. But of course, happy time doesn't last long. The story is also related to Okada Izo and the Shinsengumi (w/ Kondo Isami played by Makoto Sato)
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1981-05-09
Popularity:
Sure Death! Brown, You Bounder!
Overview: When the Shogunates greatest secret is stolen, the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. The Shogunate sends an incompetent cop, Tanaka, to Kyoto to act as a stalking horse. Hoping the thieves will kill Tanaka and the Ninja Spies will kill the thieves. But what the Shogunate doesn't realise is that Tanaka's even more incompetent assistant Mondo is in fact the leader of a gang of revengers for hire, there motto is "Sure Death" (or your money cheerfully refunded). Mondo doesn't know that everyone knows about the secret, but they all think he does. Poor Mondo, he not only has to deal with crazed Shogunate extremists, oddball ninjas, crooks who work for the Emperor and bicycle riding foreign death squads. He also have to deal with a wife and a crazy mother-in-law!
Genres: Drama Crime Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-06-29
Popularity:
Sure Death
Overview: A group of seemingly ordinary merchants is really a band of assassins for hire. When they discover that all the assassins in Edo are being killed they must act quickly to find the culprit.
Genres: Drama Crime Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-06-16
Popularity:
Black River
Overview: A university student moves into an apartment building and becomes involved with a waitress. The landlord then attempts to evict the tenants and sell the building through illicit means.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-10-23
Popularity:
Sure Death 5
Overview: Fifth movie in the Hissatsu (Sure Death!) Series. At the behest of a corrupt bureaucrat, a mysterious band of murderers wage a bloody battle against three deadly assassins.
Genres: Drama Crime Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1991-12-23
Popularity:
Sure Death 6
Overview: When an artist dies, the official cause of death is judged to be a stroke, but his daughter suspects foul play. She recruits the services of an assassin, who by chance encounters an old friend...
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1996-05-25
Popularity:
Outlaw Killers: Three Mad Dog Brothers
Overview: The great Bunta stars as a gangster who is sent to jail for the sake of his gang, but when he’s released he finds everything completely changed and his gang has swept him aside for being too violent. He tries to start a new life with his two ”brothers” but can’t seem to escape old affiliations
Genres: Action Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-10-25
Popularity:
The Sunshine Girl
Overview: A young factory worker struggles to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-04-18
Popularity:
Sure Death 4
Overview: Having been demoted for failing to prevent the murder of one of his superiors, Mondo is startled by a group of masked thugs who are soon attacked in turn by an unseen force. He begins to suspect the work of assassins, but whose side are they on?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1987-06-06
Popularity:
Yakuza Graveyard
Overview: A police investigator cracks down on yakuza business, but once he realizes the police are in negotiations with certain factions, he sides with his own syndicate of choice.
Genres: Action Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1976-10-30
Popularity:
Flower and Dragon
Overview: Kingoro Tamai moves with his wife and son to the port city of Wakamatsu. He organizes the Tamai-gumi, a stevedore group, to vie for work with two other powerful groups. Gingo is Tamai's chief rival who falls in love with the latter's wife and tries to kill Tamai.
Genres: Action Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-03-17
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The Blossom and the Sword
Overview: Tai Kato’s early 20th century set yakuza epic about an ordinary merchant girl (Hiroko Maki) who crosses paths with an assassin (Tetsuya Watari). The encounter sends her to jail as a suspected accomplice. Years later she marries a yakuza boss, whose gang is affiliated with working class people.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-11-17
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Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Overview: During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.
Genres: Science Fiction Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-05-18
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Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Ikiru'
Overview: Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Ikiru" (1952).
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2002-10-25
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Nothing But Bones
Overview: The harrowing joruney of Kinu Wada, a young woman who is sold into prostitution to pay her family's debts.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1966-06-12
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The Temple of Wild Geese
Overview: Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-01-21
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When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-01-15
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The International Gang of Kobe
Overview: In 1947, in Kobe, Japan, a local street gang fights for their survival when its turf is overrun by United States occupation forces and international gangs.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1975-10-14
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Cross-Currents
Overview: A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-09-09
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The Start of Life
Overview: A young girl in an industrial town is saving her money to enter college. But her drunken father loses his job, her mother cannot make ends meet, and then the boy she likes loses everything when his factory fails. She takes all her savings out of the bank and offers them to him to make a new start. He refuses at first but eventually agrees and so she goes back to school to tell her teacher that she has decided not to continue college, that she is young and strong, and can make her own way in life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-04-29
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Girls of the Night
Overview: In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-09-04
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Hissatsu shigotonin 2009
Overview: This show marks the return of the jidaigeki series "Hissatsu Shigotonin," which has had several seasons between the 1970s and the 1990s. The franchise came back in 2007 with a one-shot special, but this is its first full season since 1992. Makoto Fujita returns as the protagonist Nakamura Mondo, one of the "shigotonin," a team of hired assassins.
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2009-01-04
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Hissatsu Shigotonin 2007
Overview: A violent fire one evening kills a husband and wife couple and burns their Kazusaya rice shop to ashes. Their daughter Sachi manages to make it out alive, but she claims the fire was set by henchmen from the rival Harimaya shop who abducted her sister. After policeman Watanabe Shogoro hears her story, he begins investigating the case, but desperate to avenge her parents' deaths, Sachi later enlists the aid of a mysterious woman who offers to kill Harimaya for a price. Watanabe soon discovers that there is more to this case than meets the eye.
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2007-07-07
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Reiko, the Psyche Resurrected
Overview: A highly anticipated cultural festival is less than a week away for the students of a local high school when mysterious, seemingly paranormal events start occurring within their building. A piano plays when no one is in the room; the power continually shuts off, seemingly at random; footprints are left behind by an unseen presence; objects appear to levitate and are hurled across the room. Concerned about the strange phenomena, six students, advised by Professor Yamakawa, form a research team and investigate the strange goings-on. One of the students is Reiko Kudo, who has ESP and a family history with the occult. As the investigation ensues, a disturbing story from the past emerges from the woodwork, culminating with an ESP confrontation on the day of the festival...
Genres: Science Fiction Fantasy Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1991-11-16
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I Like You!
Overview: A romantic comedy, it comically depicts a great twist of fate between a young man who leads an attractive life and a girl who was unlucky in life.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1990-12-15
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Shimanto River
Overview: A young boy, Atsu, grows up along the banks of the Shimanto River in rural southern Shikoku. He comes to grips with the unfairness of life and the emotional pain involved in the loss of innocence. The film is based on an autobiographical novel written by Kyuzo Sasayama.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1991-12-07
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Tales of a Golden Geisha
Overview: The film stars two of Itami's regular actors, Nobuko Miyamoto as a geisha who brings luck to the men with whom she sleeps, and Masahiko Tsugawa as her unfaithful, sometimes partner. As well as showing her relationships with the man she loves and the men who employ her, it satirizes corruption and the influence of money in Japanese politics.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1990-06-02
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Burden of Love
Overview: The female members of the family of the Minister of Health and Welfare, who has just proposed a program of birth control, become pregnant one after the other. - Nikkatsu
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-03-18
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Spring Dreams
Overview: When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous friends.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-01-03
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Sure Death! 3
Overview: Third movie in the Hissatsu (Sure Death!) Series. Chasing the killer of a lawman, a group of assassins fall foul of a group of blackmarket financiers who dispatch their own hitmen to dispose of them.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1986-05-24
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Piecing Me Back Together
Overview: A young woman named Izumi suffers the loss of her boyfriend Junichi, who died from a fatal motorcycle accident. The shock from her boyfriend's sudden death causes Izumi to lose her memory from the time of the accident. A lawyer named Makiko then helps Izumi to remember the final moments of her boyfriend's life.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2010-06-19
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The Viper Brothers: The Blackmailers
Overview: Upon his release from prison, Masa (Bunta Sugawara) is disappointed to not be picked up by his brother Katsu (Tamio Kawaji). After hitching a ride on a bus full of old women, Masa finds out that Katsu tried to fake a car accident and get some money for Masa to live on after prison. Together, the two decide to blackmail the woman (Yoko Horikoshi) who hit Katsu, who happens to be the daughter of a rich company president (Seizaburo Kawazu). 6th film in a series of 8.
Genres: Action Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-09-01
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My Grandma
Overview: Home-design sales representative Tomohiro lives with his wife and their son. As his job involves houses, it is his motto to take great care of the family who live in the house. However, he has been working so hard that he has forgotten to cherish his own family. When he looks after a client who wants to leave her father-in-law in a nursing home, it reminds him of his grandmother whom he loved so much. Father's death, grandmother's struggle with disease, and home care - those were grueling times, but the memories have become invaluable for Tomohiro. He realizes his family is the most precious thing of all. On a day off, he and his family decide to visit his mother who lives alone in their old hometown.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2008-12-06
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Yassamossa
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-02-25
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Kamigata Kugaizoshi
Overview: "Do Not Fall" - Set during Japan's Meiji period, three sisters are abused and exploited by their harsh father, including a daughter who plays the three-corded shamisen for pilgrims visiting the sacred chapel of Ise.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1991-02-09
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Konto 55: Mankind's Weaknesses
Overview: A Toho film featuring the comedy duo Konto 55, (コント55号), comprised of comedians Kinichi Hagimoto and Jiro Sakagami.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-08-13
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Vengeance Is Mine
Overview: A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1979-04-21
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Willful Murder
Overview: The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical reporter follows the case for years, but the basic question remains unanswered: was the victim killed by members of the burgeoning Communist movement in Japan, or was the death stage-managed by the authorities in hopes of discrediting the Communists?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1981-11-07
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The Man Who Wagers Tomorrow
Overview: Former boxer Daishiro lost his wife, and his only son, Kaoru, went missing, it was a heavy blow for Daishiro. One day, Daishiro got a call from his relative Morihiko. He said he forgot the winning lottery ticket of 2 million yen at the hotel, so he wants Daishiro to go and pick it up. Morihiko used the hotel for secret meetings, so he said he couldn't go there himself because he was afraid it would become public. When Daishiro entered the hotel, the Yakuza, who learned about the lottery from the newspaper, threaten the hotel maid Noriko, and want to rob her. Daishiro helps Noriko and safely picks up the lottery, but a message arrives from his relative Seikichi from Osaka. His missing son Kaoru is said to be a boxer in Osaka. "My son... He has the blood of a boxer in him..." Daishiro is heading to Osaka in a hurry...
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-09-02
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Deep River
Overview: A group of Japanese tourists try to forget their pasts and find themselves in India.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1995-04-01
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The Castle of Sand
Overview: Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.
Genres: Crime Mystery Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1974-10-19
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City of Beasts
Overview: University student Arima Yasuhiro becomes acquainted with Ishihama, the president of a pharmaceutical company with a dark past, slowly but surely getting more embroiled in his dirty dealings.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1970-05-23
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The Child Writers
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-08-23
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Maison Ikkoku Kanketsuhen
Overview: In this direct continuation of the earlier special, Godai tries to figure out what to do with his life after college while competing with Kyoko's impossibly perfect tennis coach for her affection.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2008-07-25
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The Motive
Overview: Four people are discovered brutally murdered in an up-scale high-rise apartment. All the victims appear to be family, but as the investigation deepens it is discovered that one of the victims isn't related to the family.
Genres: Crime Drama Mystery TV Movie
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2004-12-18
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Could I But Live
Overview: Could I But Live
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-08-30
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Beast Alley
Overview: "When human beings venture too far along a trail made by wild beasts, it is said, they quite often discover themselves on a road of no return." Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-09-05
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Kaze to Ki to Sora to
Overview: A nanny, played by Sayuri Yoshinaga, who lives and works in a Tokyo family, causes all kinds of waves with her outspoken personality and behavior in this charming coming-of-age blockbuster.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-07-12
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A Cornered Apartment Wife
Overview: A human drama of joys and sorrows about a married woman living in an apartment complex who suddenly finds herself with a large sum of money and the people around her who are seized by greed.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-04-29
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Zoku izuko e
Overview: Sequel to "真実の愛情を求めて 何処へ" (1954). A coming-of-age drama adapted from the novel by Yojiro Ishizaka.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1967-04-12
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White Cliffs
Overview: 1960 Toei film.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-04-05
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Hidden Fangs
Overview: Set in a juvenile detention center and depicted with a documentary touch.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-02-08
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津軽絶唱
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-04-12
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Wakarete ikiru toki mo
Overview: A Hiromichi Horikawa movie
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-04-04
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Koi no gashū
Overview: Taiji (Kawazu Yusuke), who works at Noble Cosmetics, wants to marry his girlfriend Tomie (Kuwano Miyuki), but is having a hard time saving up the money. On a night train, he casually takes a photo of a middle-aged man and a young woman sleeping close together in seats diagonally opposite each other. In reality, the man is Aizawa (Sano Shuji), the section chief at the government agency where Tomie works. Tomie tells Taiji that she is pregnant and wants them to get married soon, so Taiji sends Aizawa the same photo. This is to ask him to buy it...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-06-21
Popularity: