Fujio Nagahama

The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its cat fights, hysterical tantrums, film noir lighting, and dramatic music, White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) initiated a cycle of women's prison movies in the United States that may or may not have been shown in Japan, but the stylistics of White Beast draw on the same paranoid woman's films and film noir conventions that preceded the American cycle.

This little seen early work by Ichikawa was produced during the director's Shintoho period (1947-51). Written by Kaneto Shindô and featuring Ryô Ikebe as a young policeman it is part crime drama, part social study. Definitely not an undiscovered masterpiece, but still a must for Ichikawa buffs.

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Three humorous love stories set in rural Japan.

Fujishita Kumi is an ordinary office lady. Longing to escape her poor fishing village for a life in the city, she came to Tokyo. One day while alone in the office, she's spotted rolling up her pantyhose by the window cleaner Kurata Katsuo. This was to be their first encounter. Completely enchanted by Kumi, Katsuo does everything he can to get close to her. Katsuo is a man with a terrible past. With the death of his coal miner father, his family was broken up and he was forced to follow in his father's footsteps laboring away in the mud. In spite of this, Katsuo still has dreams. He dreams of living in Resiporuko, a utopian fantasyland that exists only in his imagination. When Katsuo and Kumi finally meet they find themselves unable to communicate. Katsuo spends all his time talking about Resiporuko with a starry look in his eyes, while Kumi dreams of living the high life in the city. One day when the two travel to the seashore, they discover a wounded seagull.

The troubled relationship between a writer and his ballet teacher wife, who has for years loved another man, finally leads to the breakup of the family.

One of Kinugasa's last films--based on the story by Tanizaki Jun'ichirō.

A widow raises her sickly son to be strong enough to join the army and fight on the front lines.

A "slice-of life" film about a group of high school girls in 1940s Japan.

The story of the silk industry and the young girls who worked as silk spinners in the early 1900s in Japan. The silk mills were located in Okaya which lies just beyond the Nomugi Pass. The women and girls worked in a hot, humid atmosphere without rest, and endured those conditions and sexual harassment to earn money for their poor families. Across the ocean, it was the great depression in America.

Kirare no Senta

A film by Kiyoshi Saeki

Melodrama by Kon Ichikawa

Teacher Yukiko finds herself in opposition to conservative faculty and villagers after defending a student for being in a relationship with a young man from Tokyo.

Follows a bunch of school renegades and their downfall into criminality in a docu-drama style, completely refreshing for its time.

1942 Japanese movie

A woman remarries after receiving official notification that her husband has died, but he returns.

1962 Japanese movie

The day before he leaves on a business trip to Europe, Shoji meets an old man named Ogawa while visiting his younger brother in the hospital. Ogawa lies to Shoji that he has a son and asks him to do something extraordinary for him...