Shigeru Ogura

Short feature by Hiroshi Shimizu.

Mr. Baku, a sandwich man, was familiar to his neighbors because he was a natural friend of Ryotaro Yanaka. Yoshie, the sign girl of the coffee shop, is the lover of Douta Kuraishi, the manager of Cabaret Orion.

Period film about the legendary detective Umon

In Depression-era Japan, a courteous bus driver carries an eclectic group of passengers from the mountainous Izu to Tokyo.

Natsuko Kayama, an authority in the beauty industry and once known as Miss Tokyo, is a first-class wife. Her husband, Senkichi, on the contrary, is a good-natured man and slow-witted. They are rarely seen together, and others often criticize them for being too boring and uninteresting.

At a Crossroads

Domestic comedy involving a strong wife and a "henpecked" husband taking place in a family-run judo school.

Chûshingura - Zempen: Akahokyô no maki

A man working in a museum steals the Emperor's hat on display.

Domestic comedy produced by Shin Toho Studios directed by Komori Kiyoshi and starring Todoroki Yukiko and Ito Yunosuke.

Comedy-horror film by Masaki Môri.

1957 crime film

The story is centered around the devastating experiences of two villagers, Osaki Shuichi, and his cousin, Nishimiura Kinue, when they leave their hometown for the metropolis of Tokyo. They are in love with each other, but Kinue is expected to marry the lawyer Kanda Seiji. In consequence, Shukichi leaves for Tokyo, where he becomes tutor to the son of the rich Iwaki family. The heartbroken Kinue also makes her way to the capital, where she becomes a bar hostess.

Kenji and Chuko travel to Hokkaido as migrant workers and enlist as miners under the strict leadership of Guzuyasu. On the boat journey to Hokkaido, Kenji attracts Ohama, who is travelling to Hokkaido to open a bar. When Kenji visits the bar, he chases away a sailor who was hassling a shy girl, Ofuji, which makes Ohama jealous.

Director Teruo Ishii's crime action follows the investigative adventures of an undercover cop working with a prostitution ring. It's done in an unique documentary style.

Kyôko Yashiro's film debut for Shintoho.

A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.

In Depression-era Tokyo, the life of a single mother and her young son are disrupted by the return of her ex-husband, who fathered the child and walked out on her years earlier.

A luckless geisha struggles to make a living for herself and her young son.

Chie, who's chosen as 'Ms. Woman Diver', and her friend Yuki, have been missing for several days after they left for Tokyo to be interviewed by a magazine. Later, Yuki is found dead in the sea. Yoshi, Chie's sister, along with sailor Shunsuke, try to find Chie. Soon they learn about a conspiracy with diamonds in a ship sunk in the sea.

Directed by Mikio Naruse. It is presumed to be lost.

Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo.

1957 crime film directed by Toshio Shimura for Shintoho.

A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.

Japanese film.

Japanese sports comedy film about kendo.

Japanese comedy film.

Japanese comedy film.

A humorous salaryman comedy about the president of a beer company who is said to be President Rai. The third work after the Kingoro's Soldier and the "Kingoro's Officer". The original work is Kuni Sasaki, the adaptation is Yasunori Kawauchi of "The Officer of the Golden Tower".

Japanese film about motorcycle racing.

Japanese comedy film.

Based on the story of Shimizu no Jirocho.

Early pinku.

Buntaro, the president of a food trading company got tired of the day-to-day routine of life. The new secretary, Nobuko, suggested her "shacho-san" (the president) run away from the job. Nobuko took Buntaro to her home and introduced him to her own family as friend, "Sachio-san"...

Oiwa has been searching for the one who killed her father for a long time. She comes to Yedo and sees a man named Naosuke. The film is based on the kabuki classic: Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan (1826) written by Tsuruya Nanboku and is one of the most famous ghost stories throughout Japan.

In pre-war Shanghai, a man falls in love with a mysterious woman, but she eventually disappears. Back in Japan, he is obsessed by her memory and tries to recreate the world he knew then.

Japanese mystery film.

Japanese comedy film.

A comedic retelling of the legend of the loyal 47 ronin.

Kodakara Sodo (The Treasure That Is Children) is a 1935 black and white Japanese silent film with benshi accompaniment directed by Torajiro Saito. This is a rare example of a silent Japanese slapstick film that has survived to this day.

Emperor & Empress Meiji and the Sino-Japanese War

A married man falls for a dancer and his wife's uncle hires a private detective to spy on him. Considered to be a lost film.

This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), such as the internationally celebrated Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and although he is now most famous as the maker of the avant-garde silent films A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeji, 1926) and Crossroads (Jujiro, 1928), Chushingura is in fact more typical of his output than those experimental works. The film ranked third in that year’s Kinema Junpo critics’ poll, and Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie noted that 'not only the sound but the quick cutting was admired by many critics.

Lost silent film

Lost film. Two reporters find that they are repeatedly beaten to the scoop by a new female journalist, 'young miss'. They decide to team up with her to investigate a secret club for wealthy voyeurs. Considered to be a lost film.

A young couple flee their disapproving parents, get lost of Mt. Akagi and find a cache of gold protected by the ghost of a gangster.

A high-born woman named Okuni travels around the country with Gohei, a samurai retainer who is in service to her. They are in search of Tomonojo, who has killed the man who was Okuni’s husband and Gohei’s master, and they cannot return to their lord’s home until they have fulfilled their duty of hunting down and killing Tomonojo.

After mastering swordsmanship at the dojo of Chiba Shusaku, and unable to serve a clan due to his illness, Hirate Miki becomes a ronin who winds up as bodyguard to Shigezo of Sasagawa leading up to an epic battle.

Heinosuke Gosho evokes in this film the family conflicts engendered by the eternal problem of a father who projects his professional desires on the life of his son. The sister Machiko is the essential link that will allow everyone to apologize to each other and achieve reconciliation.

If you throw this child away

Fictionalized retelling of the life of a Geisha poisoner.

Umon's Detective Stories: The One-Eyed Wolf

1926 jidaigeki (period drama) directed by Hiroshi Shimizu.

The Japanese debut film of silent-era star Sessue Hayakawa, in which he not only starred but directed.