Koh Sugita

1962 Japanese movie

1962 Japanese movie

Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a tanbi-ha work of decadence, aestheticism, and intrigue. Ichikawa's film presents the tragic plot of the young geisha who is unable to enact her love for a man publicly in any way other than a histrionic story of torment, a heart-rending tale of lovers being crushed by fate. Instead, Ichikawa shows the contest of wills that transpires as two geisha, Oko and Kiyoha fight for the top spot in Nihonbashi, the pinnacle of the Tokyo geisha world. Nihonbashi is an elegant, if steely, exposition of manners. The young doctor, Shinzo Katsuragi, is the object of affection for both women, but appears to be more the choice reward for the plotting and thieving of these two early modern superwomen, than a lover they swoon over.

Hoodlum Soldier and the C.O.

Fangs of Vengeance

Black Temptation

1962 Japanese movie

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of poverty.

The Beggar General

Order of Yakuza

Hayase, a schoolteacher, assists Sakai in editing a German-Japanese dictionary. Hayase owes much to Sakai, as Sakai raised him for 13 years after Hayase lost his parents in a war. Hayase has been secretly married to Otsuta, a former geisha, and has been unable to tell Sakai of the marriage, aware as he is that Sakai wants him to marry his daughter, Taeko. Otsuta wants Hayase to tell Sakai about her, but understands the difficulty of his position. At a festival, Otsuta is mistaken for a pickpocket and taken to the police. Because of her background as a geisha, newspaper reporters eagerly delve into her past and report that she has been married to Hayase. Unaware of what has been printed in the papers, Hayase decides to tell Sakai about his marriage. Sakai shows the newspaper to him and orders Hayase to part with Otsuta. Given no chance to explain, Hayase accepts Sakai's order.

Kosaka drops to death while ice climbing with his friend Uozu to see the sunrise on the New Year’s Day. The investigators try to find the cause of the death, then discover that the cut rope was made in the factory for which Uozu’s brother works.

1962 Japanese movie

New Bad Reputation Continues

1962 Japanese movie

The cunning detective Akeichi must foil a kidnapping plot orchestrated by the notorious jewel thief known as Black Lizard.

A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

The case of the counterfeit bills that spread all over Japan.

A talent scout who had his eyes set on a star left-handed pitcher in the high school baseball world falls to his death at his hotel. Was it a homicide or suicide? His junior colleague pursues the mystery of his death.

A journalist decides to do his own investigation after a series of strange murders are committed during a local election campaign.

You and I

A Storm Zone

Tamio Moroi, a young university graduate, works at a large brewery where he is taught to do nothing but look busy. When his father goes insane, he is told to send money for medical research into the condition. This prompts him to pay his father a visit, leading to a series of mishaps that leaves him at the bottom of the heap in what he once expected to be a promising lifetime career.

Love River

The biopic of Shigenobu Ōkuma, one of the main Japanese leaders at the turn of the 20th century, a supporter of rapprochement with the United Kingdom, and who brought his country into the Triple Entente against the German Empire.

The film depicts a group of boys and girls who graduate from a local junior high school and head to Tokyo to find employment, and the teachers who watch over them. Co-written by newcomer Shigeki Chiba and Kaneto Shindo, the film was directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura.

A beautiful older sister and her younger brother, both designers who paint the dreams of young hope, are paired with an innocent young artist and the daughter of a company president, creating a miniature picture of the youth of Tokyo that revolves around these four characters.

ほんだら剣法

Trump Card of Revenge

The three Matsunami sisters navigate adulthood and the complex social pressures of finding a husband while living under their traditional father’s roof. As they balance their personal desires against the family's obsession with status, their search for "marriageable age" stability is complicated by secret affairs and the cold reality of arranged matches. They must ultimately decide whether to conform to the rigid expectations of their upper-class upbringing or break away to pursue their own independence.

Heitaro, who had served his firm loyally for 30 years, reaches the retirement age. He has four unmarried daughters and decides to split his retirement allowance he has received from his firm into 500,000 yen for each daughter as a wedding dowry. He considers them all old enough to handle the money, and gives them a free hand to use it as they wish.

[Period covered: 1595-1600] We last saw ninja Ishikawa Goemon, as he was about to be boiled alive. But a good ninja is both hard to find, and even harder to kill. With the help of the enigmatic Hattori Hanzo, Goemon lives to skulk another day, and sets his sights on bringing down the warlord who tried to turn him into soup – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. And as always, in the background, the suble hand of Tokugawa Ieyasu is pulling strings as he plots to rule all of Japan!

Set in the midst of the Satsuma Rebellion, this story depicts the sadness of a woman’s heart. Though she hates the Imperial Army captain who violated her, she cannot bring herself to hate him completely.

A kind-hearted medical student, an ill-fated young woman, an innocent young lady in a school uniform, and a medical student whose rational beauty conceals her true feelings… The stories of love and friendship that unfold in a poor town shrouded in fog.

In a peaceful town near the Seto Inland Sea, a threatening letter arrives along with the ringing of a telephone... A thriller-comedy that sets this stagnant town ablaze.

A romantic tale depicting the beautiful and tragic love between a young man and woman from aristocratic families who are caught in the crossfire of the February 26 Incident.

On the night of the Sanja Festival, a bloodstained wallet left in the hands of a female pickpocket… The boss’s sinister grasp closing in on an innocent dancer, and the passion and deadly battle unleashed by the righteous hero of Asakusa…

A rakugo storyteller who makes people laugh falls in love with his master’s daughter.

Two men clash over the beautiful star of a motorcycle show.

A series of kidnappings is occurring right under the authorities’ noses as they desperately pursue the culprits. Could the typewritten ransom note reveal the culprit?

A college student falls in love with a notorious delinquent girl.

Bara no kōdōkan

A passionate singer who’s rough around the edges but has a warm heart; a kind-hearted, impoverished painter who devotes himself wholeheartedly; and a beautiful opera singer loved by both of them—the joys and sorrows of Asakusa during the golden age of opera.

A heartbroken beauty has slipped into the ranks of the "Golden Horse" circus troupe. The circus's two star performers, vying for her affection, face off on a perilous trapeze, staking their love and friendship on the outcome.

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies.

On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position of his recently deceased father, boss of the Asahina clan. But their exit proves more difficult than planned when their rival clan steps in to exact revenge.

A fishing village is terrorized by a giant whale, and the fishermen are determined to kill it.

The story contrasts the life of two doctors, former classmates and now both assistant professors at Naniwa University Hospital in Osaka. The brilliant and ambitious surgeon Goro Zaizen stops at nothing to rise to a position of eminence and authority, while the friendly Shuji Satomi busies himself with his patients and research.

A youth drama set in a Japanese university which is home to a group of active, leftist students.

Shikiko Oba is nimble with her fingers and teaches dressmaking and designing. Among her pupils are Rinko, Katsumi and Tomie. Ginshiro, who is as shrewd as the shrewdest of the older generation of dyed-in-the-wool Osaka businessmen, steps into picture and Shikiko soon feels that he is indispensable to her. But the advent of a man in their midst breaks up the harmony that has existed among the four women, as gradually he forces himself on them with promises of love.

Detective Katahachi meets a young and beautiful pickpocket and doesn’t arrest her because she was not in the act. Instead, he listens to the story about her parents who killed himself and died for overwork to feel sorry about her.

Based on Kaoru Morimoto oft performed 1945 play, a starring vehicle for famed actress Machiko Kyo as Kei an abused orphaned girl that eventually finds sanctuary with a wealthy family that trades goods with China and becomes a successful businesswoman. Masumura dilutes the originally intended pro-Japan propaganda elements for a more anti-war approach.

A young man who followed his father's wishes and became a travel actor causes a big commotion with his fellow members of the Gurentai group during their travel destination! Innocent to cute girls and reckless to bad guys! Exciting entertainment!

Nine Hours of Terror

To avenge the death of his brother, a student shooting champion infiltrates the criminal world. An entertaining action drama and an interesting love story.

Mother

A young offender who is already guilty of many crimes is sentenced again for rape. Upon his release from prison, a year later, the victim waits to kill him.

Detective Goto, who had sniffed out drugs as the culprit behind the murder of an elderly woman, was run over and killed while pursuing the culprit. His younger brother Matabei vowed to challenge the culprit in front of his brother's grave. A fast-paced action-packed story.

A coming-of-age story that depicts the crisis of love in marital life in a light-hearted way, centering on the family of a young scholar whose young wife is a female doctor who has made a name for herself in sex medicine.

Kawaii mendori ga utatta

The Man Who Killed Six Women

Toramatsu is a very enthusiastic policeman. Believing that the police should help others he is dismissed the force when his pistol is stolen while doing one of his good deeds. He saves a child from drowning, restores it to his mother, then finds that someone has run off with his gun and later uses it to kill. Then he breaks up a group of hoodlums attacking a young girl named Mieko, and the police, his former friends, deciding he has gone too far, decide to sue him. On top of this the girl gets hurt and, consequently, a child from the kindergarten where Mieko teaches is kidnapped on his way home. Impersonating a policeman he tracks down the gangsters and rescues the boy. Due to this he also uncovers a scandal which allows the police to make a long due clean up in the political world. As a reward for all of this he wins the regard of the girl but now faces a stiff prison sentence for impersonating the policeman he had been and which, at heart, he truly remains.

Invitation to Jail

The Last Loyalty Offering

Prize of Flesh

UFOs appear on Earth, and people who actually see them suddenly find that their blood has turned blue. Soon panic and hysteria result in the new "blue-bloods" being persecuted by the rest of mankind, and eventually certain all-too-familiar measures begin to be taken against them.

A series of murders has been committed by someone with a new model gun, a Mord-Gessel X 38. Indeed, Daisuke himself is almost killed while investigating the case. This occurred while he was with Ritsuko, daughter of a company president. Detective Kimura thinks that the president himself, returned to Japan after an absence of fifteen years, might be the killer, or at least the man who supplied the gun. Ritsuko's father limps and though she explains this as the result of a traffic accident, Kimura remembers a narcotics smuggler named Suginami who shot himself in the ankle and then escaped from the hospital. He believes that the company president and the drug peddler are the same.

Police investigate a series of mysterious murders where the only clue is a strange buzzing noise at the scene of the crime.

A traditional bar mistress in Kyoto clashes with her Tokyo rival.

In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of Leyte.

Blind masseur Zatoichi is nursed back to health by a young woman after he is shot by a gang member. Zatoichi, who had come to the village to repay a debt, now feels further indebted. He commits himself to use his amazing sword skills to help the young woman's father, whose river-crossing service is under attack by the same gang responsible for Zatoichi's wounds.

A crime boss gets out of prison and tries to find who from his organization betrayed him.

The story revolves around a young man appointed to rescue a troubled hospital who must choose between two women, a dedicated nurse or a spoiled rich girl.

In 1905, Japan was seriously threatened in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan determined a decisive attack on Russia to end the war. A reconnaissance troop was organized to penetrate into the supreme headquarter of Russia in Tieling Mountain of China to find out the enemy's situation...

The tragic fate of Minoru Ikeda, a talented blind boy whose only joy was playing the violin.

Omnibus picture, consisting of three stories.

Japanese "kayo" film centered around the song "Dare yori mo kimi wo aisu" by Kazuko Matsuo.

In late 1940 the Japanese were anxious to conclude peace in China and to that end sent Colonel Hidaka to inaugurate negotiations. He was mysteriously assassinated, however, when his car was blown up. The General Staff Headquarters in Japan, sends Lieutenant Shiina, a graduate of the famed Nakano School of Spies inaugurated by Colonel Kusanagi, to investigate the matter. Arriving in Shanghai, he disguises himself as a Chinese coolie and sets out to watch for developments, the only clue being a silver dollar found beside what was left of the victim.

Five Star Private

Tsuki no kōdōkan

An ominous skull at a wedding venue; a series of chilling, mysterious incidents befalling a wealthy man whose heads of the family have gone missing on their wedding nights; and a mysterious white-haired demon driven mad by revenge!

An entertainment film set in a movie studio, featuring songs and hidden talents performed by male and female stars.

Horeruna Yanpachi

A story about a young woman who has been rehabilitated at a juvenile detention center for girls and released into society, but finds herself on the verge of falling back into a life of crime.

Melodrama about a young woman who saves a young man from the world of evil after he has saved her from blindness.

Even the beautiful international port of Yokohama has a seedy underbelly. An action thriller in which a newspaper reporter plunges into a den of vice to expose the smuggling and the prostitution.

A high school student who loves detective stories finds himself transporting a woman’s body in the middle of the night. A hilarious thriller about a group of six close friends who form a “Murder Club”.

A romantic story about a young medical student and a Japanese dancer who meet while watching a university ice hockey league game, and how they overcome various difficulties to be together.

After helping a woman recover her wallet, which had been stolen by a pickpocket, a rough-around-the-edges young man who is a sixth-dan judo practitioner falls in love with a beautiful teacher of traditional folk songs.

Judo movie.

A romantic action drama set in early Meiji-era Hokkaido, centered on a passionate, justice-seeking newspaper reporter who takes on an official seeking to line his own pockets, alongside an ill-fated brother and sister harboring a desire for revenge.

A woman saves a man from throwing himself into a mountain lake after being cornered by his yakuza friends.

Furusato no tōdai

Three stories about the relationship between men and women: "Playgirl" (Masumura/Shirasaka), "Company No. 2" (Yoshimura/Kasahara), and "San Nyotai" (Kinugasa/Shindô).

A heartwarming story about Kenta, an unfortunate boy searching for his father, and Sensei, the town’s hero and black belt.

Kenta, an orphan, heads to Tokyo to find his father.

A biting portrait of the world of classical Japanese dance: an ambitious young woman (Wakao Ayako) shoves aside her mentor (Kyo Machiko) on her way to the top.