A Woman in the Painting

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

Betrayed and disgraced, big-city reporter Kazuya Mizuno is banished to a desk at Kaname's boring little town newspaper. But Kaname isn't as boring as it seems on the surface. Not with characters around like Shimeko, a girl genius with a childlike lack of propriety, and her ace fisherman/folk-singer dad. Or the overbearing and unpleasant local Shinto priest, a former Christian cultist. Or Endo, Kazuya's new colleague, a bitter drunk after his son's suicide. Or Kin, a former terrorist, now a hermit on his boat engaging in secret "research." Or perhaps most importantly Teruko, the hypnotically beautiful bar owner, the focus of all manner of innuendo and intrigue. Something mysterious, even mystical, is going on Kaname, and hapless Kazuya is about to be thrown into the middle of it.

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

When beautiful young Grace arrives in the isolated township of Dogville, the small community agrees to hide her from a gang of ruthless gangsters, and, in return, Grace agrees to do odd jobs for the townspeople.

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.

Pink film distributed by Xces / Nikkatsu.

Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.

Kanichiro Yoshimura is a Samurai and Family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan, he is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them.

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.

Shinohara, a young bodybuilder, joins a para-military sect in northern Japan. His instructor, Takizawa, takes a liking to the new recruit. After an early “special” training session the two develop a lasting and loving relationship.

One day, Reiko, a female college student who aims to be active in the world of mass media, is asked to investigate the actual situation regarding sex among female college students. Reiko infiltrates the girls' dormitory, but as soon as she moves in, Kyoko, who manages her dormitory, forces her to attend a party on Saturday night...

High schooler Shiori lives with her education-minded mother. Struggling with her life in Tokyo, she travels on behalf of her grandmother to the mystical island Yakushima, where she meets a robot.

This routine effort from cult pinku-eiga director Hisayasu Sato centers around a divorcée who opens a beauty parlor and begins selling sexual services to boost her business.

Cult filmmaker Hisayasu Sato's second comedy of the year, this silly softcore effort stars pretty Nao Kikuchi as a young married woman who takes a job at a call-girl agency with the mistaken belief that it is a maid service. After she is raped on her first assignment, Kikuchi is understandably shocked, but quickly warms to her new career and becomes quite the professional. Unfortunately, her husband soon discovers the true nature of her work.

A mentally disturbed prostitute claims to have lost her baby in a heavy S&M session. As she begins a similar relationship with a man whose wife left him because of his kinky urges, their mutual mental deterioration leads them down a spiral toward a double-suicide pact.

Kasumi Yuka heads the cast of this silly softcore film from Hisayasu Sato, the usually far more sober cult filmmaker known for grim depictions of alienation and sadism. Yuka plays a cranky harridan who uses her vibrator to administer questionably effective punishment to people who annoy her.

Although its title indicates three personalities, the heroine of cult filmmaker Hisayasu Sato’s downbeat multiple-personality tale actually exhibits four, going from loving wife to crazed slut to insane child to depressed adolescent. As usual, Sato fills the film with alienation, kinky sex, and psychological subplots.