Movies: Masao Mishima

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 seni...

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the re...

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his...

Young Horus lives in a mythical Scandinavia of the Iron Age. Recovering the stolen Sword of the Sun from a rock giant, he learns he must travel to the lands of his ancestors, encountering the beautiful but enigmatic Hilda as his journey leads to a se...

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....

The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back....

Historical fiction about the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945, and its effects on various civilians, especially children, of that city....

The story takes place in feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world was strictly prohibited. An idealist suddenly appears in an isolated inn (the one that the title refers to), the head-quarters of a group of smugglers, with stolen mo...

An innocuous comment during a weapon inspection wounds the pride of low-ranking samurai Shinpachi, leading to an argument with his superior. The situation snowballs out of control, leading to a deadly duel and political fallout which threatens the en...

In 1691 a terrible fire broke out in Denmacho, Yotsuya, burning down the towns around it, up to the shores of Shibaura. A month and a half later, another fire broke out, this time in Komagome, burning down the two gates of Asakusa and Sujikai, and co...

As suggested by the title, this film takes up the theme of the city, beginning with a series of traveling shots from Chiyo's point of view on a bus leaving the countryside and entering the metropolitan cityscape. After some fruitless job hunting in d...

Based on Matsumoto Seicho's classic mystery novel of the same name, the story centers around a group of detectives who are determined to find the truth behind an apparent double suicide....

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....

Zatoichi's trek through 88 temples to atone for his violent past is interrupted as he stumbles into a village terrorized by a violent yakuza boss....

In turbulent 16th-century Japan, the leaders of a minor fief have their child taken from them as a political hostage. His mother and his clan endure years of tribulations until he can return....

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

The story of five sisters....

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 pr...

Based on true events surrounding a Korean student who had entered Japan unlawfully and escaped illegal alien internment....

After an argument with his father a son leaves his home and comes back only, as an adult, many years later just to cause them problem after problem....