Utamaro and His Five Women (1946)
Utamaro, a great artist, lives to create portraits of beautiful women, and the brothels of Tokyo provide his models A world of passion swirls around him, as the women in his life vie for lovers And, occasionally, his art gets him i
The Life of Oharu (1952)
Follows a womans fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society
The Neighbors Wife and Mine (1931)
A writer struggles to finish his story against many distractions, but the jazz party next door proves to be too much
Ugetsu (1953)
A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century
Ginza Cosmetics (1951)
A few days in the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a young, smart boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza A woman devoted to other peoples needs, she will end by taking part herself in one of the many disguises of Ginza
Phoenix (1947)
A young war widow remembers her short time with her husband
The Eternal Breasts (1955)
Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression
Mother (1952)
A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mothers attempt to sustain her family
Brothel No 8 (1974)
A journalist interviews an old woman who was forced into prostitution, just like many other Japanese women working in Asia outside of Japan during the first half of the 20th century She worked in a Malaysian brothel called Sandak
Ibo kyoudai (1957)
In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted Japan between 1921 and 1946
Shinshaku Yotsuya kaidan kohen (1949)
In this second part to The Yotsuda Phantom, Iemons apparent success is minimized by his own feelings of guilt, the quickly mounting evidence, and Naosukes constant hounding
Ruten no ohi (1960)
A film adaptation of the autobiography of Aishinkakura Hiro, who lived a tumultuous life as the consort of Fuketsu, the younger brother of Emperor Puyi of Manchukuo
Love Letter (1953)
Explores the wounds of war, the limits of love and the need to forgive A sad and troubled man, Reikichi Mayumi finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people
Wedding Ring (1950)
A jewelry store president begins to fall for the doctor treating her husbands illness via Hulu
Ghost of Yotsuya (1949)
Iemon Tamiya is an impovershed masterless samurai who craves a better life, which he cannot have because of his marriage to Oiwa, who is completely devoted to her husband
The Moon Has Risen (1955)
Mokichi is the widower father of three daughters, with whom he has been living on the premises of a temple since the war All three daughters become involved in varied complicated relationships The sisters and their attached men
Love Under the Crucifix (1962)
A tea master and his daughter Ogin are both Christians in feudal Japan Ogin falls in love with a married feudal prince who shares her faith When the Shogun bans Christianity, the situation worsens
Munekata kyodai (1950)
Setsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a drinking habit Shes always been in love with Hiroshi, but he left for France years ago without proposing Now he is back and Mariko Setsukos sister tries t
Women of the Night (1948)
A mistress of a drug dealer in post war Japan is shocked when she discovers that he is having an affair with her sister
Alone on the Pacific (1963)
Kenichi Horie is determined to challenge his family, the law and the nature crossing the Pacific to America in a small sailboat Despite his careful planning many unforeseen events will test his determination
Onna bakari no yoru (1961)
A prostitute tries to change her life after the enforcement of an anti prostitution law
The Ballad of Narayama (1958)
A kabuki theatre inflected story about a poor village whose people have to be carried to a nearby mountain to die once they get old