Dragnet Girl (1933)
Yasujirô Ozu

By day, Tokiko leads a respectable life, working as an office typist for a large corporation. By night, she drops her pretence of respectability and becomes the mistress of a small time hoodlum, Jyoji...   [More...]

Early Spring (1956)
Yasujirô Ozu

Shoji Sugiyama is a young salaryman who works for a company that manufactures fire bricks in Tokyo. Every day, he takes a crowded commuter train into the city centre, to the crowded office where he works...   [More...]

Gate of Hell (1953)
Teinosuke Kinugasa

Japan, 1159, during the Heian Period. In the midst of a bloody uprising, the imperial palace of Sanjo falls to the rebel faction...   [More...]

Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
Alain Resnais

In the summer of 1957, an aspiring French actress travels to Hiroshima in Japan to work on an anti-war film. The city was totally destroyed when the Americans dropped a nuclear bomb on it at the end of the Second World War, but now it has been rebuilt and shows little sign of the past devastation...   [More...]

The Idiot (1951)
Akira Kurosawa

Having been treated for epilepsy brought about by his wartime experiences, Kinji Kameda returns to his hometown. Penniless, the only person he can turn to for support is his uncle Ono, who is preoccupied with his daughter Ayako's marriage to the wealthy Tohata...   [More...]

The Lady and the Beard (1931)
Yasujirô Ozu

As a college student, Kiichi Okajima impresses everyone with his mastery of the Japanese martial art of Kendo. But, once he has graduated, the world seems not to appreciate his devotion to Japan's cultural traditions...   [More...]

Oyû-sama (1951)
Kenji Mizoguchi

In late 19th century Japan, a young carpenter named Shinnosuke must choose a woman to take as his bride. So far his aunt's attempts to find him a suitable wife have failed, but he is no hurry to marry...   [More...]

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)
Kenji Mizoguchi

Tokyo in the mid-1880s. Kikunosuke Onoue intends to follow in the footsteps of his adopted father, the great Kabuki actor Kikugoro Onoue...   [More...]

Walk Cheerfully (1930)
Yasujirô Ozu

Koyama Kenji, nicknamed Kenji the Knife, is a small-time crook who makes a dishonest living with his friends Senko, Gunpei and Chieko...   [More...]