Tag Archives: Japan

It is spring, 1945. The war is going badly for the Empire of Japan. Outnumbered and outgunned, the soldiers of the Empire are being forced back, island by island, towards the homeland.
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The moment he’s released from prison, the honorable gangster Miyamoto recovers the stolen diamonds he had stashed before getting pinched. When he returns to his haunt to make good by friend who took a bullet for him, he is diverted by the greedy boss Oyane and his insatiable taste for Miyamoto’s precious stones. Replete with film noir style, “Underworld Beauty” is one of Suzuki’s best nods to the American gangster genre.
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Released after seven years in prison, an inveterate thug goes from strength to ruthless strength as he makes his way through a succession of dubious jobs, illegal schemes, and brutal romances.
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University student Akira meets the lovely 14-year-old Yumi, whom he had tutored years ago. Her mother is told by her doctor that the schoolgirl has leukaemia and has only 6 months to live. So the mother entreats Akira to be her special friend. Yumi’s condition remains stable for a while, but on the day that Akira leaves for Nagano for his teacher training, she suddently falls ill in school and then goes to a friend’s villa in the resort town of Karuzawa to recuperate. She is able to visit Akira from time to time, and this eases her fear and suffering. But when summer is over, Yumi’s condition deteriorates, and finally Akira takes her to Mount Hodaka where, as she falls into her final delirium, they express their deep love for each other.
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When a space probe crash-lands on a far-flung Pacific atoll, the craft’s alien stowaways decide to take over their new world one creature at a time. Soon, the parasitic life forms latch onto three indigenous critters – a squid, a crab and a snapping turtle – and transform them into colossal mutant monsters.
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Jack-of-all-trades director Miike Takashi takes on more serious material in the human drama The Lion Standing in the Wind about the experiences of a Japanese doctor in Africa. Featuring location shooting in Kenya, the film is based on Sada Masashi’s novel and song Kaze ni Tatsu Lion, which were inspired by the true story of a Japanese doctor who operated a mobile clinic in the African nation.
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Based on real events reported in Japanese newspapers in 1966 “Boy” follows the title character, Toshio Omura, across Japan, as he is forced to participate in a dangerous scam to support his dysfunctional family. Toshio’s father, Takeo Omura, is an abusive, lazy veteran, who forces his wife, the boy’s stepmother, Takeko Tamiguchi, to feign being hit by cars in order to shake down the motorists. When his wife is unable to perform the scam, Toshio is enlisted…
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When Kaneko Ichinosuke aims to avenge his father who was wrongly accused of embezzlement, the samurai Kochiyama Soshun agrees to assist.
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An exciting tale of action on the distant northern island of Hokkaido around the beginning of the 20th Century starring two of the biggest names in Yakuza film history, Fuji Junko and Takakura Ken. Since the death of death of her father, Yuki who has traveled from her home in the southernmost part of Japan must fight corrupt local officials seeking to fill her late father’s post. As her life is in danger a mysterious rifleman, played by Takakura Ken watches from the shadows. Can she finish the work her dear departed father started in an untamed land?
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Takeshi Yasui, a junior high school student is found dead in a river. The police investigate it as a murder related to bullying. The dead boy turns out to have been murdered by two of his schoolmates, who he had been bullying.
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