
06 Sep 2003

Zatoichi
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.

The epic battles between the Heike and Genji (Taira and Minamoto clans) take centerstage as the defeated leader of the Genji, Minamoto Yoritomo resolves to end his clan's exile and avenge the brutal loss in December, 1159 as they had fought under the white banner of the Emperor, while the Taira fought under their red flags in a battle to the death. The fight only took one day, with the Genji suffering utter defeat which led to their exile. His father, Yoshitomo, took responsibility for the loss and rather than live in humiliation, he decides to commit suicide with all his sons following him. However, the bravest warrior among them, Yoritomo stands tall and declares that he will not kill himself, but rather will fight to restore the clan.


















06 Sep 2003

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.

26 Aug 1950

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

03 Jun 2017

In the late 16th century, after the death of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes power. The age of war is about to end, but Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rule makes life difficult for the people. Monk Senko Ikenobo is a master of flower arrangement. He prays for peace in the world and tries to give hope to the people with flower arrangement. He becomes good friends with Rikyu. Rikyu is a monk and a politician. He has the most profound influence on chanoyu. Rikyu is forced to commit hara-kiri by Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s order. Monk Senko Ikenobo challenges Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

31 Aug 1954

Bored Hatamoto film #16.

30 Jun 2023

Late 18th century, Tohoku. An outcast girl, Rin lives in a village suffering from famine. She draws strength from Mt. Hayachine, where the spirits of humans ascend after passing.

14 Jun 1991

Nobleman crusader Robin of Locksley breaks out of a Jerusalem prison with the help of Moorish fellow prisoner Azeem and travels back home to England. But upon arrival he discovers his dead father in the ruins of his family estate, killed by the vicious sheriff of Nottingham, Robin and Azeem join forces with outlaws Little John and Will Scarlett to save the kingdom from the sheriff's villainy.

23 Aug 2014

In the late 19th century, rakugo student Taihei gives up hope of making the grade, and his despair leads him to take up residence at a rowhouse in Tokyo's Fukagawa district. There he meets an emotionally distant boy named Sadakichi, and as fate would have it, he ends up teaching him rakugo.

01 Mar 1969

Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?

01 Jun 1985

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

01 Jan 1962

Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

18 Jan 2003

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.

15 Sep 1962

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.

25 Dec 2007

Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love.

18 Apr 1962

The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.

12 Oct 1962

Returning to the village where a year before he had killed Hirate, a much-admired opponent, Zatoichi encounters another swordsman and former rival in love.

15 Apr 2017

Japan, 1785. Jūzaburō, a famous thief who refuses to kill innocent people, is betrayed, ambushed, and left for dead.

21 Jun 2014

During the reign of the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Yunagaya Domain in the Tohoku region is a small han. But at the han, there is a gold mine. Suddenly, Masaatsu Naito of Yunagaya Domain receives an order to perform Sankin-kotai within 5 days. Sankin-kotai is a custom that requires the daimyo to visit the shogun in Edo. Unfortunately, the time needed to visit the shogun in Edo for Masaatsu Naito is 8 days. Masaatsu Naito also learns he received the order because a high ranking government official wants the gold mine. Also, the expense for Sankin-kotai is high and the Yunagaya Domain is such a small han that it seems impossible to complete. Nevertheless, Masaatsu Naito begins an unexpected operation to complete Sankin-kotai in 5 days.

22 Apr 1972

Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan and must eliminate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate.

16 Sep 1908

In 1908, Director/Producer Shozo Makino (father of Japanese cinema) directed and produced the first dramatic film in Kyoto. “Honnô-ji Gassen” was shot at Shinnyo-Do Temple. Considered a lost film.

25 Feb 1966

Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. It’s a way of life that leads to madness.