Toho Kabushiki Kaisha.
Series
Criterion collection volume 190
Language
日本語
Description
Adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in feudal Japan. Tells the story of a Samurai lord who kills his master and usurps his power in fulfillment of a witch's prophecy.
Language
日本語
Description
Mao (Juri Ueno) and Kosuke (Jun Matsumoto) first met in high school. When Mao was called stupid and billied, Kosuke stepped in to rescue and that's where their romance emerged. Ten years later they meet again. She becomes an attractive woman but her memory before 13 years old was lost. They quickly fall in love and marry. But Mao holds a secret close to her heart - is there a happy ever after for Mao and Kosuke?
Series
Criterion collection volume 567
Language
日本語
Description
Revolving around the changing of the seasons, The Makioka Sisters follows the lives of four sisters who have taken on their family's kimono manufacturing business, over the course of a number of years leading up to the Pacific War. A graceful study of a family at a turning point in history, and a poignant evocation of changing times and fading customs.
4) Ikiru
Series
Criterion collection volume 221
Language
日本語
Description
A young Japanese businessman dying of cancer wants to give something back to society before his death, so he decides to build a playground for children.
Series
Criterion collection volume 190
Language
日本語
Description
A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai), sets Shakespeare's definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. The film fuses classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh Theater to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.
Series
Criterion collection volume 24
Language
日本語
Description
A complex crime thriller in which a wealthy shoe manufacturer's chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own, and he faces a moral dilemma -- should he pay the ransom anyway and risk losing his position?
7) Yojimbo
Series
Criterion collection volume 52
Language
English
Description
Two warring clans vying for power bid for the services of a wandering samurai-for-hire.
Series
Criterion collection volume 16
Language
日本語
Description
In this third and last installment of the Samurai trilogy, the main character continues his quest for enlightenment, but turns his back on the world in disillusionment. Forced to fight again, he eventually comes face to face with his arch rival and long time enemy in a final showdown. This release includes the original theatrical trailer.
Series
Language
日本語
Description
"On the outskirts of the town of Furukawa, blind masseur and master blade-slinger Zatoichi encounters one-armed Chinese martial artist Wang Kang and a young boy. Discovering that the pair are on the run from the corrupt local Samurai, murderers of the boy's parents, Zatoichi agrees to guide them to a nearby temple. Unfortunately, things are never that easy for the blind man, as he becomes entangled in in a struggle to save not only these two, but...
10) Yōjimbō
Series
Criterion collection volume 52
Language
日本語
Description
To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage.
Series
Criterion collection volume 2
Language
日本語
Description
This epic masterpiece is about a group of 16th century samurai who are hired to defend a small Japanese village that finds itself annually raided by an army of bandits who steal the meager crops harvested by the peasants. Tired of relinquishing their food supply but woefully inept in combat skills, the villagers decide to hire a band of samurai to protect them. In addition to the primary conflict between the villagers and the bandits, much of the...
12) Nana
Series
Language
日本語
Description
A chance encounter between two girls of the same name, "Nana, " triggers a series of events resulting in them moving in together and setting up their new lives.
13) Ikiru
Series
Criterion collection volume 221
Language
日本語
Description
A young Japanese businessman dying of cancer wants to give something back to society before his death, so he decides to build a playground for children.
Series
Criterion collection volume 90
Language
日本語
Description
After more than a decade of sober political dramas and social-minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously...
Series
Criterion collection volume 24
Language
日本語
Description
A complex crime thriller in which a wealthy Japanese shoe manufacturer's chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own, and he faces a moral dilemma.
16) Tokyo Olympiad
Series
Criterion collection volume 155
Language
日本語
Description
An epic study of athletes struggling to excel against their own bodies and against each other. Kon Ichikawa used 164 cameramen and over 100 cameras to show the humanity of the competitors-- the tears of the Japanese women volleyball champions, the bellow of the hammer throwers, the pain of the collapsed marathon runner and the solitude of the loser, finishing his lap, picking up his sweats and leaving the field.
Series
Criterion collection volume 53
Language
日本語
Description
The 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) Dodesukaden
Series
Criterion collection volume 465
Language
日本語
Description
Follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. As desperate as their circumstances may seem, each of them, including the homeless father and son who dream of a home; the young woman hiding from the abuse she receives from her uncle; and a young boy who dreams of being a trolley conductor, find reasons to carry on.
Series
Criterion collection volume 584
Language
日本語
Description
In medieval Japan, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero, to quell what is evidently a ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women, in an eery, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling...
Series
Criterion collection volume 116
Language
English
Description
A princess must escape across enemy lines with the royal treasure, guarded only by a loyal general and two greedy peasants.