An Actor's Revenge (1963)

Director: Kon Ichikawa

Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao

Legendary Japanese actor Kazuo Hasegawa plays Yukinojo Nakamura, a kabuki actor who - like Hasegawa himself - was renowned for being an onnagata, or f... Read more

Ocean Waves (1993)

Director: Tomomi Mochizuki

Based upon author, essayist and playwright Saeko Himuro's most popular, best-selling novel, this is one of Studio Ghibli's most poignant and unsung ma... Read more

Princess Raccoon (2005)

Director: Seijun Suzuki

Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Jo Odagiri, Hiroko Yakushimaru

To lovers of romance, there is nothing unusual in the story of how Amechiyo, an exiled prince, meets the exotic and mysterious girl, Tanuki-hime, in t... Read more

The Empress Yang Kwei-fei (1955)

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Starring: Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori

Aka "Princess Yang Kwei-fei". Based on an ancient historical tale, this is a sumptuous costume drama set in 8th century China of the T'ang Dynasty, br... Read more

The Crucified Lovers (1954)

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa, Yoko Minamida

Kenji Mizoguchi adapts this story of forbidden love from the 17th century story by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, considered the 'Japanese Shakespeare'. Origin... Read more

Goemon (2009)

Director: Kazuaki Kiriya

Starring: Masato Ibu, Yosuke Eguchi, Takao Osawa, Ryoko Hirosue

The year is 1582. A huge chasm exists between rich and poor, and evening things out is super-thief Goemon (a Japanese Robin Hood) who spends his day r... Read more

Robogeisha (2009)

Director: Noboru Iguchi

Starring: Aya Kiguchi, Takumi Saito, Hitomi Hasebe

Yoshie is the beautiful younger sister to the geisha Kikuyakko. Together, they are recruited by the handsome Hikaru to help overthrow the corrupt Japa... Read more

Ghost Hound: Part 1 (2007)

Director: Ryutaro Nakamura

Episodes 1-11. When he was three, Taro Komori and his sister were kidnapped, but the kidnapper was run over and killed before the ransom could be deli... Read more

Ballad of Narayama (1983)

Director: Shohei Imamura

Starring: Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto

In a small 19th-century Japanese village, residents who reach the age of 70 are banished to the top of Mt. Narayama to die so that they don't become a... Read more

Street of Shame (1956)

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Starring: Machiko Kyo, Aiko Mimasu

For his final film, Mizoguchi brought a lifetime of experience to bear on the heartbreaking tale of a brothel full of women whose dreams are constantl... Read more