National Cinema of Japan
Titles Available as of October 1, 2009

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See also:
Area Studies: Japan
National Cinema of China
National Cinema of Korea

An actor's revenge = Yukinojao henge. 1963. (110 min.). The story of a female impersonator in a Kabuki troupe determined to wreak vengeance on the villians who caused his parents' miserable deaths. VHS 7868

After life = Wandafuru raifu. 1998. (118 min.). In Kore-eda's thought-provoking vision, the newly deceased find themselves in a way station somewhere between Heaven and Earth. With the help of dedicated caseworkers, each soul is given three days to choose one cherished memory for their life that they will relive for eternity. As the film reveals, recognizing happiness and finding a life's worth of meaning in a single event is no simple task. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 208

Akahige = Red beard. 1965. (179 min.). Film captures the look and feel of 19th century Japan as it tells the story of a vain young doctor who learns a valuable lesson from the dedicated director of a clinic for destitute patients. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4841, VHS 4485

Akibiyori = Late autumn. 1960. (129 min.). A young girl named Ayako is living with her widowed mother and refuses offers of marriage because she does not want her mother to be alone. Friends of the mother's husband recognize this problem and advise her to remarry. Ayako is upset by this and leaves home. Mother and daughter are later reconciled and take a pleasant autumn together to work out their feelings. DVD 3314

Akira. 1988. (124 min.). A powerful psychic force known only as Akira resurfaces in Neo-Tokyo in the 21st century. Tetsuo, a young, inexperienced motorcycle biker driven beyond the boundaries of sanity by the power of Akira, is forced to conjure up demons laying dormant within his subconscious. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 433

Akira Kurosawa's Stray dog. 1949. (122 min.). Set in Tokyo during the late 1940s, the film captures the chaos and humiliation that existed in Japan immediately after World War II. When detective Murakami loses his revolver, he must descend into Tokyo's underworld and face the killer who has taken it. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 816

All purpose cultural cat girl Nuku Nuku. 1992. (ca. 60 min.). Inventor Kyusaku Natsume transfers the brain of his son Ryunosuke's cat into a top secret android body, thereby losing a cat but gaining a daughter (Nuku Nuku) with superhuman strength and abilities. As the most potent fighting force ever unleashed upon an unsuspecting Japan, Nuku Nuku must keep Ryunosuke out of the insidious clutches of the ruthless Akiko Mishima, president of Mishima Heavy Industries (M.H.I.) - and also the ex-wife of Natsume and the mother of Ryunosuke. It's the mother-of-all custody battles that pits android against the full force of M.H.I.'s military products division, manned by an elite team of Office-Lady Warriors. VHS 4892

Ankokugai no bijo = Underworld beauty. 1958. (87 min.). The moment he is released from prison, the honorable gangster Miyamoto recovers the stolen diamonds he had stashed before getting pinched. When he returns to his old haunt to make good by a friend who took a bullet for him, he is diverted by the greedy boss Oyane and his insatiable taste for Miyamoto's precious stones. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4296

Bakushu = Early summer. 1951. (135 min.). Details the conflicting senses of obligation and individualism faced by a young daughter as her family-arranged wedding approaches. Noriko, a young woman, refuses to give up her job to get married just because of her age. She wants a man of means who will respect her intelligence. VHS 2782

Banshun = Late spring. 1949. (108 min.). The story of a widower and his daughter who through devotion to him is getting past a marriageable age. The father pretends to marry a young wife so his daughter will feel less obligated to stay with him. She marries and he prepares to live the remainder of his life alone. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4127, VHS 4218

Bara no soretsu = Funeral parade of roses. 1969. (105 min.). Eddie and the transvestite Leda both have sexual desires on bar manager and drug dealer Gonda. Gonda fears Leda will expose him to the police if he does not give in to his advances. When Leda commits suicide, Eddie and Gonda are free to engage in their homosexual yearnings for each other. When Gonda discovers he is Eddie's father, he kills himself with a knife. A distraught Eddie uses the same knife to cut his own eyes. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2289

Batoru rowaiaru = Battle royale. 2000. (ca. 109 min.). With unemployment at an all-time high and violence amongst school children almost out of control, the Japanese government introduces the "Battle Royale Act." A randomly chosen school class is taken to a deserted island and forced to fight each other to the death. One pupil only is allowed to survive as proof of the lengths to which the government is prepared to go to end the violence. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 880

Batoru rowaiaru II : rekuiemu = Battle royale II : revenge. 2003. (152 min.). The survivors of the Battle royale, form a terrorist group, to take revenge for being used so brutally by the adults. A group of students are trained and sent to kill them. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 881

Bijitâ Q = Visitor Q. 2001. (84 min.). A father, who is a failed former television reporter tries to mount a documentary about violence and sex among youths. He proceeds to have sex with his daughter who is now a prostitute and films his son being humiliated and hit by classmates. "Q", a perfect stranger somehow gets involved and enter the bizarre family whose son beats his mom, who in turn is also a prostitute and a heroin addict. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2730

Biruma no tategoto = The Burmese harp. 1956. (116 min.). An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4305

The blind swordsman: Zatôichi. 2003. (210 min.). Zatoichi -- A classic samurai epic that tells of a blind assassin desperately struggling to adhere to the strict code of the samurai. Sonatine -- Several yakuza from Tokyo are sent to Okinawa to help end a gang war. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4230

Branded to kill. 1967. (91 min.). Director Suzuki mocks everything from censorship to gangster films. The number-three ranked killer in the Tokyo underworld carries out three impeccably imaginative hits, but bungles a fourth. Then both the women in his life try to kill him. The next thing he knows, he is playing a cat-and-mouse game with the very dangerous No. 1 killer. VHS 4837

Daibosatsutoge = The sword of doom. 1965. (121 min.). This is the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil. A gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, Ryunosuke (Nakadai) kills without remorse, without mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1273

Dare mo shiranai = Nobody knows. 2004. (139 min.). A critically-acclaimed and powerful, heartfelt story about four children who are forced to rely on one another after they are abandoned by their mother. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2939

Dekigokoro = Passing fancy. 1933. (100 min.). Examines the close, but fraught, relationship between an illiterate brewery worker and his educated son. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4303

Detonator orgun. 1991. (57 min.). A force of hostile aliens have arrived in his city with a killing machine seeking to destroy the renegade soldier, Orgun. Now young Tomoru Shindo who is just about to graduate from the university is called upon to fight this mysterious life form from beyond the solar system. Life will never be the same. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 4898

Donzoko = The lower depths. (218 min.). Les bas-fonds (93 min.): A Baron, forced by circumstances, gives up his life of luxury and to takes up residence in the slums of Paris. The Baron observes the frustrated romance between Wasska Pepel and Natacha, the thwarted dreams of an actor, and the oppressive cruelties of landlord Kostileff. Donzoko (125 min.): Sutekichi, a vulgar, comical thief takes up residence in a slum flophouse inhabited by many eccentric, destitute people. Osugi, the cruel landlady, and her sister, Okayo, both desire him, and fight each other over him. Set in Edo-period Japan. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5636

The eel. 1997. (117 min.). Finding his wife in bed with another man, Takuro Yamashita murders her, serves an eight year prison sentence, and then moves to a small town to begin life anew as a barber. When he hires a young woman as his assistant, her past collides with his to the detriment of all. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 438

El-Hazard the magnificent world. 1995. (50 min.). Makoto Mizuhara, a student at Shinonome High School, is lured to El-Hazard, a magical world beneath his school. There he meets up with his teacher Fujisawa, his girlfriend Nanami and her brother (and Makoto's arch rival) Jinnai. They are asked to go on a quest to find the missing princess. VHS 5004

Fireworks. 1997. (103 min.). A hard-boiled ex-cop, haunted by a troubled past and pushed to the edge by the shooting of his partner, confronts his demons in a ruthless quest for justice and redemption. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 229

Fukushåusuru wa ware ni ari = Vengeance is mine. 1979. (140 min.). A true crime story about Iwao Enokizu, self-styled "King of criminals", Enokizu began his criminal career through a series of murders that made headlines and startled all Japan with a sense of uneasy fascination. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3040

Full metal gokudô = Full metal yakuza. 1997. (103 min.). "When a bumbling gangster is killed in the crossfire of a yakuza execution, it's the best thing that ever happened to him! Rebuilt by a mad professor as a super-robo yakuza (with private parts to match!!) this full-metal killer is ready to find out who was responsible for his death and mete out bloody revenge."--DVD container cover insert. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5531

The funeral: Ososhiki. 1985. (124 min.). Black comedy. An old man's unexpected death creates havoc with his family. The traditional three-day funeral undertaking becomes a sly comedy of manners as the younger generation struggles with the complex rituals of the Buddhist ceremony. Film is full of rich detail and fondness for the cultural traditions that are fading from modern Japanese life. VHS 696

Galaxy express 999. 1979. (ca. 120 min.). An animated science fiction look at life, death, revenge and discovery on a ride aboard the Galaxy Express 999, the train that begins at Megalopolis Station and ends at Andromeda. A young boy named Tetsuro learns more about the universe than he ever expected when he meets the mysterious woman Maetel, the legendary Space Pirate Captain Harlock and the infamous space trader Emeraldas on a quest to avenge his mother's death at the hands of the villanious Count Mecha. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 4897

Gembaku no ko = children of Hiroshima. (97 min.). Based on the notes written by children who experienced the horrors of this American atrocity. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2267

Genroku chushingura = The 47 ronin 1941. (224 min.). Pt. 1. Lord Asano is provoked into attacking the high-ranking Lord Kira. For this offense, Asano is forced to commit harakiri; his family is disinherited and his 47 loyal samurai become ronin, men without a master. They make drastic plans for a terrible revenge -- Pt. 2. The 47 ronin carry out their vengeance: they behead Kira, the lord responsible for their master's death. Imprisoned, they await the Daimyos' decision about their fate. At last the answer comes: one by one they must commit suicide. VHS 7829

Giants & toys: kyojin to gangu. 1958. (95 min.). "When three rival candy companies go to war for market supremacy, World Caramels enlists a lower-class girl with appallingly bad teeth to be their new spokesmodel. In a world of industrial spies, hostile takeovers and boardroom hysterics, the animal instincts of this overnight star prove to be the most cutthroat of all."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1280

Gojira = Godzilla. 1954. (98 min.). Gojira: A prehistoric monster, Godzilla, ravages metropolitan Tokyo. Scientists suspect that H-bomb tests awakened it from a two-million year sleep and they try to develop techniques to stop the monster. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6181

Gokudô kuroshakai = Rainy dog. 1997. (95 min.). "The second film of Miike's Black Society Trilogy continues the theme of alienation with an outcast yakuza, Yuji, who lives as a hit man on the fringes of the Taiwanese criminal world. When a former one-night stand catches up with him, he is unexpectedly saddled with what may be his real son. A sense of responsibility is born in Yuji, as he uses his lethal skills in an attempt to find some sort of haven for his newly found family"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5534

Good morning = Ohayo. 1959. (93 min.). Satiric comedy in which two young brothers refuse to talk until their parents agree to buy them a television set. Set in a 1950s residential suburb of Tokyo. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 169

Grave of the fireflies = Hotaru no haka. 1988. (88 min.). Two orphans in war-time Kobe, Japan, face fire-bombs, hunger, homelessness, and despair as the war and their lives come to an end. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 823

Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku = Rhapsody in August. 1991. (98 min.). A visit from her grandchildren and the discovery of a half-American relative cause an elderly woman to relive her memories of the atomic bomb that fell on Nagasaki. VHS 3884, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5803

Hakuchi = The idiot. 1951. (166 min.). Based on Dostoyevsky's fable of a holy fool, this story which takes place in Hokkaido in the winter is about a man who returns home after a stay in an asylum. He is being drawn toward Christianity, his antagonist is an anarchist. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4124

Hakuchu no torima = Violence at high noon. 1966. (99 min.). Story of a brutal sex murderer, his protective wife, and a woman he has previously raped, all of whom live in a rural commune with a group of Tokyo intellectuals. The two women shield the criminal from the police, each feeling a perverse sense of loyalty to him, one due to marriage, the other because he once saved her life. The behavior and motivations of this unholy trinity slowly begin to shift, as the film approaches a shattering conclusion that is at once shocking and poignant. VHS 6210

Harakiri. 1962. (134 min.). After an unemployed warrior is forced to commit harakiri, his father-in-law returns to the scene, seemingly to play out the same agonizing suicide ritual. Tensions grow to excruciating levels until the thrilling climax, when the elder warrior strikes out one last time against the abusive society that crafted such cruelty. VHS 3777

Hauru no ugoku shiro = Howl's moving castle. 2005. (119 min.). A young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste and is turned into an old woman who is unable to tell anyone of her plight. Unable to continue her job at her mother's hat shop, she goes to the ambulatory castle of the notorious wizard Howl and insinuates herself into his household. Sophie befriends Calcifer, the fire demon who powers the castle and who is bound to Howl by a contract, the terms of which Calcifer cannot reveal. They promise to help each other with their problems. Like Calcifer, Howl can also see through the Witch's spell, and he and Sophie fall in love. Sophie helps Howl confront his former teacher, and the Witch of the Waste. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2979

Higanbana = Equinox flower. 1958. (118 min.). In Ozu's first color film, a stubborn businessman, who disapproves of his daughter's fiance, must learn to embrace modern romance. DVD 3313

Ikimono no kiroku = I live in fear = Record of a living being. 1955. (103 min.). An elderly and wealthy industrialist is driven to madness over fears of a nuclear attack. In a futile attempt to save his family he pressures them to leave Japan and move to the rain forest in Brazil where he believes they will be safe. His family, complacent and cynical, is outraged and moves to have him declared insane. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 6535, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4125

Ikiru = To live! 1952. (143 min.). Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a government clerk spends his last months in search of a meaning to life. After an uncomprehending pursuit of pleasure has failed, he finds self-fulfillment by forcing through his former department the building of a children's playground in the slums, then dies quietly. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1315

Irezumi ichidai = Tattooed life. 1965. (90 min.). "After his final job as a yakuza hit man, Tetsu the Silver Fox is attacked by his last victim's bodyguard. Coming to his rescue is Kenji, Tetsu's younger, peaceful brother. In the fray, Kenji kills a yakuza and the two flee to Manchuria."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4298

Jinruigaku nyumon = The pornographers. 1966. (127 min.). A small time porno filmmaker in Osaka, struggles to cope with the corrupt sexual mores in his family, the world outside, and in himself. He peddles his films to condescending executives and panders a little on the side, believing he provides a socially valuable service. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4356

Kagemusha = the shadow warrior. 1980. (160 min.). Set in 16th century Japan, Shingen, a powerful warlord, dies from battle wounds. His clan finds a double to replace him in order to keep his health secret so that his enemies will not attack. The double is a petty thief who must somehow transform himself into a great leader and command the allegiance of 25,000 Samurai warriors. VHS 7624

Kakushi-toride no san-akunin = The hidden fortress. 1958. (139 min.). A princess must escape across enemy lines with the royal treasure, guarded only by a loyal general and two greedy peasants. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 376, HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 7052

Kanto mushuku = Kanto wanderer. 1963. (96 min.). "Gamblers and card sharps, prostitution, and Yakuza-style vengeance: Yakuza icon Akira Kobayashi is boss Izu's bodyguard Katsuta, who finds himself at the center of a violent power play by the greedy rival boss Yoshida. When Katsuta encounters a mysterious and beautiful femme fatale from his past, he must decide to act upon his own desires or pay his debt of honor to boss Izu."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4297

Kaze no tani no Naushika = Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds. 1984. (117 min.). The epic coming-of-age tale of Nausicaa, a compassionate princess warrior striving to negotiate peace between kingdoms battling over the last of the planet's precious natural resources. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2977

Kenka erejii = Fighting elegy. 1966. (86 min.). High schooler Nanbu Kiroku yearns for the prim, Catholic Michiko, but her only desire is to reform Kiroku's sinful tendencies. Hormones raging, Kiroku channels his unsatisfied lust into the only outlet available: savage, crazed violence. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4359

Kimagure Orange Road. 1989. (70 min.). Follow the adventures of Kyosuke Kasugai, a teenager who belongs to a family with psychic powers (teleportation, telekinesis, premonition, slight telepathy, etc.). Whenever the family's secret is discovered, they have to move. Now Kyosuke has met Madoka Ayukawa and her friend, Hiyama Hikaru, and he wants to stay put. Film takes place in the last year of high school and looks back on the previous summer at the "love triangle" between Hikaru, Madoka and Kyosuke. VHS 4896

Kishiwada shônen gurentai: Bôkyô = Young Thugs: Nostalgia. 1998. (93 min.). Nostalgia centers around the home and school life of a young boy whose family mixes the violent and dysfunctional with the comic and lovable. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5537

Kishiwada shônen gurentai: Chikemuri junjô-hen = Young thugs: innocent blood. 1997. (107 min.). Innocent blood follows three friends through their first year after leaving school. Having robbed their teacher on their last day, Ryoko gets a job in a hair salon while the two boys settle down to a career of enforcement and protection. Set in Kishiwada, a fishing district in the industrial town of Osaka. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5536

Kizuna. 1994. (60 min.). Ranmaru Samejima is a very handsome and legendary school fencing champion whose sports career comes to an abrupt end after he is mistakenly run over by a car intended to kill his boyfriend, Enjoji, the son of the mafia don in Osaka. Because of Enjoji’s unwavering love and encouragement. Ranmaru is able to successfully recover. After a few years of living and loving together, they happen to learn that Enjoji’s half brother, Kei Sagano, is not only living near them but has enrolled in the same college to be closer to Ranmaru his secret love. Kei’s presence causes some conflict for the happy couple. After a long talk with Masanori Araki, Kei’s substitute father, Kei realizes that he has no chance whatsoever of stealing Ranmaru from Enjoji—back of container. This is the original video animation of Kizuna which appears in Be boy comics. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 709

Kohayagawake no aki = End of summer. 1961. (103 min.). Ozu's penultimate film tells the story of three sisters who are stunned to discover that their aging father is spending time with his old mistress. DVD 3315

Kuroi ame = Black rain. 1988. (123 min.). Film looks at human behavior and survival after the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Follows the story of a young woman who survives the bomb blast and returns to her own nearby village. Over the next few years many villagers fall ill from the "black rain." They blame not the bomb but the woman for their sickness and she becomes an outcast. VHS 954

Kurutta kajitsu = Crazed fruit. 1956. (86 min.). Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking. A portrayal of post-war sexual revolution among Japan's young and privileged. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4358

Life of Oharu = Saikaku Ichidai Onna. 1952. (136 min.). A fifty-year-old prostitute, no longer able to attract men, looks back on her sad life. Once a lady-in-waiting at the imperial court at Kyoto, Oharu fell in love with, and became the lover of, a man below her station. They were discovered, and Oharu and her family were exiled. For Oharu there followed a life filled with one sorrow and humiliation after another. VHS 6942

Maborosi. 1995. (110 min.). Haunted by the mysterious loss of her grandmother many years before, a young mother struggles to come to terms with the sudden loss of her husband. VHS 6537

Majo no takkyubin = Kiki's delivery service. 1989. (103 min.). On her 13th birthday, a young witch named Kiki must fly away from home to a new city to find her niche in life. Accompanied by her chatty cat, Jiji, she starts a flying service and discovers lots of fun-filled escapades and meets plenty of new friends. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6077

Metoroporisu. 2001. (109 min.). "In the industrial, tri-level world of Metropolis, Duke Red is a powerful leader with plans to unveil a highly advanced robot named Tima. But Duke Red's violent son Rock distrusts robots, and intends to find and destroy Tima. Lost in the confusing labyrinth beneath Metropolis, Tima is beginning a friendship with the young nephew of a Japanese detective. But when Duke Red separates the two innocents, Tima's life-- and the fate of the universe-- is dangerously at stake."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2429

Muhomatsu no issho = The rikisha-man. 1958. (105 min.). An impoverished, illiterate rikisha puller, Muhomatsu (Mifune), finds a lost young boy, Toshio, and returns him to his grateful parents. After the boy's father suddenly dies, Matsu helps raise the boy and grows to love him and his beautiful mother Yoshiko Yoshioka (Takamine), a lady, whom he knows he can never have. VHS 244

Naisu no mori: first contact. 2005. (150 min.). Three unpopular brothers, Katsuichi, Masaru and Masao, are struggling to be popular among the girls. Luckily enough, they finally get a chance to have a co-ed picnic with some pretty young ladies! With 21 free-association episodes ranging from a nonsense "sci-fi" comedy to a dance-battle daydream, Funky Forest will challenge your mind and melt logic, as its unique characters find themselves in warped dimensions way past our imaginations. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4378

Naniwa yuukyôden = Osaka tough guys. 1995. (100 min.). When two street punks run out of drinking money, it seems they have no choice but to look for work. But when they find an extremely well-paid job that requires no experience, they don't realize that they're about to be conscripted into the yakuza. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5538

Narayama bushiko = The ballad of Narayama. 1983. (130 min.). In a village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 is banished to the top of Mt. Narayama to die, so as not to be a burden on the village and bring disgrace upon their family. Orin is 69 and despite being in good health, her time is coming. First, though, she has things to do and a score to settle. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4458

Nihon kuroshakai = Ley lines. 1999. (105 min.). "The final film of Miike's Black Society Trilogy tracks racial bigotry to the dark heart of Japanese society and bureaucracy."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5535

Nikutai no mon = Gate of flesh. 1964. (90 min.). In the shady black markets and bombed-out hotels of post-World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4304

Ningen no joken = The human condition. 1959-1961. (570 min.). The chronicle of one man's struggle to remain human amidst the distorted reality of war. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6350, VHS 2799

Nobi: Fires on the plain. 1959. (105 min.). In this Japanese anti-war film, acts of cannibalism bring home the terrifying brutality of war. Japanese troops are in retreat in the Philippines. Supplies run out and discipline crumbles. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4306

Onibaba = Demon woman. 1964. (103 min.). An impoverished mother and her daughter-in-law eke out a lonely, desperate existence. In order to survive in feudal Japan, they are forced to murder lost samurai and sell their belongings for grain, then dump their corpses down a deep, dark hole. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 848

Onna ga kaidan o agaru toki = When a woman ascends the stairs. 1960. (110 min.). A young widow with family obligations, Keiko is the madam of an upstairs bar in the exclusive Ginza district of Tokyo. As she approaches 30, she realizes that her life is at a crossroads; she must either go into business and open her own bar, or marry. VHS 6211, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4126

Otoshiana = Pitfall. 1962. (97 min.). When a miner leaves his employer and treks out with his young son to become a migrant worker, he finds himself moving from one eerie landscape to another, intermittently followed (and photographed) by an enigmatic man in a clean, white suit, and eventually coming face-to-face with his inescapable destiny. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3931

Paprika. 2006. (90 min.). A beautiful scientist turns into a dream warrior named Paprika at night, in this psychedelic sci-fi anime adventure, that will take both versions of the woman to save the world. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3440

Princess Mononoke. 1997. (ca. 134 min.). A young warrior searching for a cure for a deadly curse becomes entangled in a battle between a clan of humans and the forest's animal gods. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1206

Ran. 1985. (160 min.). Kurosawa's brilliant rendition of Japanese history, Shakespeare's plot of "King Lear," and his own personal feelings about loyalty. In 16th century Japan, an aging ruler, Lord Hidetora, attempts to divide his kingdom among his three sons, who turn against each other and betray their father, triggering events that ultimately shatter the kingdom, destroy the family, and drive their father insane. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 257, DVD 100

Rashomon. 1950. (83 min.). In feudal Japan four people who are involved in the murder of a gentleman and the rape of his wife report differing views of what actually happened. Using a stunning flashback technique to tell the four different versions of what occurred; Kurosawa transforms the accounting of a sordid crime into a meditation on truth and human nature, affirming the possibility of human goodness while asserting the reality of destructive passion and self-deception. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 390, DVD 370

Record of Lodoss War. 1990-1991. (55 min.). Good and evil fought and their battle split the land, forming a new continent that is now known by the name "Lodoss - The Accursed Island." Parts 6 & 7 of a 13 part Japanese television series in which the good guys, six warrior heroes, must struggle against those, Emperor Beld and his minions, who would conquor the island and restore an ancient evil deity. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 5005

Ringu = the ring. 1998. (96 min.). After the death of her cousin Tomoko, reporter Reiko hears stories of a videotape that kills everyone who sees it exactly one week after viewing. At first she discounts the rumors, but when she learns that Tomoko's friend (who watched the video with her) died at exactly the same time, she begins to investigate. After viewing the tape herself, strange things start happening, and so she teams up with her ex-husband to try to stop the death clock that has once again begun ticking. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1547

Saam gaang yi = 3 extremes. 2004. (ca. 125 min.). A bracing anthology of horror stories uniting three of East Asia's most compelling directors: Miike Takashi, Fruit Chan, and Park Chan-Wook. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2746

Sabu. 2002. (122 min.). Framed for a crime he didn't commit, Eiji is subjected to the harsh realities of the Ishikawa Island prison camp. Sabu, Eiji's friend, must discover who is responsible for causing Eiji's incarceration, before prison life consumes him completely. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5532

Le samourai. 2005. (ca. 95 min.). Jef Costello is a fedora and trench-coat wearing contract killer with samurai instincts. When Jef assassinates a nighclub owner, he finds himslef confronted by a series of witnesses, who drop his perfect world into the hands of a persistent police investigator and Jef's shadowy employer, both of whom are determined to put an end to the career criminal. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1579

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto. 1954. (93 min.). Legendary seventeenth-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto begins his quest for military glory. His dream ends in defeat, but the love of a woman and the cunning of a Buddhist priest set him on the samurai path. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 557

Sanshiro Sugata. 1943. (82 min.). Story of a handsome, bumptious young man who wishes to learn judo as a path to philosophical knowledge, rather than a mere set of self-defense techniques. VHS 3298

Sanshô day u = Sansho the bailiff. 1954. (132 min.). Based on a medieval Japanese folktale, this is a story of an aristocratic family broken up by politics and slave traders has been considered Mizoguchi's masterpiece. In feudal 11th century Japan, two noble children are sold into slavery to the tyrannical bailiff Sansho. Zushio grows up to accept the brutality of society, but his sister Anju adheres to humane principles, sacrificing herself so he can escape and find their mother, who had been sold into prostitution. VHS 2738, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5910

Såoshun = Early spring. 1956. (145 min.). A salaryman in postwar Tokyo has an illicit affair with an officemate in this moving portrait of a fragile marriage. DVD 3311

Sasameyuki = The Makioka sisters. 1983. (140 min.). Four daughters of an old merchant family unknowingly face the end of a gentler way of life in Osaka, Japan in 1938. VHS 2489

A scene at the sea. 1991. (101 min.). A deaf-mute teenager dreams of becoming a surfing champion. His deaf-mute girlfriend supports him throughout his practice sessions and competitions. Their profound expression of love transcends their silence--Container. DVD 250

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi = Spirited Away. 2001. (125 min.). When a young girl gets trapped in a strange new world of spirits, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and rescue her parents. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 586

Setouchi shonen yakyudan = MacArthur's children. 1985. (115 min.). A tender, beautifully photographed drama of how the citizens of Japan came to terms with their nation's defeat at the end of World War II. Depicts Japan's defeat and the subsequent Allied occupation as they affect the lives of a fifth grade teacher and her students on the island of Awaji in the Inland Sea. VHS 272

Shark skin man and peach hip girl. 1999. (108 min.). Based on the comic series by Minetaro Mochizuki. This outrageous contemporary Japanese genre-mongrel combines sentimental Yakuza gangster machismo with the fatalistic romance of the road movie and the dead-pan irreverence of Asian action cinema. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 959

Shåubun Sukyandaru = Scandal. 1950. (105 min.). Portrayal of a sensitive young artist who is dragged through the mud by a tabloid entertainment magazine after an innocent encounter with a pop singer and decides to sue. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4123, VHS 6534

Shichinin no samurai = Seven samurai. 1954. (205 min.). Story of a group of Japanese farmers who hire seven professional swordsmen, or samurai, to protect them from the yearly raids of bandits. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 51, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13

Shinju ten no Amijima = Double suicide. 1969. (105 min.). The story of the ill-fated love affair. Jihei has an affair and falls in love with the geisha, Koharu. His attempts to pay the price for her freedom bankrupts the family business. The town calls for divorce, and Jihei stands to lose his wife, children, and home. VHS 2765

Shinjuku kuroshakai: Chaina mafia sensô = Shinjuku triad society. 1995. (102 min.). This film portrays a world of alienation, corruption and emotional disintegration that finds its expression in murder, rape and the ultimate in the exploitation of a human being. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5533

Shinobi no mono. 1962. (105 min.). The story of the Iga clan's struggle to defend themselves and several esoteric Buddhist sects from mass genocidal purges by a sadistic warlord. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4295

Shinseki Evangerion = Neon Genesis Evangelion. 1996. (60 min.). In 2015, as the remnants of the human race cower in subterranean cities, a deadly war is being waged for what is left of the planet. On one side are the mysterious alien war machines called "Angels" whose true identities and objectives are unknown. On the other, the special United Nations agency NERV (mankind's last hope) that has developed the awe-inspiring Evangelion - a "Multi-Purpose Humanoid Fighting Machine." However, only a limited number of pilots (all teenagers) are able to fly them. One of these pilots is Shinji Ikari whose father heads the NERV team. VHS 5008

Shunpuden. 1965. (96 min). Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soliders, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2617

Sisters of Gion = Gion no shimai. 1936. (66 min.). Widely regarded as Kenji Mizoguchi's best pre-war film. Set in the Gion quarter of Kyoto, the film shows the daily lives of the people as it tells the tale of two geishas who are sisters. Umekichi is the longtime lover of the just bankrupt merchant Furushawa whom she feels obligated to help; Omocha, the younger one, sees the business more impersonally, refuses to get involved with her customers and thinks Umekichi should get rid of a loser like Furushawa. VHS 366

Stories of floating weeds. 1934, 1959. (205 min.). This set includes the original 1934, black & white, silent classic 'A Story of Floating Weeds' and the 1959 color remake 'Floating Weeds' both directed by Yasujiro Ozu. In each film, Ozu captures the joy and sadness in everyday life. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 817

Street of shame = Akasen chitai. 1956. (88 min.). Set in 1955, the film examines the dreams and problems of the prostitutes living in one Tokyo brothel. VHS 4217

Subarashiki nichiyåobi = One wonderful Sunday. 1947. (109 min.). A young factory worker and his fiancee spend their weekly holiday together. It is a Sunday in spring and they have just thirty-five yen, but together they overcome several near disasters. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4122

Suna no onna = Woman in the dunes. 1964. (120 min.). A strange and poetic drama of a man and woman trapped at the bottom of a sand dune that makes a statement about the enslavement of the spirit. An entomologist needing shelter for the night is advised by some village people to stay in a shack at the bottom of a sandpit. The next morning the rope ladder is gone, and he is trapped. Gradually he accepts the realization that he is expected to stay and help the woman in the sandpit shovel sand. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3932, VHS 213

Takashi Miike Omnibus. 2004. (829 min.). 8-disc set includes "Shinjuku Triad Society"; "Osaka Tough Guys"; "Rainy Dog"; "Full Metal Yakuza"; "Young Thugs: Innocent Blood"; "Young Thugs: Nostalgia"; "Ley Lines"; and "Sabu.". HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5531 – 5538

Tampopo = Dandelion. 1986. (114 min.). Film follows the life of a young widow and noodle restaurant owner (Nobuko Miyamoto) as she seeks to produce the perfect bowl of ramen. Helping her to attain top ramen status is Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki), a truck driver who at first criticizes Tampopo's cooking ability and then helps her to master it. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 35, VHS 697

Tanin no kao = The face of another. 1966. (124 min.). Okuyama, after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3933

A taxing woman = Marusa no onna. 1987. (127 min.). Ryoko, Tokyo's hardest working female tax inspector chances on one of Tokyo's busiest "love hotels," owned by Gondo, a tax cheat extraordinaire. She realizes what a goldmine she has stumbled upon. Ryoko's attempt to audit Gondo is thwarted by his hilarious evasive maneuvers. The taxing woman and her clever prey test their respective skills of detection and deception complicated by stirrings of mutual sexual attraction. VHS 776

Tekon kinkurîto = Tekkonkinkreet. 2006. (111 min.). In Treasure Town, life can be both gentle and brutal. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White, two street urchins who watch over the city, doing battle with an array of old-world Yakuza and alien assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis. When foreign investors want to destroy the town and turn it to an amusement park, they face their greatest adversaries yet. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4459

Tengoku to jigoku = High and low. 1963. (143 min.). 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? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4539

Tenkû no shiro rapyuta = Castle in the sky. 1986. (124 min.). Orphaned, Pazu is caught up in a thrilling adventure after Sheeta, a young girl wearing a glowing pendant, floats out of the night sky and into his life. Now, the pair must soar above the clouds in order to find the legendary floating city of Laputa and its treasures. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2978

Tetsuo = The iron man. 1989. (67 min.). After hitting a mysterious derelict with his car a man experiences an infection where metal pieces start to protrude from his body. This disease, which seems to be intelligent, turns his body into mechanical walking scrap heap. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1576

Three films by Hiroshi Teshigahara. 2007. (521 min.). Pitfall: When a miner leaves his employer and treks out with his young son to become a migrant worker, he finds himself moving from one eerie landscape to another, intermittently followed (and photographed) by an enigmatic man in a clean, white suit, and eventually coming face-to-face with his inescapable destiny. Woman in the dunes: An amateur entomologist leaves Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert. When he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. The face of another: Okuyama, after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3931 - 3934

Three films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: the supplements. 2007. (152 min.). "Teshigahara and Abe" is about the collaboration between director Hiroshi Teshigahara and author/screenwriter Kåobåo Abe, which includes exclusive video interviews with film programmer and professor Richard Peäna, Japanese-film scholars Donald Richie and Tadao Sato, set designer Arata Isozaki, screenwriter John Nathan, and producer Noriko Nomura; "Hokusai" explores the work of wood-block artist Katsushika Hokusai; "Ikebana" is a documentary about the Sogetsu School, originally renowned for its instruction in the art of flower arranging, and its founder and grand master, his father, Sofu Teshigahara; "Tokyo 1958" is a portrait of the people and culture; and "Ako,", a film depicting one night in the life of a young girl and her rowdy friends, was commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3931 - 3934

Throne of blood. 1957. This 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. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4268, VHS 1626,

Tokyo boshoku = Tokyo twilight. 1957. (141 min.). In the dead of winter, past and present traumas afflict two sisters and their aging father in this, one of Ozu's most heartbreaking and powerful works. DVD 3312

Tokyo decadence = Topazu. 1991. (ca. 112 min.). In the most lavish penthouses, visible only though the keyholes, there exists a dangerous and erotic world. High-paid prostitutes who specialize in high-stakes games make the rounds. The richer the client, the wilder the ride. When fantasy gets too rough for one young call-girl, escaping becomes her reality. VHS 2996

Tokyo Godfathers. 2003. (91 min.). The story takes place on Christmas Eve in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Middle-aged has-been Gin, aging transvestite Hana, and teenage runaway Miyuki are homeless friends who have formed a makeshift family structure bond. That bond is tested when they find an abandoned baby while searching for food in a trash dumpster. They try to care for the infant themselves, and travel throughout the city in search of the baby's parents. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 819

Tokyo no kôrasu = Tokyo chorus. 1931. (90 min.). An insurance salesman, Shinji Okajima's colleague was fired for no apparent reason, so he protested against his company's president on behalf of his colleague. Then, Shinji also got fired. He starts working for his old school teacher's restaurant. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4301

Tokyo Olympiad. 1965, 1990. (170 mins.). 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. DVD 2791

Tokyo story = Tokyo monogatari. 1953. (134 min.). A deceptively simple tale of an elderly couple who journey to Tokyo, where they are received less than enthusiastically by their grown-up children. Finding themselves a burden to the family, they return home where the mother dies leaving the father to face the future alone. VHS 3300, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 696

Tonari no Totoro = My neighbor Totoro. 1988. (87 min.). Deep inside a tree trunk, two children discover a fascinating new world inhabited by Totoros, amazing, charming creatures who become their friends. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4709

Tsubaki Sanjåuråo Sanjuro. (96 min.). A skilled but slovenly ronin comes to the aid of a group of naive young warriors fighting their corrupt clan leaders and manages to keep them out of trouble and alive in spite of their high ideals. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 985

Twenty-four eyes = Nijushi no hitomi. 1954. (158 min.). The story of a very special elementary school teacher and her students living on a remote island in prewar Japan. Beauty and innocence are lost as progress and war intrude. HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 764

Ugetsu. 1953. (96 min.). In war-torn 16th century Japan, two peasants (Genjuro, a village potter, and his brother-in-law Tobei abandon their families to seek their fortunes. Their neglected wives suffer the bitter consequences of their husbands' ambition as one is murdered by soldiers and the other is raped and becomes a prostitute. VHS 1300, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1638

Ukigusa = Floating weeds. 1959. (119 min.). An aged actor with a hidden past returns with his Kabuki theater company to a small Japanese town. There his secret is uncovered and his troupe disbands due to lack of funds, but the actor finds the strength to continue living., HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 817

Umarete wa mita keredo = I was born, but--. 1931. (90 min.). A portrait of the financial and psychological toils of a family, as two young boys come to understand their father's low status in society. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4302

Vampire princess Miyu. 1988. (55 min.). A journey into the Occult - Japanese style. "Vampire Princess Miyu. Is she friend, or fiend? As the eldritch Shinma strive to obtain a foothold upon the mortal plane, Spiritualist Himiko seeks the truth." In episode 3, Himiko agrees to help Miyu defeat a ghastly armored monster. In return, Miyu tells the tale of how she met Larva, her silent companion. In episode 4, Himiko travels to Kamakura, a childhood home - which now has a new tenant, Miyu. Miyu at last tells all. Some summary information from AnimEigo webpage (www.ainmeigo.com). VHS 5007

Waga seishun ni kuinashi = No regrets for our youth. 1946. (110 min.). A story of feminist self-discovery set in pre-war Japan. A woman breaks conventions by striking out on her own and being self-sufficient. VHS 4313, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4121

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru = The bad sleep well. 1960. (150 min.). A young executive hunts down his father's killer. A tale about corruption in the boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan as seen through the rising executive eyes. . HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2194
Yaju no seishun = Youth of the beast. 1963. (92 min.). When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence. This film was a breakthrough for director Seijun Suzuki, introducing the flamboyant colors and hallucinatory images that became his trademark. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4357

Yoidore tenshi = Drunken angel. 1948. (98 min.). This film is regarded as Kurosawa's first significant work and is a about a Yakuza who visits the clinic of a grog-sodden doctor one evening to have a gunshot wound attended to. While removing the slug, the surgeon diagnoses TB in his patient. Only a change of lifestyle will improve his prognosis, he tells the gangster. A yakuza mobster suffering from tuberculosis enters into an unusual relationship with an alcoholic doctor. VHS 6536, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4524
Yojimbo = The bodyguard. 1961. (108 min.). Action drama set in Japan in the 1860s, when the emergence of a middle class brought about the fall of the Tokugawa dynasty. Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshiro Mifune), a samurai-for-hire with cynical integrity, wanders into a small frontier town inhabited by two equally reprehensible warring merchant clans. Deciding to settle their conflicts by allowing each side to exterminate the other, he emerges as a one-eyed king. Film is a humorous parody of a classic western and the inspiration for the film "A Fistful of Dollars.". HOME USE COLLECTION VHS 1898, HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 391

Yuki yukite shingun = The emperor's naked army marches on. 1987. (122 min.). "In this absorbing documentary, Kenzo Okuzaki--a veteran of Japan's WWII New Guinea campaign--painstakingly tracks down the former military officers responsible for the mysterious deaths of several fellow soldiers. Director Kazuo Hara not only captures the zeal of Okuzaki's mission but also exposes the atrocities committed by the Japanese military against its soldiers, resulting in a controversial film of undeniable power."--Container. DVD 2814

Yukoku = Yukio Mishima's Patriotism. 1966. (29 min.). Depicts the ritual suicide of a naval officer in both Japanese (27 min.) and English (29 min.) versions. Bonus features include an 49-minute audio recording of Mishima at the Foreign Correspondent's Association of Japan, a 50-minute making-of documentary, interview excerpts featuring Mishima discussing World War II and death. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4582

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