Zoku aizen katsura

1939 Japanese movie

Chûshingura - Zempen: Akahokyô no maki

Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family

After the death of her husband, an elderly woman and her youngest, unmarried daughter are forced to

Moth-eaten Spring

Directed by Mikio Naruse. It is presumed to be lost.

Tsukiyo Karasu

The ambiguous relationship between a woman musician and her young student.

King of the Land

Japanese silent film from 1928, ranked as Kinema Junpo's second-best Japanese movie of the year.

Useless Button

A hard-working new employee at a trading company is promoted through the company president's busines

The Big City: Labor

Youth, Why Do You Cry?

A modern girl suddenly intrudes into a widower's family home.

Love, Be with Humanity: Part 1

The three-hour Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are / Love, Be with Humanity (1931) starts as a satire of ali

Father

An early Japanese film

Housewife Camellia

The narrative is about a woman who faces hard times, when her husband is arrested for a crime commit

Five Siblings

A businessman runs afoul of the law and commits suicide, leaving behind a wife and five children. Th

Mother is Strong

Otoko no iki

This was 1942, so it was a national policy film, no matter what you call it. But when the war was st

The Lapel Shop

Directed by Eizo Tanaka. Only 8 minutes of film is known to have survived.

ABC Lifeline

Japanese silent film directed by Yasujirô Shimazu, originally released as a two-part movie on Decemb

Kojiki Taishô

Gotō Matabei is the most able and fierce samurai of the Kuroda clan. However, he gradually dislikes

Marching On

A farmer’s boy, obsessed with his balsa-and-paper flying models and with dreams of real aircraft, de

Eclipse

The story is centered around the devastating experiences of two villagers, Osaki Shuichi, and his co

Okoto and Sasuke

A period piece about the love of a wealthy blind woman, a teacher of koto and shamisen, and her devo

Sumida River

Inoue was something of a rarity in the sense, that he was a Shochiku house director who seems to hav

The Tree of Love

A young doctor, Kozo Tsumura, falls for young nurse Katsue Takaishi. But she's got a secret: she's a

Notes of an Itinerant Performer

Uta’s mother died when she was six years old; her father she never met. She was forced to adopt a tr

Family Diary

Two childhood friends go their own ways but meet again some years later after they have both married

Family Meeting

A melodrama about a businessman's relations with the three women in his life.

Men vs. Women

A musical film made for the inauguration of Shochiku's Ofuna Studio, with an all-star cast of the er

Taii no musume

Vermilion and Green

A businessman’s daughter falls in love with one of her father’s employees.

Warm Current

Adaptation of Kishida Kunio's novel. Set against the backdrop of a power struggle within a hospital,

The Spy Has Not Died Yet

An Actor's Revenge

An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as

Reijin

The Loyal 47 Ronin

This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura s

Passion

Film by Hiroshi Shimizu, featuring an early role for frequent Ozu and Naruse collaborator Hideko Tak

Silver Stream

Michiko gets pregnant after a rape. She marries a boring business partner of her father to avoid the

Spring Thunder

Eiko is an innocent young lady born into a wealthy family with nothing to offer. She was good at sin

Akatsuki

The Living Corpse

A film adaptation of the play by Leo Tolstoy.

The Blacksmith of the Forest

A blacksmith is chased out of the village by the sinister village chief and forced to move to the f

The Siege of Osaka

The Siege of Osaka

Okinu and Banto

A story of a store that makes Tabi socks.

Dancing with a Mask

Japanese propaganda film about the Normanton Incident.

Tengoku ni musubu koi

Based on the Sakatayama double suicide

Middle-Aged Man

The story of a boy who befriends a lonely middle-aged man.

Young Master

Japanese silent film from 1926. (Obo-chan meaning "Young Master.") Written by Ayame Mizushima, the f

The Complete Story of Jirocho Shimizu, Part 2: Ashura's Revenge

A dramatized chapter in the life of Shimizu Jirocho, a famous yakuza boss, gambler, and folk hero of

Buried Youth

Japanese silent film from 1926.

Madame Pearl

Japanese silent film from 1927, based on a popular serialized novel by Kan Kikuchi.

The Oath of a Thousand Kills

Japanese silent jidaigeki from 1927.

The Eternal Heart

The logger Yamato has been raising his daughter alone since his wife died in childbirth. The baron w

The Face of Humanity

Japanese silent film from 1928.

The Glory of the Shōwa Era

Japanese silent film from 1928.

Symphony of Youth

Japanese silent film from 1928.

Him and Life

Japanese silent film from 1929.

The Model of New Women

A feature-length work based on Kan Kikuchi’s newspaper novel, adapted for the screen by Kōgo Noda. W

Triumphant Song of the Mountain

Japanese silent film from 1929.

The Father and His Son

Japanese silent film from 1929.

The Big City: Explosion

Japanese silent film from 1930. The second chapter of "The Big City: Labor" (1929).

The Tale of Kinuyo

Japanese silent film from 1930. Directed by Heinosuke Gosho, the film marked a new stage in the arti

Love, Be with Humanity: Part 2

The three-hour Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are / Love, Be with Humanity (1931) starts as a satire of ali

ABC Lifeline: Fujieda Chapter

First chapter of Tasujiro Shimazu's ABC Lifeline, released two months before ABC Lifeline: Part 1 an

The Golden Demon

Kan’ichi Hazama and Omiya Shigisawa are engaged to be married, but Omiya breaks the engagement to ma

Clear and Cloudy

Japanese film from 1933, adapted from a story serialized in the entertainment magazine "Fuji."

Daphne

Japanese film from 1933, adapted from Masao Kume's serialized newspaper novel.

Mother of the East

Japanese drama from 1934. A major production of Shochiku Studio, directed by Hiroshi Shimizu.