In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.
The adopted son of a legendary actor, and an aspiring star himself, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection - only for her to give up everything for her beloved's glory.
Two geisha sisters lead a hard life in the Gion district of Kyoto. After one of them feels obliged to support a bankrupt businessman, the other sister sets up various schemes to get rid of him.
The legendary Forty-seven ronin plot to avenge the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, by killing Kira Yoshinaka, a shogunate official responsible for Asano being forced to commit seppuku.
Ishun is a wealthy but unsympathetic master printer who has wrongly accused his wife and best employee of being lovers. To escape punishment, the accused run away together, but Ishun is certain to be ruined if word gets out.
Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective wife, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnos...
A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the...
Movie | Drama, History | Japan, Hong Kong | Japanese
Director
Kenji Mizoguchi
Writer
Ching Doe, Matsutara Kawaguchi, Yoshikata Yoda
Cast
Machiko Kya, Masayuki Mori, Sa Yamamura
Plot
In 8th-century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a close rel...
Yukiko's mother runs a lodging house for courtesans in Kyoto. When her fiance learns this, he ends their engagement. Yukiko despises what her mother does until one of her mother's clients shows interest in her and starts to woo her.
Isuzu Yamada, Daijira Natsukawa, Mitsusabura Ramon
Plot
In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When...
After his father is not rewarded for his military achievements, Taira Kiyomori rebels against the court and the monks who rule the country. He also falls in love with Tokiko and discovers unsettling revelations about his parentage.
Kiyone Sakurai, an apprentice swordmaker makes a sword for his guardian, Kozaemon Onoda. Onoda breaks the sword while defending his lord which eventually leads to his death at the hands of Naito, when Naito demands to marry his da...
The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent.
A classic melodramatic love tragedy addressing social inequality in feudal Japan, depicted in Kenji Mizoguchi's typical style. The nostalgic scenes of 1920s Tokyo provides a valuable visual experience set against the background of...
Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close.
A young couple of lovers want to travel to Tokio to work and form a family there, but the parents of him want his son to regent their hotel. Finally, he does what his parents want him to, and her finds herself abandoned in the big...
Matsutara Kawaguchi, Tatsunosuke Takashima, Guy de Maupassant
Cast
Isuzu Yamada, Komako Hara, Daijira Natsukawa
Plot
During a war in the 19th century, a village linked to rebellious forces is attacked by the government army, so a rich family decides to run away; two courtesans travel along them.
Young servant girl Hamako has just started working for her personal heroine, Madame Yuki, but her romanticized view of the Madame is broken immediately as she is introduced to a list of the Madame's personal problems.
Shinobu and Genichiro seek swordsmanship lessons from Musashi Miyamoto to avenge their father's death, but their killers use their practice to recruit Kojiro Sasaki for battle.
Based on Soseki Natsume's 1908 novel of the same title, Poppy is an ornately complicated story of desire and ambition. Fujio is beautiful, talented, well-heeled, and engaged to Munechika, a rising young diplomat. She has promised ...
