Junzaburō Ban

Ichibanboshi

父・英三郎

The 19th NHK Asadora. A dramatization of the life of the singer Chiyako Sato. Michiko Godai replaced Haruna Takase in the lead two months into the series when Takase became ill. Adapted from the novel "Aa Tokyo Koshinkyoku" by Yuki Ryoichi.

Dodes'ka-den

Yukichi Shima

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

Terauchi Kantarō Ikka

No description available

Proof of the Man

When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.

Himawari no Uta

Since his wife's death from illness, Oki Eisuke (Utsui Ken) has been working as a lawyer at the Oki Law Office, raising his high school-aged daughter, Kaori (Hayashi Norie). His late wife's father, Kimura Genkichi (Ban Junsaburo, Matsumura Tatsuo), a former Metropolitan Police Department detective, is in charge of accounting, while Ono Toshiko (Nakahara Rie) is in charge of typist and secretary. Also among the investigators are Sakamoto Ryu (Nakamura Masatoshi), who claims to be serving a two-year prison sentence, and Suzuki Masao (Okita Hiroyuki), who is on probation. These are the members of the firm that Eisuke trusts. A die-hard feminist, Eisuke throws himself wholeheartedly into the cases of female clients, regardless of legal fees, but...

The Detective Journey

A comedy directed by Mitsumasa Saito about a pair of clumsy detectives who solve a case they become involved in by chance. Shosuke Ikashima and Ryuji Kabaya, who repeatedly screw things up, encounter a real robbery during a bank robbery simulation training...

Eijanaika

Toramatsu

The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.

新・与太郎戦記

No description available

Queen Bee

Police Yamamoto

To solve the mystery of a murder of an old governess which takes place at a wealthy Daidoji family's country estate, family secrets and lies dating back several generations must be sorted out once and for all.

Coward at Ganryu Island

A comedic retelling of the legendary encounter between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamato Musashi.

A Fugitive from the Past

Yumisaka

Three robbers escape with loot from a heist before one of them kills the others. Their corpses wash up near the aftermath of a maritime calamity, provoking a policeman's interest.

The Phoenix

Exorcist

This extraordinarily complex film is not only a send-up of every samurai film ever made, it is also an extrapolation of the value of life. The Yamatai, represented by Prince Susano-O and elderly advisor Sumuke, hire Yumihiko of Matsuro to hunt the phoenix so that Queen Himiko, sister of Susano-O can have eteranal life.

The Sun's Burial

Yotsematsu

In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.

Firefly Light

Isuke

Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small inn in the Kyoto suburb of Fushimi. She does not have an easy life. Her husband, Isuke (Ban Junzaburo), is a wastrel who fancies himself a kabuki singer and who is obsessed with cleanliness. Her mother-in-law, Sada (Miyoshi Eiko) dislikes her because of her humble origins (her family are farmers) and because she fears that she will inherit the inn instead of Sugi, her daughter. Sada's hopes for Sugi, however, are dashed when she runs off with a con artist and leaves her child behind for Tose to take care of. When Sada becomes seriously ill, it is Tose who nurses her. On her deathbed, Sada asks her daughter-in-law's forgiveness. Meanwhile Isuke spends most of his time with a mistress he has taken, forcing Tose to manage the inn by herself

Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess

Muraki, car shop owner

Reiko Oshida stars as a young wannabe gangster tough girl, just released from reform school. She tracks down one of her classmates fathers, who runs an auto repair shop that the local Yakuza are trying to force out of business and take over, and starts working for him. At the same time a recently released from prison, and now ill Yakuza is trying to make a new life for himself and his girl, a friend of Reiko's, who also just graduated from reform school. A fateful car crash brings the two on a collision course with each other and the brutal Yakuza clan, which can only end bloody vengeance.

The Rickshaw Man’s Son

A roughneck named Komakichi of Kawachi, Osaka, comes back from a three-year training course to become a chef, hoping to be with his crush Tamae, a daughter of a Japanese restaurant’s owner. His father is not happy because Komakichi has no intention to become a rickshaw man to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Incidental Murders

Monzaburo

The daughter of the wealthy Soga family is kidnapped and her fiance is murdered. But the kidnappers, Tatsu and Sanko are unaware that Tatsuko is the heiress to a fortune. Two strong-arm brothers, Kosaka and Takeshi, learn of her identity and join the gang in an effort to shake down the tycoon for ten million yen. Upon joining forces, their first move is to rid themselves of the driver whose identity is known to the police because of a cap which he left behind at the scene of the crime. Upon obtaining the ransom money, the brothers murder the two kidnappers and go to the port city of Kobe. The younger brother, Takeshi, has fallen in love with the prisoner and refuses to allow her to be killed and they take her with them from one hideout to another.

The Young Eagles of the Kamikaze

The film is dedicated to the souls of flight school graduates killed in World War II. Young boys dream about becoming pilots and apply to flight schools. However, the flight schools have extremely demanding, harsh training, and once they finally become pilots, they must become suicide bombers and give their lives for their homeland.

The Street Car Game

Comedy around a motorman and a conductor of a streetcar.

Hobo General

No description available