Kunie Tanaka

Kita no kuni kara

Goru Kuroita (黑板五郎)

Narrated by the son, Jun, the tale follows the lives of two children torn between their parents and their parents' divorce. Jun, and his sister Hotaru, grow and mature - willingly and sometimes forcibly - in the harsh climates of Hokkaido, learning the ways of life through their interaction with the folk of Furano.

Submersion of Japan

Tatsuno

In this TV series of the hit 1973 film, Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes shake Japan. Firestorms burn beautiful Japanese cities to the ground. A weather survey group discovers that the Japanese Archipelago is moving towards the Japanese Trench, which if left to continue on its collision course, would bring the whole island of Japan under the sea!

Kwaidan

Yasaku (segment "Hoichi the Earless")

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Sanjuro

Samurai

In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

May Love Be Restored

Yugiri-ro client

A tragic love story between a prostitute and a young trainee monk.

The Sword of Doom

Senkichi

Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. It’s a way of life that leads to madness.

Rice Curry

Set in the majestic Canadian wilderness, the drama depicts the adolescence and love of three young men who were on a high school baseball team together.

The Shin Hasegawa Series

蛙ヶ池の仙太

From the Taisho era to the Showa 30s, known as the father of popular literature who left many masterpieces and was also a teacher of Shotaro Ikebana and Yumie Hiraiwa, this omnibus work was produced based on the works of Shin Hasegawa and broadcasted from 1972 to 1973 with a total of 30 episodes.

The Bad Sleep Well

Hitman

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

The Inferno

Unpei Ikegata

Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.

The Bullet Train

Koga's Brother

A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb.

The Face of Another

Mentally Ill Man #1

A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his new doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality and causing him to question his identity.

Dodes'ka-den

Hatsutaro Kawaguchi

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.

Hacchōbori Torimono Banashi

A jidaieki drama where a hard-nosed doshin, Shinpachiro Kariya, takes on difficult cases with exquisite teamwork under the supervision of a young magistrate.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity

Masakichi Makihara

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

Demon

Keita

Shuji was once a feared member of the Yakuza crime syndicate, but he's reformed his ways, abandoned his old life and left the city for a small coastal fishing town where he's become an honest fisherman.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War

Masakichi Makihara

Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.

My Sons

Tetsuo is a young man living in Tokyo, who falls in love with a deaf-mute factory girl. He has always felt jealous of his college-educated brother, but ultimately wins both the girl and his father's acceptance and support in a touching and refreshing way.

The Battle of Okinawa

The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army divisions to defend it at all costs. The mission quickly degenerates as vital resources and troops are diverted to other islands. After a civilian evacuation ends in tragedy most of non-combatants are forced to remain on the island. Many convert to soldier status. Tokyo sends mixed messages that squander time and resources, as when they order the defenders to build an airstrip for aircraft that never come. The truth soon becomes obvious: the high command decides that the island cannot be held and effectively abandons the Okinawan defenders. When the Americans land many troops are deployed in the wrong places. As the slaughter mounts, a suicidal attitude takes hold. Okinawa becomes a death trap, for civilian volunteers and non-combatants as well.

The Sun in Kurobe

Genkichi

Shingo Katori stars as Kuramatsu, a manager- foreman for Kumagaya Construction. In order to solve an acute energy shortage in the Kansai region, Kansai Electric Power decided to built a massive hydroelectric dam on the upper Kurobe River. However, the project requires the drilling of a huge tunnel that some, including Kuramatsu, believe is impossible.