Downtown Blues

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

Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading politicians were killed and the center of Tokyo was briefly held by the insurgents before the coup was suppressed.

In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels 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. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama, shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.

A coming-of-age entertainment film set to the tune of the hit song of the same name, depicting the friendship between a young photographer who believes in tomorrow and strives to live a bright and healthy life, and his three daughters.

Onimasa is the egocentric boss of a small yakuza clan on Shikoku Island, whose criminal duties conflict with his self-image as a chivalrous samurai. His struggles with his boss, the Shikoku Godfather, and the tumultuous life of his adopted daughter, Matsue, form the backdrop of this epic tale of justice, obedience, and bloody vengeance.

Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced to forced labor to build the roads needed to open up the territory.

As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic Games, the cops start to crack down on the gangs, under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima.

A sensuous movie based on a literary work. Hitomi Kuroki stars as the film’s heroine.

Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story of a Prostitute is a tragic love story as well as a rule-bending take on a popular Taijiro Tamura novel, challenging military and fraternal codes of honor, as seen through Harumi's eyes.

While Hirono is in prison, his rival Takeda turns his own crime organization into a political party, whose two executives stir up new tensions in their thirst for power.

Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang of thieves. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to rob the castle of his former clan.

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.

Set in a Kyoto geisha house during the post-WWII era, the young Omocha begins her rigorous apprenticeship within the traditional community of geiko and maiko. She must navigate complex internal rivalries and a strict social hierarchy while the house struggles to maintain its customs. As modern society shifts around them, the residents face the increasing pressure of Japan's changing cultural identity.

Zatoichi runs afoul of some evil fugitives, working for a corrupt law official.

O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.

After committing murder, businessman Atsushi is blackmailed into keeping a suitcase of embezzled money. What follows is a descent into lustful, reckless actions and regret.

Three young men face off against corrupt officials and Yakuza in order to complete a reclamation project of the coastal embankment, who try to derail the project every step of the way until a tsunami hits, putting everyone in danger.

A local yakuza boss of a silk farming town shows kindness to the wandering gambler Oryu by letting her stay at his residence. When a rival yakuza gang, who wants to take over the town’s businesses, murders him, Oryu is obliged to protect his children and business.

A middle-aged journalist looking to make her big break. After working the same beat on the "women's page", Yumiko gets promoted to editorials.

A con man defrauds a small rural town, sparking an international manhunt.

Story of love, jealousy and hatred among waitresses of a deluxe bar.

A melodrama about a talented singer who finally makes her debut. A remake of the 1939 film of the same name.

Kemeko (Rumi Koyama), a girl who loves go-go dancing, one day encounters two men who are about to commit suicide. They are Rokuzo (Kanichi Tani), a bankrupt real estate agent, and Kyosuke (Keizo Kawasaki), a former ballet teacher. Unable to carry out their suicides because Kemeko is in the way, the two men reluctantly go with Kemeko to Kyosuke's ballet studio. When Kemeko starts dancing with the band led by Susumu (Haruo Suzuki) who are practicing there, Kyosuke recognizes her talent and decides to make her a big star. Of course, Rokuzo, who has given up on suicide, also volunteers to help promote her. A few days later, Kemeko enters a go-go competition on television and wins. Kemeko was delighted to hear that the winner would get to go to Africa.

Based on Shinichi Mori song

A tragic love story about the heiress of the Kitakyushu Tagawa family who becomes a hostess in Osaka.

A serial killing occurs at a port town brothel.

The fear of the fiercely obsessive woman who deprives her best friend of her husband. An emotionally charged movie starring Hitomi Kuroki, Masato Furuoya, and Hisako Manda.

A widowed restaurateur is faced with scandal after discovering her late husband had a child out of wedlock. Hearing that two criminals had attempted to take over the restaurant from her late husband, she hires her late husband's best friend, a private detective, to investigate.

A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the yakuza but quickly loses his self-control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.

Are bad girls casualties of patriarchy, a necessary evil, or visionary pioneers? By tracing the concept of the bad girl in Japan as a product of specific cultural assumptions and historical settings, Bad Girls of Japan maps new roads and old detours in revealing a disorderly politics of gender. The essays explore deviancy in richly diverse media. Mountain witches, murderers, performance artists, cartoonists, schoolgirls, and shoppers gone wild are all part of the terrain.

The moment he's released from prison, the honorable gangster Miyamoto recovers the stolen diamonds he had stashed before getting pinched. When he returns to his haunt to make good by friend who took a bullet for him, he is diverted by the greedy boss Oyane and his insatiable taste for Miyamoto's precious stones.

Late entry "Ekimae" feature, about the hunt for lost treasure.

The 17th "Ekimae" feature.

The 18th "Ekimae" feature.

Based on the comic book by Tatsuo Kanai

Third film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.

A boy transfers into a new high school in the big city. He gets bullied, but meets a pretty girl. He tries to win her heart, but rivals abound. Debut video release from Pantsu no ana, a subsection of "BOMB" magazine.

A flower is a woman or a man is a butterfly... Love and melancholy bloom wildly in the nighttime garden! This is a moody entertainment work depicting the love, laughter, melancholy, and human drama of an iron-fisted daughter of a family of expositors who, after her father's death, disbanded her gang and moved to Tokyo by herself, where she becomes a hostess and demonstrates her natural chivalrous temperament, risking her life in the neon-lit Ginza district.

Comedy of a phony doctor.

Kazama and three others defeated Yoshie Sangyo, but the Nishio group was disbanded due to public pressure, and the territory belonged to the Hirata group.

The film depicts the resilient life of the daughter of a Kyushu boss who becomes a Ginza hostess with Shinichi Mori singing in the background.

The ninth installment of ten in Nippon Ichi film series.

Masaaki Kagari (Akira Kobayashi) is the recruiter and protector of hostesses at the Club Rose. One day he visits Club Aron, to complain about attempts to lure hostesses from Club Rose. Aron's madam Hisayo reminds him of a tragic experience five years before, when a lovely girl named Kumi committed double suicide with a man in a hotel. For Aron's madam is Kumi's elder sister. Kagari's friend Hayazaki introduces him to Chie, the young sister of the man who died with Kumi, who has come to Tokyo to learn the truth about her brother's death. Kagari sends them both away. But he continues to be haunted by the warmed-over memories. When Club Aron is found selling bootleg whisky Kagari learns that Hisayo has been a tool in the hands of the Akune group who are also responsible for trying to steal his girls, and that Fujikura, the public prosecutor who presided over the case of Kumi's death and ruled it suicide, is now the personal lawyer of the Akune group...

Harajuku, the fashion capital of Tokyo. Yasuko works at a boutique as a beginner seamstress. As snow covers the streets, the boutique's interior decorates itself with colorful clothing. An exhibition of the shop's spring line up is right around the corner. After a hard day at work Yasuko stops by at a produce market, setting all her unfinished work on the rear deck of a random truck. When she gets home, she realizes that she's missing a couple of things.