Shinpan Ôoka seidan: Dai-ippen

In the early 18th-century, Lord Takumi-no-kami Asano, feuding with Lord Kira, tries to kill his opponent in the corridors of the Shogun's palace. The Shogun sentences Asano to seppuku and deprives the palace and lands from his clan, but does not punish Kira. Asano's vassals leave the land and his samurais become ronin and want to seek revenge against the Lord's dishonour. But their leader Kuranosuke Oishi seeks to restore the Asano clan with his brother Daigaku Asano. One year later, the Shogun refuses, and Oishi and 46 rōnin are out for revenge.

A fugitive lord and his six retainers disguise themselves as monks to bluff their way through a hostile checkpoint.

A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must reconcile strength with restraint and the true spirit of his art.

Young Lord Taihei goes to Edo to find the lost family treasure, a plover incense burner, under the disguise of a ronin.

A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo’s spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falling for his vanquished opponent’s daughter. Based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo.

After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.

After settling the matter of shogunal succession, the retired Old Lord of Mito finds himself in a sea of trouble when he gets involved in the succession of the Takamatsu clan. The usurpers try by every means to effect their takeover, even if it leads to blood being spilled. Along with Kaku and Suke, the elder must face the most dangerous time of his life, in a battle against those corrupt individuals who would use any means to further their dastardly conspiracy, regardless of how many lives might be destroyed. The great Misora Hibari gives a bravura performance, as does the rest of this all-star cast. This is another outstanding effort on the part of the Toei Films, blending fact and fiction to bright back Japan’s golden era of the Genroku period.

A man gets rid of a cheap pot without knowing it contains a map to a treasure. As word spreads, many join in hunting it.

With flashing swordwork and a terrific story, wandering gambler Kusama Hanjiro inspires the wrath of Boss Jirotaro who has been terrorizing travelers along the route through his territory. When Hanjiro steps in to gamble with him one-on-one it leads to a deadly vendetta that will show no mercy. Along the way Hanjiro is called upon to help sisters with no one else to depend on. Will the feud end in tragedy, or can the honest wanderer prevail against the bloodlust of an angry yakuza boss whom he had scarred for life?

Prewar jidaigeki starring Denjiro Okochi

A once-dead man is resurrected by a mysterious old man's spiritual magic to take revenge on those who killed him. An unusual and bizarre historical drama with a vaguely Western atmosphere. Starring the sword-fighting star Kozaburo Ramon, directed by Kenji Shimomura.

Silent Japanese film.

In medieval Japan, a brutal and corrupt magistrate is planning to kill the child who is about to become the heir to the estate and position of the local lord and substitute his own "heir", an orphan, in order to get control of the late lord's estate and rule as the impostor's "regent". However, a mysterious stranger appears and sets out to thwart the magistrate's plans and free the people from his oppressive rule.

A film on the life of Shibukawa Bangorō, the founder of the Shibukawa-ryū school of jūjutsu. To paraphrase Satō Tadao’s blurb on the back cover of the video, this is an important film for three reasons. 1. it is an almost perfectly well preserved copy of one of only a few full-length movies still available of the first superstar in Japanese cinema history, the very famous Onoe Matsunosuke. 2. it uses a method that was common in the silent era, the dyeing/tinting of film to mark given moments of day (for ex., blue for night-time) or given situations (for ex., red for fire) – and even though most films that used this technique have been redeveloped in straight b&w, this one is available in its original form. 3. it is an early SFX (special effects) movie that uses the basic tools of the trade - a great action movie full of swordsmanship and monsters (bakemono).

Silent Japanese film.