Movies: Akira Ishihama

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The seni...

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his...

Three stories of moral sickness set during Japan’s prosperous Genroku era are told in this bloody follow-up to the sexploitation classic Shogun’s Joy of Torture, the politically incorrect moral lessons paint a trio of tales of tragic heroines caught ...

A master sculptor and his apprentice are trapped in a bad snow storm after finding a special tree for carving a statue for the local temple. Finding refuge in an abandoned hut they celebrate their luck in finding the tree but soon they are visited by...

Doctors Kazamatsuri and Onizuka are geneticists researching cures on diseases such as AIDS and cancer by performing experiments to strengthen the human body. The test subject is Shin Kazamatsuri, motorcycle racer son of Doctor Kazamatsuri. Unknown to...

In the summer of 1947, various men and women gather at a mansion in the countryside at the invitation of Kazuma Utagawa. They are artists, novelists, poets, painters, playwrights, actresses, etc. Then the murders begin, one after another. The inci...

Keiko’s life is turned upside down when she discovers that she has been infected with HIV. As she struggles to cope with the situation and resist the infection, she finds new friendship and companionship with a journalist named Miyuki and a man named...

Famous detective Kindaichi solves a series of mysterious murders in a wealthy family. An excellent blend of intrigue and betrayal, set against the backdrop of wealth, this film is loaded with twists and turns and surprises at every corner....

A young woman is forced by circumstance into a loveless marriage while still in love with another. This episodic tale follows their story through three decades of bitter conflict which engulfs their children and those around them....

Five longtime friends get back together, but are disappointed to find that their bonds are not as strong as they once were....

Christ in Bronze is a 1955 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Minoru Shibuya. It was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival....

The film opens with kidnappers of a corporate executive making an unusual ransom demand: that a wizened executive from another company haul large bags of money through downtown Tokyo as the media documents his every move. When the first old man almos...

Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza....

A young widow, made world weary by her abusive, neglectful husband, finds herself in a minor scandal when she's seen with her intense, no-nonsense childhood sweetheart....

This drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails....

21-year-old Hideo Ishida is a reckless young man. Today again, he took part in a car race with a stolen driver's license and a car belonging to the junkyard. But unfortunately, things go wrong and after a collision with another car, the seriously inj...

The movie depicts the strength and resilience of a woman who spent her entire life as a merchant in Semba, Osaka....

A sensitive young woman aged 22 fell in love with a middle aged man who was troubled by his unfaithful wife....

While under sedation in a dentist's office, a young art student has sex fantasies about naked women, vampires and a beautiful patient he saw in the office....

The story of a father and two teenaged sons, and the rivalry between the two siblings as they begin to discover the attraction of girls....