Akira Ishihama’s Typical Vibe
Signature vibe

Highest-ranked title
Highest-ranked title
Akira Ishihama has 4 titles in the CriticCrunch catalog across a career spanning the 1950s through the 1980s. 1 sits in the Top 1% of all titles we track — including Harakiri.
Recurring themes

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 senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi · With Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Ishihama, Shima Iwashita

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
Dir. Masaki Kobayashi · With Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima
Naoto detective Jiban fights for justice against Bioron and his evil plans to conquer the world.
With Shouhei Kusaka, Konomi Mashita, Michiko Enokida
In 1966, five infant children were kidnapped by an alien group known as the Alien Hunters for the Reconstructive Experiment Empire Mess, who wanted samples of humans from Earth to experiment on. The children were rescued by Mess' arch enemy, the Flash alien race, which took each one to a different planet of the Flash solar system for training. Each child was trained separately in a range of superpowers that will allow them to fight Mess, their bodies also adapted to the atmosphere of the Flash Solar System making them gain special abilities. When they finally return to Earth in 1986 to combat Mess, who is now trying to invade it, they use the opportunity to search for their birth parents.
With Touta Tarumi, Kihachirō Uemura, Tsutomu Kitagawa
Top Collaborators
Directors with 2+ shared titles, ranked by frequency