Daisuke Katō

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Takashi Shimura

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yōko Tsukasa

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.

Dir. Mikio Naruse · With Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan

During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.

Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi · With Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirō Sugai

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

Dir. Mikio Naruse · With Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Mariko Okada

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Setsuko Hara, Yōko Tsukasa, Michiyo Aratama