Taiji Tonoyama

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

Dir. Kaneto Shindō · With Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satō

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishū Ryū

A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.

Dir. Kaneto Shindō · With Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka

The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.

Dir. Seijiro Koyama · With Tatsuya Nakadai, Kaoru Yachigusa, Toshiro Yanagiba

In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Takashi Shimura, Toshirō Mifune, Reizaburo Yamamoto

A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.

Dir. Shōhei Imamura · With Ken Ogata, Mayumi Ogawa, Mitsuko Baisho

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost.

Dir. Kaneto Shindō · With Kichiemon Nakamura II, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi

In a small Japanese village at the end of the 19th century, a rickshaw driver's wife takes on a much younger lover and the two conspire to murder him.

Dir. Nagisa Ōshima · With Takahiro Tamura, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Tatsuya Fuji

A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.

Dir. Nagisa Ōshima · With Eiko Matsuda, Tatsuya Fuji, Aoi Nakajima