Takashi Shimura

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

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Takashi Shimura, Haruo Tanaka, Nobuo Kaneko

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa

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

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.

Dir. Ishirō Honda · With Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Akihiko Hirata

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura

In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara

In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiju Kobayashi

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Kamatari Fujiwara

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji

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 humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Dir. Hiroshi Inagaki · With Toshirō Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa

After a meteorite unleashes a three-headed beast upon Tokyo, Mothra tries to unite with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the extraterrestrial threat.

Dir. Ishirō Honda · With Yōsuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi

Shipwreck survivors found on the presumably uninhabited Infant Island leads to a scientific expedition that discovers a surviving native population along with the Shobijin, tiny twin fairy priestesses of the island's mythical deity called Mothra. After the fairies are kidnapped by an exploitative businessman named Clark Nelson, Mothra sets out to rescue them.

Dir. Ishirō Honda · With Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyōko Kagawa

An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki

During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.

Dir. Terry O. Morse, Ishirō Honda · With Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kôchi

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Toshirō Mifune

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

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Denjirō Ōkōchi, Susumu Fujita, Kenichi Enomoto

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.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Denjirō Ōkōchi, Susumu Fujita, Yukiko Todoroki

Two fishing scout pilots make a horrifying discovery when they encounter a second Godzilla alongside a new monster named Anguirus. Without the weapon that killed the original, authorities attempt to lure Godzilla away from the mainland. But Anguirus soon arrives and the two monsters make their way towards Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy.

Dir. Motoyoshi Oda · With Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki