Movies: Kappei Matsumoto

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue come...

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 lif...

Astronomer Shinichi Tachibana has a secret identity as the superhero "Iron Sharp" and is well beloved by children. When they are attacked by a group of metallic aliens, Iron Sharp drives the aliens away. The resourceful Tachibana helps develop an ele...

Tells the story of the samurai Gengobe, who seeks revenge after falling prey to the schemes of a geisha and her husband....

In the second film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan and must assassinate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate....

The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, whose husband was one of 80,000 human beings killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii wh...

Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard....

The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quiz...

Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his ...

Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang of thieves. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to rob the castle of his former clan....

UFOs appear on Earth, and people who actually see them suddenly find that their blood has turned blue. Soon panic and hysteria result in the new "blue-bloods" being persecuted by the rest of mankind, and eventually certain all-too-familiar measures b...

Two Jesuit priests encounter persecution when they travel to Japan in the 17th century to spread Christianity and search for their mentor....

In turbulent 16th-century Japan, the leaders of a minor fief have their child taken from them as a political hostage. His mother and his clan endure years of tribulations until he can return....

Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances. The film depicts their lives as thieves, menial ...

Based on true events surrounding a Korean student who had entered Japan unlawfully and escaped illegal alien internment....

From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious...

A beautifully told story of a woman hardened by marriage to a man she doesn't love, after giving herself to another. She dedicates herself to her work, designing and creating plaited cords for kimono....

1956 Japanese movie...

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A suspense work based on the "Miyagi Incident," an attempted coup d'etat led by some officers working for the Ministry of the Defense and the General Staff of the Konoe Division on the eve of the end of the Pacific War....