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.
Kyuzo
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.
Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.
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.
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.
In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake.
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.
A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.
A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..
A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.
In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.
Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir.
An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.
Spears, a private detective working in L.A. receives word from an old friend that the friend's sister (and Spears' ex-girlfriend), Kim, has been kidnapped by a criminal gang. At first, Spears doesn't want to get involved, especially when he finds out that his friend's family is mixed up with the Chinese Mafia, but the feelings he still has for Kim lead him to return to New York and try to rescue her. When he arrives, he learns that Kim is caught in the middle of a war with the Russian Mafia, and that her life now depends on him.
Shipwrecked African-American slaves arrive in the midst of Bakumatsu-era Japan; they soon carve out a niche in the market with their musical talents.
The Shinobi-no-Mono series was so successful that Daiei Studios dipped into the well one more time, making the best 60′s B&W ninja movie ever seen in the otherwise color-dominated year of 1970. Issei Mori directs Hiroki Matsukata as the reluctant leader of a small band of spies charged with kidnapping a noblewoman from a heavily ninja-proofed castle. The finality of the air slowly began to fill like smoke, and in all that had become dark the loyalty of the Ninja who dared to go shone like light as they entered a world shrouded in mystery. Things do not go as planned in what is possibly the darkest and most fatalistic of the already noir-ish 60′s fare. Both the decade and it’s distinctive style of shinobi cinema went out on a high note with Mission Iron Castle.
This 1968 film adaptation of Yahya Haqqi's 1943 novel "The Lamp of Om Hashem" explores the liminal space between the modern and traditional worlds. Set in one of Cairo's densely-populated neighborhoods, Sayyida Zeinab, the film showcases beautiful scenes from city life.
A group of seemingly ordinary merchants is really a band of assassins for hire. When they discover that all the assassins in Edo are being killed they must act quickly to find the culprit.
Shishio's plan is enacted while Kenshin and Misao help defend the city.
In this love story set in the Edo period, 27-year-old Oharu is a genius in the kitchen. Oharu attracts the attention of the master chef of the Kaga Domain, who arranges for her to marry his son and heir, 24-year-old Yasunobu. But, Yasunobu is cold to his new wife, and he's more interested in swordplay than cookery.
In the year 1590, the mighty warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi is close to fulfilling his ambition of unifying all of Japan under his banner when he comes across unexpected resistance in the form of a floating fortress known as Oshi Castle. Narita Nagachika, a frivolous hedonistic fellow and unlikely candidate for the position of rebel general, finds himself in charge of defending the castle. His odds? An army of 500 men to combat Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army of 20,000.
The Green Hornet is a short film based upon characters from the popular radio and pulp series. The Green Hornet is actually Britt Reid, fearless newspaper publisher, who hides behind the Hornet's disguise to battle criminals that have managed to escape the long arm of law-aided. On his side we find of course his martial arts expert sidekick, Kato.
Studying music at a remote island academy, poor Mayumi (Aki Hoshino) and her classmates fall victim once more to erotic tortures at the hands of their corrupting instructors. Just in time, Kekko Kamen (Misaki Mori) takes center stage with a red mask on her head, nunchakus in her hands, and a song in her heart!
An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important.
On assignment while photographing a female suicide bomber in Kabul, Rebecca – one of the world’s top war photojournalists - gets badly hurt. Back home, another bomb drops as her husband and daughters give her an ultimatum: her work or her family.
Fai, once a world champion in boxing, escapes to Macau from the loan sharks and unexpectedly encounters Qi, a young chap who is determined to win a boxing match. Fai becomes Qi's mentor and rediscovers his passion to fight not only in the ring but for his life and the cares.
Two brothers, one wrongly accused of a crime, go on a mission of vengeance to find the men who framed him.
As the Shogun lays dying, seventeen Iga clan ninja are sent to infiltrate the impenetrable fortress where his youngest son is preparing to storm Edo Castle and name himself Shogun by force of arms. They are to either steal the documents that will eventually give him lawful claim to rulership, or they are to assassinate him. But even before they reach the castle walls, they find their every move countered by a ruthless ninja hunter in the employ of the would-be usurper (Konoe), who not only knows their every tactic but knows the exact make-up of their team thanks to his own spies within Edo Castle. As the Iga Ninja fall one by one, the mission's success or complete failure--where failure will result in a bloody war of succession--comes to hinge on a single young and inexperienced ninja (Kotaro).
Legendary samurai Jubei Yagyu must face off against a necromancer and his army of the undead in order to rescue Ohiro the young ninja girl from the clutches of Inshun Hozoin, the evil man slated to become lord of darkness on the eve of Armageddon. No living man is a match for Jubei's sword, but what skill can this mythic swordsman employ to defeat an army of the undead?
Wearing a mask to hide his identity, a deadly swordsman challenges a tyrant from the Ruling Council of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Both TANUMA Okitsugu of the ‘Roju’ (Ruling Council) and his son Okitomo, the Magistrate in charge of the gold mint, have been abusing their political power to steal gold by casting coins with only half the amount of precious metal and keeping the rest for themselves. TAKAHASHI Hideki stars as a popular Ukiyoe artist, KANO Hidemaro, who dons a purple hood to hide his real identity, has learned of their plot and fights to stop them. The Purple Hooded Avenger is a well-known and popular series in Japan, and he stands up against injustice from the powerful ‘Elder’ TANUMA of the ‘Roju’. The story told here occurred during the 'Tenmei' Era (1781-1789). An extraordinary movie, a must see!
In the time of the peaceful Toyotomi Era, Shinotada, the master of Kochi Family, a source of revenue for the Tokugawa, is trying to marry his younger sister Princess Fuji to Akinobu Sunekazura, who has connections with the rival Toyotomi, in order to bring peace. One of sixteen great warriors of Tokugawa, Hattori Hanzo, entrusts his wish and gathers the remnants of Iga Village, which was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga, and orders them to guard Princess Fuji. The Council of Elders of Sunekazura, hire the Fuma Ninja led by Fuma Kotaro, joined by the Koga Ninja, led by Sarutobi Sasuke, who is serving Hideyoshi Toyotomi, to assassinate Princess Fuji! Can Hanzo Hattori with the Iga remnants prevent this evil plot and protect the princess? Once again, Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba plays the leading role of Hanzo Hattori with his old enemy, Sarutobi Sasuke, played by Hiroki Matsukata. The presence of both famous actors will overwhelm any audience!