To aid in the selection of videos for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas.
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This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.
See also World Cinema Collection, filter=Asian Cinema – Japanese Cinema and Browsing Collection - Japanese Cinema.
Ai no kawaki = Thirst for love. 1967. 1 videodisc (99 min.). A tense psychological drama about a young woman who is widowed after marrying into a wealthy family and becomes sexually involved with her father-in-law, while harboring a destructive obsession with the family gardener. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9906
Ai no korīda = In the realm of the senses. 1976. 1 videodisc (102 min.). The story is based on the tabloid sensation of 1936, the fatal love affair of Sada Abe, a former geisha turned maid, and Kichizo Yoshida, the owner of the Tokyo ryotei (Japanese-style restaurant) at which she worked. Abandoning his wife and his business, Kichizo gives himself up to two weeks of dissipation with Sada at a nearby inn, which climaxes in sadomasochistic love games--and his strangulation and mutilation. Kichizo is tired of life, of the militarism that has everywhere suppressed Eros in favor of Thanatos, and he and Sada are escaping, protesting, testing physical and psychological limits, while resisting a social order that condemns their actions and their very being. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10727
Akahige = Red beard. 1965. 2 videodiscs (185 min.). Film captures the look and feel of 19th century Japan as it tells the story of a vain young doctor who learns a valuable lesson from the dedicated director of a clinic for destitute patients. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4841
Akai satsui = Intentions of murder. 1964. 1 videodisc (153 min.). Sadako is a typical Imamura heroine: one who revels in the pleasures of food, labor, sex, and self-preservation. Carrying the burden of her status as a lowly, poor, prostitute-birthed commoner wife, Sadako is subjected to an escalating series of belittlement both at home and in society. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10500
Akasen chitai = Street of shame. 1956. 1 videodisc (85 min.). The final film of director Kenji Mizoguchi follows the lives of five prostitutes in the Yoshiwara region of Tokyo. Each has a different story and different plans, but they all share an uncertain future as they face the outlawing of their profession. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9847
Akibiyori = Late autumn. 1960. 1 videodisc (129 min.). A young girl named Ayako is living with her widowed mother and refuses offers of marriage because she does not want her mother to be alone. Friends of the mother's husband recognize this problem and advise her to remarry. Ayako is upset by this and leaves home. Mother and daughter are later reconciled and take a pleasant autumn together to work out their feelings. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9814
Akira. 1987. 2 videodiscs (124 min.). A powerful psychic force known only as Akira resurfaces in Neo-Tokyo in the 21st century. Tetsuo, a young, inexperienced motorcycle biker driven beyond the boundaries of sanity by the power of Akira, is forced to conjure up demons laying dormant within his subconscious. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 433
Ankokugai no bijo = Underworld beauty. 1958. 1 videodisc (87 min.). The moment he is released from prison, the honorable gangster Miyamoto recovers the stolen diamonds he had stashed before getting pinched. When he returns to his old haunt to make good by a friend who took a bullet for him, he is diverted by the greedy boss Oyane and his insatiable taste for Miyamoto's precious stones. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4296
Anma to onna = The masseurs and a woman. 1938. 1 videodisc (66 min.). A group of disparate people, including, a pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew make a crisscrossing study of love and family while visiting a remote resort in the mountains. A timeless portrait of loneliness, the human need to connect all while getting caught up in all manner of quiet intrigue. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9853
Antonio Gaudí. 1984. 2 videodiscs (72 min.). Antonio Gaudí designed some of the world's most astonishing buildings, interiors, and parks. Takes viewers on a tour of Gaudí's truly spectacular architecture, including his massive, still-unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia cathedral. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4267
Arigatåo-san = Mr. Thank You. 1936. 1 videodisc (76 min.). Follows the long and winding route of a sweet-natured bus driver. He is nicknamed Mr. Thank You for his constant exclamation to pedestrians who kindly step out of his way. His route travels from rural Izu to Tokyo. Along the way, romance, comedy and tragedy threatens his passengers. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9852
Aru kyouhaku = Intimidation. 1960. 1 videodisc (65 min.). This film noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9902
Aruitemo aruitemo = Still walking. 2008. 1 videodisc (114 min.). Fashioned as a tribute to his parents, the film depicts one day in the life of the Yokoyamas, gathered together for a celebratory ritual that only gradually makes itself clear. Rather than focus on big dramatic moments, Kore-eda relies on simple gestures and domestic routines (especially cooking) to evoke a family's entire life, its deep regrets and its daily joys. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8389
The ballad of Narayama. 1958. 1 videodisc (98 min.). This haunting, kabuki-inflected version of a Japanese folk legend is set in a remote mountain village, where food is scarce and tradition dictates that citizens who have reached their seventieth year must be carried to the summit of Mount Narayama and left there to die. The sacrificial elder at the center of the tale is Orin, a dignified and dutiful woman who spends her dwindling days securing the happiness of her loyal widowed son with a respectable new wife. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3292
The ballad of Narayama. = Narayama bushiko. 1983. 1 videodisc (130 min.). In a village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 is banished to the top of Mt. Narayama to die, so as not to be a burden on the village and bring disgrace upon their family. Orin is 69 and despite being in good health, her time is coming. First, though, she has things to do and a score to settle. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4458
Banshun = Late spring. 1949. 2 videodiscs (108 min.). The story of a widower and his daughter who through devotion to him is getting past a marriageable age. The father pretends to marry a young wife so his daughter will feel less obligated to stay with him. She marries and he prepares to live the remainder of his life alone. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4127
Bara no soretsu = Funeral parade of roses. 1969. 1 videodisc (105 min.). Eddie and the transvestite Leda both have sexual desires on bar manager and drug dealer Gonda. Gonda fears Leda will expose him to the police if he does not give in to his advances. When Leda commits suicide, Eddie and Gonda are free to engage in their homosexual yearnings for each other. When Gonda discovers he is Eddie's father, he kills himself with a knife. A distraught Eddie uses the same knife to cut his own eyes. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2289
Batoru rowaiaru = Battle royale. 2001. 1 videodisc (109 min.). With unemployment at an all-time high and violence amongst school children almost out of control, the Japanese government introduces the "Battle Royale Act." A randomly chosen school class is taken to a deserted island and forced to fight each other to the death. One pupil only is allowed to survive as proof of the lengths to which the government is prepared to go to end the violence. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 880
Batoru rowaiaru II : rekuiemu = Battle royale II : revenge. 2003. 1 videodisc (152 min.). The survivors of the Battle royale, form a terrorist group, to take revenge for being used so brutally by the adults. A group of students are trained and sent to kill them. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 881
Beetle queen conquers Tokyo. 2010. 1 videodisc (90 min.). This documentary explores Japan's fascination and love affair with insects. The film intertwines their love for something so mundane, be it a beetle or butterfly, with their cultural values and traditions. In the end, it challenges viewers to not only alter their view of insects but also our lives. DVD 9432
Biruma no tategoto = The Burmese harp. 1956. 1 videodisc (116 min.). An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4305
The blind swordsman: Zatôichi. 2003. 2 videodiscs (210 min.). Zatoichi -- A classic samurai epic that tells of a blind assassin desperately struggling to adhere to the strict code of the samurai. Sonatine -- Several yakuza from Tokyo are sent to Okinawa to help end a gang war. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4230
Buta to gunkan = Pigs and battleships. 1961. 1 videodisc (108 min.). Portrays postwar Japan through the power struggles between small-time gangsters in the port town of Yokosuka, where American soldiers are based. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10498
Cha no aji = The taste of tea. 2003. 1 videodisc (143 min.). "Meet the Harunos, a rather unconventional but happy and loving family. They live in a small town in the mountains just outside Tokyo where life is good and quiet - but that doesn't mean they don't have their own little problems"--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7780
Chikyåu Båoeigun = The Mysterians. 1957. 1 videodisc (88 min.). "After a Japanese town is totally destroyed, the military arrives to investigate. They encounter a giant robot that is destroying everything in its path. A dome appears out of the ground and a group of scientists are invited to meet the alien Mysterians from the planet Mysteroid. The Mysterians have come in peace - all they ask of humanity is three-square kilometeres of land and the right to interbreed with Earth women to repopulate their species. Outraged at such a suggestion, humanity declares war on the Mysterians." --Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10117
Chushingura. 1958. 1 videodisc (166 min.). A timeless tale of honor and revenge. The true story of a group of samurai who become ronin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official. DVD 9428
Daibosatsutoge = The sword of doom. 1965. 1 videodisc (121 min.). This is the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil. A gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, Ryunosuke (Nakadai) kills without remorse, without mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1273
Dekigokoro = Passing fancy. 1933. 1 videodisc (100 min.). Examines the close, but fraught, relationship between an illiterate brewery worker and his educated son. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9838
Empire of passion. 1978. 1 videodisc (105 min.). 1895, a small Japanese village. Part-time barmaid Seki is married to Gisaburo, a hardworking rickshaw man. Toyoji is a younger man at loose ends since leaving the army. Toyoji seduces Seki, and they embark on a desultory affair. Later, an impetuous action of Toyoji's prompts the lovers to murder Gisaburo. Three years later, Gisaburo's ghost appears, a sad and confused lost soul whose vague desperation drives his murderers to anguished guilt. This film was director Oshima's venture into the kaidan (Japanese ghost story), and was highly acclaimed on its release in 1978. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10660
Etsuraku = Pleasures of the flesh. 1965. 1 videodisc (91 min.). Atsushi is blackmailed into watching over a convict's suitcase full of money while he serves his time. Knowing the consequences, Atsushi decides to spend all of the money in one libidinous rush. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9873
The first films of Akira Kurosawa. 2010. 4 videodiscs (305 min.). Sanshiro Sugata: Akira Kurosawa's effortless debut is based on a novel by Tsuneo Tomita about the rivalry between judo and jujitsu. The most beautiful: This portrait of female volunteer workers at an optics plant during world War II, shot on location at the Nippon Kogaku factory, was created with a patriotic agenda. Sahshiro Sugata, part two: This sequel is a hugely entertaining adventure, reuniting most of the major players from the original and featuring a two-part narrative in which Sanshiro first fights a pair of Americans and then finds himself the target of a revenge mission undertaken by the brothers of the original film's villain. The men who tread on the tiger's tail: The plot is based on a legendary twelfth-century incident in which the lord Yoshitsune and a group of samurai retainers dressed as monks in order to pass through a dangerous enemy checkpoint. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9882 - 9885
Five = 5 long takes dedicated to Yasujiro Ozu. 2007. The KimStim collection: KimStim collection. 1 videodisc (74 min.). "Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (A taste of cherry, Through the olive trees) pays homage to Yasujiro Ozu, the brilliant Japanese filmmaker whose spare but evocative style has been a major influence on Kiarostami's work. Canny and sublime, the 74-minute film is comprised of five long, apparently single takes of a beach on the Caspian Sea, all focusing on the ocean, comprised of virtually no camera movement and enveloped in rapturous natural sound. Richly poetic and shot on a hand-held DV camera, the film features five extended, apparently single-take sequences. One. The camera accompanies a piece of wood with which the waves are toying at the beach. Two. People are walking along by the seaside. Older people stop, look at the waves, then walk away. Three. Indistinct shapes on a beach in winter. A group of dogs. A love story. Four. Ducks noisily cross the frame in one direction, then the other. Five. A pond; nighttime; frogs; a chorus of sounds, then a storm, and finally dawn."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10290
Fukushåusuru wa ware ni ari = Vengeance is mine. 1979. 1 videodisc (140 min.). A true crime story about Iwao Enokizu, self-styled "King of criminals", Enokizu began his criminal career through a series of murders that made headlines and startled all Japan with a sense of uneasy fascination. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3040
Giants & toys = Kyojin to gangu. 1958. 1 videodisc (95 min.). "When three rival candy companies go to war for market supremacy, World Caramels enlists a lower-class girl with appallingly bad teeth to be their new spokesmodel. In a world of industrial spies, hostile takeovers and boardroom hysterics, the animal instincts of this overnight star prove to be the most cutthroat of all."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1280
Gion no shimai = Sisters of the Gion. 1936. 1 videodisc (69 min.). Two geisha sisters - one modern-minded, the other staunchly traditional - disagree over how to deal with the men controlling their lives and livelihoods. An early work by Kenji Mizoguchi featuring his favored theme of women struggling against societal boundaries. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9845
Go. 2001. 1 videodisc (123 min.). It centers on a Korean high school student who finds himself through the hardships of love and friendship, and learns to overcome prejudices based on nationality and race. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5577
Godzilla: King of the monsters! 1954. 1 videodisc (78 min.). As reported by an American TV newscaster, a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur awakens from undersea hibernation off the coast of Japan during atomic bomb testing, and begins to destroy Tokyo. Film echoes the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the monster becomes a metaphor for the Atomic Age. Godzilla, king of the monsters!: When American reporter Steve Martin investigates a series of mysterious disasters off the coast of Japan, he comes face to face with Godzilla, an ancient creature so powerful and so terrifying, it can reduce Tokyo to a smoldering graveyard. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6182
Gojira = Godzilla. 1954. 2 videodiscs (96 min.). It's also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama made in Japan at a time when the country was still reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire populations fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning more than twenty sequels and spinoffs. Here, we present the original, 1954 Japanese version, along with Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, the 1956 American reworking. DVD 6181
Gojira = Godzilla. 1954. 1 videodisc (98 min.). Gojira: A prehistoric monster, Godzilla, ravages metropolitan Tokyo. Scientists suspect that H-bomb tests awakened it from a two-million year sleep and they try to develop techniques to stop the monster. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6181
Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu. 2003. 2 videodiscs (129 min.). Young Yakuza is ordered to kill his closest friend, who is also his own superior. When his target disappears, his search leads him to a strange town filled with oddballs, lowlifes, and a cow-headed demon. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7318
Grave of the fireflies = Hotaru no haka. 1988. 2 videodiscs (88 min. ; 71 min.). Two orphans in war-time Kobe, Japan, face fire-bombs, hunger, homelessness, and despair as the war and their lives come to an end. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 823
The H-man. 1959. 1 videodisc (86 min.). Radioactive creatures are created when H-Bombs are dropped during tests in the Pacific. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10474
Hachigatsu no nyoshikyoku = Rhapsody in August. 1991. 1 videodisc (98 min.). A visit from her grandchildren and the discovery of a half-American relative cause an elderly woman to relive her memories of the atomic bomb that fell on Nagasaki. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5803
Hakuch u no nôrima = Violence at noon. 1966. 1 videodisc (99 min.). The wife and a former victim of a murderer/rapist protect him in his horrific rape and murder spree. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9874
Hakuchi = The idiot. 1951. 1 videodisc (166 min.). Based on Dostoyevsky's fable of a holy fool, this story which takes place in Hokkaido in the winter is about a man who returns home after a stay in an asylum. He is being drawn toward Christianity, his antagonist is an anarchist. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9827
Hausu = House. 1977. 1 videodisc (88 min.). After learning that she will be sharing the summer with her father's new girlfriend, a young girl invites some friends to join her at her aunt's house instead. With a sick aunt, a bloodthirsty cat, and evil spirits lurking around, the girls find that it might have been better to stay at home. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7846
Higanbana = Equinox flower. 1958. 1 videodisc (118 min.). In Ozu's first color film, a stubborn businessman, who disapproves of his daughter's fiance, must learn to embrace modern romance. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9813
Hiroshima mon amour. 2003. 1 videodisc (90 min.). A Japanese architect and a French actress engage in a brief intense affair in Hiroshima in 1959. Both deal with their personal memories of World War II--he by articulating his firsthand experience with nuclear disaster, she by remembering her traumatic affair with a German soldier. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1337
House of bamboo. 1955. 1 videodisc (ca. 102 min.). "Sandy Dawson has assembled a platoon of ex-Army thugs to run pachinko parlors while pulling off bloody heists and armed robbery. The murder of a friend brings Eddie Spanier into the group, along with his beautiful mistress. But Spanier's behavior grows treacherous, and his loyalties become questionable, leading to a breathless, murderous conclusion high above the ancient city of Tokyo."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10024
Huo zhe = To live. 1994. 1 videodisc (133 min.). The story of a prodigal son set against the backdrop of China in the tumultuous era of the 40s and beyond. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1380