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Filmography - National Cinema, Japan: I - R

Films on DVD as of September 2013

American History, The Great Depression

Titles available on DVD as of September 2013

 

This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the ALADIN catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.  All DVDs listed below are located in Media Services on the Lower Level of Bender Library. To search the library’s complete videos holdings on prison topics (including VHS tapes) search the library catalog at: http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/index.cfm

Ichiban utsukushiku = The most beautiful. 1944. 1 videodisc (85 min.). Presents the story of a group of girls who work in a precision-optical-instruments factory, making lenses, binoculars, etc., during wartime in Japan. This was filmed in a real factory with real workers which gives the movie a documentary flavor.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9883

Icons of sci-fi: Toho collection. 2009. 3 videodiscs (261 min.). [The H-man]: Police experts investigating sordid drug dealings are stumped when crooks vanish leaving only their clothes behind. No-nonsense Inspector Tominaga (Akihiko Hirata) refuses to give credence to the radical theory of scientist Dr. Masada (Kenji Sahara): radioactivity has transformed six sailors into H-Men, liquid beings that dissolve other humans for food. Alluring nightclub singer Chikako Arai (top-billed Yumi Shirakawa, star of The Mysterians) gets involved because her boyfriend is one of the gangsters thought to have disappeared -- or been liquefied. Two sailors' tale of encountering "living liquid" monsters on a derelict ship is presented in a spooky flashback. The authorities remain unconvinced -- until the H-Men invade Chikako's nightclub, melting gangsters and detectives alike! [Battle in outer space]: Agile jet-job flying saucers oppose Earth's Defense Force fighter rockets in the stratosphere, in orbit and on the dark side of the moon. After a worldwide spate of bizarre disasters -- train wrecks, flooding, etc. -- the United Nations traces the nefarious acts to alien forces called "Natalians". Twin rocket ships are launched from a Japanese space center to investigate what might be an enemy base on the lunar surface. The expedition barely escapes from flying saucers launched from Natal's base of operations, the Mother Ship. Worse, a member of the expedition has been brainwashed by the space enemies, and telepathically commanded to sabotage the UN spaceships. [Mothra]: A scientific team is dispatched to investigate a mysterious radioactive island thought to be uninhabited. It now supports a population of sad, reclusive natives. Dr. Sinichi Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi) meets the tribe's tiny twin "Shobijin" fairies (Yumi & Emi Ito, aka "The Peanuts", a singing duo very popular in Japan). The tiny women communicate telepathically. Stowaway reporter Senichiro Fukuda (Frankie Sakai) befriends the fairies, but sneaky Rolisican gangster-entrepreneur Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito) secretly returns to the island, murders a number of natives and kidnaps the Shobijin to sing in a stage show back in Tokyo. Official efforts fail to force Nelson to relinquish the tiny girls. They tell Senichiro that they are sad, not for themselves, but for Tokyo: Mothra will come to their rescue. And indeed, as the natives back on Infant Island dance, a giant egg hatches an equally monstrous larval moth, which immediately sets sail for the Japanese capitol.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10473-10475

Ikimono no kiroku = I live in fear. 1955. 1 videodisc (103 min.). An elderly and wealthy industrialist is driven to madness over fears of a nuclear attack. In a futile attempt to save his family he pressures them to leave Japan and move to the rain forest in Brazil where he believes they will be safe. His family, complacent and cynical, is outraged and move to have him declared insane.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9828

Ikiru = To live! 1952.  2 videodiscs (143 min.). Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a government clerk spends his last months in search of a meaning to life. After an uncomprehending pursuit of pleasure has failed, he finds self-fulfillment by forcing through his former department the building of a children's playground in the slums, then dies quietly.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1315

The invention of Dr. Nakamats. 2009. 1 videodisc (57 min.).  Madcap fun, à la Wes Anderson, about the utterly fantabulous 80-year-old inventor responsible for 3,357 inventions, including the floppy disk. NakaMats is an unlikely character made for the movies, with his deadpan English and impeccable comic timing providing nonstop laughs. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10135

Irezumi ichidai = Tattooed life. 1965.  1 videodisc (90 min.). "After his final job as a yakuza hit man, Tetsu the Silver Fox is attacked by his last victim's bodyguard. Coming to his rescue is Kenji, Tetsu's younger, peaceful brother. In the fray, Kenji kills a yakuza and the two flee to Manchuria."--Container.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4298

Izo. 2004. 2 videodiscs (128 min.). Okada Izo was a samurai warrior from a low-class family. His talent as a swordsman was discovered by a powerful samurai warlord, who recruited Izo as a soldier. Under his guidance, Izo murdered many people. Izo was later crucified for his actions, and became the incarnation of a deep-seated grudge when his soul could not enter Heaven or Hell.  His restless soul travels beyond time and space, filled with deception, despair, and an insatiable murderous anger unleashed upon those who come between him and divine punishment.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7317

Jusan-nin no shikaku = 13 assassins. 2010. 1 videodisc (126 min.). Thirteen brave samurai must face overwhelming odds in an epic battle against a sadistic lord and his army of 200 to prevent him from plunging Japan into war.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8700

Jingi no hakaba = Graveyard of honor. 1975.  1 videodisc (93 min.). A story about the life and death of Rikio Ishikawa, one of the most notorious and violent yakuza in the history of organized crime in Japan.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8916

Joiuchi = Samurai rebellion. 1967. 1 videodisc (121 min.). A clan lord orders an aging swordsman to have his son marry the lord's mistress, but reverses his decision after the young couple falls in love.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10442

Kaette kita topparai = Three resurrected drunkards. 1968. 1 videodisc (80 min.). A trio of young men are mistaken for undocumented Koreans in Japan and find themselves on the run. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9877

Kagemusha = The shadow warrior. 1980. 2 videodiscs (180 min.). Reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic about a peasant impersonating a nobleman in battle. Kagemusha is presented in its original 180 min. uncut Japanese version, not the shortened "international version" presented by 20th Century Fox.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7274

Kagirinaki hodo = Street without end. 1934. 1 videodisc (88 min.). An absorbing character and class study about a carefree waitress who, after a series of dramatic events, ends up in a stifling marriage.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9897

Kakushi toride no san akumin = The hidden fortress. 1958.  1 videodisc (139 min.). A princess must escape across enemy lines with the royal treasure, guarded only by a loyal general and two greedy peasants. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 376

Kanto mushuku = Kanto wanderer. 1963. 1 videodisc (96 min.). "Gamblers and card sharps, prostitution, and Yakuza-style vengeance: Yakuza icon Akira Kobayashi is boss Izu's bodyguard Katsuta, who finds himself at the center of a violent power play by the greedy rival boss Yoshida. When Katsuta encounters a mysterious and beautiful femme fatale from his past, he must decide to act upon his own desires or pay his debt of honor to boss Izu."--Container.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4297

Kanzashi = Ornamental hairpin. 1941. 1 videodisc (70 min.). Two bruised souls enact a tender, hesitant romance in a wartime love story. A soldier is forced to prolong his stay at a rural spa when he accidentally cuts his foot on a hairpin. Soon enough he tracks down its lovely owner and finds himself smitten. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9854

Karakkaze yarô = Afraid to die. 1960.  1 videodisc (97 min.). After finishing his prison sentence for killing a mob boss, Asahina reluctantly re-enters society where he tries to stay one step ahead of the mob.   HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10214

Katakuri-ke no kôfuku = Happiness of the Katakuris. 2001.  1 videodisc (113 min.). Black comedy about a modern dysfunctional family and their shared dream of opening an inn in the country.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7319

Kawaita hana. 1964. 1 videodisc (96 min.). In this cool, seductive jewel of the Japanese New Wave, a yakuza, fresh out of prison, becomes entangled with a beautiful yet enigmatic gambling addict. What at first seems a redemptive relationship ends up leading him further down the criminal path.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10191

Kaze no tani no Naushika = Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds. 2004.  2 videodiscs (117 min.). The epic coming-of-age tale of Nausicaa, a compassionate princess warrior striving to negotiate peace between kingdoms battling over the last of the planet's precious natural resources.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2977

Kenji Mizoguchi's fallen women. 2008.  4 videodiscs (299 min.). [V. 1]. Osaka elegy. Switchboard operator Ayako agrees to enter into an affair with her married boss after he promises to support her and her father - setting her off on a seemingly irreversible downward spiral. [V. 2]. Sisters of the Gion. Two geisha sisters - one modern-minded, the other staunchly traditional - disagree over how to deal with the men controlling their lives and livelihoods. [V. 3]. Women of the night. The story of two sisters, Fusako, a war widow, and Natsuko, in an affair with a narcotics smuggler, who, along with their younger friend Kumiko, descend into prostitution and moral chaos amid the postwar devastation surrounding them. [V. 4]. Street of shame. In a brothel in Tokyo's red-light district, a group of working women, their profession on the verge of being outlawed, deal with life's disappointments, large and small.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9844-9847

Kenju zankoku monogatari = Cruel gun story. 1964. 1 videodisc (87 min.). Fresh out of jail, Togawa has no chance to go straight because he is immediately coerced by a wealthy mob boss into organizing a heist on an armored car carrying racetrack receipts. After assembling a ragtag bunch to carry out the robbery, Togawa learns that all is not what it seems.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9862

Kenka erejii = Fighting elegy. 1966. 1 videodisc (86 min.). High schooler Nanbu Kiroku yearns for the prim, Catholic Michiko, but her only desire is to reform Kiroku's sinful tendencies. Hormones raging, Kiroku channels his unsatisfied lust into the only outlet available: savage, crazed violence.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4359

Kids return. 1996. 1 videodisc (103 min.). "Masaru and Shinji are two high school juvenile delinquents who spend their time extorting classmates for small change. After Masaru is beaten up by a former victim, the pair go to a local gym to learn how to box. Shinji, however, proves to have much more innate talent than Masaru, who abandons the sport to join the local yakuza gang. After Masaru's departure, Shinji falls in with Hayashi, an older boxer whose influence pulls the youth down. Meanwhile, Masaru's arrogant behavior is getting him into trouble with his gang."--Container.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10208

Kikujirô no natsu. 1999. 1 videodisc (116 min.). Lonely nine-year-old Masao leaves Tokyo in search of his mother, whom he has never met. He's accompanied on his journey across the Japanese countryside by the surly, middle-aged crook Kikujiro, who is none too happy being the chaperone. When Kikujiro gambles away all the travel money, the two must rely on their wits and the kindness of strangers. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7826

Kimi to wakarete: Yogoto no yume. 1933. 1 videodisc (125 min.). Apart From You: An aging geisha is resented by her humiliated teenage son. Every-night Dreams: A dockside bar hostess must contend with the return of her long-gone layabout husband.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9896

Kishiwada shônen gurentai: Chikemuri junjô-hen = Young thugs-- innocent blood. 1997. 1 videodisc (107 min.). Innocent blood follows three friends through their first year after leaving school. Having robbed their teacher on their last day, Ryoko gets a job in a hair salon while the two boys settle down to a career of enforcement and protection. Set in Kishiwada, a fishing district in the industrial town of Osaka.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5536

Kohayagawa-ke no aki = End of summer. 1961. 1 videodisc (103 min.). Ozu's penultimate film tells the story of three sisters who are stunned to discover that their aging father is spending time with his old mistress.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9815

Kohi jiko. 2003. 1 videodisc (104 min.). Yoko, a freelance writer, becomes pregnant and chooses, against tradition and her parents' wishes, to raise the baby alone. In her loneliness and confusion, Yoko befriends the owner of a second-hand bookstore, who silently falls in love with her as she contemplates the choice she has made. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4242

Kôkaku kidôtai = Ghost in the shell. 1995.  2 videodiscs (83 min.). In a world caught in the grip of information overload, Major Kusanagi is an elite officer and heavily modified cybernetic agent. She is on the trail of a computer-criminal who turns people into human marionettes, controlled by computer. She discovers that his true identity lies at the center of a vast and lethal political conspiracy.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5155

Koruto wa ore no pasupåoto = A colt is my passport. 1967. 1 videodisc (85 min.). A hard-boiled hit man is hired by Yakuza to rub out a rival gang's boss, only to be betrayed and targeted by both sides. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9863

Koshiben gambare Nasanunaka. 1931. 1 videodisc (107 min.). Flunky, Work Hard (1931, 28 min): An atypical breezy comedy about a poor insurance salesman trying to provide for his family. No Blood Relation (1932, 79 min.): A maternal-instinct melodrama about an actress desperate to reclaim the daughter she left behind.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9895

Kumonosu jo = Throne of blood. 1957.  1 videodiscs (109 min.). Film translates the story and much of the action of Macbeth to a sixteenth century Japanese setting. Tells the story of a Samurai lord who kills his master and usurps his power in fulfillment of a witch's prophecy. The central character is Taketoki Washizu (Mifune), a general, serving Tsuzuki (Sasaki), master of Cobweb Castle. Prompted by his wife, Washizu murders Tsuzuki and takes command of the castle. He is himself killed in battle when the son of a rival warlord, one of his victims, attacks the castle.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4268

Kuroi Ame = Black rain. 1989.  1 videodisc (123 min.). A woman caught in fallout during the bombing of Hiroshima returns to her village, where she is ostracized and considered unsuitable for marriage.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6501

Kuroi taiyo = Black sun. 2011.  1 videodisc (95 min.). A manic, oddball, anti-buddy story about a young, jazz-obsessed Japanese drifter and a black American GI on the lam in Tokyo. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9905

Kurutta kajitsu = Crazed fruit. 1956.  1 videodisc (86 min.). Two brothers compete for the amorous favors of a young woman during a seaside summer of gambling, boating, and drinking. A portrayal of post-war sexual revolution among Japan's young and privileged. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4358

Kyonetsu no kisetsu = The warped ones. 1960. 1 videodisc (75 min.). A juvenile delinquent gets out of the pen and immediately embarks on an angry rampage, most of it directed at the girlfriend of the journalist who helped send him up. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9903

The last samurai. 2004. 2 videodiscs (ca. 154 min.). Tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren is coerced by a mercenary officer to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry. Opposing this modernization are the samurai warriors who are holding fast to their traditions of honor, despite their strategic disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader, Algren learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10583

Late Ozu 2007.  5 videodiscs (636 min.). disc 1] Soshun = Early spring (1956 ; 145 min.) -- [disc 2] Tokyo boshoku = Tokyo twilight (1957 ; 141 min.) -- [disc 3] Higanbana = Equinox flower (1958 ; 118 min.) -- [disc 4] Akibiyori = Late Autumn (1960 ; 129 min.) -- [disc 5] Kohayagawake no aki = The end of summer (1961 ; 103 min.) "Master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu directed fifty-three feature films over the course of his long career. Yet it was in the final decade of his life, his "old master" phase, that he entered his artistic prime. Centered more than ever on the modern sensibilities of the younger generation, these delicate family dramas are marked by an exquisite formal elegance and emotional sensitivity about birth and death, love and marriage, and all the accompanying joys and loneliness. Along with such better-known films as Floating Weeds and An Autumn Afternoon, these five works illustrate the worldly wisdom of one of cinema's great artists at the height of his powers."--Publisher.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9811 - 9815

The lower depths. 2004.  2 videodiscs (218 min.). Donzoko (125 min.): Sutekichi, a vulgar, comical thief takes up residence in a slum flophouse inhabited by many eccentric, destitute people. Osugi, the cruel landlady, and her sister, Okayo, both desire him, and fight each other over him. Set in Edo-period Japan. Les bas-fonds (93 min.): A Baron, forced by circumstances, gives up his life of luxury and to takes up residence in the slums of Paris. The Baron observes the frustrated romance between Wasska Pepel and Natacha, the thwarted dreams of an actor, and the oppressive cruelties of landlord Kostileff. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5636

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. 2010.  The Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs).  2 videodiscs (123 min.). In a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942, two British officers, John Lawrence and Jack Celliers, encounter camp commander Yonoi and his sergeant Hara. Things had been going pretty well, until charismatic, rebellious Celliers arrived. Yonoi is a devotee of the samurai ideal; neither he nor Hara can understand the stoic way in which the British prisoners accept their situation of defeat. Lawrence speaks Japanese, and ceaselessly tries to mediate between the prisoners and their overseers, translating both the words and the values of the two races. Celliers' attitude, however, is more comprehensible to Yonoi. He and Celliers arrive at a sort of détente, based on an admiration for the other, but this eventually turns into a contest of wills as the camp's carefully nurtured equilibrium is destroyed.           HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10689

Minato no Nihon musume = Japanese girls at the harbor. 1933.  1 videodisc (71 min.). Set in the modernizing port town of Yokohama. Dora and Sunako are two best friends who become torn apart by jealousy and violent revenge. Tells of the humiliating downfall experienced by Sunako after jealousy drives her to commit a terrible crime.         HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9851

Mishima a life in four chapters. 1985. 2 videodiscs (120 min.). A look at acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima, the impossible harmony he created between self, art, and society, and his famously committed public seppuku (ritual suicide). Includes interviews, commentary, documentary, and more. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4581

Mothra. 1961.  Icons of sci-fi: 1 videodisc (87 min.). When two tiny women are kidnapped from an island previously used for atomic tests, they call for help to Mothra, who swoops in on Tokyo to save them. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10475 

Muri shinjåu Nihon no natsu = Japanese summer: double suicide. 1967.  Oshima's Outlaw Sixties: Eclipse. Series 21, Oshima's outlaw sixties: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (99 min.). A group of oddball anarchists find themselves trapped in an underground hideaway together. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9876

Naisu no mori: First contact. 2005.  2 videodiscs (150 min.). Three unpopular brothers, Katsuichi, Masaru and Masao, are struggling to be popular among the girls. Luckily enough, they finally get a chance to have a co-ed picnic with some pretty young ladies! With 21 free-association episodes ranging from a nonsense "sci-fi" comedy to a dance-battle daydream, Funky Forest will challenge your mind and melt logic, as its unique characters find themselves in warped dimensions way past our imaginations. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4378

Naniwa erejî = Osaka elegy. 1936.  Kenji Mizoguchi's fallen women: Eclipse: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (71 min.). Telephone company employee Ayako agrees to enter into an affair with her married boss, after he promises to support her and her father but setting her off on an apparently irreversible downward spiral. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9844 

Narayama bushiko = The ballad of Narayama. 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

Narayama bushiko = The ballad of Narayama. 1953. 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

Nihon kuroshakai = Ley lines. 2004.  Artsmagic DVD: Black society trilogy.  1 videodisc (105 min.). "The final film of Miike's Black Society Trilogy tracks racial bigotry to the dark heart of Japanese society and bureaucracy."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5535 

Nihon shunka kåo = Sing a song of sex. 1967.  Oshima's Outlaw Sixties: Eclipse. Series 21, Oshima's outlaw sixties: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (103 min.). When four sexually-hungry high school boys meet up with their drunk teacher, they are sent down a less-than-academic path.            HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9875

Nikkatsu noir. 2009.  Eclipse: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  5 videodiscs (432 min.). I am waiting: An ex-boxer gets roped into the criminal underworld when he falls hard for a mysterious young woman fleeing her gangster boss. Rusty knife: Best friends, who are former criminals and trying to go straight, are outed as witnesses to a murder committed by a local Yakuza boss. The police try to convince them to come forward. The gangsters try to pay them off, with the threat of death looming. Take aim at the police van: A prison guard metes out his own brand of justice when he goes in search of the criminals who put his job, not to mention the lives of those he is guarding, on the line. Cruel gun story: A thief is released from jail and pulled into a tricky plot to hold up an armored car. A Colt is my passport: A hit man is hired by Yakuza to rub out a rival gang's boss, only to be betrayed and targeted by both sides. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9859 - 9863

Nikui an-chikushô = I hate but love. 1962.  1 videodisc (105 min.). A celebrity, dissatisfied with both his professional and personal lives, leaves Tokyo to deliver a much-needed Jeep to a remote village. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9904

Nikutai no mon = Gate of flesh. 1964.  1 videodisc (90 min.). In the shady black markets and bombed-out hotels of post-World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-solider stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4304 

Ningen no joken = The human condition. 1959.  4 videodiscs (574 min.). Tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6350 

Nippon konchuki = The insect woman. 1963.  1 videodisc (123 min.).  Portrays 45 years in the life of a woman and her struggles to survive. The story progresses from her life as a country girl to her years as a successful and ruthless madam in Tokyo and back again to her native village. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10499

Nobi = Fires on the plain. 1959.  1 videodisc (105 min.). In this Japanese anti-war film, acts of cannibalism bring home the terrifying brutality of war. Japanese troops are in retreat in the Philippines. Supplies run out and discipline crumbles. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4306 

Nora inu = Stray dog. 1949.  1 videodisc (122 min.). Set in Tokyo during the late 1940s, the film captures the chaos and humiliation that existed in Japan immediately after World War II. When detective Murakami loses his revolver, he must descend into Tokyo's underworld and face the killer who has taken it.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 816

Ohayo = Good morning. 1959.  1 videodisc (93 min.). Satiric comedy in which two young brothers refuse to talk until their parents agree to buy them a television set. Set in a 1950s residential suburb of Tokyo. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 169 

Okuribito = Departures. 2009.  1 videodisc (130 min.). Daigo Kobayashi, a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved, is left suddenly without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife, Mika to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency, only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6328

Onna ga kaidan o agaru toki = When a woman ascends the stairs. 1960.  1 videodisc (111 min.). A young widow with family obligations, Keiko is the madam of an upstairs bar in the exclusive Ginza district of Tokyo in 1960. As she approaches 30, she realizes that her life is at a crossroads: she must either go into business and open her own bar or marry. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4126 

Ore wa matteru ze = I am waiting. 1957.  1 videodisc (91 min.). A restaurant manager and ex-boxer get roped into the criminal underworld when the ex-boxer falls hard for a mysterious, young suicidal club hostess who is fleeing her gangster boss. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8959 

Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo = I was born, but--. 1931.  1 videodisc (90 min.). A portrait of the financial and psychological toils of a family, as two young boys come to understand their father's low status in society. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9837 

Otoshiana = Pitfall. 1962.  1 videodisc (97 min.). When a miner leaves his employer and treks out with his young son to become a migrant worker, he finds himself moving from one eerie landscape to another, intermittently followed (and photographed) by an enigmatic man in a clean, white suit, and eventually coming face-to-face with his inescapable destiny. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3931 

Pafekuto buru = Perfect blue. 1997.  1 videodisc (81 min.). Pop singer Mima Kirigoe looks forward to a bright new career when she quits her chart-topping trio to become an actress.  When she lands a role in a sexually charged murder mystery, Mina's life begins to fall apart. Reality and hallucinations merge into a terrifying netherworld where innocence is lost and dreams turn into nightmares.  Quickly descending into a dangerous state of paranoid delusions, Mina discovers Internet sites describing every minute detail of her life.  Helpless and afraid, she watches as her associates are threatened and killed by a mysterious stalker. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9154 

Paprika. 2006.  1 videodisc (90 min.). A beautiful scientist turns into a dream warrior named Paprika at night, in this psychedelic sci-fi anime adventure, that will take both versions of the woman to save the world. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3440

Pigs, pimps, & prostitutes 3 films by Shohei Imamura. 2009.  3 videodiscs (ca. 6 hr., 24 min.). [disc 1] Buta to gunkan = Pigs and battleships -- [disc 2] Nippon konchuki = The insect woman -- [disc 3] Akai satsui = Intentions of murder. Pigs and battleships: Portrays postwar Japan through the power struggles between small-time gangsters in the port town of Yokosuka, where there are American soldiers based. The insect woman: Portrays 45 years in the life of a woman, from her country childhood through the years as a ruthless Tokyo madam and back to her native village. Intentions of murder: 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 10498 - 10500 

Ping pong. 2002  1 videodisc (114 min.). "Two high-school students, Peco and Smile, completely opposite types, with their disruptions, their glories and their solitude in a world of extreme sport, where small plastic balls travel in a 274cm x 152.5cm court at 140 kilometers per hour: ping pong." --from container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 737

Pisutoru opera = Pistol opera. 2001.  1 videodisc (112 min.). "Stray Cat" is the No. 3 ranked killer in Killer's Guild, sort of business association for assassins, and she was given a special mission by the controller to kill the No. 1 ranked killer, but she does not know his/her face and where he/she is. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1115

Postwar Kurosawa. 2007.  5 videodiscs (593 min.). [v. 1.] Waga seishun ni kuinashi = No regrets for our youth -- Subarashiki nichiyobi = One Wonderful Sunday (1947) -- Shubun = Scandal (1950) -- Hakuchi = The Idiot (1951) -- Ikimono no kiroku = I Live in Fear (1955). I Live in Fear. In Kurosawa's evocation of nuclear-age anxieties, Toshiro Mifune transforms himself into a wizened Tokyo patriarch so paralyzed by fear of the atomic bomb that he alienates his entire extended family and recedes from society. No Regrets For Our Youth. Yukie, the spoiled bourgeois daughter of a university professor, begins a soul-searching journey that takes her from the elegance of Kyoto to the peasant farms of impoverished rural Japan, the rise and fall of ultranationalism corresponding with her own moral awakening. One Wonderful Sunday. Yuzo and Masako, a middle-class couple suffering from economic postwar decline, meet on Sunday in Tokyo with only thirty-five yen to spend. Kurosawa alternates sadness and joy in his depiction of these young lovers adjusting to their nation's new financial realities. Scandal. In Kurosawa's look at the abuse of freedom of speech, painter Ichiro (Toshiro Mifune) and popular singer Miyako (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) are photographed together by a paparazzo at a retreat, and are wrongly accused by tabloid journalists of having an affair. Ichiro sues for libel, but his desperate, crooked lawyer Hiruta (Takashi Shimura), playing both sides, doesn't come to his defense. The idiot. In Kurosawa's adaptation and update of Dostoyevsky's classic novel, the childlike ex-POW Kinji (Masayuki Mori) returns home after the war only to become trapped in an existential love quadrangle. Toshiro Mifune and Setsuko Hara also contribute haunting performances in this tale of otherworldly purity. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9824 - 9828 

Princess Mononoke. 1997.  1 videodisc (ca. 134 min.). A young warrior searching for a cure for a deadly curse becomes entangled in a battle between a clan of humans and the forest's animal gods. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1206 

Ran. 1985.  2 videodiscs (160 min.). An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles. The two eldest sons are quite happy, but the youngest thinks his father has gone mad, and predicts that it won't be long until the two older brothers are fighting with each other. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 100

Rashômon. 1950.  1 videodisc (88 min.). Set in the Middle Ages, the nature of truth and subjective reality are probed in a series of flashbacks from four viewpoints to present the case history of a man's murder and the rape of his wife by a bandit.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 370

Ringu = The ring. 1998.  1 videodisc (96 min.). A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1547

Rupan sanse i, Kariosutoro no shiro 2006.  1 videodisc (102 min.). "Master thief Lupin III, a.k.a. 'The Wolf, ' and his right-hand gunman Jigen are hot on the trail of a double-crossing couterfeiter. But when their search leads them to the secluded European country of Cagliostro, they find far more than they bargained for. Lupin unwittingly attracts the attention of the nation's mysterious monarch when he tries to help a damsel in distress escape the Count's henchmen, and in the process stumbles upon the key to finding the lost fortune of the Cagliostro clan."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10694