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Filmography - National Cinema, Japan: S - Z

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

Saam gaang yi = 3 extremes. 2006.  2 videodiscs (ca. 125 min.). Contents: Box -- Dumplings -- Cut. A bracing anthology of horror stories uniting three of East Asia's most compelling directors : Miike Takashi, Fruit Chan, and Park Chan-Wook. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9158 

Sabita naifu = Rusty knife. 1958.  1 videodisc (90 min.). 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. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9860

The samurai trilogy.  2012.  3 videodiscs (ca. 300 min.). disc 1. Miyamoto Musashi = Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto -- disc 2. Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijōji no kettō = Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple -- disc 3. Miyamoto Musashi kanketsu-hen: kettō Ganryūjima = Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island. A sweeping saga of the legendary seventeenth-century samurai, Musashi Miyamoto, set against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. Follows Musashi's odyssey from his unruly youth to his enlightened years as a warrior. DVD 10396 - 10398

Sanma no aji = Autumn afternoon. 1962.  1 videodisc (113 min.). After living alone with his daughter for years, a widower must learn how to let her go, letting her be free to move on with her life, by arranging a marriage for her. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6697 

Sanshô day u = Sansho the bailiff. 1954.  1 videodisc (124 min.).  Based on a medieval Japanese folktale, this is a story of an aristocratic family broken up by politics and slave traders has been considered Mizoguchi's masterpiece. In feudal 11th century Japan, two noble children are sold into slavery to the tyrannical bailiff Sansho. Zushio grows up to accept the brutality of society, but his sister Anju adheres to humane principles, sacrificing herself so he can escape and find their mother, who had been sold into prostitution. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5910

Sennen joy u = Millennium actress. 2001.  1 videodisc (87 min.). Past and present collide as a film director discovers a mysterious key that unlocks the secrets of a legendary actress who vanished at the height of her career. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8179 

Shubun = Scandal. 1950.  1 videodisc (105 min.). Portrayal of a sensitive young artist who is dragged through the mud by a tabloid entertainment magazine after an innocent encounter with a pop singer and decides to sue. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9826 

Shark skin man and peach hip girl. 1999.  1 videodisc (108 min.). Based on the comic series by Minetaro Mochizuki. This outrageous contemporary Japanese genre-mongrel combines sentimental Yakuza gangster machismo with the fatalistic romance of the road movie and the dead-pan irreverence of Asian action cinema. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 959 

Shichinin no samurai = Seven samurai. 1954.  2 videodiscs (203 min.). In 16th century Japan, desperate villagers hire seven warriors to defend their lives and homes against a band of merciless, roaming bandits. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13 

Shinjuku kuroshakai: Chaina mafia sensô = Shinjuku triad society. 1995.  Takashi Miike's black society trilogy.  1 videodisc (102 min.). This film protrays a world of alienation, corruption and emotional disintegration that finds its expression in murder, rape and the ultimate in the exploitation of a human being. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5533

Shinobi no mono. 1962.  1 videodisc (105 min.). The story of the Iga clan's struggle to defend themselves and several esoteric Buddhist sects from mass genocidal purges by a sadistic warlord.             HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4295 

Shunpuden. 1965.  1 videodisc (96 min). Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soliders, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2617 

Sono gosåosha o nerae = Take aim at the police van. 1960.  1 videodisc (79 min.). A prison truck is attacked and a convict inside is murdered. Daijiro is the penitentiary guard on duty. He is accused of negligence and suspended. Now, he will dole 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. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9861

Sôshun = Early spring. 1956.  Eclipse: Late Ozu: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (145 min.). A salaryman in postwar Tokyo has an illicit affair with an officemate in this moving portrait of a fragile marriage. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9811 

Sugata Sanshirô = Sanshiro Sugata. 2003.  Series 23, the first films of Akira Kurosawa: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (79 min.). A thrilling martial arts tale about the rivalry between judo and jujitsu.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9882

Suna no onna = Woman in the dunes. 1964.  Criterion collection: Criterion collection (DVD videodiscs).  1 videodisc (148 min.). An amateur entomologist leaves Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert. When he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3932

Takashi Miike Omnibus. 2004.  8 videodiscs (829 min.). 8-disc set includes "Shinjuku Triad Society"; "Osaka Tough Guys"; "Rainy Dog"; "Full Metal Yakuza"; "Young Thugs: Innocent Blood"; "Young Thugs: Nostalgia"; "Ley Lines"; and "Sabu.". HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5531 - 5538

Tampopo. 1986.  1 videodisc (114 min.). Follows a young widow who runs a small noodle restaurant in Tokyo and Goro, a cowboy hat wearing truck driver, as they attempt to devise the perfect bowl of top ramen.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 35

Tanin no kao = The face of another. 1966.  1 videodisc (124 min.). Okuyama, after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3933

Tekon kinkurîto = Tekkonkinkreet.  2006. 1 videodisc (111 min.). In Treasure Town, life can be both gentle and brutal. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White, two street urchins who watch over the city, doing battle with an array of old-world Yakuza and alien assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis. When foreign investors want to destroy the town and turn it to an amusement park, they face their greatest adversaries yet. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4459

Tengoku to jigoku = High and low. 1963.  1 videodisc (143 min.). A complex crime thriller in which a wealthy shoe manufacturer's chauffeur's son is kidnapped in mistake for his own, and he faces a moral dilemma -- should he pay the ransom anyway and risk losing his position? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4539

Tetsuo = The iron man.  1988.  1 videodisc (67 min.). After hitting a mysterious derelict with his car a man experiences an infection where metal pieces start to protrude from his body. This disease, which seems to be intelligent, turns his body into mechanical walking scrap heap.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1576

Three films by Hiroshi Teshigahara. 2007.  4 videodiscs (521 min.). Pitfall: 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. The face of another: Okuyama, after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. Woman in the dunes: An amateur entomologist leaves Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert. When he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3931 - 3934

Throne of blood. 1957.  This adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set in feudal Japan tells the story of a Samurai lord who kills his master and usurps his power in fulfillment of a witch's prophecy.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4268 

Tôkyô boshoku = Tokyo twilight. 1957.  Eclipse: Late Ozu: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series .  1 videodisc (141 min.). In the dead of winter, past and present traumas afflict two sisters and their aging father in this, one of Ozu's most heartbreaking and powerful works. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9812 

Tôkyô nagaremono = Tokyo drifter. 1966.  1 videodisc (83 min.). Tetsu, an ace fighter and hit man, is out of his time. He is a wanderer stoically awaiting his own extinction. He is called back to Tokyo to help in the struggle between his old employers, the Kurata gang and the rival Otsuka gang. Then he is on the run, pursued by "Viper" Tatsu, through snow covered mountains to a final showdown.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9060

Tonari no Totoro = My neighbor Totoro. 1988.  2 videodiscs (ca. 88 min.). Two young sisters spend a summer in the Japanese countryside with their father. The children's strange new home turns out to be a wonderland filled with creatures and a trio of furry woodland sprites who can only be seen by children. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4709 

Tora no o o fumu otokotachi = The men who tread on the tiger's tail. 1945.  Series 23, the first films of Akira Kurosawa: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (59 min.). Derives from Noh and Kabuki plays depicting a famous twelfth-century incident in which the lord Yoshitsune and a small group of samurai cross enemy territory disguised as monks and must persuade border guards to let them through.  HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9885

Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu. 2009.  4 videodiscs (283 min.). [V. 1]. Japanese girls at the harbor. Shimizu's exquisite silent drama tells of the humiliating social downfall experienced by Sunako after jealousy drives her to commit a terrible crime. With its lushly photographed landscapes and innovative visual storytelling, this film shows a director at the peak of his powers and experimentation. [V. 2]. Mr. Thank You. Shimizu's endearing road movie follows the long and winding route of a sweet-natured bus driver, nicknamed Mr. Thank You for his constant exclamation to pedestrians who kindly step out of his path, traveling from rural Izu to Tokyo. [V. 3]. The masseurs and a woman. A pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew -- The Masseurs and a Woman is made up of crisscrossing miniature studies of love and family at a remote resort in the mountains. [V. 4]. Ornamental hairpin. 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 9851 - 9854

Twenty-four eyes. 1954.  1 videodisc (ca. 156 min.). An elegant, emotional chronicle of a teacher's unwavering commitment to her students, her profession, and her sense of morality. It takes a simultaneously sober and sentimental look at the epic themes of aging, war, and death. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10833 

Ukigusa = Floating weeds. 1959. 1 videodisc (119 min.). An aged actor with a hidden past returns with his Kabuki theater company to a small Japanese town. There his secret is uncovered and his troupe disbands due to lack of funds, but the actor finds the strength to continue living. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 817

Unagi = The eel. 1997. 1 videodisc (117 min.). Finding his wife in bed with another man, Takuro Yamashita murders her, serves an eight year prison sentence, and then moves to a small town to begin life anew as a barber. When he hires a young woman as his assistant, her past collides with his to the detriment of all. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 438

Waga seishun ni kuinashi = No regrets for our youth. 1946.  Eclipse series: Postwar Kurosawa: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (110 min.). A story of feminist self-discovery set in pre-war Japan. A woman breaks conventions by striking out on her own and being self-sufficient. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9824

The warped world of Koreyoshi Kurahara. 2011.  Eclipse series: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series .  5 videodiscs (439 min.). A collection of five films by Japanese director Koreyoshi Kurahara. Intimidation (1960, 65 min.) -- The warped ones (1960, 75 min.) -- I hate but love (1962, 105 min.) -- Black sun (1964, 95 min.) -- Thirst for love (1967, 99 min.). HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9902 - 9906

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru = The bad sleep well. 1960. 1 videodisc (150 min.). A young executive hunts down his father's killer. A tale about corruption in the boardrooms of postwar corporate Japan as seen through the rising executive eyes. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2194

Whisper of the heart = Mimi o sumaseba. 1995.  2 videodiscs (111 min.). A schoolgirl named Shizuku, who longs to discover her true talents, meets the mysterious Seiji, a boy who is determined to follow his dreams, and The Baron, a magical cat who helps her listen to the whispers in her heart. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10126

Wings of defeat. 2007.  1 videodisc (89 min.). "In Japan, WWII Kamikaze are still revered as self-sacrificing heroes. Internationally, they remain a potent symbol of fanaticism. Until now, few outsiders knew that many Kamikaze survived their suicide missions. The candid, heartbreaking testimony of surviving Kamikaze conveys the true depth of war's travesty. Sixty years later, these humble men tell us about the horrors of the cockpit, their dramatic survival and the survivors' guilt still haunting them" -- Container. DVD 4837

Yaju no seishun = Youth of the beast. 1963.  1 videodisc (92 min.). When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence. This film was a breakthrough for director Seijun Suzuki, introducing the flamboyant colors and hallucinatory images that became his trademark. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 4357

Yayoi Kusama = I love me. 2008.  1 videodisc (102 min.). Documentary showing Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama at work. DVD 8812

Yoidore tenshi = Drunken angel. 1948.  1 videodisc (98 min.). A  yakuza mobster suffering from tuberculosis enters into an unusual relationship with an alcoholic doctor. This film is regarded as Kurosawa's first significant work and is a about a Yakuza who visits the clinic of a grog-sodden doctor one evening to have a gunshot wound attended to. While removing the slug, the surgeon diagnoses TB in his patient. Only a change of lifestyle will improve his prognosis, he tells the gangster. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6543 

Yoru no onnatachi = Women of the night. 1948.  Kenji Mizoguchi's fallen women: Eclipse: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (74 min.). Filmed on location in Osaka, Women of the night concerns two sisters, Fusako and Natsuko, one a war widow and the other in an affair with a drug dealer. Along with their younger friend Kumiko they fall into prostitution and moral chaos and a life of gangs and gangsters, trapped by their city's postwar desperation and devastation. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9846

Zoku Sugata Sanshirô = Sanshiro Sugata part two. 1945.  Series 23, the first films of Akira Kurosawa: Eclipse (Criterion Collection (Firm)): Eclipse series.  1 videodisc (82 min.). Story of a handsome bumptious young man who wishes to learn judo as a path to philosophical knowledge, rather than a mere set of self-defense techniques. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9884