Ayako Wakao

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life ...

On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position ...

In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war. She has to assist the ...

Two poor, married farmers have recently lost their only child; after a freak visitation, they pry open an alien cocoon to greet their new daughter.

In the forties in Japan, a group of brilliantly qualified university students are selected to break all ties with their previous lives and form ...

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that ...

A young girl is rigorously trained in the feminine arts so that she can become a geisha. As she struggles through life, she learns to live not ...

A greedy, materialistic family attempts to cover-up the embezzlement committed by the son while keeping their other schemes active. They discover ...

Based on a novel by Tsutomu Mizukami, this haunting melodrama focuses on a young bamboo worker who takes his father’s prostitute as his wife.

Following the tragic death of his father, a young boy’s family trains his horse to compete in the local derby.

Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father’s. During their flight, Otsuya’s ...

Legendary yakuza Shimizu Jirocho and his 28 henchmen travel the unruly path from a ‘Fire Festival’ in Akiba to a decisive battle by ...

Torajiro becomes homesick during his travels after watching a television report about his hometown and meeting a young woman that reminds him of ...

With a price on his head, Ichi seeks tranquillity in a favorite village. Since his last visit, it has fallen prey to Boss Masagoro, the son of a ...

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture.

In Edo Japan, a kabuki actor seeks revenge against the three men who drove his parents to their deaths years ago.

Tied to a mountain between her brutalizing spouse and her secret lover, disaster strikes; the authorities accuse her of murder and prompt a confession.

Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to ...

When a theater troupe’s master visits his old flame, he unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating ...

Ichikawa’s 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic ...

The lives of five prostitutes employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

Eiko seeks out Miyoharu, a geisha, and asks to be her apprentice. When she is ready to receive clients, both women want the right to refuse ...