Movies: Kunio Murai

Based on a short story written by Shuhei Fujisawa (who also wrote Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, Love and Honor), the film depicts the uneasy life of Noe Isomura (Rena Tanaka) with the difficult family she has married into after her former husba...

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Part 3 in a long running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves....

A coming-of-age story. Shuji, a Japanese teen, is falling in love with his friend Hiroyuki, however, Hiroyuki is attracted to Kasane, the new girl in their class....

Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto....

Kuki Fumihiro is a son from a wealthy zaibatsu (conglomerate) family. His father raises him to become pure evil. Kuki kills his father to protect his adopted sister Kaori. Afterward, Kuki disappears. He undergoes plastic surgery and takes the identi...

In old Japan, the legend of the ninja lives on in Watari, the Ninja Boy, a motion picture like no other. This is the story of a young boy with almost mystical powers. His skills in ninjutsu are beyond the imagination as he infiltrates the rival Ig...

Goemon Ishikawa steals a golden statue from Yukari Kukai with female thief Neko no Me Ogin, but Private Detective Shinkuro Akechi chases after Goemon Ishikawa and Neko no Me Ogin. Detective Shinkuro Akechi discovers that there is a code hidden withi...

Tai Kato’s early 20th century set yakuza epic about an ordinary merchant girl (Hiroko Maki) who crosses paths with an assassin (Tetsuya Watari). The encounter sends her to jail as a suspected accomplice. Years later she marries a yakuza boss, whose g...

A young woman tries to reconcile with her mother, who left their family for another man....

With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. Three-time Seijun Suzuki collaborator Goro Tanada wrote a gangsterized adaptation of Ozaki’s story f...

Also known as: For My Daughter's 7th Birthday. Many years following her mother’s suicide, Maya seeks out her father, who deserted them, for revenge. All intertwined with the investigation of journalists into local murders, the manipulations of a pal...

A drama about a father and his son centered around the Great Hanshin earthquake....

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Reportage writer Kenzo has made an interview appointment with Morishima, the mastermind behind the political and business world. On that day, Morishima is killed and a 200 million yen diamond is stolen. The diamond was brought by jeweler Kuhara to se...

After shooting a gangster in self-defense, Kim Hui Ro takes refuge at a hotel and takes the guest hostages. Realising his position, he invites the press inside and explains why he was driven to his crime....

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A near future not far from now. A couple who are tied with deep love with, Roku and Miyuki. Miyuki decide to freeze Roku had an incurable disease and wait for the development of a new medicine. Believe in the words of the doctor. He said that after 1...

After the first anniversary of Ishimatsu's death, Jirocho Shimizu sets off on a pilgrimage. During his travels, he encounters a woman and local fishermen in desperate need of help. However, more trouble brews when Katsuzo Kurokoma returns to extract ...

Shunsuke, a coach who hangs out at the gambling track, is in jeopardy at the bicycle race track. The place is saved by a "scammer", and he himself will hone his skill in scamming, which skillfully raises a lot of money....