Tag: meiji period

  • Port Arthur

    Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War of (1904 – 1905). In the story dominated the character Lt Takeshi Kogyo (Teruhiko Aoi), teachers, and a reserve officer who became commander of the platoon and later company. At the same time monitors the conduct of the army commander general Nogi (Tatsuya Nakadai), which was commissioned of the emperor Matsuhito (Toshirô Mifune) to the conquest of the fort.

  • Why Not?

    The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry “Ei ja nai ka” (“Why not?”) in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.

  • Kinbakuka: Biniku no Mori

    At the beginning of the Meiji era, Sayoko, the daughter of a large banker in Tokyo, comes to Sotobo’s villa for the first time in eight years, guided by her student, Yasu. In fact, Yasu is the son of Keizo Naya, the keeper of this villa. His father and older sister, Kyoko, live quietly in this place, where people rarely visit, like recluses. Sayoko, who grew up sickly and full of selfishness, treats Yasu, who has feelings for her, like a slave, blindfolds him, makes him help her change clothes, and makes him imitate Sansuke in the bathroom.

  • Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis

    A demonic reincarnation of a Japanese general from the 10th century appears in the early 20th century Tokyo with a mission to destroy the blooming city.

  • Millennium Actress

    Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life… but also his own.

  • Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance

    Lady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.

  • Year One in the North

    In 1868, after the fall of the Shogun-dominated Japan, the new government orders people from Awaji, near Kobe, to re-locate to the northern part of Hokkaido. These people once supported the now displaced Samurais of the older days. After two years, over 500 of them settled in their new land under the leadership of Hideaki, husband of Shino. However, as crops fail he is to go to Sapporo to learn new techniques of farming, leaving his wife and daughter for 5 years. All this time, the new community is constantly watched by the government which choose to again uproot them from their new homes.

  • The Summit: A Chronicle Of Stones to Serenity

    In 1907, a group of men climb an unconquered peak in the last unmapped region of Japan.

  • The Broken Commandment

    At the strong insistence of his father, Ushimatsu Segawa conceals his origins from a “buraku” area of low-class “untouchables,” leaving his hometown to serve as an elementary school teacher where he excels and is loved by his students. But he constantly struggles with the secret of his low-birth status and is disturbed by all of the discrimination levelled upon his class. It prevents him from pursuing a romance with Shiho, whom he meets at the temple where he resides, but who descends from a samurai family.

  • Unforgiven

    An old swordsman, his former comrade and a young braggart are hired by prostitutes to track down bandits who mutilated one of the women.