Akira Takarada

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover...

Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra's...

Searching for his brother, Ryota stows away on a boat belonging to a criminal alongside two other teenagers. The group shipwrecks on Letchi island...

Two brothers must take the helm of their family's company, Armadillo, Inc., after their father steps down from his position as the company's...

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old...

Masuo and Sazae are enjoying their newlywed life in their new house, even though they are in company housing. Masuo's colleague is invited to thank...

1962 Japanese movie

The twelfth 'Road to the Don' film.

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their...

1962 Japanese movie

Humanity finally rids themselves of Godzilla, imprisoning him in an icy tomb in the South Pole. All is peaceful until various monsters emerge to lay...

1962 Japanese movie

In the 9th year of Genroku, Mitsukuni Mito Komon of Hitachi Province set out on a pilgrimage to various countries with his reluctant vassals,...

An adaptation of the Rankin/Bass cartoon, "The King Kong Show". King Kong is brought in by the evil Dr. Who to dig for Element X in a mine when the...

A massive underwater volcano erupts and puts a group of investigative scientists in danger. They are rescued by an atomic super submarine named The...

Mothra's dark counterpart, Battra, emerges to eliminate humanity on behalf of the Earth. Two tiny fairies called the Cosmos offer their help by...

During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric...

Astronauts Glenn and Fuji investigate Planet X and encounter mysterious aliens known as the Xiliens, who ask Earth's people to help save their world...

Matsunaga Yasuzaemon was a man called “Electricity Monster”. The post-war recovery and high economic growth serve as the basis for him to achieve...

The cabaret «Romance», run by Masami Daisaku's father, is experiencing financial difficulties, and Masami is betting on changes and asks singer...

A Japanese family is torn apart by the tensions of an avoidable nuclear world war between the superpowers.

Story of young love in the hills.

Two residents of Edo city Yaji and Kita make a journey to the temple of Ise, as part of a religious pilgrimage, but actually to get away from their...

Obscure French version of the original Godzilla. The film combines elements of the original Toho version and the American King of the Monsters! in a...

An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they...

In the middle of the period of high economic growth in Japan, a family is thrown into disarray over work, money, and romance. Their father's sudden...

Lt. Koji Kitami is a navigator-bombardier in Japan's Naval Air Force. He participates in the Japanese raid on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in...

An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote...

A woman remembers her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.

A killer-for-hire gets mixed up with a cast of wacky characters involved in a gold smuggling route from Beirut to Tokyo.

Saki, a high school girl who always skips classes, works part-time as a life adviser.

Three competing parties all race against time to track down an elusive creature known only as the Snowman.

A silly yet skilled Interpol agent flies to Tokyo and gets mixed up in a war between two gangs intent on winning the favor of a notorious arms dealer.

Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a...

Nayoko, a good-hearted geisha, brings luck to the men she sleeps with, even though most are scoundrels who don’t deserve it.

Reiko and Tetsuya continue to live together. Reiko, who was informed by Kyoko that she was engaged to Takada, pretended not to be interested in her...

The story is about the social problems faced by Japan's indigenous Ainu, mostly centered on the reactions of the characters to their oppressed state.

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in...

Emiko Hayasaka (Seiko Matsuda), who lives in Hawaii, has arranged a marriage with Akira Kuniyoshi (Shinji Yamashita), the son of the president of a...

Part one of The Masterless 47.

Lonely after the death of her husband, whom she nursed for years, Tae decides to find a new life partner. Her family and friends try to dissuade her.

Mie Nakao runs away from home to join her older sister's production company as a new talent. We follow her ups and downs on the way to stardom as she...

A "hustler's hustler" (Takarada), works his way up the corporate ladder at a camera company. His biggest scheme involves winning the business of a...

Godzilla Battle Royale is a low-budget Godzilla fan film, directed and written by Billy DuBose. It was theatrically screened in the Pickwick Theater.

Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete...

Because his style was similar to that of Yasujiro Ozu, who was already active at Shochiku, he moved to PCL (currently Toho) in 1933, where he...

A re-edited Italian-language dubbed version of the original Godzilla, using as a basis the U.S. version, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956),...

An independent crowd-funded documentary that celebrates the sixty-year legacy of the world's greatest monster, Godzilla. Filmed on location in Tokyo...

Sanae is left a widow after her prestigious husband dies, but holds the proceeds of a million yen insurance policy. Being childless, her former...

Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th-century –...

Ryuta and Mineo Komatsu are brothers, both yakuza (gangsters). Mineo, although complicit in crime, even murder, wants out of the gangster life,...

Comedy-fantasy about a salaryman (Tani) and his imaginary friends.

Story of romance and rivalry between two ad agencies vying for the same account with a pharmaceutical firm.

A look at the unrecognized work of the talented artists and craftsmen who've maintained the tradition of Japanese special-effects. Highlighted is...

Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.

Japanese counterpart to Romeo and Juliet

Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father,...

Romantic melodrama set in contemporary Hong Kong, Japan and Laos. Hiroshi Tanaka (Takarada) is a Japanese journalist on assignment in Hong Kong who...

A group of criminals whose diamond heist goes wrong retreat to a WWII era bunker where tensions begin to rise.

When an artist dies, the official cause of death is judged to be a stroke, but his daughter suspects foul play. She recruits the services of an...

Wang Xinglian returns from her studies in Japan to visit her father in Hong Kong where she has an encounter with the young Japanese Hasegawa Toru....

The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the...

Melodrama about a young factory girl who "chooses riches over chastity".

Miyuki works as an OL. Her younger sibling died from a car accident in 1989. Due to her sibling's death, her mother became ill and her father drank...

A modern love story involving different affairs.

College student Yuichi Tanuma is fired up for Nationals where his university Kyonan will face off against their rivals, Seihoku. Yuichi has his...

Suzuki Shizuka is an office lady at a conglomerate who is hypnotized at a local amusement park and left under the spell. Now she is compelled to sing...

An all-star reboot of the lost classic 1934 film, The Giant Buddha Statue's Travel Through The Country, made with the cooperation of director Yoshiro...

Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their...

Aiko, a bar hostess, falls for the son of a company president who also keeps a mistress, and whose family disapproves of his relationship with the...

An Ishiro Honda film. The second part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the first film.

There was a tragedy that began at the end of the '69 war. The sad story about the lives of the orphans of Manchuria refugee camp who had to struggled...

Vain, middle-aged actress Biwako is placed in witness protection while authorities investigate the brutal murder she witnessed. Under the watch of...

Musical-comedy about nine soldiers deserted on an island in South Pacific.

On Wings of Love is a 1957 Japanese romantic musical film directed by Toshio Sugie. It was Toho's highest-grossing film of the year and the first...

An Ishiro Honda film. The first part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the second film.

Japan, 1954. A legend emerges from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastated by atomic bombs in 1945. The creature's name is Godzilla. The film...

A look into the production of the nineteenth Godzilla film. Includes filmmaker and actor interviews with behind the scenes footage of the film's...

Naraho town in Fukushima Prefecture is on the front-line of the government-funded nuclear power plant decommissioning work. Kokuhei Kusunoki is...

Starring Akira Takarada as a lightweight boxing champion.

Four girls and their manager aiming for stardom!

Toho comedy shot in Tohoscope featuring performances from the Peanuts and the Crazy Cats. Original released alongside another Toho comedy, King Kong...

A man who seemed to have found happiness with a wife and child loses his wife and his daughter gets married... A man's life, full of joy and sorrow,...

The third and final chapter of MP & GI's Toho Trilogy expands the geographical reach of the franchise, taking stars Lucilla You Min and Takarada...

1961 Japanese movie

Musical about the "Blue Star," a struggling jazz band led by pianist Takarada and trumpet player Takashima and their love interests. Done very much...

May Kawaguchi is a famous Japanese fashion designer. Returning to Tokyo from her home in New York, she travels incognito with a tour group, in hopes...

1961 Japanese movie

In the late 6th century, the leaders of the Yamato Dynasty had no clear plan for the creation of a unified state. Battles still raged among various...

Narcotics officer Matsumoto’s investigation into a drug smuggling ring leads him from Tokyo to Hong Kong, where personal ties and painful secrets...

Set during Japan's Bakumatsu period, the film follows Fukuzawa Yukichi, a poor samurai's son who defies societal norms to study Dutch and English....

At a coastal hot spring inn, a group of women navigate work, personal struggles, and unexpected scandals. When a guest threatens to expose one maid's...

Apparently a baseball drama starring real-life stars Nagashima (The Babe Ruth of Japanese Baseball) and teammate Oh-known collectively as ON-from the...

Three young girls coming of age in a Catholic boarding school bond over the strict rules and vow to support each other. Kikuka dreams of becoming a...

Everyone has the potential to become a millionaire! A super success story based on a true story! Childhood friends Tetsuya (Yakumaru), Akio (Sakaue)...

Oba Kamon runs a cafe in the Nikko city. One day, a mysterious woman appears before him and leaves behind a message, “In the ring where the sun...

Miho (Kyoko Fukada) works as a cabin attendant for an international airline. She takes a job to find wine to serve to passengers on a New York route....

A four-part anthology in the spirit of The Twilight Zone, this film starts off with a group of commuters stranded at a train station in the rain,...

Using his strong sense of justice, Uragami Ryuji gains influence at both the factory and school. Though a dispute with the Nio-kai yakuza is once...

The second TV movie Obayashi Nobuhiko directed based on Akagawa Jiro's Mikeneko Holmes series.

In the late 1950s, Uragami Ryuji leaves his hometown with big ambitions. Working at a factory by day and attending night school, he witnesses a...

Three young employees navigate love, ambition, and meddling bosses as workplace crushes evolve into defiant relationships that challenge social...

The first of eight "Three Dolls" features. In this entry the girls, students at Nichinan University, balance studying for the final exams while...

Minako, a runaway from Osaka chasing her dream of becoming a singer, struggles through poverty, failed jobs, and exploitation in Tokyo. With the help...

Katsuko, daughter of a prestigious inn owner, is urged into an arranged marriage with Keisuke, the nephew of a powerful businessman. She refuses,...

An ad campaign for a TV show called the “Male Training Contest” stirs chaos at a major electronics company. On opening night, PR manager...

A conman team swindles through jewel scams, marriage fraud, and fake school admissions. Their schemes bring quick riches but collapse before escape,...

Crime melodrama has young Kijima (Takarada) working at a successful cabaret, actually a front for drug dealing. Initially unaware of this, he falls...

In a small Tohoku town, family tensions rise when a sick mother’s care leads to conflict over a mistress joining the household. Misunderstandings...

Domoto Kozue, a gifted young ikebana artist, shoulders the legacy of her late father’s school while navigating the pressures of family expectation...

In the late 6th century, the leaders of the Yamato Dynasty had no clear plan for the creation of a unified state. Battles still raged among various...

A newlywed couple moves into an apartment complex where each family faces everyday problems.

A TV writer and a director stranded in a rural town witness the young villagers’ tangled romances. Despite parental feuds and arranged marriages,...

Comedy about a Japanese-American professor, a nuclear scientist, who returns to Japan to search for a typically subservient Japanese wife.

taiwan film

In order to get Kanako (Izumi Yukimura) married, her mother places a rental listing in the student medical school newsletter and attempts to find a...

In a small town, Tomoko, a new bus conductor, works hard to prove herself. She crosses paths with Saburō, the company president’s playful younger...

Olympic gymnast Yukiko resists marriage plans, stumbling into a newspaper job under reporter Tsubasa. Amid comic mix-ups with a fake fortune teller,...

Police investigate the murder of a private eye/blackmailer who had numerous enemies, including six prime suspects.

The story follows a man haunted by debt and crime, who flees with his mistress on a tense journey marked by betrayals and desperate choices. The film...

Teacher Miyako Hanai, disillusioned by her sisters’ unhappy marriages, rejects love until family conflicts and her mother’s unexpected remarriage...

After their troupe disbands, musician Moriyama and his friends join Orion Records and form “Orion Stars.” Their song Love Express becomes a hit,...

Story of love, friendship, and college sports.

Rookie reporter Yukiko helps save the failing Miyako Times with her friends, while romance and comic chaos unfold around her and fortune-teller...

Eri stars as a jazz-crazy waitress pursuing a singing career.

A clumsy but determined car salesman, Hideyoshi, faces rivalry, romance troubles, and job setbacks, but through persistence and humor, he wins a big...

After a transfer to a rural factory, salesman Hideyoshi faces blunders, schemers, and rivalries but proves his integrity, winning respect and a...

Optimistic student Hideyoshi struggles to land a job at Japan Motors, facing setbacks and rivalry but winning his way in through persistence—and a...

In Disney Castle, Jiminy notices strange messages appearing in the journal. Mickey, Donald and Goofy decide to find out what's going by decoding all...

After a gang killing forces him to flee abroad, ex-yakuza Ryūji returns to Yokohama a year later to find his lover’s sister’s killer. With help...

After winning a singing contest, Momoko leaves her rural village for Tokyo to pursue her dream. Misunderstandings, scams, and shifting ambitions lead...

About schoolgirls in a rural town, and a love letter which has the entire community in an uproar.

Swimmers Akio and Natsuko train hard for national competition while Natsuko struggles with family chaos — her father’s affair and her mother’s...

Outspoken student Noriko stands up to bullies and befriends pitcher Mitsuo. As their bond deepens, she impulsively declares she wants to marry...

Outspoken student Noriko stands up to bullies and befriends pitcher Mitsuo. As their bond deepens, she impulsively declares she wants to marry...

Engineer Shuichi defies his wealthy family to live with bar hostess Kazuyo, whose loyalty to her struggling family complicates their love. As class,...

At Kaikō Girls’ School, a fake love letter sparks a heated PTA debate. Teacher Shimazaki wins the vote, while students and staff navigate...

When corruption spreads through a real estate company, president Hiyoshi brings in his honest friend Ryūtarō to reform it. Facing union unrest and...

1956 Drama by Toshio Sugie

Three high school girls travel to Osaka to visit a friend and end up on a lively journey through Kyoto, Beppu, and Aso. Along the way they meet...

A wealthy young man, engaged through family arrangement, meets a humble shop girl after she finds his lost ring. Their growing affection challenges...

During a winter visit to her grandfather’s mountain home, a young saleswoman becomes entangled in love and jealousy among visiting skiers. After...

Kurama Tengu uncovers a suspicious gold robbery tied to a political scheme within the shogunate. As he follows the clues, hidden alliances,...

In a seaside town, local boys run each morning to glimpse wealthy Miyako, sparking a prank-filled rivalry with the shopgirls. Hoping to impress her...

Backstage friendships and rivalries flare as dancers Akiko and Haruko compete for roles, clash with disapproving parents, and juggle new romances. A...

Three college friends support swimmer Okubo through family and financial troubles. Junko, a woman he helped, develops feelings for him, while a...

Romantic melodrama about the loves and adventures of Kageyama (Takarada) and his fellow oarsmen at Meikyo University.

Crime thriller about the investigation of a man murdered at a Tokyo race track. Clues lead Detective Yoneyama (Mihashi) to Kobe where a narcotics...

After an accident leaves Shinobu blind, the daughter of an old Asakusa soba shop works to rebuild her independence with the help of rehabilitation...

As an engaged couple, Shinichi Kida and Mari Egawa spend a romantic night on a premarital trip to the southern island, but Shinichi suddenly...

Shigemitsu Kamio, a member of a Shibuya color-gang who is respected even by other chīmers (delinquents), carries the bitter secret of having killed...

29-year-old Satonaka Takashi (Kudo Kankuro) is a freelancer. He falls in love at first sight with Satoru Nobunaga (Shiho Takano), who was a nurse at...

A worn-down office worker, Takagi, meets a Taiwanese woman, Huimin, during a business night out and becomes drawn to her. When she suddenly...

A luxury European tour turns deadly when two wealthy participants die under mysterious circumstances. With the celebrity guide absent, her assistant...

Kaoru Kobayashi stars as a man tasked with saving a failing company. Instead of harsh tactics, he lifts the workers’ spirits through music.

Asano is on the verge of being removed as president of Toyo Shipping due to poor performance. At the shareholders’ meeting, he successfully wins...

This documentary-style drama follows the young people of today as they follow in the footsteps of Yamaguchi Sennosuke, the founder of the...

Takarada recalls his childhood in Harbin, the terror of life under Soviet occupation, and surviving daily danger. Returning to Japan, he reflects on...