Movies: Nobuo Kawakami

Emerging from a stint in prison, yakuza lieutenant Sumukawa discovers that his gang has disintegrated. An ambitious type, he quickly hooks up with another gang who promise him a prominent position if he helps them deal with a rival family. But bonds ...

In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together....

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for ...

In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past....

Koreyoshi Kurahara's ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The marvelously moody Intimidatio...

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A young journalist is writing an article on what happens to girls who are raped. He uncovers the story of a young girl who committed suicide when recognized by her former fiancee after she had become a prostitute. Other stories are interwoven, and th...

Maki, a porter at the Sakura Hotel, finds a body in Room No. 2 and picks up a piece of paper on which is written "one-third of the key", also the part of a key. From a newspaper he learns that the dead man is an official who has been detained as a su...

A former boxer gets involved with a club hostess trying to escape the clutches of her gangster employer....

A rumbunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki theatre with strip shows....

Set in post-war Japan, a group of five, four men and one woman, gathers in the basement of a butcher shop to dig up a cache of morphine buried during the war. A grimly humorous tale of twisted relationships as one by one each of the group is eliminat...

When a middle aged salaryman is unknowingly used by drug traffickers he is dishonored and fires back at the Yakuza bosses, with destructive consequences....

Goro (Tetsuya Watari) wants to put his dark past behind. He heads to Hirosaki City to offer his condolences to Yumeko and to reunite with Yukiko (Chieko Matsubara), but finds that Yumeko is fatally ill. Although Yukiko was taking care of her, she is ...

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A celebrity, dissatisfied with his personal and professional lives, impulsively leaves fast-paced Tokyo to deliver a much-needed jeep to a remote village. When his controlling manager, the woman he loves, follows, the two must reconcile while dodging...

Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education....

The tragic tale of Kiyono, a young woman from the mountain who fell in love with Takuji, a fisherman's son, and her devotion to him during a time of war....

In a warehouse area at night, a drunk chief engineer is stabbed to death by someone who whistles. After the break of dawn, two seamen join the crew of a rusty cargo ship Kaiyo Maru. One is a troublemaker with bad attitudes, Senkichi Nomura, who pursu...

On a cold winter day, Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) and Masahiko murder the mob boss of Meishin-Kai. The deed costs them time in prison, but Goro had no shred of regret. When Goro is released 2 years later, Masahiko is dying in prison hospital and e...

Mourning the death of her boyfriend, Yukiko wanders aimlessly from one city to another. During her mourning, she becomes addicted to gambling. One day, a man that resembles her deceased lover asks for help. He's being pursued by a dangerous gang of y...