The best of classic Japan

Harakiri

Winner of the Cannes Special Jury Prize, Masaki Kobayashi's drama centers on samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai), who arrives at a lavish manor and asks to commit hara-kiri on the grounds. But the vengeful warrior is harboring a secret. A new political climate finds the once-powerful samurais wandering the country begging estate owners to allow them to commit suicide on their properties, when what they really want is a handout.

Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa's heroic tale of honor and duty begins with master samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura) posing as a monk to save a kidnapped child. Impressed by his bravery, a group of farmers begs him to defend their village from encroaching bandits. Kambei agrees and assembles a group of six other samurai, and together they build a militia with the villagers while the bandits loom nearby. Soon the raids begin, culminating in a bloody battle.

Woman in the Dunes

Hiroshi Teshigahara's award-winning drama centers on a bug expert (Eiji Okada) conducting research who's captured by locals. Held captive in a sandpit with a young widow, he struggles with his imprisonment -- and his growing attraction to the woman (Kyôko Kishida). Based on Kobo Abe's novel, the provocatively erotic allegorical film earned the Cannes Special Jury Prize and two Oscar nominations.

The Face of Another

A commentary on plastic surgery and self-image, Hiroshi Teshigahara's sci-fi drama centers on a man (Tatsuya Nakadai) who gets a new face after a horrible accident. But he soon learns that the lifelike mask he's donned comes with a terrible price. Meanwhile on the other side of town, a scarred young woman finds her own way of coping with facial disfigurement. Machiko Kyô, Miki Irie and Mikijiro Hira co-star.

Samurai Rebellion

Aging samurai Isaburo (Toshirô Mifune) challenges the ruling warlord in Masaki Kobayashi's compelling tale of a peaceful man who's pushed too far. When a mistress displeases the lord, he demands that Isaburo's son marry the woman. Isaburo takes the girl in, and to everyone's surprise, she falls in love with her intended husband. But when the temperamental lord reverses his orders and demands his mistress's return, Isaburo bravely takes a stand.

Yojimbo

Masterless samurai Sanjuro Kuwabatake (Toshiro Mifune) finds himself in a feud-torn Japanese village in legendary director Akira Kurosawa's darkly comic film, which served as the prototype for Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars. After pretending to work for merchants on both sides of the feud, Kuwabatake is imprisoned for treachery. And he escapes in time to watch the two warring factions destroy each other, just as he had intended.

Pitfall

Hiroshi Teshigahara's crime drama mixes murder, the supernatural and postwar commentary into an eerie tale about a Japanese miner (Hisashi Igawa) who's stalked by a ghostly man in white (Kunie Tanaka) with one intent: to imprison the down-and-out laborer in a ghost town. The plot moves deeper into sociopolitical realms as rival union leaders try to solve a mystery surrounding the miner. Kazou Miyahara co-stars as the miner's son.

Sansho the Bailiff

After deliberately disobeying a cruel feudal lord, a governor and his family are exiled and forced to fight for their survival, standing up to a pack of slave drivers determined to capture them and tear them apart. Extras include interviews with Japanese film critics Tadao Sato, Tokuzo Tanaka and Kyoko Kagawa, who discuss the influential work of director Kenji Mizoguchi and the film's status as a cinematic masterpiece.

Ugetsu

With 16th century Japan's feudal wars as a backdrop, director Kenji Mizoguchi's lyrical masterpiece delivers a profound message about the ephemeral nature of human life. Despite the conflict raging around them, a potter (Masayuki Mori) and a farmer (Saka Ozawa) -- two peasants with visions of grandeur -- journey to the city seeking wealth and glory. But their blind ambition ultimately takes its toll … on the families they left behind.

Tokyo Story

Director Yasujiro Ozu focuses on an elderly couple (Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama) in post-World War II Japan who travel to Tokyo to visit their children but are received rather coldly by their offspring; in fact, the only one happy to see them is their widowed daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara). In an attempt to get them out of the way, the children shuttle their aging parents off to a health spa, a decision that could come back to haunt them.

Throne of Blood

Director Akira Kurosawa's magnificent rumination on Shakespeare's tragic "Macbeth" is a dark samurai drama set in feudal Japan, in which two soldiers -- Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) -- find themselves lost in a dense forest during a powerful thunderstorm. When they encounter a ghostly old woman who predicts Washizu will soon rise to power, the soldier embarks on a murderously ambitious path and quickly fulfills the prophecy.

Ikiru

When a stoic government official (Takashi Shimura, with a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Actor) in post-war Japan learns he has terminal cancer, he realizes he has squandered his life on meaningless red tape and has no close family or friendships to lean on. He resolves to use his remaining time to usher an insignificant but popular civic project, a children's playground, through the bureaucracy he knows so well. The acclaimed Akira Kurosawa directs.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance

In this series of traveling assassin films from martial arts director Kenji Misumi, widowed samurai Ogami Itto traverses the country with his infant son Daigoro, selling his deadly skills to those seeking vengeance. In this tale that begins the saga, Ogami is faced with the assassination of his wife and must escape with his baby. Thus commences Ogami's bloody journey of revenge, a tireless quest to find and destroy his wife's killers.

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun

Director Kinji Fukasaku's searing anti-war drama stars Sachiko Hidari as a widow seeking the truth behind her husband's court-martial and subsequent execution at the close of World War II. Determined to clear his name, she interviews survivors of his garrison, uncovering tangled testimonies that form a tapestry of atrocity, heroism, cowardice, survival and chaos. The filmmaker's striking visual style heightens the impact of this powerful piece.

Crazed Fruit

Two brothers revel in women, gambling and drinking in Kô Nakahira's adaptation of Shintaro Ishihara's controversial novel about the postwar sexual revolution of Japan's privileged youth. Disconnected from the traditions that governed generations past, the two brothers kick up their heels during a seaside summer vacation and wind up competing for the same lovely lady. Ayuko Fujishiro, Taizô Fukami, Harold Conway and Mie Kitahara star.

Lady Snowblood

Revenge is sweet for Yuki (Meiko Kaji), the main character in Toshiya Fukita's violent ballet. Yuki is the daughter of a woman who supported her by working as a prostitute after she was raped by the men who murdered her husband. When Yuki grows up, she decides those men aren't worthy of living full and enriching lives, so she hunts them down one by one on a quest for justice.

The Burmese Harp

Kon Ichikawa's indelible antiwar drama earned an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language Film. Set during World War II's last days, the film chronicles a Japanese soldier's (Shoji Yasui) transformation after coming face-to-face with the human cost of war. Sent to inform a platoon the war is over, he can't persuade the men to surrender. After a British attack, he dons the robes of a Buddhist monk as a disguise, and is soon overcome with spirituality.

Fires on the Plain

In director Kon Ichikawa's harrowing film set in the Philippines during World War II, a Japanese soldier, his emotional and physical resources nearly depleted, endures the vicissitudes of war. Ichikawa, whom some cineastes say was as talented as his better-known contemporaries, including Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, had a way with infusing light in the darkest places.

Samurai Banners

Yamamoto Kansuke (Mifune Toshiro), a Bushido fighter, has risen through the ranks through dishonorable means, a fact that his warlord knows nothing about. To Takeda (Kinnosuke Naka), Yamamoto is the consummate leader, a man beyond reproach. But when they both fall for Princess Yufu (Yoshiko Sakuma), Yamamoto is forced to compete with Takeda, who soon discovers what his once-loyal disciple is all about.

Twenty-Four Eyes

Chronicle of a teacher and her pupils in a small inland sea village beginning in 1928 and carrying through 20 years of their joys and sorrows. The village's tranquility is broken by war, afterwards the teacher and her surviving students reminisce about her husband and students who died in the war.

Onibaba

During the great war-torn upheaval in medieval Japan, a poverty-stricken mother and her daughter-in-law scratch out a desperate existence by murdering lost samurai, disposing of their bodies and selling their belongings for grain. But when a neighbor returns from the war, lust, jealousy and rage threaten to drive a wedge between the mother and daughter-in-law. It isn't long before the presence of an ominous demon mask seals the trio's fate.