Tatsuya Nakadai
Birthday: 1932-12-13
Place of Birth: Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Biography: Tatsuya Nakadai (仲代 達矢, Nakadai Tatsuya; born Motohisa Nakadai; December 13, 1932 – November 8, 2025) was a Japanese actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema, he collaborated extensively with many of Japan's best-known and acclaimed directors. In his over seven decade career, he appeared in more than 160 films, and received numerous accolades. He was honored with a Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1996 and Japan's Order of Culture in 2015. Discovered on the streets of Tokyo by director Masaki Kobayashi, Nakadai rose to prominence starring in Kobayashi's films, with his breakthrough being the protagonist of the epic anti-war trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961). He won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor for his performance as the vengeful ronin in Harakiri (1962), a role he considered his finest. Nakadai collaborated on eleven films with Kobayashi—including Kwaidan (1964) and Samurai Rebellion (1967)—and five with Akira Kurosawa, most notably as the tragic warlord in Ran (1985), a performance that earned global acclaim. His other notable credits included Seven Samurai (1954), Yojimbo (1961), The Sword of Doom (1966), The Face of Another (1966), Goyokin (1969), Kagemusha (1980), and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013). A lifelong stage actor, he founded the Gendai Nohgaku-kai troupe in 1975 and continued performing on stage into his nineties. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tatsuya Nakadai, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
Kwaidan
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four fol...
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Sanjuro
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifull...
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The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of la...
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Ran
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan w...
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Kagemusha
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersona...
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Yojimbo
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival ...
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Hachiko
The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even...
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Samurai Rebellion
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband ...
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High and Low
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s ...
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Phoenix
Emi Ikushima, a star actress in the Roses, is half-hearted, but she wasn't disappointed by the news ...
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The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, K...
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The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Inte...
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The Wolves
After going to prison for killing the boss of the Kanno gang, Seji Iwahashi (Tatsuya Nakadai) gets r...
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Harakiri
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemp...
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The Face of Another
A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his new doctor, but the mask start...
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When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She ...
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Tenchu!
A ronin desperately seeks a way out of financial straits; he allies with the Tosa clan under the rut...
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Odd Obsession
A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot be...
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13 Assassins
Gathering a band of 13, Inspector General Shmada Shinzaemon sets out on a death-defying journey to c...
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Hunter in the Dark
Yataro Tanigawa, a one-eyed hired assassin, impresses yakuza boss Gomyo Kiyoemon with his skill. Gom...
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Henkan kōshōjin: Itsuka, Okinawa o torimodosu
In 2010, while covering the issue of the "secret agreement" at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ...
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Kill!
A pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved...
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Magistrate of the Floating World
Kodaira Mochizuki has come from Edo to keep Horisoto secure....
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Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!
A man, released after a jail term for a crime he did not commit, raises a gang to go after the man w...
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Final Yamato
The Galman Empire is destroyed but the planet Galmania is not, by a chance collision of galaxies. Th...
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Ant Hell War
The sixth film of the desperado outpost series directed by Takashi Tsuboshima...
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Wicked City
Taki and his partner Kai is assigned to go after Daishu for selling a drug from the Rapters's world,...
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The Sword of Doom
Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, ha...
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Portrait of Hell
The story, set in the Heian era, depicts the conflict between Korean painter Yoshihide (Nakadai) and...
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Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival
The blind masseuse is targeted by the leader of a powerful yakuza group while also fending off a jea...
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Daughters, Wives and a Mother
Sanae is left a widow after her prestigious husband dies, but holds the proceeds of a million yen in...
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Return from the River Kwai
A group of war prisoners has spilt blood, sweat and tears to construct a bridge over the river Kwai ...
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Zokuzoku Ôban: Dotô hen
Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer. Part three (of four) of the film adaptation ...
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Oban kanketsu hen
Ushinosuke returns to Tokyo with new ambitions. Fourth and final part of the film adaptation of Bun...
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Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron
Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang ...
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Ôban
A young country boy leaves his village for Tokyo, where he begins to work as a stock trader. First p...
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Zoku Ôban: Fûun hen
Ushinosuke returns broke to his hometown, where everyone believes he's rich and successful. Part tw...
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Conflagration
Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golde...
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Inn of Evil
The story takes place in feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world was strictly pro...
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Black River
A university student moves into an apartment building and becomes involved with a waitress. The land...
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Haru's Journey
Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a t...
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Blood End
Sentaro is been severely beaten for his defiance of the government and the high taxes during a time ...
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The Human Bullet
A soldier has been in the Japanese military for the entirety of WWII, and in that time, his dedicati...
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Onimasa: A Japanese Godfather
Onimasa is the egocentric boss of a small yakuza clan on Shikoku Island, whose criminal duties confl...
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Immortal Love
A young woman is forced by circumstance into a loveless marriage while still in love with another. T...
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Battle of the Japan Sea
Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japane...
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Like Asura
The four Takezawa sisters discover that their father has an illegitimate child so they hire a privat...
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Japan's Tragedy
In 2010, 31,560 people ended their own lives and about 20,000 people died or went missing with the e...
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East Meets West
A disgraced warrior planning the murder of a Japanese diplomat, and a ninja in the employ of a navy ...
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Great evil does not go to sleep: The counterattack of the special investigation unit prosecutor
Shinichi Tominaga is a prosecutor, newly appointed to the special investigation division for the Tok...
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I Am a Cat
Nakadai is an English teacher at a local school. He’s put-upon like the patron figure of dozens of f...
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Heat Wave
Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi househo...
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The Battle of Okinawa
The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imp...
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The Inheritance
A dying businessman intends to will his fortune to his three illegitimate children, whose whereabout...
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Battle Cry
During the military phase of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Sentaro joins a local militia loyal to t...
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Kin chan no Cinema Jack
Kin chan no Cinema Jack is an anthology film starring Yuen Biao and produced by Jackie Chan...
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The Age of Assassins
A nerdy young college instructor named Shinji Kikyo returns home one day to find himself the target ...
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The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan
An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stif...
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The Law of Hell
At a restaurant called Anrakutei on an island is a wasteland surrounded by moat and swamp. The owner...
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The Life and Love of Kenji Miyazawa
A biographical drama depicting the life full of love and suffering of the writer and poet Kenji Miya...
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Duel at Fort Ezo
1864. Samurai Shinbei is sent in a secret mission to Ezo, in the North of Japan, to stop riots of vi...
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Love Under the Crucifix
A tea master and his daughter Ogin are both Christians in feudal Japan. Ogin falls in love with a ma...
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Vengeance for Sale
In a world where vendettas are officially sanctioned, the people sometimes needed help in carrying o...
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After the Rain
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As...
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Rise, Fair Sun
Though a farmer and his fellow villagers in this Japanese film resist the effort to turn the unspoil...
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Until the Break of Dawn
High school student Ayumi is trained by his grandmother to act as a "tsunagu," an intermediary for p...
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Murder of the Inugami Clan
Inugami Sahei, who built up the wealth of the Inugami Clan, passes away, leaving a will with Furudat...
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Fireflies in the North
Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warde...
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The Empty Table
One year has passed since the Kidojis' eldest son Otohiko was arrested for his part in a terrorist k...
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Dawn of a New Day: The Man Behind VHS
A Japanese film that tells the tale of the birth of VHS. It follows Kagatani Shizuo, an electronics ...
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Giovanni's Island
In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of S...
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Safari 5000
A Japanese racing driver for Nissan named Godai (Yujiro Ishihara) have a rivalry with a French driv...
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Isao Takahata and His Tale of The Princess Kaguya
For his first film in fourteen years, animation director Isao Takahata embarked on a visually sumptu...
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Listen to My Heart
A radio DJ, Mai starts a new program called, "Love Letters from the Drawer" to assist people who nee...
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Untamed Woman
A woman marries, gives birth to a stillborn child, and divorces, falls in love with a hotel-keeper, ...
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Basara: The Princess Goh
Furuta Oribe is ordered to become tea master under Toyotomi Hideyoshi after his teacher Sen no Rikyū...
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Belladonna of Sadness
An evil feudal lord rapes a village girl on her wedding night and proceeds to ruin her and her husba...
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The Gate of Youth
Mainly the story of Shinsuke and his stepmother, ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens...
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Life Work of Akira Kurosawa
Acclaimed filmmaker Akira Kurosawa has been misunderstood. Despite his public perception an a perfec...
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Seven Samurai
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs pr...
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Making of Ran
Behind the scenes of Akira Kurosawa's Ran, produced by Kurosawa Productions....
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The Fir Trees Remain
The 21-year-old feudal on Sendai, Tsunamune Date, was prohibited to go out in the daytime for his mi...
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Lone Wolf and Cub: The Final Conflict
A noble samurai serving the Shogun as 'Kogi Kaishaku-nin' (Official Executioner) is the target of a ...
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The Family
Set in the post-World War II climate of the 1960s in Kobe, the movie explores the struggle for power...
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Fort Graveyard
Charged with insubordination for punching a superior, Sergeant Kosugi is shipped to China in the las...
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Queen Bee
To solve the mystery of a murder of an old governess which takes place at a wealthy Daidoji family's...
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Will to Conquer
The struggles of a low-ranking samurai (Nakamura) coming to terms with the end of the Tokugawa shogu...
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Port Arthur
Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified position...
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Blood Type: Blue
UFOs appear on Earth, and people who actually see them suddenly find that their blood has turned blu...
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Shadow Hunters
The government in Edo era is suffering from a financial crisis. It hires "Kage" to provoke the colla...
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The Ambitious
The story of Ryoma Sakamoto, considered to be the architect behind the downfall of the Tokugawa shog...
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Cash Calls Hell
Before leaving prison, Oida uncomfortably enters into an agreement with his cell mate: in exchange f...
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The Human Trust
A professional scammer is hired by a wealthy young businessman to find a hidden treasure looted from...
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Three Yakuza
A tale of three Yakuza gamblers who traveled Japan during the samurai era living by their wits and s...
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The Phoenix
This extraordinarily complex film is not only a send-up of every samurai film ever made, it is also ...
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Solar Eclipse
When bribe money from a rigged election funnels into a dam construction project, collusion, lust, gr...
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A. K.
An intimate chronicle of the shooting of Ran (1985), a film directed by the legendary Japanese filmm...
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Through the Mist
A biopic of the late musician Dédé Fortin, the singer, songwriter, and founder of a very popular Qué...
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A Woman's Life
A woman remembers her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son....
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The Other Woman
In "The Other Woman" the children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to...
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Jubaku: Spellbound
When a major bank is caught paying off a corporate extortionist, the media and prosecutors begin to ...
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Atami Murder Case
Chief Detective KIMURA Denbei, fondly referred to as Smoky Denbei, is a legendary figure at the Metr...
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The Corporation
Tadashi Iki returns to Japan from a Soviet gulag 11 years after being captured during the invasion o...
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Lear on the Shore
Chokichi Kuwahata was once a leading actor, but he is ravaged by dementia and old age now. His daugh...
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The Blue Beast
Tatsuya Nakadai plays a scheming low-level executive who plays labor against management and uses any...
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Four Days of Snow and Blood
Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nati...
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Oración
Set on a quiet ranch in Hokkaido. One day, a colt is born from a legendary bloodline. It is given th...
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As the Clouds Scatter
A provincial bus driver plans to marry his conductress, but one night he glimpses the woman he once ...
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Kojiro
Sasaki Kojiro tells the story of the genius who staked his love, glory, and life on a duel with the ...
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Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Kagemusha'
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses ...
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Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Yojimbo'
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses ...
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Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Sanjuro'
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses ...
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Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'High and Low'
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses ...
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The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapid...
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The Last Judgment
Based on a crime novel called Heaven Ran Last, by American pulp fiction writer William P. McGivern....
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The Naked Sun
A young, struggling couple are making every sacrifice so they will one day in the not-too-distant-fu...
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Get 'em All
Gang of robbers quarrel about the loot, but when one of them gets killed, his younger brother seeks ...
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The Beast Shall Die
A promising post-graduate literature student is transformed into a psychotic killer following the su...
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Tange Sazen: The Million Ryo Pot
Seeking revenge after a brutal attack that left him disfigured, a former assassin gets drawn into a ...
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Admiral Yamamoto
As Japan joins in a political pact with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is ...
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A Duel Tale
Nakadai Tatsuya, Japan’s greatest living actor, gives the performance of a lifetime as Shoji Sanosuk...
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Taikoki
Rising from the lowliest of country samurai to the heights of power as Taiko, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is ...
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Before The Leaves Fall
An elderly woman sets out to see in person a painting by a famous artist.She believes she was the in...
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Legacy of the 500,000
During World War II, Japan sends gold to the Phillipines. After the war, the gold is lost in the bay...
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Tatsuya Nakadai on 'The Human Condition'
In this new video interview with Tatsuya Nakadai, conducted in 2009, the screen legend discusses his...
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The Daphne
Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain ...
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The Return
Tatsuya Nakadai, the world’s greatest living actor, returns to the screen in a brilliant adaptation ...
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Zatoichi: The Last
A blind master swordsman attempts to lead a quiet life with his wife but he is provoked back into ba...
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Willful Murder
The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service...
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Faraway Sunset
Faraway Sunset tells the story of the famed bacteriologist who is known to have discovered the agent...
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All About Marriage
Ultra-perky model likes single freedom but feels ryosai kenbo ("good wife, wise mother") pressure, e...
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The Legend of Sayo
Sayo has just celebrated her sixteenth birthday when she attends a temple festival. On her way back ...
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Michi
A married long-distance truck driver falls for a significantly younger waitress at a roadside diner....
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Sazae-san
An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip. The first entry in Toho's Sazae-san series....
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Teenage Sazae
Adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series shot in color....
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Yamato
Directed by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the pre...
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Pilgrimage at Night
Adapted by Yasumi Toshio and directed by Toyoda Shiro, this is a literary work based on a full-lengt...
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Sugata Sanshiro
The story of Sanshiro Sugata, a young man who wants to learn the new art of judo. A wise teacher rev...
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A Town and a Tall Chimney
Japan in 1910, industrialization is unstoppable and devastating entire areas in the name of progress...
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The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai
In the turbulent last days of the Edo period, Kawai Tsugunosuke, a Japanese samurai serving the Maki...
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Japan's Longest Day
Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and th...
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Sleeping Village
In 1961, a spectacular criminal case shocks Japan: at what became known as the “Nabari Poison Wine” ...
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Promise: The Nabari Poisoned Wine Case, The Life of a Death-row Inmate
Masaru Okunishi is a prisoner who has been on death-row for over 40 years. In 1961, 5 women died fro...
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NORINTEN 稲塚権次郎物語
It is a breeding person of "agriculture and forestry No.10 (norin ten)" based on more than 70% of th...
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Let Him Rest in Peace
This TV dramatization of Kitakata Kenzo's hard-boiled novel depicts a man who fights a deadly battle...
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Diary of an Elegant Hot Spring
At a coastal hot spring inn, a group of women navigate work, personal struggles, and unexpected scan...
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Floating Weeds Diary
A travelling theater troupe, led by Umagoro Ichikawa, comes to play in a mining town, and manages to...
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Gomez's Name is Gomez
Company engineer sakamoto (tatsuya nakadai) is returning home after two years in the desert and visi...
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Summer of the Moonlight Sonata
Two soon-to-be kamikaze pilots stop by a local school near their base to play the piano one last tim...
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The Shadow Daughter
Fusako, a girl raised in a geisha house, tries to escape her dark past and faces repeated heartbreak...
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The Mandarin Room
After running away from her mother, Ashiko works as a maid at an inn and changes her name, but she f...
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Skin-Colored Moon
After the heartbreak of losing a close colleague, a television star vanishes, presumed to have drown...
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Go and Get It
Matsuki, a former war photojournalist, returns home and starts a modest life with his wife, Komiko. ...
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Kampai! Miai Kekkon
Emiko, a shy girl, feels anxious as her classmates celebrate their upcoming weddings, realizing she’...
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The Gion Tempest
The story follows Keiko, a dancer in the "Maiko Odori" theater in Kyoto, who tries to climb the soci...
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Miren
The story follows Tomoko, a writer who becomes involved in a strange and distant relationship with S...
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Mr. Giant's Victory Flag
Apparently a baseball drama starring real-life stars Nagashima (The Babe Ruth of Japanese Baseball) ...
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Challenge at Dawn
Set in Kawasaki in 1925, Challenge at Dawn is based on the Tsurumi Riot Incident, which actually ocu...
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Trinacria: Porsche 959
A film director plans to make a film about a man who embarks on a journey to find a missing musician...
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Florence My Love
Set in Kamakura and Florence, this love story depicts the heroine wavering between two men....
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The Limit
In 1961, in the quiet village of Kuzuo, five women died after drinking wine at a community gathering...
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The Taika Reforms
A drama introduces the well known coup in the 7th Century Japan followed by the Taika reform which m...
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Black Baby
A black baby attempts to escape a labyrinth whilst being pursued by a gaggle of giant humanoids...
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Gun Woman
A brilliant doctor on a quest for revenge buys a young woman and trains her to be the ultimate assas...
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The Thick-Walled Room
A group of rank-and-file Japanese soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victim...
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