Kuroki, a journalist for a trade paper, is investigating clandestine arms sales to Southeast Asia. He discovers that the point man in the illegal arms trading was also involved in the cover-up of a murder on an American base during the Allied Occupation. The film rolls along as a suspenseful thriller while offering a critique of political corruption, hypocrisy, and journalistic cowardice in postwar Japan.
Tag: JAPAN
A commission from the Ministry of Education for an educational film about rural youth, Mizoguchi’s earliest extant feature observes the tensions that erupt among a group of village children when two privileged youth return from Tokyo where they have been studying in a private school.
A socially committed film about the feudal state of many Japanese women in 1946. Hiroko Hosokawa, a female lawyer, defends Mrs. Asakura, who suffocated her child in her grief after her husband died penniless following an industrial accident. The prosecutor is Hiroko’s sister’s husband Kono, who also sent Hiroko’s fiance, Yamaoka, to jail for his liberal views during the war. Yamaoka has just been freed, but is seriously ill from his time in prison.
A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. The boys form a bond with the recluse and set about weeding and replanting the garden.
An international school in Kobe, Japan is catapulted into the future after a timeslip occurs. Stranded in a mysterious desert full of sand and monsters, the children must survive and try to find a way home.
Ayako is charged with murdering her much older academic husband while climbing a mountain. Ayako was having an affair, apparently with her husband’s approval, and this complicates the trial.
High-rise window cleaner Katsuo sees an office lady in an awkward situation. He is smitten and pursues her hotly. They are both running away from a hopeless life in their villages. They fall in love, but she gets raped. Tragedy ensues.
A small-time criminal and bar master comes across a girl handcuffed to a telephone pole. He takes her home and helps her get back on her feet before dropping her off in the city. He is later surprised to find her inside his home when he returns one night. At the same time, a dictionary company employee is trying to launder 1.5 billion yen that he stole from a company president, which is unusable due to the serial numbers being recorded. The three characters are brought together by coincidence, and begin an enterprise to turn the 1.5 billion into money they can use.