Kinichi Shimizu

A comedic retelling of the legend of the loyal 47 ronin.

Jurobei, a kaisen tonya (wholesaler in port) in Awa, was wronged and killed on the day of the Dance Festival by the evil merchant & the chamberlin. His brother (Kazuo Hasegawa) vowed vengeance on the day of his brother's death. So every year the villains are worried during the Awa Dance Festival (which is part of the Obon festival), but nothing has ever happened, until seven years later...

Hachigoro, a carpenter living in the Rakugo Tenement, is an honest and skilled craftsman, but he loves sake more than his three daily meals, and had even been barred from entering the Akasaiya shop where he worked. However, thanks to the intervention of the landlord he was fortunately allowed back in, and Oka, the landlord’s maid who had long harbored feelings for Hachigoro, sent him a celebratory kimono as a gift.

Japanese comedy film.

Classic kaidan ghost story set in the Edo period

A musical entertainment piece centered on a traveling women’s sword-fighting troupe.

Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast about their loving sons but in reality, one had just escaped a retirement home and the other was looking for an escape from her son and daughter-in-law. With nowhere to go, the two wander around, befriending a cosmetics salesman and a kind waitress who give them beer. This biting social satire starring two memorable grandmothers, scripted by Yôko Mizuki, picked up on Japan’s aging population problem far ahead of its time.