Emperor Meiji and General Nogi

Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War

Meiji Tenno portrays the buildup to the Russo-Japan War. In addition to showing the political events that led to war, it also shows the era from the story of a farm family in rural Japan that sends their son off to war. As such, it could be considered an anti-war movie, showing how, while war is devised by governments, the people do not really understand what war is, and its combatants often do not know what they are fighting for.

Emperor & Empress Meiji and the Sino-Japanese War

Snake Lust

Horror pinku from 1967.

Quick on the Trigger

Early pinku.

The Pacific War and Himeyuri Corps

The last fight put up by remaining forces and a special volunteer nursing corps in 1944-5.

The Pacific War and the International Military Tribunal

In 1941, overpopulated Japan faces an economic boycott and its armed forces push further to the south. And despite negotiations between Japan and the U. S. A. war is declared with the attack on Pearl Harbour. Victories follow for Japan on land and sea and her forces push forward to the borders of India. But gradually the tide turns in favour of the Allies and after the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is compelled to accept the Potsdam Declaration and by the order of the Emperor agrees to unconditional surrender. Under the supervision of the occupation forces the International Military Tribunal opens in Tokyo to try the Japanese war leaders. Established in the cause of justice, and to prevent future aggressive wars the trials drag on for two and a half years. And on December 23, 1948, General Tojo and six other war leaders mount the thirteen steps to the gallows at Tokyo's Sugamo prison.

Guntō nanban-sen

1950 Japanese movie

Absolutely Secret: Girl Torture

Set in the Edo Era, the film opens with a group of women being convicted of various crimes. The rest of the film is given to graphic depiction of the tortures the women endure as part of their sentences.

Ten Years of Evil

A young bonze who has been deceived by a woman becomes a pornographic painter. He proceeds to tie up his models, rape them and kill them.

Portrait of Madame Yuki

A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness.

Nippon gômon keibatsu-shi

1964 pink film

Soldiers' Girls

Women endure hardship and struggle to keep away from prostitution in the immediate aftermath of WWII. The "Special Comfort Women Association" (RAA) creates a shelter for women to avoid falling into prostitution. Young Fumiko and Yuko will try their luck there.

Enoken's Home Run King

Postwar! Baseball! Comedy! Enoken plays a superfan of the Yomiuri Giants – the real Tokyo team, with many of its star players "acting" as themselves – who, despite his utter lack of athletic abilities, becomes embroiled in their successes, and their personal lives. Will Enoken help the Giants take the pennant?

Beyond the Hills

On September 1, 1923, an unprecedented earthquake hit the Kanto region. The streets are filled with victims, and rumors are circulating around. The military seized the opportunity to round up and kill many socialists, anarchists, and Koreans, culminating in the arrest and murder of Sakae Osugi. His comrades and students are outraged by this atrocity. The young man Furukawa also becomes stronger in his determination to overthrow the military...

Cordon at Dawn

1957 crime film

A Fancy Man and a Fancy Woman

A woman joins with an insurance clerk in trying to kill her husband and thus secure a big insurance pay-out.

Enigmatic Explosion of the Battleship Mutsu

During the naval battle of Midway in WWII, the battleship Mutsu was in its home port in Japan. The ship's officers and crew were frustrated at not being able to take part in the fighting. They had been held back by orders from the Naval Ministry, but there was also a plot by saboteurs, who were trying to prevent the sailing of the Mutsu. Director Komori developed a suspenseful plot by including a fictional adaptation of the Russian spy Richard Sorge, who had been captured in Japan and subsequently executed. Komori brings a fictional Russian spy to the screen by portraying him as a military attaché at the German embassy. As Germany was an ally of Japan in WWII, a secret agent being a mole in the German embassy is a perfect cover. The interaction of the saboteurs and the officers and crew of the Mutsu make an exciting story.

New Torture Punishment History Torture

Three stories of torture, set in Japan's Sengoku, Kan'ei and Genroku eras.

Air Doll

A life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfectly for her until something unexpected happens.

Kamome Diner

On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.

Drunken Angel

In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.

Men Behind the Sun

Japanese troops round up Chinese and Russian prisoners of war and take them to unit 731, where they're horribly tortured and experimented on to test new biological weapons.

The Yakuza

When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.

Kids Return

Shinji and Masaru spend most of their school days harassing fellow classmates and playing pranks. They drop out and Shinji becomes a small-time boxer, while Masaru joins up with a local yakuza gang. However, the world is a tough place.

Linda Linda Linda

Only three days before the school festival, a newly formed high school band rushes to put together a set for their big show — including a hit single by '80s by the Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts.

Charles Band's Puppet Master: Axis of Evil

Following the murder of Andre Toulon by Nazi assassins during the height of World War II, a young Danny Coogan finds his crate of mysterious puppets, and discovers their plan to attack a secret American manufacturing plant.

Hana & Alice

Two teenage best pals attracted to the same boy end up scrambling his life after he walks into a door and is knocked unconscious.