The Body

An Ishiro Honda film.

A man who hunts for women and sells them to bars and cabarets. This film depicts the lives of men and women who breathe the dark side of the city and live with a mysterious strength amidst vice. The fourth film in the Night Youth series by the duo Umemiya Tatsuo and Midori Mako.

Continuation of the biographical film about the monk Shinran, based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. Shinran, born of the fading aristocratic class, was placed in a monastary on Mount Hiei when still a child. He did not come down for twenty years, when his wanderings begin as he spreads his ideas for achieving enlightenment through the Pure Land sutra. Because his teachings contradict the powerful Tendai sect, he comes to grief with the government, his followers persecuted, himself exiled to far coastal Echigo where he married & began raising a family but soonafter was wandering & teaching again. He lived to be ninety.

A young yakuza, Yatappe, wanders around the country in search of his long-lost little sister, Oito. While traveling, he rescues a young girl, Osayo, whose father entrusts her to him with his dying wish. To honor his promise to Osayo's deceased father, Yatappe brings her to safety, and from a distance keeps a watchful eye on her well being.

Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

A tea master and his daughter Ogin are both Christians in feudal Japan. Ogin falls in love with a married feudal prince who shares her faith. When the Shogun bans Christianity, the situation worsens.

A story about club hostesses in Osaka.

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.

In 8th-century China, the Emperor grieves the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their court influence. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen, whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets.

Chubei, the adopted son of an Osaka courier, falls desperately in love with the courtesan Umegawa. To prevent a wealthy client from purchasing her, he steals money from his employer to buy her freedom himself. Now hunted criminals, the lovers flee toward Yamato, pursued by the law.

Teppei Omori is a man of extraordinary virility, with 21 mistresses, over 30 children, and more than 1,100 women he has had relations with. Teppei's daily routine involves visiting each of the beef hot pot restaurants, "Akasatana," run by his mistresses, to collect the sales and keep an eye on the women. One day, Noe, one of his mistresses at the first branch, announces that she wants to marry Urakawa, the chef. The other mistresses, in the prime of their lives, can no longer be content with working for him only once a month, and they compete for Teppei's attention, cheating on him behind his back.

A playboy bartender pretends to be gay in order to approach women. He is in cahoots with another opportunist, a young woman who is trying to seduce a rich married man. Their attempts at making easy money can only end tragically.

As an orphan, Yamauchi Fumiko was taken in by the politician Kawabe Sotaro and raised by him. Perhaps because of their similar circumstances, she fell in love with Murakawa Sadao, a young man who had also been cared for by Kawabe after losing his father. Standing in the way of their romance is Kawabe’s only daughter Kyoko. She was in love with Murakawa, and Kawabe had even given his consent to their marriage. Through Kyoko’s scheming, Fumiko was forced into a blind date with Miyata, a senior executive at Murakawa’s company.