Ken Takakura

KEN SAN pieces together the puzzle of the life and legacy of Japan's mythical acting icon, Ken Takakura. Collaborators, friends and family tell intima...

The posthumous wish of Eiji's wife is for her ashes to be scattered in the ocean near her hometown. Eiji also learns that his wife letter for him at t...

A documentary on the making of the film, Black Rain, which actually encompasses 4 parts, Production, Filming, The Script and Cast, Post-Production

Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, R...

Japanese film icon Ken Takakura, who has starred in over 100 films, stars in this elegiac look at war and remembrance. Hideji Yamaoka (Takakura) was a...

A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter. When the railroad line is...

Starring Ken Takakura, this TV special depicts a detective (Akira Hayasaka) who lives in a harsh life with pride and conviction. Minoru Akiba, Chief ...

Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal fo...

Jack Elliot, a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees is now on the down side of his baseball career. With a falling batting average, does he have one ...

A retrospective on the career of Robert Mitchum through interviews with friends and co-workers, scenes from his films and the actor himself.

Based on a celebrated book by Kuniko Mukoda, this film directed by Yasuo Furuhata tells of a close friendship undone by love.

Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to es...

Team DANKAI are a group of drivers set to compete in the Paris-Dakar Rally, an off-road endurance race spanning thousands of miles and multiple contin...

Shuji was once a feared member of the Yakuza crime syndicate, but he's reformed his ways, abandoned his old life and left the city for a small coastal...

Actor Takakura Ken visits Santa Cruz in Portugal and traces the footsteps of the writer Dan Kazuo, who spent his last years living there.

Eiji lives a quiet life running a small Izakaya with his wife. He spends his days cooking for and serving the lively residents of his small hometown.

Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica.

After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this ...

A martial arts master/detective investigates a series of murders and helps a deaf bathhouse attendant, Hisako.

A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.

The quiet life of a mother and her young son living on a farm in Hokkaido is changed by the arrival of a man who ignites flames of romance in the hear...

When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miy...

Special forces officer Ajisawa leaves his paramilitary group to take care of his newly-adopted daughter, Yoriko: the sole survival of a bloodbath for ...

Kanno is a Yakuza. He had to kill Matsuoka who betrayed their boss. Kanno knew Matsuoka had a 3-year-old daughter named Youko. Before he gave himself ...

The story is about a convict released from prison for an old murder who is thinking about returning to his ex-wife and his former life. If she puts a ...

Two infantry regiments of the Imperial Japanese Army—210 men overall—tackled Mt. Hakkoda in the winter of 1902 to prepare for war with Russia.

A tough prosecutor is falsely accused of theft and goes on the run to clear his name. He is assisted by the beautiful daughter of a rich man.

In 1947, in Kobe, Japan, a local street gang fights for their survival when its turf is overrun by United States occupation forces and international g...

A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police ra...

A group of prisoners attempts to break the Abashiri prison. This film can be considered a sequel to the Abashiri Bangaichi series, written and direct...

Toei studios last ninkyo eiga of the 70's.

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

Two inmates are simultaneously released from jail, but go their separate ways, only to cross paths again in the nearest brothel. There they make the a...

Based on Kazuo Taoka's autobiography, this film follows a Kobe gangster as he builds the small Yamaguchi-gumi into Japan's largest criminal clan.

Live-action adaptation of the hit manga. Golgo 13, also known by the pseudonym Duke Togo, is a professional assassin. His age and birthplace are unkno...

In the roaring 1970s, a man who has left the world of the yakuza to become the owner of a sushi restaurant decides to rise up again when he sees his f...

A boy born in a poor village in Tokushima spends his days idly until a chance meeting sets him on the road to becoming boss of Japan's largest gang. ...

The ninth and final film in the Contemporary Tales of Chivalry series.

When Omuro Yahachi of the Omuro family is selected as Mutsumikai Soke's successor, the conflict between the Kitakyushu and Wakamatsu begins.

A ruffian joins the ranks of the emperor’s guards.

The Ni Family is the most well know and respected group of firefighters in the Kanto region. When their leader dies and the successor disappears, Tsu...

Japanese movie.

The story of a lone wolf struggling with human compassion and duty.

Former inmate Katsuji gets involved in the horse gambling business while lending a helping hand to a ranch operator.

Young coal miner Takeda leaves Kyushu in search of a better job in Tokyo, only to fall into the lucrative yet dangerous life of a yakuza.

A dramatic captivating tale tells of widowed Tei (Junko Fuji), she has become a coalmine operator and is determined to be successful despite mining be...

When the aging leader of the yakuza gang Maeda-gumi decides to retire, many of the gang members have no confidence in the young man he has chosen to r...

The Domain: Rising Dragon

With World War II is coming to its end and Japan nearing defeat, Japanese military leaders step up suicide attacks on Allied ships. Toei legend Koji T...

Young yakuza Shujiro Hanada goes to prison after losing his cool in a rigged gambling game and slashing a few other players. When he's released in 192...

Prisoner Katsuji must fend for himself and his prison mates in the fierce battle involving a family feud.

A street vendor who eloped with his girlfriend and injured her brother loses her to illness, and now has to confront the brother and some dirty local ...

A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island. When a group of British soldiers are sent on a m...

A story about a man who stakes his life on horse racing.

A reporter is framed for murder while investigating organized crime. Upon being released from prison the plan for his revenge unravels.

Ken Takakura stars as Ryoji one of the Aramasa family's loyal lieutenants whao takes the burden of his family being insulted by the Tanuma's family go...

An exciting tale of action on the distant northern island of Hokkaido around the beginning of the 20th Century starring two of the biggest names in Ya...

A yakuza member embarks on a trail of revenge for his murdered boss. Senzo, the successor of the Mita Family, searches for the man bearing a tattoo of...

Katsuji takes revenge on evil Tamaru who forcefully took control of the fishery business run by Katsuji’s friend.

This is the sixth film in the Brutal Tales of Chivalry series

This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history.

Suehiro Katsuji, a prisoner of Abashiri, is sent to Shikoku to work at a dock where a fierce turf battle takes place between a local gang and the dock...

Popular geisha Shinji (Fuji Junko) must defy a gang who plot to steal a lucrative coal business from struggling miners during the turbulent Meiji Era...

While imprisoned, Tatsu encounters Danshi, a man who is a big honcho in the prison pecking order. After initial conflict they become sworn brothers. T...

When Honjo is selected as Kansai district's chairman, Iwasa of the rival gang asks Itsuki to do everything possible to have Honjo step down, which put...

The industrual revolution comes to Japan with the introduction of the railroad system. This led to clashes between boatmen, who livihoods are threaten...

Hidejirō is sent to prison after killing the boss of a rival family. After being released, he discovers that his family has scattered and he is taken ...

The third chapter of the ‘Red Peony Gambler’ saga depicts the happiness and sadness of Red Peony Oryu’s life as she seals her femininity with a red pe...

Former soldier, Suehiro Katsuji, fights violent gangs and powerful Chinese merchants during the post-war period in Japan.

Historical Yakuza gangster film set the early years of the Showa era.

Shinkichi, a peasant employed as a cloth-dyer, has a dream: in the midst of the civil war which ravages Japan, he hopes to revive the long-banned cust...

With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. ...

Coal miner Isamu Oba is forced to quit his village and leave his mother and siblings behind. Mining buddy Ichiro accompanies him to Tokyo, and the pai...

Ryuko was raised by her father, a gambler named Senzo Yano in Kumamoto, Kyushu, after her mother died when she was little. When she turned 18 years ol...

A Kansai gang is up to conquer the whole country under the mask of a patriotic group. However after an assassination their henchmen will struggle to a...

Ken, son of a former samurai settles with his family in the west from Japan. Soon his family is killed in front of him by stagecoach robbers, making h...

Rival gangs fight over ownership of bicycle race track.

The Domain: Severed Relations

Convict son revenges innocent father's death.

The Domain: Where The Blade Enters

Fierce war breaks out when Shujiro’s rival clan attempts to sabotage his lucrative construction business.

A story of young students trained to become Kamikaze pilots in World War II.

Ryoma is a former military man who gets to know the leader of a yakuza group and begins to work with them, helping them defend themselves against othe...

The Domain: White Blade

Based on Ito Hajime's original story, this is the seventh installment in the "Bangaichi" series, adapted jointly by Kamba Fumio and Matsuda Hiroo, and...

A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He fiercely battles violent elements in southern Japan...

The life of entertainers in Asakusa’s pleasure quarters. An exciting yakuza story with superb action.

This is the sixth film in the "Abashiri Series," based on an original idea by Hajime Ito, and written and directed by Teruo Ishii of "Operation Big Ba...

The karashi Botan returns in the third chapter of the incredible Showa Zankoden series. This time legendary actor Ken Takakura plays Takei Shigejiro o...

Part one.

An elaborate criminal tango based around treasure hidden during WWII.

A number of recently released prisoners become involved in a racket with a rancher who is a rival to a neighboring landowner and wants to use the conv...

The Domain: Kanda Festival Showdown

Hidejiro is a wandering yakuza with a ‘karashi botan’ (Chinese lion and peony) tattoo. Owing a favor to the Soda Family, he kills the boss of the riva...

A gripping tale of friendship set against the backdrop of Hokkaido. Shinichi sets out to earn a few honest dollars with which to bail a friend out of ...

Upon returning to his hometown of Nagasaki, recently released prisoner Tachibana Shinichi must rejoin the Asahi gang family in order to pay back a pas...

After World War II, their town was a pile of rubble. Gennosuke, the second generation boss of the Kamizu Group was upholding yakuza chivalry by keepin...

The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi. With all the familiar characters maki...

Third part of Nihon Kyokakuden series is set in Kanto in 1924. Ken Takakura playing a ship's mate befriending fish shop owners harassed by yakuza.

Two convicts just released from prison find a green bauble filled with diamonds — and try to prove they didn't steal it.

Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza, the other a petty c...

Second film of Makino's Nihon Kyokakuden series set in Osaka's harbor. The series also known as "The Domain" Each a stand alone film in it's own, none...

Three robbers escape with loot from a heist before one of them kills the others. Their corpses wash up near the aftermath of a maritime calamity, prov...

Teruo Ishii portrays the bitter conflict over the right to develop land in a gripping and humorous way. Nakagami, the head of the Kanto Joseikai, is o...

Many outlaws are gathered at the front line of the Japanese Army in a shock troop.

Sabu and his pals hold a pauper's funeral for Sabu's mother. His brother Jiro arrives home, fresh out of jail, and Sabu pointedly states that Jiro is ...

The feud between two rival delivery companies, Kibamasa and Okiyama, heats up as the head of Kibamasa falls ill.

Assassin Nanjo goes on a solitary mission to take revenge on the man who trapped him into a complicated drug deal.

In a village subsisting on its herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one ...

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. A...

A modern gang version of Chushingura, chronicling almost scene for scene the Brave 47 Ronin story, transposed from the Genroku Period to the Showa Era...

In the third installment of Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, things continue from the 2nd film at the end of battle, where Miyamoto continues on a mission o...

A shooting incident occurs at the Asahina family gambling hall in Tokyo's Joto district. It is the work of Gaijin boss Brown and his henchman Yamaoka,...

After eloping with a prostitute named Otoyo, Hishakaku takes refuge in the Kogane family’s turf. Indebted to Boss Kogane for his kindness, Hishakaku s...

Two men head a team who steal a factory payroll valued at 500 million yen. Then a hoodlum gang goes after the team for the money.

1962 Japanese movie

A touching drama about a love triangle between a young architect, Koroku, and two women, Ranko and Teruko. Ranko comes from a wealthy family and is of...

Yumemi, the president of Shirayuri Tours, visits Kagoshima in an attempt to save the contract with Satsuma Inn. After learning about the abrupt cancel...

Mr. Mito, a former president of an instant food company, with two young men’s help, solves the quality problems and wins a big ramen contract with a l...

From the late 1500's through the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate many battles were fought as the great warlords vied for power over the nation. Pri...

Ishihama is planning a casino robbery with his wife and mother-in-law. They meet a man named Tsuneda who is planning the same robbery and agree to wor...

Film about the 2-26 Incident.

A geisha helps a runaway who looks just like her.

1962 Japanese movie

1961 Toei adaptation of Yokomizo's novel.

Daughter of a lumber shop in Edo strives to protect her family business from the competitor.

Japanese comedy film.

A gang of bank robbers plan a big robbery, but they all plot to betray each other after the heist for different reasons.

Hibari Misora plays Yoshiko, the popular daughter of a fish market owner. After discovering that she was adopted, she sets out to help her biological ...

The third film in the Taro series, following "The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Eternity" and "The World's Most Noble Guy: Taro's Rush." Taro, who h...

A comedy of a high-spirited geisha, Koharu, who is at risk of being trapped in a conspiracy to take over a lucrative diamond mine business.

When the plague threatens a small town in Manchuria, a young doctor finds himself struggling to save the lives of his townspeople.

Popular geisha Koharu suspects that Yusaku, a handsome stranger she falls in love with, is involved in a robbery of precious diamond.

An upstanding young man’s racy adventure filled with conspiracies and love.

Sheriff Goro goes undercover to investigate drug smugglers.

One of the earliest of sukeban / girl boss type eiga

The story of a certain engineer from his youth until he retired from the Japanese National Railways after the war .

Young geisha Kohana scrambles to realize her dream of bringing back her grandmother’s restaurant business.

Tsunokichi and Ken face off against a rival yakuza in Kyushu.

An upstanding young man who is popular with the ladies takes on a corrupt group of men in his company.

Airline captain saves passengers from a brutal murderer on a plane during four hours of terror.

A Dead Drifter / Hyoryû shitaî

A touching action film about a young yakuza who becomes infected with evil because he has the ability to easily decipher the mechanism of a safe. Afte...

Japanese family drama.

An action-packed, dramatic gangster film.

Yoshiko finds new life and love interests when she takes a new job as an office worker.

A drama about relations between Japanese immigrants and the indigenous Ainu on Hokkaido, the most northerly island of Japan. From a novel by Taijun Ta...

Sayuri, a young woman born to a simple life on a farm, moves to Tokyo to pursue a life long dream of becoming a singer. Through dance, music, and song...

1958 Toei movie.

A friendly rivalry turns into romance for Yukiko, an elite female detective, and a handsome private eye named Mitamura while both are investigating th...

Japanese drama film.

The love between young college students Toki and the handsome Takaga is tested when Takaya's parents, who despise Toki's family's geisha house busines...

1958 Toei movie

1958 Toei movie.

Japanese mystery film.

A comical love story between two college students — Hitomi, a strong-willed girl, and Shogo, a handsome, earnest and poverty stricken man.

The first batch of flight control officer candidates, full of yearning for the sky, are assembled at the 101st Air Regiment base. Nakata, Sato, and th...

Hayata and his best friend Ushijima came to Tokyo to become champions. Hayata repeatedly sought to join Tamura's boxing club, but Tamura fell in love ...

To fulfill a friend’s dying wish, a young sailor Kenji takes on the task of delivering an heirloom to his friend’s daughter, Harumi, who has been adop...

A film about the rivalry between Captain Gondo and the harpooner Yosuke Yamagami, working on the best whaling ship Hayabusa Maru. One day they will ha...

Japanese drama film.

A film adaptation of the original novel by Kazuo Dan. This exciting film, set in Asia on the eve of violent changes, tells the story of a young man Ri...

The fourth installment of G-men of Japan

Junpei Kihara, a young president of the University's wrestling club, is nicknamed "Mr. Chop". One day, on the way back from visiting the hospital afte...

Ken Takakura's screen debut, following his admission into Toei ranks via the studio's annual New Faces program, came surprisingly enough in this pair ...

Sequel to the movie Denko karate uchi.