The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.

Late 18th century, Tohoku. An outcast girl, Rin lives in a village suffering from famine. She draws ...

In 1701, Lord Takuminokami Asano has a feud with Lord Kira and he tries to kill Kira in the corridor...

Based on a short story written by Shuhei Fujisawa (who also wrote Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade...

In a small Japanese village at the end of the 19th century, a rickshaw driver's wife takes on a much...

In the late 19th century, rakugo student Taihei gives up hope of making the grade, and his despair l...


The background to and depiction of a watershed battle in Japanese history, at Sekigahara in 1600, wh...

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival ...

The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controll...

Fearless Edo-period police inspector Hanzo Itami, nicknamed The Razor, has developed his own unique ...

Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Ita...

Hanzo extracts a confession from a ghost using his assaulting methods, foils thieves, connects with ...

Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century....

Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifull...

Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersona...

One samurai is ordered to kill another by their master in punishment.

Kotani Zenzaemon, a ronin who has a side job making brushes in a tenement house in the back alley, i...

Near the end of the shogunate in Japan, Katsura Shogoro and his fellow samurai from the southwestern...

The story of Ryoma Sakamoto, considered to be the architect behind the downfall of the Tokugawa shog...

Takahagi Sutegoro is highly skilled at casing locations for thieves so that he can sell detailed flo...