Akiko Chihaya

This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), such as the internationally celebrated Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and although he is now most famous as the maker of the avant-garde silent films A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeji, 1926) and Crossroads (Jujiro, 1928), Chushingura is in fact more typical of his output than those experimental works. The film ranked third in that year’s Kinema Junpo critics’ poll, and Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie noted that 'not only the sound but the quick cutting was admired by many critics.

After falling in love with a courtesan, Rikiya is blinded by ash during a fight in a brothel. Believing the blindness permanent and his opponent dead, Rikiya goes back home to his sister. Okiku, desperate to protect her brother who thinks himself a murderer, wants to sacrifice herself for him and become a prostitute to pay for Rikiya's treatment.

The vast majority of the commercial films made by Kinugasa in the 1920s have, like almost all Japanese films of the period, been lost. Even a fragmentary survival such as Oni azami is to be celebrated – the more so since the film marked the first of many appearances by popular star Chojiro Hayashi (1908-84) in Kinugasa films. The original story of Oni azami is credited to Fred Niblo, the American director of Blood and Sand (1922) and Ben-Hur (1925). It derives from The Red Lily (1924), a Ramón Novarro vehicle that had been a great success on its release in Japan.

An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as Yukinojô Henge.

Kenji and Chuko travel to Hokkaido as migrant workers and enlist as miners under the strict leadership of Guzuyasu. On the boat journey to Hokkaido, Kenji attracts Ohama, who is travelling to Hokkaido to open a bar. When Kenji visits the bar, he chases away a sailor who was hassling a shy girl, Ofuji, which makes Ohama jealous.

No description available.

In the age of priests and warriors which the film denounces, a woman revolts after she is sold as a prostitute.

Kuruma Torajiro is discovered looking around Kyoto for someone special to him.

A 1930 silent film from director Eichi Koishi, following the adventures of Edo firefighter Sanji.

Japanese horror movie from 1929.

First film adaptation of the kabuki play Benten Kozo, about a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor...

A samurai returns to his homeland after a three year absence and finds his fiance is now one of the prince's concubines.

A young samurai rescues his beloved from the clutches of a corrupt priest.

Japanese silent film from 1928, co-starring Chojiro Hayashi and up-and-coming actress Kinuyo Tanaka.

A film by Eiichi Koichi depicting peasant uprisings.