
Eiichi Kudō
Directing
Biography
Eiichi Kudo (工藤 栄一, Kudō Eiichi, 17 July 1929 – 23 September 2000) was a Japanese film director. He directed 30 films between 1956 and 1998. His 1982 film Yaju-deka was entered into the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival. One of his most famous movies is the 1963 film 13 Assassins. This movie was remade in 2010 by Takashi Miike.
Known For

Shadow Warriors is a Japanese television jidaigeki show featuring Sonny Chiba that ran for four seasons in the early 1980s. Chiba played different ninja characters in each series. In the first series he played Hattori Hanzō III, in second one he played Tsuge Shinpachi, in the third one he played Tarao Hanzō, in the fourth series and in Bakumatsu Hen, he played Hattori Hanzō XV. In the 2003 direct-to-DVD series Shin Kage no Gundan he played Hattori Hanzō I.
Shadow Warriors

Nakamura Mondo was relegated to a post in Hachioji from the Minamimachi Bugyōsho and he has retired from professional assassin. But one day he was ordered to return to the Minamimachi Bugyōsho. Shikazō worked behind the scenes to get Mondo back to the Minamimachi Bugyōsho. Shikazō asks Nakamura Mondo to kill a man, once Mondo refuses but he is blinded by big money and eventually take the offer. Mondo restarts killing villains again with Kazarishokunin no Hide and Nawate Samon.
Hissatsu Shigotonin

TV series starring Ikko Furuya, based on the Kosuke Kindaichi mystery novel series by Seishi Yokomizo.
Yokomizo Seishi Series

Two lovable idiot "private detectives" (or at least, that's their cover story —more like gangsters) try to make ends meet on the mean streets of Tokyo.
Wounded Angels

Zankuro Matsudaira (Ken Watanabe) is a low-grade vassal of the Tokugawa Shogun, forced to moonlight as a bodyguard and executioner to make ends meet. He also has a drinking problem, an overeating mother, and a propensity to protect the oppressed, all of which eat into his finances. His confident mother Masajo (Kyoko Kishida) is the descendant of a famous family of shogunate retainers and a mistress of the pen and sword, who regards her son as a failure.
Gokenin Zankuro

During the Tenpo period, the three samurai under the command of the Nanba magistrate were responsible for handling exceptional cases. However, their true identities as shadow assassins were hidden because they were secretly sent to eliminate villains who had escaped punishment by the law.
Unified Shadows

Ex-sword teacher Ihei Misawa is a skilled swordsman but because of his kind and judicious heart, he never fails to get caught up in trouble and therefore is unable to obtain status and success. But his wife Tayo understands him and loves him completely, always remaining by his side.
Please Hire Me!

Kōchiyama Sōshun serves as a cha-bōzu (He is kind of tea man) in the administrative headquarters of the Tokugawa shogunate but he works behind the scene to protect powerless people from evil power of Tokugawa shogunate. Kataoka Naojirō and Ushimatsu work for Kōchiyama. Kaneko Ichinojō is a ronin whose interests often align with Kōchiyama
Priest of Darkness

The drama, based on a novel by Keiichiro Ryu, tells an alternative history in which the historical shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu is killed at the Battle of Sekigahara and his double Jirosaburo Serada becomes the ruler of the country instead.
Shadow Warrior Tokugawa Ieyasu

A Japanese television jidaigeki that was broadcast in prime-time in 1995 on Fuji TV. It is based on Shōtarō Ikenami's novel of the same title and stars Tsutomu Yamazaki. In the Kyōhō period, there was a group of bandits called Kumokiri from the people of Edo. Tokugawa shogunate appoints Abe Shikibu a head post of the Hitsuke Tōzoku Aratamegata to arrest Kumokiri clan.
Kumokiri Nizaemon

A drama depicting the conflict between a man that ran to an old lover suffering from advanced leukemia, his wife and child that were left behind, and the friendship that develops between his wife and his former lover.
Love Letter

A homeless man suffering from memory loss is unbeatable in a fight. He becomes involved with the Yakuza. It is based on a manga by Carib Marley.
A Homance

A sadistic Daimyo (feudal lord) rapes a woman and murders both her and her husband, but even when one of his own vassals commits suicide to bring attention to the crime, the matter is quickly hushed up. Not only will there be no punishment, but because the Daimyo is the Shogun's younger brother, he will soon be appointed to a high political position from which he could wreak even more havoc. Convinced that the fate of the Shogunate hangs in the balance, a plot is hatched to assassinate the Daimyo. The two most brilliant strategic minds of their generation find themselves pitted against each other; one is tasked to defend a man he despises, and has a small army at his disposal. The other is given a suicide mission, and has 12 brave men. They are the 13 Assassins.
13 Assassins

A cynical samurai is left as the sole survivor to fulfill a plot to assassinate the puppet of a villain intent on usurping the shogunate in the 17th century. A Shogunate Elder connives to rule Japan by making his puppet, the Shogun's brother Tsunashige, the next Shogun. The best strategist in Japan, Yamaga, leads a plot to stop the Elder, but his cabal is betrayed and most of the conspirators are captured and tortured.
The Great Killing

Part 7 in a long running (8+1 films) action/comedy/melodrama series about a pair of short tempered, amoral, but not evil chinpira (Bunta Sugawara and Tamio Kawachi) thinking too big of themselves. Katsuji finds his long lost mother, who is a rich lady of a respectable family. Comedy and melodrama ensue. A thrilling spectacle with an overly violent ending, and a remarkable, Japan's only post-prison rape comedy, Masa is determined to have sex with the female guard, despite the fact that there is a bar between them. Michi Azuma (topless swordswoman from Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril) plays a tomboy who wants to join her brothers.
The Viper Brothers: Up on 30 Charges

BJ is a relatively unknown blues singer who scraps some bars in Yokohama. He does not earn much with it and to make ends meet he also acts as a private detective.
Yokohama BJ Blues

Third movie in the Hissatsu (Sure Death!) Series. Chasing the killer of a lawman, a group of assassins fall foul of a group of blackmarket financiers who dispatch their own hitmen to dispose of them.
Sure Death! 3

The second Bounty Hunter film, when master killer Shikoro Ichibei takes up the cause of a group of farmers being driven to despair by the vile Lord Ozeki. The villainous lord has driven them to mounting their last stand at a deserted fort against an army of attackers. Wakayama Tomisaburo is superb as an expert in killing and military tactics, who leaves his medical practice at a clinic for the poor in order to counter the vicious tactics of that vile lord.
The Fort of Death

Two Kyushu based yakuza groups are desperate for domaination of the area. When more powerful yakuza groups get involved in their power struggle, a group of childhood friends, belonging to different yakuza families, are caught in the middle. Lies, deceit, and backstabbing are in play resulting in a bloodbath and a quest for revenge...
Aftermath of Battles Without Honor and Humanity

The lord of the Oshi fief is killed by his trespassing neighbour, the cruel and despotic Nariatsu, son of the former Shogun. After an investigation, the Oshi clan is blamed for what happened and sentenced to be disbanded. Eleven of the best samurai of the clan refuse the sentence and are willing to give their life for justice.