More Than Flower / Hana / Hana yori mo naho (2006)
Comedy | Drama
A troubled young samurai seeks revenge for the death of his father.
Starring: Jun'ichi Okada, Rie Miyazawa, Arata Furuta, Jun Kunimura, Katsuo Nakamura, Tadanobu Asano, Yoshio Harada, Teruyuki Kagawa
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
The Hunted (1995)
Action | Drama | Thriller
Paul Racine (Christopher Lambert) is an American salesman with a computer firm who is in Japan on business. While spending an evening in a bar, he meets Kirina (Joan Chen), a beautiful but mysterious woman. Paul buys Kirina a drink, one thing leads to another, and he ends up spending the night with her. However, when Paul returns to her room to retrieve a set of keys he left behind, he discovers that Kirina is being murdered by Kinjo (John Lone), the master of a cult of bloodthirsty ninjas. Kinjo informs Karina that no one has ever seen his face and lived, so when Paul witnesses Kirina's execution and the face Kinjo hides behind his mask, he's a marked man. With the help of Takeda (Yoshio Harada), an experienced ninja fighter, Paul learns how to defend himself against his new adversaries as he plots a final showdown with the deadly Kinjo.
Starring: Christopher Lambert, John Lone, Joan Chen, Yoshio Harada, Yôko Shimada
Director: J.F. Lawton
Still Walking / Aruitemo aruitemo (2008)
Drama
Middle-aged art restorer Ryota and his sister Chinami return to their childhood home with their own families for a gathering to mark the anniversary of the death of their older brother Junpei, who drowned while saving another boy's life 15 years earlier. The film tracks the subtle events that take place over the course of one summer's day as the family members reconnect while struggling to come to terms with undercurrents of generational conflict and the consequences of loss.
Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Yoshio Harada, Yui Natsukawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Shohei Tanaka, Hotaru Nomoto
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
The Face of Jizo / Chichi to kuraseba (2004)
Drama
Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima. The film takes place during 4 days in the summer of 1948, as the ghost of her father visits Mitsué (Rié Miyama). He had somehow learned that she has fallen in love, and tries to convince her to start her new life. But Mitsué obstinately refuses his warm and humorous encouragements : « People were killed in my place. I do not have the right to find happiness », she says.
Starring: Rie Miyazawa, Yoshio Harada, Tadanobu Asano
Director: Kazuo Kuroki
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance / Lady Snowblood 2 / Shura-yuki-hime: Urami Renga (1974)
Drama | Thriller
Lady Snowblood (Shurayuki-hime) is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes (in Lady Snowblood I). As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.
Starring: Meiko Kaji, Jûzô Itami, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Yoshio Harada, Shin Kishida, Tôru Abe
Director: Toshiya Fujita
Farewell to the Ark / Saraba hakobune (1984)
Fantasy | Mystery | Romance
Su-e and her cousin Sutekich, a descendant of one of the village clans, live together but have been forbidden by her father to have sexual contact. Like other villagers, he believes that if cousins have children together, the children will suffer serious birth defects. His remedy is to make Su-e wear a large, ugly chastity belt. Unable to take the ridicule of his fellow villagers, Sutekichi stabs the head of the clan to death and then runs away with Su-e. After some time elapses, the two make their way back to the village, but by then Sutekichi is suffering the effects of his actions.
Starring: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Mayumi Ogawa, Yoshio Harada, Yôko Takahashi
Director: Shûji Terayama
Ballad of Orin / Melody in Gray / Hanare goze Orin (1977)
Drama
This unsentimental Japanese tragedy chronicles the lonely life and quiet death of a blind Geisha girl whose desire for sexual freedom causes her to become an outcast.
Starring: Shima Iwashita, Tomoko Naraoka, Taiji Tonoyama, Jun Hamamura, Tôru Abe, Yoshio Harada
Director: Masahiro Shinoda
Utsukushii natsu kirishima / A Boy's Summer in 1945 (2002)
Drama
Japan in the painful aftermath of World War II. The film centres on 15-year-old Yasuo and the adults around him as they go through their usual routines during this unusual time. Yasuo feels guilty for surviving when so many of his classmates were killed. He witnessed the death of his best friend during the bombing and the memory of it tortures him. The others, too, have their own crosses to bear. Meanwhile, a poor widow and a wounded soldier meet surreptitiously, a beautiful wife bids farewell to her first lover, and a maidservant marries a veteran who has returned home without his leg. So many lives, so many loves… Yasuo is gradually losing control of himself…
Starring: Tasuku Emoto, Yoshio Harada, Tokie Hidari, Wakaba Irie, Eri Ishida, Teruyuki Kagawa, Masahiro Kômoto
Director: Kazuo Kuroki
