JFDB Classics

Selection of Japanese film classics produced from the 1930s to the 2000s with production data and contact information for approximately 700 works, including first-rate program pictures and masterpieces from independent production companies. Also features profiles of film directors who have made their mark in the history of Japanese cinema.

JFDB Classics

Wet Sand in August

Wet Sand in August (1971)

Director
FUJITA Toshiya
Cast
MURANO Takenori, HIROSE Shosuke, NODA Teresa

Kiyoshi, graduate of seventeen, is an aimless young boy. Kenichiro (Takenori Murano), eighteen, a high-school drop-out of the same breed, but more drastic in action. Maki (Midori Fujita), twenty-one, is a wealthy girl in pursuit of thrills and her si...

Release Date
Aug, 25th, 1971
Musume tsuma haha

Musume tsuma haha (1960)

Director
NARUSE Mikio
Cast
HARA Setsuko, TAKAMINE Hideko, TAKARADA Akira

Release Date
May, 28th, 1960
Tokyo Omnibus

Tokyo Omnibus (1959)

Director
BANSHO Yoshiaki
Cast
TAKAHASHI Teiji, SADA Keiji, OKI Minoru

"Samba Garasu," meaning three-some, has always been a Shochiku tradition. In this film, celebrating the 3,000th production of the Shochiku Company, three generations of the "Samba Garasu" tradition have been brought together in a gay modern day story...

Release Date
Oct, 30th, 1959
Twin Sisters of Kyoto

Twin Sisters of Kyoto (1963)

Director
NAKAMURA Noboru
Cast
IWASHITA Shima, YOSHIDA Teruo, HAYAKAWA Tamotsu

Young and beautiful Chieko meets her twin sister, who informs her that their real parents are dead. The family tragedy stemmed from the old superstition that twins were unlucky and wrong. Chieko has been brought up by a dry goods merchant Sada and hi...

Release Date
Jan, 13th, 1963
Through Days and Months

Through Days and Months (1969)

Director
NAKAMURA Noboru
Cast
IWASHITA Shima, MORI Masayuki, KUGA Yoshiko

Young and beautiful Matsuko (Shima Iwashita) lives alone with her father (Masayuki Mori) in old Kamakura. Her mother (Yoshiko Kuga) has long deserted them in order to live with a younger man. Though Matsuko herself has experienced love - just once, w...

Release Date
Jan, 25th, 1969
The Eagle of Kodokan

The Eagle of Kodokan (1964)

Director
MIZUHO Shunkai
Cast
HONGO Kojiro, TAKADA Miwa, TSUBOUCHI Mikiko

Sanshiro Sugata rescues Shinobu Echigoya from the hands of Jujitsu-men who are employed by a money-lender named Ryosaku Horii, and falls in love with her. Tetsugen Onimaru of the Tanshinkan School finds in Gonzo Sakaki a mysterious martial artist, a...

Release Date
Feb, 1st, 1964
The Treasure of Death Castle

The Treasure of Death Castle (1964)

Director
KIKUCHI Yasushi, TANBA Tetsuro
Cast
TANBA Tetsuro, WANIBUCHI Haruko, MISHIMA Masao

Just as the Tatsunokuchi family has come into the possession of a large amount of gold, a cholera epidemic turns the castle city into a ghost town and the whereabouts of the gold is unknown. Among those who search for it is the masterless samurai, S...

Release Date
Oct, 15th, 1964
A Cheerful Girl

A Cheerful Girl (1957)

Director
MASUMURA Yasuzo
Cast
WAKAO Ayako, KAWASAKI Keizo, SUGAWARA Kenji

In this lighthearted work from Masumura's early period, protagonist Yuko comes to Tokyo to find her mother after learning about her from her critically ill grandmother. The film, which unfolds beneath a cloudless blue sky, remains remarkably unsentim...

Release Date
Oct, 8th, 1957
Showdown in the Storm

Showdown in the Storm (1958)

Director
KURAHARA Koreyoshi
Cast
ISHIHARA Yujiro, KITAHARA Mie, OKADA Masumi

It is when assisting his friend Nakagawa by riding for his team in a horsemanship contest that Senkichi Kira, a physical culture instructor meets beautiful Setsuko, but when they are pestered by hoodlums and Senkichi becomes involved with a gang boss...

Release Date
Oct, 29th, 1958
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA

KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1962)

Director
HONDA Ishiro
Cast
TAKASHIMA Tadao, SAHARA Kenji, FUJIKI Yu

The United Nations dispatches a submarine, the Sea Hawk, to study abnormally high temperatures in the Bering Sea. But as soon as the Sea Hawk arrives, it is damaged and sends out a distress signal. When a rescue helicopter arrives, its crew spots God...

Release Date
Aug, 11th, 1962
The Girl I Abandoned

The Girl I Abandoned (1969)

Director
URAYAMA Kirio
Cast
KAWARAZAKI Choichiro, ASAOKA Ruriko, KOBAYASHI Toshie

Tsutomu Yoshioka (Choichiro Kawarazaki) works for a fine company and is satisfied with life for the first time. His future, too, seems very promising since Mariko (Ruriko Asaoka), the niece of the president who works in the same office, is in love wi...

Release Date
Sep, 3rd, 1969
A Hen in the Wind

A Hen in the Wind (1948)

Director
OZU Yasujiro
Cast
SANO Shuji, TANAKA Kinuyo, MURATA Chieko

Ozu's second film made upon his return from military service, following 1947's Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Nagaya shinshiroku). Reduced to poverty during the hardship of the immediate post-war years, a woman is forced to prostitute herself to aff...

Release Date
Sep, 17th, 1948
The Hot Little Girl

The Hot Little Girl (1970)

Director
MASUMURA Yasuzo
Cast
ATSUMI Mari, KAWAZU Yusuke, TAMURA Ryo

Midori (Mari Atsumi) is a girl with a mind and a will of her own. Endowed with a beautiful face and a perfect figure, she is a popular model with her smiling face appearing frequently in the photogravure section of the weekly magazines. Shota (Ryoic...

Release Date
Oct, 3rd, 1970
Dragnet Girl

Dragnet Girl (1933)

Director
OZU Yasujiro
Cast
OKA Joji, TANAKA Kinuyo, MIZUKUBO Sumiko

When small-time gangster Joji falls for Kazuko, Joji's mistress Tokiko decides to scare her rival away, only to end up falling for her innocent charms herself. Inspired by Kazuko's example to turn over a new leaf, Tokiko convinces Joji to do the same...

Release Date
Apr, 27th, 1933
Mid-Summer Affair — “Underwater" Series, Part 4

Mid-Summer Affair — “Underwater" Series, Part 4 (1960)

Director
IWAMA Tsuruo
Cast
IZUMI Kyoko, OKI Minoru, KOYAMA Akiko

One summer day, a team of performing swimmers discovers Fumiko, a young woman, adrift on the sea whose husband has been drowned while attempting to save her. Next morning, on seeing Fumiko's picture in a swimming suit, Ryuko, a member of the team an...

Release Date
Jul, 19th, 1960
The Cast-Off

The Cast-Off (1959)

Director
MASUMURA Yasuzo
Cast
SABURI Shin, SAWAMURA Sadako, WAKAO Ayako

Sanada who has been a mere technician in a small laboratory becomes a director of a chemical company through his invention of a binding agent, Sandait. With the change in his social position his life undergoes a sudden transformation. His wife, kind-...

Release Date
May, 13th, 1959

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