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 (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 (1960)
- Director
- NARUSE Mikio
- Cast
- HARA Setsuko, TAKAMINE Hideko, TAKARADA Akira
- Release Date
- May, 28th, 1960

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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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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