Films with: Nakadai, Tatsuya

Black river

Examines the rampant moral corruption on and around U.S. military bases in Japan following World War II. Kobayashi spirals out from the story of a love triangle that develops between a good-natured student, his innocent girlfriend, and a coldhearted criminal to reveal a nation slowly succumbing to lawlessness and violence.

DVD 9649

Daibosatsutōge The sword of doom /

This is the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil. A gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, Ryunosuke (Nakadai) kills without remorse, without mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness.

DVD 3411

Duel tale = Hatashiai /

"[Veteran] actor Nakadai Tatsuya [...] gives the performance of a lifetime as Shoji Sanosuke, an elderly samurai forced to pick up his sword to protect those he loves in this adaptation of a Fujisawa Shūhei novel. As a Heya-zumi' - essentially a freeloader living off his family - Sanosuke has one last chance to help his grandniece escape from the cruel samurai of an arranged marriage. Winner of the Gold World Medal at the New York Festival, this heartfelt tale is a thing of rare beauty."--Container.

DVD 13438

Human condition.

A pacifist civilian's humane treatment of mine workers and Allied prisoners of war angers the Japanese authorities during World War II.

DVD 1151

Human condition.

Tells the story of Kaji, who is sent to the front in the horrible final days of World War II as punishment for treating Chinese prisoners humanely.

DVD 1152

Human condition.

Tells the story of Kaji, who awakens to a world ravaged by war. Starved and pursued by guilt and fear, he escapes into Siberia.

DVD 1153

Inheritance

On his deathbed, a wealthy businessman announces that his fortune is to be split equally among his three illegitimate children, whose whereabouts are unknown. A bevy of lawyers and associates begin machinations to procure the money for themselves, resorting to the use of impostors and blackmail. Yet all are outwitted by the cunning of the man's secretary, in this entertaining condemnation of unchecked greed.

DVD 9650

Kagemusha

Reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a soaring historical epic about a peasant impersonating a nobleman in battle. Kagemusha is presented in its original 180 min. uncut Japanese version, not the shortened "international version" presented by 20th Century Fox. In 16th century feudal Japan, a thief is saved from execution to train as a double for one of the warlords, Shingen. Three warlords, Shingen, Nobunaga, and Ieyasu, battle for total power over Japan. When Shingen receives a mortal wound, the double must take his place to hold the Takeda clan together.

DVD 5115

Kaidan

Consists of four stories of the supernatural based on Japanese folk material. In The black hair, a poor young samurai leaves his first wife to marry a rich woman. When he is unhappy in his second marriage, he returns to his first wife, who at first appears unchanged from when he last saw her. In The woman of the snow, a woodcutter is spared by a mysterious ghost-like woman in the snow, but must promise never to tell anyone what he has seen. In Hoichi, the earless, a blind musician-monk named Hoichi is commanded by a gathering of ghosts to sing the saga of their ancient deeds. The head monk paints Hoichi's body with prayer verses to protect him, but unfortunately overlooks Hoichi's ears. In In a cup of tea, a writer wonders what would happen to a person who drinks another's soul and finds out.

DVD 7590

Kiru Kill! /

In feudal Japan, Genta is a successful samurai warrior whose world falls apart after he is ordered to kill his best friend. Now rejecting the samurai ways, Genta devotes himself to a spiritual quest. Soon, Genta is drawn into a conflict at a local village and must decide if he will again take up the sword.

DVD 9362

Ran

In 16th century Japan, an aging ruler attempts to divide his kingdom among his three sons, who turn against each other and betray their father, triggering events that ultimately shatter the kingdom, destroy the family, and drive their father insane.

DVD 708

Ran

An aging warlord decides to split his kingdom between his three sons, who will live in three separate castles. The two eldest sons are quite happy, but the youngest thinks his father has gone mad, and predicts that it won't be long until the two older brothers are fighting with each other.

DVD 4690

Return Kikyo /

"Nakadai Tatsuya ... returns to the screen in a brilliant adaptation of a story by novelist Fujisawa Shuhei. A traveling gambler known as 'Funeral Uno,' he is now 86 years old and returning to his hometown for the first time in 30 years. Partly told in flashbacks, [his story relates how] he is forced to face his lifelong nemesis, Boss Kyuzo, a vile yakuza portrayed by ... Nakamura Atsuo. Before the two old gamblers can settle a 30-year-old score they must put their lives on the line in a game of dice that can only lead to a bloody sword duel. ... Superb performances all around in a film loaded with surprises and exciting swordplay!"--Container.

DVD 13440

Seppuku Hara kiri /

Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri.

DVD 9970

Three films by Hiroshi Teshigahara

Pitfall: When a miner leaves his employer and treks out with his young son to become a migrant worker, he finds himself moving from one eerie landscape to another, intermittently followed (and photographed) by an enigmatic man in a clean, white suit, and eventually coming face-to-face with his inescapable destiny. Woman in the dunes: An amateur entomologist leaves Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert. When he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. The face of another: Okuyama, after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations.

DVD 4824

Tsubaki Sanjūrō Sanjuro /

A skilled but slovenly ronin comes to the aid of a group of naive young warriors fighting their corrupt clan leaders and manages to keep them out of trouble and alive in spite of their high ideals.

DVD 701

Yojimbo The bodyguard /

In the year 1860, a wandering samurai-for-hire turns the war between two clans fighting for control of a small town to his own advantage. A satire on greed, violence, paranoia and human weakness. Includes theatrical trailer.

DVD 654