Films with:

Chikamatsu monogatari A story from Chikamatsu /

"An exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. Based on a classic of eighteenth-century Japanese drama, the film traces the injustices that befall a Kyoto scroll maker's wife and his apprentice after each is unfairly accused of wrongdoing. Bound by fate in an illicit, star-crossed romance, they go on the run in search of refuge from the punishment prescribed them: death"--Container.

DVD 12867

Gion no shimai Sisters of the Gion /

Two geisha sisters - one modern-minded, the other staunchly traditional - disagree over how to deal with the men controlling their lives and livelihoods. An early work by Kenji Mizoguchi featuring his favored theme of women struggling against societal boundaries.

DVD 8606

Ōsaka erejī Osaka elegy /

Telephone company employee Ayako agrees to enter into an affair with her married boss, after he promises to support her and her father but setting her off on an apparently irreversible downward spiral.

DVD 8556

Sanshô dayû Sansho the bailiff /

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave drivers.

DVD 5265