In 1908, Director/Producer Shozo Makino (father of Japanese cinema) directed and produced the first dramatic film in Kyoto. “Honnô-ji Gassen” was shot at Shinnyo-Do Temple. Considered a lost film.
Social & External
Mori Ranmaru
Oda Nobunaga
Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?
John despises his father for being a failure in life. When John returns home to facilitate his father's funeral, his life comes to a turning point, as he discovers the true motivation of his misjudged father.
Guide and Good are at a club when Guide starts reminiscing about an ex. He then finds himself bumping into a stranger and has a strong urge to kiss him.
A young French girl's obsessions about her figure and complexion, but most of all her desire to lose her virginity.
When Robin's daughter Lacy wants to buy an expensive guitar, Robin reminisces about the days when she was a teenager, asking her dad for her first car, an Olds Cutlass Supreme.
Maggie's friends have planned a surprise birthday party (despite it being a month away). During the party, Maggie realizes there's more to it then that.
Every Tuesday, sixteen-year-old Allie stays with her dad and insists that this week will be no exception. Throughout the course of the day, she endures awkward encounters with family and friends before finally arriving at her dad’s flat where her routine is broken by the silence of an empty home.
A Canadian woman with two working class boyfriends writes letters to them, breaking off with one of them while professing her love for the other, but fears that she mixed up the letters.
Just Ask Him is a romantic LGBT short film about an out high school kid gathering the courage to ask his soccer jock crush to a dance.
Iran, 1984. Homeless brothers struggle to survive in a country at war.
A short film based on Steven King's short story of the same name.
Two teenagers search for escape and solitude in inner-city London. But even as they find their moment of tranquillity, it’s impossible to escape society’s preconceptions.
We Are Not Here is a short film about a small derelict town, waiting for a road. Through a series of vignettes we take a glimpse into the life of the town and its residents.
During an annual celebration in which English peasants and aristocrats mingle, the Duke of Loame is thrown from his horse and saved by Ivis Benson, the daughter of a tenant farmer. Both injured, they fall in love, to the dismay of his mother and Lady Eileen, his intended bride.
A nervous job candidate is forced to show much more than a positive attitude to save the life of her competitor.
Dani, Freddy and Oscar are three teenagers who have no real ambition in life because they live in a neighborhood where smoking pot and making a quick buck are all that matter. Dani is pregnant with Freddy's baby; however, because she doesn't have the support of her grandfather, who is her only family, she is considering getting an abortion. In order to keep the baby, Freddy, along with Oscar, plans to pull off his most daring heist yet, but things spin out of control and one of them is put in serious danger.
“No Bruises” is a narrative short film that explores the cyclical nature of emotional abuse, played out in vignette-style glimpses into one man’s relationships with three different women over time.
A stubborn VCR technician quits his job at an evolving tech-solutions conglomerate to start his own small business in hopes of making a final stand to stay relevant through the changing times.
The story of Yoshinaka during the tumultuous period of warring related to us in the Heike Monogatari. Close in setting to Kinugasa’s famous Gate of Hell (1953).
Gambler "On-the Level" Leigh (William S. Hart) is forced to leave his high rolling lifestyle to move his ailing sister Alice (Mildred Harris) to the healing climate the mountains. Financial strain compels him to resume his favored vocation. Unfortunately for Level, the dance hall girl Coralie (Alma Rubens) doesn't take rejection well and convinces the dealer to clean him out with a "cold deck". A desperate robbery ensues, leading to Level wanted for murder!
A rebellious ninja in 17th century Japan takes refuge with a fisherman and his family.
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.
After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.
Wishing to find peace, Zatoichi travels to his old village but only finds trouble when he ends up in a love triangle and finds old scores have followed him home.
A ronin desperately seeks a way out of financial straits; he allies with the Tosa clan under the ruthless leader Takechi, who quickly takes advantage.
Kakunoshin, renowned for his skills with a sword and in the game of go, embodies the samurai code. Falsely accused of a theft, he is forced to become a lowly ronin. Years later, when a case of missing gold pulls him into a new web of intrigue, Kakunoshin uncovers the truth behind his downfall. With the real culprit exposed, the go board flips, and a hellstorm of righteous vengeance follows.
After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.
Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the trapped travelers.
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
Kenshin has settled into his new life with Kaoru and his other friends when he is approached with a request from the Meiji government. Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin, was betrayed, set on fire and left for dead. He survived, and is now in Kyoto, plotting with his gathered warriors to overthrow the new government. Against Kaoru's wishes, Kenshin reluctantly agrees to go to Kyoto and help keep his country from falling back into civil war.
Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
Ogami Itto is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin and battles Retsudo, head of the Yagyu clan, and his son Gunbei.
Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it’s become a living hell, plagued by feuding father and son yakuza as well as the younger crime boss’s bodyguard, scruffy, smart-mouthed, cash-hungry Yojimbo of legend.
Manji, a highly skilled samurai, becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu. The mission will change Manji in ways he could never imagine.
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from him a reduction in taxes. Shiba takes up their fight, joined by two renegades from the magistrate's guard, Sakura and Kikyo. The three outlaws find themselves in a battle to the death.
A sadistic Daimyo (feudal lord) rapes a woman and murders both her and her husband, but even when one of his own vassals commits suicide to bring attention to the crime, the matter is quickly hushed up. Not only will there be no punishment, but because the Daimyo is the Shogun's younger brother, he will soon be appointed to a high political position from which he could wreak even more havoc. Convinced that the fate of the Shogunate hangs in the balance, a plot is hatched to assassinate the Daimyo. The two most brilliant strategic minds of their generation find themselves pitted against each other; one is tasked to defend a man he despises, and has a small army at his disposal. The other is given a suicide mission, and has 12 brave men. They are the 13 Assassins.
Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.
Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.