Brother
(2000) [R]

A film by Takeshi Kitano, the director of Hana-Bi, Violent Cop and Boiling Point. In Japan, the sworn brotherhood of the Yakuza is described as being "thicker than the blood of kindred brothers". With his life under threat, disgraced Yakuza hard man Yamamoto (Takeshi) escapes to Los Angeles in...  More

Ninja Scroll
(1993) [MA]

Removed from the typical futuristic element of most Japanese animated adventures, this 1994 feature takes place in more of a sword-and-sorcery epic set in feudal Japan. Jubei Kipagami, a ninja mercenary, wanders the countryside in search of work. On his travels, he encounters Kagero, a female...  More

Blood: The Last Vampire
(2000) [M]

Japan’s first fully-digitally-animated feature film, Blood - The Last Vampire takes place in the fall of 1966. The Vietnam War is underway and the U.S. military machine is being supplied out of the Yokota Air Force Base - a plot of U.S. land within Japan. Within the compound, the atmosphere is...  More

The Castle Of Cagliostro
(1979) [PG]

Although Lupin III is a hugely successful animated series on television and film in Japan and the U.S., The Castle of Cagliostro is distinguished by its director, Hayao Miyazaki, who would later direct such animated classics as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Mononoke Hime. The daring...  More

Drunken Angel
(1948) [PG]

Originally titled Yoidore tenshi, Drunken Angel was director Akira Kurosawa's first "auteur" project. "I finally discovered myself," he explained later. "It was my picture: I was doing it and no one else." Takashi Shimura plays an alcoholic doctor, running a fleabitten clinic in the slums of...  More

In The Realm Of The Senses
(1976) [R]

Based upon a true incident in 1930s Japan, Nagisa Oshima's controversial film effectively skirts the borderline between pornography and art - making Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris of four years earlier look like children's programming in comparison. The story concerns servant and...  More

Akira - Special Edition
(1988) [M]

One of the most influential examples of anime, Akira is based on the manga (comic book) by Katsuhiro Otomo. The story is set in the post-apocalyptic community of Neo-Tokyo. Tetsuo is a fiercely individualistic member of a scroungy motorcycle gang. The despotic authorities, the robot-like police,...  More

Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend / Legend of the Demon Womb
(1989) [R]

The two most controversial, violent and explicit anime ever made, together on one DVD. Legend has it that there are really three worlds: the world of Humans, the world of Man-Beasts, and the nightmare world of Monster Demons, who take on earthly forms to pour their mighty energies into the bodies...  More

The Samurai: Volume 4
(1962) [PG]

The Hunter Ninja Kogento enables an expert rifleman to do away with Shintaro. Mystic Bridge Shintaro offers to escort some fugitives from the Koga ninja into Kofu though this means he will have to walk back towards his enemies who are pursuing him. Star Jumper While searching for a secret...  More

The Hidden Fortress
(1958) [PG]

The story follows two greedy peasants in feudal Japan, Tahei and Matashichi, who are returning home from a failed attempt to profit from a war between neighboring clans. En Route they encounter the remnants of the defeated tribe that consists, most notably, of a famous General and a Princess who...  More