Sakon Detective Story: Handprint in Fresh Blood

I Was Born, But...

Brothers Keiji and Ryoichi move to a new neighborhood in the Tokyo suburbs after their father, an office clerk, is promoted. The boys join the local gang as lowly new kids and emerge as natural leaders after defeating a bully. While visiting the home of their father's boss, the brothers witness the ridicule their father endures to please his superior. Angry and embarrassed, the boys find their naive ideas about power being challenged.

Woman of Tokyo

Ryoichi and Chikako, brother and sister, live together. Chikako toils during the day and, at night, prostitutes herself to fund his college tuition.

Tokyo Chorus

During the Depression, a young man struggles to provide for his family after he is sacked for defending an older colleague.

Dragnet Girl

A gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.

Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?

When a young man inherits his father's lucrative business, he cheats the system to set up three of his college friends with jobs.

What Did the Lady Forget?

A professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokiko, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Despite being a minor, Setsuko is a liberated woman who does whatever she wants, including smoking. She even convinces Koyima to take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada, one of his students, to take her home. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home.

Next Door to Happiness

The Nakata family, father, mother, son Hideo, and daughters Taeko and Akiko live in the poorer section of modern Tokyo. Their troubles start when the father leaves with another woman, returns after he is rejected, and leaves again with the family's money.

Theater

Kotobuki-za is a story of the Naniwa-bushi singer Baichuken Tsurumaru.

The Fighting Street

Her Hoodlum Lover

Haru no Wakakusa

Kare o korosu na

処女雪

Minako, Sadae, and Momoyo were all in love with their filial art teacher, Sasaki Shinya, but when Momoyo realized that Shinya loved Minako, she gave up and devoted herself to painting, and Sadae was so frustrated that she even staged a fake suicide. As a result, Minako's parents misunderstood Shinya, and in anger, he went to Tokyo, where he worked as an illustrator for his friend Sunaga's publishing company, and was introduced to the artist Hotta, and coincidentally, it was at one of these meetings that he met Sadae, who had become a waitress at a bar.

The Big Ambition

Rira no hana wasureji

In the 30th year, Nirasaki Den'emon established the Nirasaki Hokkaido Development Company with investment from Sonoi to build railway facilities. However, the endeavor faced criticism for attempting to buy Ainu land at low prices. Tokyo Nippo reporter Toshimasa Matsuzaka, who was actually Nirasaki's son, wants to expose the flawed practices of the company.

Sailor

Shinpachi Morimura, who was born in a fusuma craftsman's house, wants to join the Japanese navy. However, his father wants him to continue in the family business and refuses to accept it.

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

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.

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

When the Last Sword Is Drawn

Kanichiro Yoshimura is a Samurai and Family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan, he is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them.

Harakiri

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.

Ugetsu

In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.