Keinosuke Uekusa

Hashire Melos! is the title of two Japanese animated films. The first was directed by Tomoharu Katsumata and released on Japanese television on February 7, 1981. It was either 68 or 87 minutes long, and its official title did not include the exclamation mark on the end. The second, with the exclamation mark, was a 107-minute remake of the first and was released on July 25, 1992. It featured direction and screenplay by Masaaki Osumi, music by Kazumasa Oda, art by Hiroyuki Okiura and Satoshi Kon, and background art by Hiroshi Ohno. Both were produced by Toei Company Ltd. Visual 80, and both were based on the original short story written by Osamu Dazai in 1940.

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School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.

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A touching love story about a heroine who loses her parents in the war and tries to keep her pure love alive despite the many difficulties she faces.

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A monkey king who learns the secrets of magic goes on a spree and causes no end of aggravation for the gods, who finally imprison him. In order to make up for all the trouble he's caused, he is sent on a mission to accompany a prince who is the son of the gods on a journey through a land filled with dangers, monsters, cannibals and demons.

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A taxi driver hits a woman on the streets. He takes care of her while she gets better. While realizing they're both at a brink in their lives they'll start falling for each other against their odds.

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Sakura (nicknamed Sally), a 12 year old biracial girl, ran away from her adoptive family in America to find her real mother in Japan.

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A drama about relations between Japanese immigrants and the indigenous Ainu on Hokkaido, the most northerly island of Japan. From a novel by Taijun Takeda.

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Film by Buichi Saito

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After graduating from a high school in the Seto Inland Sea, Koji, a childhood friend of Yaeko, went to Tokyo to enter university wearing a heartfelt sweater.

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Kanae, who broke up with her husband and moved to her uncle's house, met two men when her father, a university professor, collapsed. Michihara, a wealthy man and Miyashita, a youth scholar. Kanae is attracted to Miyashita, but ...

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A Hibari Misora musical about an impoverished girl and her brother in Postwar Japan.

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In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.

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Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope.

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This is Kanjûrô Arashi's first film with Nikkatsu after his independent production company went bankrupt (many of these independent companies went bankrupt shortly after the transition to sound). As he is mostly famous for his portrait of Kurama tengu (and on the other hand, he's the definitive actor for Kurama Tengu as well), Nikkatsu made another version of Kurama tengu, co-directed by Masahiro Makino & Sadatsugu Matsuda who are both sons of Shozo Makino. Scripted by Yoshitake Hisa, a jidaigeki specialist who later scripted several Toei All-Star Jidaigeki.

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