Kōji Wakamatsu

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The late Fujio Akatsuka is revered by many Japanese artists and scholars for his developments to early comedy manga, but his contributions aren't just limited to the world of print media. Featuring commentary from family, friends, colleagues, and celebrity fans, Fujio Akatsuka's story is told with archival footage and animation, showcasing the life of the man who went beyond manga.

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A young man is unable to save a young woman from being assaulted, despite her having helped him out of a difficult situation in the past. Wracked with regret, he decides to provide assistance to her younger twin sister who is plotting revenge against society.

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Documentary on one of the most famous branches of Japanese filmmaking, the erotic Pink film genre, known as Pinku Eiga, and the closely related Roman Porno cult films series produced by notorious Nikkatsu studios from 1971 to 1988.

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Since she was a little girl, Nagisa Yoko had two dreams: one was to have a song written for her by Aku Yu; the other was to sing at the Shinjuku Koma Theater. Aku Yu had already had written an original song for her. When Nagisa heard that the Shinjuku Koma Theater was to close down, she decided that she would have to rent the hall herself, in order to realize her dream. The concert was a great success, aided by many of her friends, including Wakamatsu Koji, Yamaya Hatsuo, Naito Chin, and Mikami Kan, who grew up in Shinjuku. Director Kawanaka Nobuhiro has fond memories from decades ago, when he was delivering milk and had a chance to talk with the Shinkokugeki actor Ogata Ken in the Shinjuku Koma Theater dressing room. He returns to that room in this film.

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During a militant attack on an airport, the hand grenade of 'M', one of three terrorists, malfunctions, leading to him being captured and held indefinitely in prison. Exposed to mistreatment behind bars, he slowly loses his grip on reality as he is forced to confront his ideological convictions.

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Works commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Japan mapping Supervision Association

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The film follows Nanba, a shunned outcast who doesn’t have a girlfriend, any money or prospects, a turnaround from his glory days in high school when he played on the baseball team; his former teammate Ishioka, who is now a policeman because of an elbow injury; and baseball fanatic Eiko, a hopeless alcoholic who spends more of her time drunk than sober. The three share an intense love of baseball — and their destinies are forever intertwined.

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Documentary filmmaker Kenjiro Fujii takes a look at the history of a distinctly Japanese brand of softcore pornography in this extensive examination of the "pinku eiga" genre (ピンク映画 Pinku eiga or Pinkeiga). For more than 40 years, so-called "pink" films have served as both a key source of revenue for the Japanese film industry as well as a launching pad for the careers of such mainstream filmmakers as Kiyoshi Kurosawa. After providing a detailed history of the still-profitable and popular genre through interviews with a variety of behind-the-scenes players and clips from such classic pink films as Fish Bait Boobies, director Fujii shifts his focus to the production of an upcoming pink film to offer a glimpse into the creative and stylistic evolution of the genre.

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Kiryu Mamoru, a subordinate boss of the Tomogashira Group, earns a living through the shady business of "yamikin" or underground lending. He preys on desperate customers who cannot get loans from legitimate lenders, charging exorbitant interest rates of 30% in 10 days or even 90% in some cases, in violation of the law. With the backing of his yakuza group, he employs extremely vicious and unethical methods...

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Documentary about the making of Nagisa Oshima's 1976 film.

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A documentary on sixties counterculture in Japan featuring Donald Richie, Tadanori Yokoo, Masao Adachi, Koji Wakamatsu, Toshio Matsumoto and Akaji Maro among others.

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A girl living with her grandma in the countryside has a strange dream. When she goes to school the next day, she finds out everybody else had the same dream.

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Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect.

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A story about a female reporter investigating sex workers in Shinjuku.

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You-chan is a young man who delivers eggs from Tochigi Prefecture to Tokyo's city center, and he is an avid fan of yakuza movies. One day, he encounters an escaped prisoner during deliveries and becomes friends with him. Detective Arabuka shoots the man dead, and You-chan is arrested for obstruction of justice. After three days in jail, he becomes a member of the dead prisoner's organization.

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Kayo, who is famous for her beauty, own a bar in a port town. The establishment is always crowded with customers infatuated with her. For the past three years, Kayo has been in a relationship with Murakami, a city councilman. One day, a young man and woman, Jun and Yoko, come to town. They are planning to stow away somewhere, but no one will take them in. Exhausted, they happen to come to Kayo's bar. Eventually, Kayo's past and the man she used to be with are revealed, and Jun and Yoko's desperate actions lead to the story's conclusion...

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During clashes between demonstrators and police that rage on the streets of Tokyo, a young man hides in the house of his brother - a police officer. The latter is accidentally shot by his wife, which forces the young man to flee with her.

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The insane gynecologist, Dr. Marukido Sadao (Marquis de Sade), theorizes that a woman is unable to become pregnant if she is writhing in intense pain during intercourse. He sets about testing this new method of birth control by torturing women during sex.

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A man who was once a student activist marries the daughter of the head of a big trust company. He uses his position as an elite salaryman to do whatever he pleases. However, a shadow from his past starts to creep into his life...

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Interview with members of the crew on the making of the 1978 film "Empire of Passion."

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Sennen no yuraku is set in a small community called “Roji” where Kenji Nakagami—one of the most famous novelists in Japan—drew the absurdity and passion of life since its inhabitants have been living and dying. There were beautiful men in “Roji” who struggled to live with the blood of the Nakamato Clan, blood called “noble yet unholy.” Oryu, a midwife, has watched all those men growing up, living and dying... She is now aging old and starts to talk with the dead men souls of the Nakamoto Clan...

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On November 25th 1970, a man committed ritual suicide inside the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese Ministry of Defence, leaving behind a legacy of masterpieces and a controversy that echoes to this day. The man was Yukio Mishima, one of Japan's greatest and most celebrated novelists. With four members of his own private army - the Tatenokai - Mishima had taken the commandant hostage and called upon the assembled military outside the Ministry to overthrow their society and restore the powers of the Emperor. When the soldiers mocked and jeered Mishima, he cut short his speech and withdrew to the commandant's office where he committed seppuku - the samurai warrior's death - tearing open his belly with a ceremonial knife before being beheaded by one of his colleagues. What was Mishima truly trying to express through his actions? And what did he witness during his final moments?

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Seeking to exact revenge upon Yoji, Yukio travels to an area surrounded by the sea, desert and lava topped mountains. There, Yukio meets mysterious Rika and becomes enchanted by her presence. While, Yukio can't get Rika out of his mind, he faces off against Masakazu, a former subordinate of Yoji, and a detective chasing Rika.

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The story of a village woman given the grueling task of looking after (and fulfilling the sexual needs of) her quadruple amputee husband, a Japanese soldier in the Second Sino-Japanese War who has been decreed a "War God" by the Emperor.

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Two of the most radical student groups form the United Red Army (URA) and head into the mountains to conduct a training camp. Ideology devolves into despotism, and the URA's leaders begin to arbitrarily persecute their followers, a harrowing ordeal that culminates in violence and murder.

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A Japanese teenager bicycles aimlessly through the countryside after killing his mother.

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Tatsuya is on a honeymoon in Australia. A couple of unfortunate encounters land him in jail, where he’s imprisoned without a chance of ever getting out again. His wife tries her best to launch an appeal, but it’s Tatsuya’s inmates who are his best chance of escaping his current predicament.

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Commissioned by Japan’s largest prep school, Kawaijuku, as an entrance ceremony short, this 1986 film follows a year in the life of a female “ronin” student. Directed by then-rookie Junichi Inoue and produced by iconoclastic filmmaker Koji Wakamatsu, it transforms what should have been a conventional promotional piece into an audacious, subversive portrait of youth, featuring Mikari, Naoto Takenaka, and manga legend Fujio Akatsuka.

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In 1923 a Japanese comes to Munich and immediately falls in love with a street artist with a red hat, without knowing her past is. She turns to the Japanese, for the first time she thinks she has found her really great love- exotic stranger attracts her. They say a lot, but they do not understand each other - but they can show their love. Nevertheless, the relationship is doomed to failure from the beginning. Disappointment, death and loss.

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After saving a girl from rape, a bored rail worker finds out about a chemical that makes people sleep and gets carried away into a new, violent world of ideas.

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Pinku from 1980.

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Naomi is sent to prison in place of her brother, who is involved with a violent gang. There, she experiences various forms of vigilante justice at the hands of the sexually frustrated female inmates. From being tortured with leftover food to being stripped naked and forced to crawl around and lick the genitals of other female inmates, she endures insidious sexual abuse. To make matters worse, the female guard is a lesbian. Then, a virgin woman whom her brother had saved arrives in the communal cell, now a depraved prostitute. When Naomi learns that her brother was killed by a gang leader, she seeks revenge upon her parole...

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In the past, the only way to prove the true culprit of a crime was through physical evidence and the suspect's confession. For this reason, various torture methods were used to force confessions. However, the principle of confession was rejected in 1879, and torture was abolished. However, this is only on the surface, and torture by police and prosecutors continues to be used subtly to this day. This film is a shocking semi-documentary that exposes the reality of the numerous torture methods that stain history with gruesome blood. The story is divided into three parts and vividly depicts two cases of torture by those in power, one of a brutal lynching that covers the eyes of a husband with a lesbian wife, and another, each of which builds up abnormal sexual excitement amid the bloody scenes.

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In the end of the 19th century, social restoration occurred in Japan. Seizing on the confusion, Gonnosuke deprives land from farmers, and this pushes him way to the top as a businessman. However, he has hideous sexual propensity which he sexually abuses women. Gonnosuke excruciates hard and causes 2 housemaids to die. The dreadful history recurs...

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A man (Shimomoto Shiro), who is an assistant to a star singer, and a woman (Tajima Haruka), who specializes in playing passersby in TV dramas, go on a trip on a motorcycle. They don't have any particular destination in mind, but they just think that speeding down mountain roads on a motorcycle will make them feel refreshed. Both he and she were struggling to protect their dreams in the city every day. They lived in agony, searching for a way out. When Tajima's long hair fluttered in the wind, Shimomoto began to confess. At that moment, a slight sense of unease began to grow between the two lovers...

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A woman believing to be a legendary immortal nun attracts people looking for answers to their life struggles.

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A story about a female reporter investigating sex workers in Shinjuku.

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AKA Serial Killer documents the social upheaval and political oppression that roiled Japan in the 1960s, profiling a nineteen-year-old serial killer Norio Nagayama. An indictment of media sensationalism, the film humanizes the young man by situating his crimes in the larger context of his environment.

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Kayo, who is famous for her beauty, own a bar in a port town. The establishment is always crowded with customers infatuated with her. For the past three years, Kayo has been in a relationship with Murakami, a city councilman. One day, a young man and woman, Jun and Yoko, come to town. They are planning to stow away somewhere, but no one will take them in. Exhausted, they happen to come to Kayo's bar. Eventually, Kayo's past and the man she used to be with are revealed, and Jun and Yoko's desperate actions lead to the story's conclusion...

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Debut film from manga artist Seiichi Hayashi. A boy and a girl from the same hometown reunite in the big city and sleep together one night. But, the girl reveals the following day that she is engaged to someone else...

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A militant revolutionary group is torn apart by betrayal as its members descend into paranoia and sexual decadence.

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Mishima has just committed suicide. Two couples meet by accident at an inn in the countryside, the man and the woman, now, each with a new partner, who knew each other already for ten years...

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A woman who has just missed her suicide and a couple which has just left its political movement meet on a beach...

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In the Edo era, two man arrive in a village and engage in criminal activity. While one of them becomes successful and rich, the other gets betrayed and ends up in prison, burning for revenge. The truth changes with the viewpoint in this Wakamatsu film, which has inspired comparisons to Rashomon.

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A small gang of revolutionary students is hidden away by a small-time thief. While they are in hiding, everyone except the thief takes turns engaging in sexual activities with a girl who appears unhappy and perhaps unwilling, having had the misfortune of getting involved with them.

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Pinku from 1970.

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First Half: Kamasutra in three dimensions. Second Half: Report-movie-like short story.

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A salesman is looking in the city of Tokyo for his lost son. But he becomes increasingly angry at the young and radical hippies, who are not the least helpful.

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From an apartment belonging to a single woman, two detectives spy on sex-obsessed radical.

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Three violent and disillusioned students share an apartment. Their search for a place in society is through porn, fights, rape, and voyeurism. Not even leftist, militant student organizations are able to channel their youthful frustration.

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A girl becomes a pawn in the game between two rival gangs gangster.

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Three high school girls about to take their final exam, secretly plan to ruin the diploma ceremony in order to avenge themselves of that school which treated them as delinquents. Two classmates who discovered their plan decide to join the rebellion. They steal all the graduation certificates, use their charms to get weapons from Jieitai soldiers and establish their base in the mountain.

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During clashes between demonstrators and police that rage on the streets of Tokyo, a young man hides in the house of his brother - a police officer. The latter is accidentally shot by his wife, which forces the young man to flee with her.

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The film follows a frustrated young man who yearns to be in the company of women. If at first he seems unable to make any kind of meaningful connection with them, he awakens dark feelings that will drive him to commit violent crimes after his first sexual experiences.

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