Movies: Akira Shioji

We find Reiko Ike once again cast as a tough schoolgirl who has to band together with her enemies to upset the reign of their private Catholic high school administration where institutionalized sexual abuse is endemic. The tables are turned on the pr...

Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin....

A headstrong young man seeks to join the Shinsengumi, but while his determination impresses his superiors, questions begin to arise as to his true identity and intentions....

An unusual blending of elements comes together in this crime story drawn from Japanese history. During the early Meiji period a number of “Dokufu” (Poison Women) committed a significant number of murders. These crimes were most often committed by wiv...

The Ni Family is the most well know and respected group of firefighters in the Kanto region. When their leader dies and the successor disappears, Tsuruji, a beautiful yet tough geisha, becomes the boss. But will she be able to confront a yakuza gan...

This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history....

A tale of three Yakuza gamblers who traveled Japan during the samurai era living by their wits and sword skills. Told in 3 separate vignettes, each part tells the story of a different drifter’s life. Part 1: A man is on the run after killing two Hass...

In this first episode, we are introduced to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he became the man of legend. His beginning are not exactly auspicious. He sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of th...

Reconstruction, in the form of episodes, of the most bizarre crimes that occurred in Japan after World War II....

Bank robbers steal 30 million yen and try to elude the cops and escape with the cash. Of the three, only one manages to avoid capture. Yoko, a female accomplice, is tossed in a women's prison where she meets Yuki, and the two of them manage to escape...

Based on Kazuo Taoka's autobiography, this film follows a Kobe gangster as he builds the small Yamaguchi-gumi into Japan's largest criminal clan....

The seventh chapter of the stunning Hibotan Bakuto series. Many years have passed since Oryu the Red Peony began her soul-searching journey after her father was killed. In her travels, she meets villagers whose crops and livelihoods are being destroy...

The fourth film of the “Truck Yaro” series. A comical road movie of two long-distance truckers, “Momojiro” and “Kinzo,” who travel around Japan in highly decorated trucks. Momojiro goes to Shikoku this time, and he falls in love with a beautiful desi...

Frustrated with the bad behavior of his lord, Inaba Yajuro (Otomo) declares that he is leaving the clan and sets off on a journey that leads him into a small town besieged by a violent group of brigands. In a kind of homage to Kurosawa's 7 Samurai...

In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war, achieving nothing because fighting on the losing side, & then beginning his long period of wandering & training, with the goal always in mind of his duel with Koji...

Komatsu Takioka is boss of a Yakuza group rival to Masakichi Kijima boss of the Kikuya group which supports the town vendors unlike Takioka, who will stop at nothing to undermine the vendors and take over the territory. Masakichi will do all he can t...

Ichibei is assigned by Shogun Tokugawa to prevent the sale of a Dutch ships-load of rifles to the hostile Shogun Satsuma. On his mission he meets a cowardly Ronin who becomes his assistant, as well as a female spy and a female warrior......

Upon his release from prison, Masa (Bunta Sugawara) is disappointed to not be picked up by his brother Katsu (Tamio Kawaji). After hitching a ride on a bus full of old women, Masa finds out that Katsu tried to fake a car accident and get some money f...

Osaka in the early 1600s, aftermath of the historical Battle of Sekigahara; a group of orphan children are wandering through the battlefield scavenging for armour when they encounter a young boy named Sasuke with magical powers he says came from a me...

A rich retired middle-aged man is seduced by young bar dancer and she moves into his mansion. He enjoys his newfound girlfriend when her sexy mother shows up. The mother and daughter both proceed to seduce him to exhaustion. But when some relatives o...