Watch movies directed by Yasuzō Masumura

Lullaby of the Earth

The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world when her grandmother dies. Notwithstanding her healthy distrust of all strangers, which her upbringing instilled in her, it is not long before a cunning racketeer finds her weak point, that temptation which she cannot resist, that weakness, different as it may be, that each of us has, and brings her into his power. ...

NR

7.4

1976 Drama 111 min Play

6.3

Hanzo the Razor: The Snare

Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Itami enforces the law without regard to status. He shows inadequate respect to the treasurer, who wants him dead.

NR

6.3

1973 Action 89 min Play

7

Blind Beast

A blind sculptor kidnaps an artists’ model and imprisons her in his warehouse studio – a shadowland of perverse monuments to the female form. Here a deranged passion play of sensual and sexual obsession is acted out in world where sight is replaced by touch.

NC-17

7

1969 Drama 84 min Play

6.4

Love for an Idiot

A middle-aged factory engineer trains, marries, and ultimately loses a teenage bride after she enslaves him to her whims.

NR

6.4

1967 Comedy 93 min Play

7.6

Red Angel

In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war. She has to assist the surgeon Dr. Okabe with an incredible number of amputations. In the crowded wards, she gives sympathy to some of the soldiers, including sexually servicing one who has lost both arms and has no hope of returning home. She falls in love with Dr. Okabe, and follows him to the front, even though he is impotent from his morphine addiction

NR

7.6

1966 Drama 95 min Play

6.9

Irezumi

A mysterious tattoo artist puts his masterpiece, a human-faced spider, on a kidnapped woman's back. She and her lover are then forced into a conspiracy-born nightmare, where they face the danger of becoming the very evil they seek to escape. With each new bloody incident, the spider's face seems to redden with ever-growing hunger…

NR

6.9

1966 Drama 86 min Play

7

Seisaku’s Wife

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of poverty. Upon her husband’s sudden death, she withdraws to her small farming village where she stoically submits to public opprobrium and lives the silent sullen life of a pariah. Along comes Seisaku, the local “model youth”, returning from his army duty: while she is the shame of the village, he is the pride of his community. Nevertheless, the ...

NR

7

1965 Drama 93 min Play

6.7

Manji

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture.

NR

6.7

1964 Drama 91 min Play

6.2

Black Test Car

Two car manufacturers spy on each other to try to find out details and prices of a new sports car each is about to launch.

NR

6.2

1962 Action 95 min Play

6.7

A Wife Confesses

Tied to a mountain between her brutalizing spouse and her secret lover, disaster strikes; the authorities accuse her of murder and prompt a confession.

NR

6.7

1961 Drama 91 min Play

5.9

Afraid To Die

On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position of his recently deceased father, boss of the Asahina clan. But their exit proves more difficult than planned when their rival clan steps in to exact revenge.

NR

5.9

1960 Action 96 min Play

6.5

Giants and Toys

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies.

NR

6.5

1958 Comedy 95 min Play

6.4

Kisses

Kinichi and Akiko meet when they visit their fathers in prison. After successfully gambling on a bicycle race, they spend an enjoyable day together at the beach. Akiko, who tries to make money as an artist's model to pay for her mother's medical expenses, now has to find 100,000 yen to pay off the company from which her father embezzled. Kinichi also requires 100,000 yen as bail for his father, who is accused of election fraud. Kinichi tries to borrow 100,000 yen from his mother, whom he ...

NR

6.4

1957 Drama 74 min Play

6.3

The Blue Sky Maiden

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she is not who she thought she was.

NR

6.3

1957 Comedy 89 min Play