Ken Utsui
1931 - 2014
七人の侍
Akira Kurosawa
Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
Seven Samurai
たそがれ酒場
Tomu Uchida
Daisuke Katō, Eijirō Tōno
Takes place in one place, a beer hall, over the course of one evening. Uchida employs this concentration of setting and time to fashion a microcosm for a group portrait of Japan. One by one, the regulars of the bar appear: the pianist who dreams of becoming a composer but has disappeared from the music world after a knifing; a stripper who had planned to be a ballet dancer; an elderly painter trying to make a living at pachinko, and who rues his art having been used for militarist propaganda during the war; a young waitress considering elopement; a colonel turned real estate broker who attempts to rouse the crowd in military song until he realizes the tune has been transformed by marchers in the street into a leftist chant. The "twilight" is more than just a time of day; here, it is a state of being, a suspension between past and present, between the camaraderie of the saloon and the harsh world outside.
Twilight Saloon
The Falcon Fighters
Mitsuo Murayama
Makoto Satō, Kōjirō Hongō
In the prewar days leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937, head flight instructor Lt. Katō Tateo of the Imperial Japanese Army-Air Corps trains new volunteers from the Army's Infantry to become Japan's next generation of fighter pilots at the Tokorozawa Flying School. Flying Kawasaki Ko-4 biplanes, Lt. Katō will train both friend and future foe alike. But as war in China breaks out, Katō now in command of the 5th Rentai will take his untested men flying antiquated planes into aerial combat against the Chinese Air Force who is now headed by Lt. Cho who Katō both earlier befriended and personally trained himself. While Katō's squadron ultimately achieves air superiority over the skies of Manchuria, it comes at a high price in men to which each loss carries a heavy burden that he alone must carry. As the war widens into the Second World War, Captain Katō must battle an ever advancing array of deadlier new enemies flying ever more modern fighter planes.
The Falcon Fighters
マリと子犬の物語
Ryuichi Inomata
Eiichiro Funakoshi, Ryohei Hirota
The touching and dramatic tale of the relationship between a Japanese family, their dog and her three puppies, set against the backdrop of a devastating earthquake and the ensuing chaos, rescues and heroism.
A Tale of Mari and Three Puppies
Маленький беглец
Eduard Bocharov, Teinosuke Kinugasa
Chiharu Inayoshi, Makiko Ishimaru
During a Soviet circus tour in Japan, a small street musician, Ken, meets a clown, Yuri Nikulin. Upon learning that his sick father is being treated in the Soviet Union, Ken sets off in search of him. The friendship of the great clown and the boy continues in Moscow.
The Little Runaway
Sûpâ jaiantsu - Uchûtei to jinkô eisei gekitotsu
Teruo Ishii
Ken Utsui
The 6th Super Giant film. Although he was believed to be destroyed by the Nazi-like army, Super Giant breaks into the satellite, and a long, riotous battle ensues. (Part 2 of 2)
Super Giant: The Spaceship and the Clash of the Artificial Satellite
女真珠王の復讐
Toshio Shimura
Michiko Maeda, Ken Utsui
Kizaki, an upstart at a trading company has one more assignment for the day before meeting his lovely girlfriend, Natsuki for a date. Little does he know that he's walking straight into a trap set up by his boss, Asanuma and his murderous right hand man. The next day Kizaki finds himself framed for the murder of the company president, and the robbing of the company safe. Natsuki innocently waves goodbye to her loved ones as the boat sails only find herself caught in Asanuma's evil scheming and the object of his lust. In a desperate attempt to escape, she falls to the watery depths. When we next see her she has washed ashore like a siren in the nude on a deserted island inhabited by five castaways who fight each other for her. She learns there's a rich wealth of clams underwater and eventually comes into a large fortune in pearls. Once rescued, she returns to Japan with revenge on her mind.
Revenge of the Pearl Queen
The Bullet Train
Jun'ya Satô
Ken Takakura, Shin'ichi Chiba
A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb.
The Bullet Train
明治天皇と日露大戦争
Kunio Watanabe
Kanjūrō Arashi, Kusuo Abe
Meiji Tenno portrays the buildup to the Russo-Japan War. In addition to showing the political events that led to war, it also shows the era from the story of a farm family in rural Japan that sends their son off to war. As such, it could be considered an anti-war movie, showing how, while war is devised by governments, the people do not really understand what war is, and its combatants often do not know what they are fighting for.
Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War
