In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi.

Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan’s greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge…

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and…

The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet and rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.

A fishing union depends on two brothers to make up the losses caused by the dishonest captains they replaced.

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…