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The highly-embellished account of a great artist, set against the background of Tokyo in the late 1700's.

Set in 8th century China, Princess Yang Kwei Fei tells the story of the last T'ang emperor and the servant girl he falls in love with and makes his princess.

The fall of the Taira clan.

"Set amid the alleys and paper lanterns of Kyoto's Gion District, A Geisha is the story of Eiko, a beautiful young girl who decides to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a geisha. With no money of her own, she becomes the apprentice to Miyoharu, her mother's best friend. Eiko begins her training, but slowly discovers that for a geisha in the new Japan, beneath the image of traditional beauty lies the hard truth that a woman must sell herself to live."--Videocassette container.

When Kikunosuke, a mediocre actor from a famous Kabuki family, falls in love with a maid, he is cast out. The faithful Otoku supports her husband as he struggles to perfect his art. In the end, she is quite ill, yet willing to leave her husband so that he may take his rightful place at the head of the Kabuki community.

A story of an illfated romantic affair between Sokichi, an ambitious young man who comes to Tokyo from the countryside to become a doctor, and a beautiful young woman, Osen, who saves Sokichi from a suicide attempt. She tries to make money by prostitution for his ambition .

"In this legendary tale set in the 11th century, a kindly governor is exiled, his wife forced into prostitution, and his son and daughter sold into slavery to the tyrannical baliff Sansho." Ten years later, the son escapes, rises to power and searches for his mother.--Container.

• disc 1. Naniwa erejī = Osaka elegy
• disc 2. Gion no shimai = Sisters of the Gion
• disc 3. Yoru no onnatachi = Women of the night
• disc 4. Akasen chitai = Street of shame.

• disc 1. 浪華悲歌 = Osaka elegy
• disc 2. 祇園の姉妹 = Sisters of the Gion
• disc 3. 夜の女たち = Women of the night
• disc 4. 赤線地帯 = Street of shame.

[v. 1]. Osaka elegy. Switchboard operator Ayako agrees to enter into an affair with her married boss after he promises to support her and her father - setting her off on a seemingly irreversible downward spiral.
[v. 2]. Sisters of the Gion. Two geisha sisters - one modern-minded, the other staunchly traditional - disagree over how to deal with the men controlling their lives and livelihoods.
[v. 3]. Women of the night. The story of two sisters, Fusako, a war widow, and Natsuko, in an affair with a narcotics smuggler, who, along with their younger friend Kumiko, descend into prostitution and moral chaos amid the postwar devastation surrounding them.
[v. 4]. Street of shame. In a brothel in Tokyo's red-light district, a group of working women, their profession on the verge of being outlawed, deal with life's disappointments, large and small.

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave drivers.

"By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other younger directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and fortune leads them far astray from their loyal wives. Moving between the terrestrial and the otherworldly, Ugetsu reveals essential truths about the ravages of war, the plight of women, and the pride of men"--Container.

In 17th-century Japan, a samurai's daughter, Oharu, falls in love with a pretty servant. Caught together, the man is beheaded and Oharu and her family are exiled. After enduring further misfortunes as a concubine, a courtesan, wife, and prostitute, Oharu becomes a mendicant nun in her old age.

• Disc
• 1. Ugetsu (97 min.)
• Disc.
• 2. Kenji Mizoguchi: the life of a film director (150 min.).

In sixteenth century Japan a village potter and his brother-in-law set out for the city to seek their fortunes in the spoils of war. Their neglected wives suffer the bitter consequences of their husbands' ambition as one is murdered by soldiers and the other is raped and becomes a prostitute.

The adopted son of legendary kabuki actor Kikunosuke, who is striving to achieve stardom by mastering female roles, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection, and she soon gives up everything for her beloved's creative glory.

Tragic love affair between a devoted woman and an aspiring law student set in the Meiji period (1868-1912) in Japan. An independent young woman has a water juggling act in a travelling carnival. When she meets and falls in love with an orphaned carriage driver, she pledges to send him to law school in Tokyo.

"An exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. Based on a classic of eighteenth-century Japanese drama, the film traces the injustices that befall a Kyoto scroll maker's wife and his apprentice after each is unfairly accused of wrongdoing. Bound by fate in an illicit, star-crossed romance, they go on the run in search of refuge from the punishment prescribed them: death"--Container.

This heartrending masterpiece by Kenji Mizoguchi about the give-and-take between life and art marked the director's first use of the hypnotic long takes and eloquent camera movements that would come to define his films. The adopted son of legendary kabuki actor Kikunosuke, who is striving to achieve stardom by mastering female roles, turns to his infant brother's wet nurse for support and affection, and she soon gives up everything for her beloved's creative glory.

• [disc 1]. Chikamatsu monogatari (102 min.)
• [disc 2]. Uwasa no onna (84 min.)

Chikamatsu monogatari: In 17th century Japan, illicit love between a merchant's wife and her servant leads to tragedy.
Uwasa no onna: When the aging madam of a geisha house ends up pursuing the same man as her daughter, both women are forced to confront their attitudes toward each other and the family business. The film is set in modern Kyoto.