The best Akira Takahashi’s drama movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Akira Takahashi’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Akira Takahashi.
The Hell-Fated Courtesan
6.2/10
Members of the Japanese royal family seeking to appease a "Death Goddess" through ritualistic temple sex.
The Woman with Red Hair
5.6/10
Kozo and his colleague rape their boss's daughter and have sex with an unnamed woman.
Gate of Flesh
7.2/10
In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post–World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama, shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.
Flower & Snake
5.6/10
Shizuka is the aristocratic wife of the president of a large company. When she wants to divorce her domineering husband, he orders his employee Yoshi, the son of an adult toy store owner, to train his wife to become sexually submissive.
Story of a Prostitute
7.3/10
Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story of a Prostitute is a tragic love story as well as a rule-bending take on a popular Taijiro Tamura novel, challenging military and fraternal codes of honor, as seen through Harumi's eyes.
Apartment Wife: Affair In the Afternoon
6.6/10
A working-class housewife is sexually unsatisfied by her husband. When she seeks extramarital relationships, her affairs are discovered by a brothel-owner who then blackmails the woman into working as a prostitute for her.
Blind Woman's Curse
6.5/10
Akemi is a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi slashes the eyes of an opponent and a black cat appears, to lap the blood from the gushing wound. The cat along with the eye-victim go on to pursue Akemi’s gang in revenge, leaving a trail of dead Yakuza girls, their dragon tattoos skinned from their bodies.
Secret Chronicle: She Beast Market
6.3/10
Roman Porno from 1974, focusing on the daily life of lower-class individuals in the slums of Osaka.
Fighting Elegy
6.9/10
Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.
Ichijo's Wet Lust
5.3/10
Ichijo Sayuri, once the legendary queen of Osaka strippers, has retired to run a sushi shop. She is awaiting her day in court after having been arrested for indecency at her farewell performance. While she was active, she was both the rival and the model for many young strippers. Harumi was one of them. Ichijo Sayuri was the real-life queen of Osaka strippers who was arrested on her final performance.
Rope Cosmetology
5.9/10
Kanako meets a BDSM artist, who teaches women an extreme form of erotic submission - how to act like a dog. It's rough and he even brings a real dog for her, but she goes with it. This improves her and her geeky husband's marriage.
Skin of Roses
4.4/10
Naomi Tani plays Ritsuko , a popular madame of a nightclub. But, ever since her gangster husband got caught and imprisoned, her life has taken a turn for the worst. Now, in order to pay off his debts to a yakuza loan shark, Lady Ritsuko is forced to engage in private sex shows for the VIP clientele. After a year of these special shows, the loan is almost paid off.
The Youth Killer
6.8/10
Though his parents help him run the family business, Jun still feels persecuted by their love; when they bar him from meeting with his girlfriend, tensions increase.
Lovers Are Wet
5.6/10
A young man named Katsu comes to a rural town by the sea, and begins to work as a movie reel carrier in a movie theater. Apparently this town is the hometown of Katsu, but no matter how many residents of the town ask, "Is it Katsu?" he just laughs. The wife of the cinema owner that has become involved with Katsu is interested in his past ...
Red Light District: Gonna Get Out
6.1/10
It's the evening before the day all brothels must be shut-down, according to the new law, in 1958. At the Kofukuya's (literally, the house that sells happiness), five prostitutes decide to celebrate the day. Erotism, drama, and comedy mix as each hour, and a different event passes, in which all the women's stories come to the surface.
Night of the Felines
5.3/10
Set in a Shinjuku bathhouse brothel, the film uncovers the sexual eccentricities of everyday people. Focusing on three female sex workers, the colorful, unpredictable look into the hidden underbelly of Japanese nightlife is playful but also unafraid to explore the darker sides of the business. The fleeting nature of relationships in such an environment and the consequences of toying with feelings are presented with a melancholy tinge.
Blue Rain Osaka
4.4/10
From director Masaru Konuma comes this tale of sorrow and nostalgia mixed with pop songs and feminine strength.
Woods Are Wet
5.5/10
Sachiko has just committed a crime. She is helped by a couple to whom she grants her confidence. Quickly this couple blackmails her and threatens to deliver her to the police. Sachiko has no other choice but to obey them.
Tattooed Life
7.1/10
‘Tattooed Life' begins with a parasol wielding Yakuza assassin attacking a rickshaw. It almost looks like feudal Japan until somebody pulls a gun and we're reminded that it's the 20th century. Post-shooting, the assassin delivers his bounty to his brother (to pay for his art school education) before getting ambushed in one of the few rickshaw-jacking incidents in film history, and being rescued by his art-student brother. In the aftermath, one brother is marked for death by the Yakuza, and the other brother won't go to art school with blood on his hands, so they decide the perfect way to deal with such hardships is to become fugitive construction workers in northern Japan . And why not?
Cruelty: Black Rose Torture
6/10
In pre-war Japan, Yumiko, an aristocratic lady, accompanied by her maid, travels to Tokyo to visit her brother. Unaware that her brother has become involved in anti-governmental activities and left the city, the two women are captured, raped and tortured by the military police. Two years later, during the war, the government confiscates Yumiko's estate, turning it into a torture chamber for the inquisition of prisoners. Yumiko and her maid are among those who are subjected to sexual indignities.
