Two troubled young lovers - a gambler and a stripper - run off to the tranquil Japanese countryside to marry and start a new life. But their dark past follows them in the form of a veteran loan shark.

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation, such as scholars and noblemen. In this historical and biographical drama, this is the situation that the young Shinran (1173-1263) discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time.

Mid 50s: the trials and tribulations of Shinsuke Ibuki, freshly arrived in Tokyo from Kyushu.

A journalist steals a gun from a cop after killing him and goes on a spree of robbery and murder.

Teenage cousins Masao and Tamiko fall in love when she comes to his riverside brewery house to take care of his sickly mother. Family objections ensue as Tamiko is older than Masao, and the two cannot marry in peace.

Helen and her associates stage a confession play in order to remedy stuttering, but things go amiss.

Taro Kuroki, 42, is a stuntman with a samurai's heart. He loves adventures, plays pranks with the police, tries to cure a cat lady by reversing her trauma, and finally, rescues his niece who is about to be lured into prostitution.

Follows the life of the famous classical printmaker, Utamaro Kitagawa, set during the time when Utamaro is commissioned to produce pornographic woodblocks.

The cat of the title roams around the house of a poor schoolteacher in the late 19th century, observing the goings-on of the teacher and his neighbors.

Takeru, a young rebel, is traveling alone in the North of Honshu. He once used to practice pole vaulting but he gave up and became a robber. Along his trip he crosses the path of a young couple doing a performance for a super market.

THIS FILM PACKS CONSIDERABLY MORE WALLOP.

A blind sculpter and his mother kidnap a young model.

Our anti-hero discovers locals who are oppressed, held captive against their will. For the swordsman to succeed, he first must wade through traps and assassins, and a few seductive maidens.

A carefree afternoon at the beach turns into a comic misadventure when three young Japanese men are mistaken for illegal Korean residents.

Gisuke is an illegal dentist by day and a thief by night. One night during an attempted robbery he witnesses a derailment. Later communists are found guilty of the incident, but he knows it was not them.