Asao Koike

A formidable samurai navigates political intrigue, treason and determined foes while safeguarding the Edo shogunate’s treasure from myriad threats.

Trying to survive the ruins of post-war Japan, an ex-soldier gets caught working the black market while his partner makes a break for organized crime.

On the eve of becoming an adult, Prince Siegfried and his companions stumble upon a lake in the woods. Siegfried spies a beautiful swan with a crown on its head and is immediately enchanted, but one of his friends is magically turned to stone when the friend tries to kill it. The prince follows the enigmatic swan to a castle, where it transforms into a gorgeous young woman, Princess Odette.

Two highly skilled tattoo artists clash as the demand for tattooed geisha rises to satisfy European clients.

Returning from a ten-year prison sentence, former gang leader Masuo Gunji finds that things have changed, and his turf now has a new leader.

A retired yakuza underboss is pulled back into the life he left behind when he's caught in the middle of a bloody war between two rival clans.

Star Shintaro Katsu sits in the director’s chair for this psychedelic and unremittingly bleak entry in the Zatoichi series, which is unlike any other in its grind-house grimness. A tale of innocence corrupted by sadistic, sleazy criminality, the film is propelled by Easy Rider–esque editing and a trippy seventies funk score by Kunihiko Murai.

Ogami Itto and Daigoro are hired to kill Oyuki, a tattooed female assassin. Daigoro becomes lost and is found by Gunbei Yagyu, a vengeful rival samurai.

From the outrageous imagination of cult director Teruo Ishii (Orgies of Edo, Horrors of Malformed Men) comes this infamous omnibus of three shocking tales of crime and punishment based on true-life documented cases set during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate. The first tale sees the beautiful Mitsu (Masumi Tachibana) going to horrifying lengths to tend to her older brother Shinzō (Teruo Yoshida), a carpenter injured in a work accident, but the law catches up on them and metes out a terrifying retribution after they violate the ultimate taboo. In the second, unfettered passions in a Buddhist nunnery are not allowed to go unpunished after abbess Reihō (Yukie Kagawa) and her attendant Rintoku (Naomi Shiraishi) encounter a virile young monk from a neighbouring temple. In the closing segment, a sadistic torturer (Fumio Watanabe) attempts to show a tattoo artist (Asao Koike) how to depict convincing expressions of faces of pain in his work by allowing him to sketch a selection of Europeans as they are tortured for entering Japan with the aim of spreading Christianity. Ishii's notorious portmanteau of Edo-era excess signalled a change in direction for a director until then regarded for his crime and yakuza films, setting the ball rolling on the run of grotesque historical anthologies for which he is now best remembered. Vehemently denounced by the critics of the day, Shogun's Joy of Torture set a new benchmark for the depiction of sex, sadism and depravity in Japanese exploitation, with Ishii staging his elaborate torture methods with an unmatched verve and inventiveness.