Masaki Kobayashi Trailers
Unification of Japan 62 TrailerMasaki Kobayashi on 'The Human Condition' Trailer
Masaki Kobayashi (February 14, 1916–October 4, 1996) was a Japanese director.
Among his films is Kwaidan (1965), a collection of four ghost stories drawn from the book by Lafcadio Hearn, each of which has a surprise ending.
Kobayashi also directed The Human Condition, a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist. The total length of the films is over 9 hours. Other notable films include Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967). Harakiri won him an award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, solidifying his place in the history of cinema.
In 1969, he was a member of the jury at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival.
He was also a candidate for directing the Japanese sequences for Tora! Tora! Tora!, once Akira Kurosawa left the film. But instead Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda were chosen.
Kobayashi, himself a pacifist, was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, but refused to fight and refused promotion to a rank higher than private.
Most Popular Masaki Kobayashi Trailers
Total trailers found: 33
15 September 1962
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual.
01 January 1993
In this 1993 video interview, filmed for the Directors Guild of Japan at Tokyo’s Haiyuza Theatre, director Masaki Kobayashi talks to fellow filmmaker and longtime Kobayashi admirer Masahiro Shinoda (DOUBLE SUICIDE) about THE HUMAN CONDITION.
30 November 1948
In the Meiji period, a schoolteacher tries to hide his lower-class upbringing as he supports a visiting liberal intellectual.
06 January 1965
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales.
21 March 1951
A rural village elder plans an event on the return of a farmer's daughter from the city, unaware that she has become a Westernized burlesque artist.
15 January 1959
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service.
18 December 1931
Lost film, directed by Tomu Uchida. This film is a very funny comedy that makes fun of the moral code of the samurai Bushido, which has become obsolete and turned into an empty form during the period of feudalism.
28 January 1961
After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his old life, he faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his men sneak behind enemy lines.
16 February 1962
A dying businessman intends to will ¥200 million to his three illegitimate children, but his associates scheme to take advantage of the situation.
31 October 1970
On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses.
25 May 2024
Nao (Ayano Nishikawa), wife of Ota (Ryota Matsushima) from the Kamome Victims Association, is abducted by the World Kamome Church.
27 May 1967
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.
01 December 1949
When the future of his construction company falls into danger, a controlling father pushes his children into unsatisfying marriages and careers in order to regain financial stability.
20 November 1959
Kaji, sent to the Japanese army labeled Red, witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against a fellow recruit.
25 June 1952
A rivalry sparks between two teenage brothers when they discover the attraction of girls.
11 September 1971
In feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world is strictly prohibited, an idealist appears at an isolated inn, headquarters of smugglers with stolen money intended to ransom his loved one forced to work in a brothel.
13 May 2000
A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption.
08 June 1968
During WWII, Zensaku, middle-aged and deaf in one ear, learns that his son has fallen for the daughter of a war officer responsible for the maiming.
31 October 1956
A group of rank-and-file soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victims of a nation refusing to bear its burdens as a whole.
04 October 1975
An industrialist is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is abroad in Europe at the time, and a glimpse of a Japanese woman in that setting causes him to imagine her as the personification of his impending fate.
04 June 1983
A look at the trial of Japanese militarists accused of war crimes; from the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal (May 1946–November 1948).
26 February 1956
A botanist woos the secretary of an industrialist whose company threatens the local water supply.
23 October 1957
A love triangle develops between a benevolent student, his innocent girlfriend, and a cruel petty criminal, all as a point of diagnosis of a social disease that had Japan slowly succumbing to lawlessness during the post-War era.
23 November 1954
A Tokyo family running a liquor store overcome impotence and dysfunction as they induce an understanding through each other of how to deal with their individual problems.
29 December 1954
In a mountain village, Heita, a translator's son, is a gifted boy but is shunned by the villagers. He can imitate birds' cry and befriends another boy who works in a brewery.
20 March 1965
This impressionistic portrait of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics pays as much attention to the crowds and workers as it does to the actual competitive events.
01 November 1985
One year after the Kidojis' eldest son Otohiko was arrested for his part in a terrorist kidnapping, which resulted in multiple deaths, all the other perpetrators' parents have either resigned from their professional positions or taken their own lives, Nobuyuki Kidoji remains adamant that he is not responsible for his son's actions.
05 July 1949
Iemon Tamiya is an impoverished masterless samurai who craves a better life, which he cannot have because of his marriage to Oiwa, who is completely devoted to her husband.
29 January 1953
A young student falls for an invalid girl whom he can only see from afar.
23 December 1978
A very beautiful Japanese woman is in love with Persian carpets. She is being chased by lecherous Saburi Shin and a handsome young photographer.
21 November 1956
A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising baseball player to The Toyko Flowers.
03 August 1948
The mistress of a crook real estate broker comes to terms with her soulless existence after an artist paints her portrait.
25 May 1955
A romantic drama depicting the lives of two generations of a family who run a Tokyo florist shop.
