Fumio Watanabe Movies

A young Japanese woman in search of her missing mother discovers a sinister secret deep within the Sacred Heart Convent in director Noribumi Suzuki's notorious nun-exploitation classic. After taking religious vows to gain entry into the convent where her mother was last seen, Yumi Takigawa descends into a hedonistic world where sinful archbishops and whip-wielding nuns torment her in the most unholy manner imaginable. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The second in a series of exploitation films based on a Japanese adult manga magazine, this over-the-top jailbreak movie pits the silent-but-deadly Scorpion (Meiko Kaji) against a sadistic warden and other adversaries. As the film begins, Scorpion is shackled in an underground solitary confinement cell. She sharpens a spoon, which she holds in her mouth, by scraping it repeatedly against the damp, dirty floor. Then the warden has her dragged to the yard to present a positive image of the prison to a visiting dignitary. Scorpion seizes this opportunity to attack the warden and incite a riot. The warden punishes the women by placing them on a tough work detail and instructs four guards to rape Scorpion. His plan to turn the women against her appears to be working when several inmates assault Scorpion while they are being transported in a van; but when the guards check the van, they are overtaken by Scorpion and the other women. As they flee from the law, the escapees find a village that's nearly buried in volcanic ash; a mysterious old woman with a knife who reveals their backstories; and a tour bus with rapists who kill one of the women. The women hijack the bus, but the police continue to pursue them and force a showdown. ~ Todd Kristel, Rovi

Masahiro Shinoda directed this sexy, darkly humorous look at Tokyo's red-light Edo district in 1842, focusing on three characters whose lives intersect. Soshun (Tetsuro Tamba) is the infamous fugitive Buraikan in disguise, Naojiro (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a shiftless lout who dreams of being a Kabuki performer, and Ushimatsu (Shoichi Ozawa) has just left his family. The hip screenplay by filmmaker Shuji Terayama throws in some contemporary touches, comparing the revolutionary spirit of the Tempo era with the 1960s youth movement. Buraikan is still a delight to watch due to the sheer exuberance of its cast and Shinoda's stylish direction. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This sad tale, based on a true story of a Japanese-born Korean student who raped and killed two girls in 1958 and was then hanged in 1963 when he reached maturity, is turned by director Nagisa Oshima into a black farce reminiscent of the darkly satirical, anti-authoritarian films of Luis Buñuel. The film opens with the hanging of the criminal, but the noose fails to kill him. Instead he gets amnesia, and the executioners and officials reenact the crime, hoping to jog his memory and prove that he is guilty. Soon they begin to identify with their roles, and the line blurs between the crime and its reenactment. The film ends as a bitter indictment of Japanese nationalism, capital punishment, and Japanese institutional prejudice against Koreans. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Director Nagisa Oshima teams with comic-strip artist Shirato Sampei in this feature. Still pictures are used as some of Japan's more recognizable thespians provide the voices to tell the story. The ninja warriors use their powers to become invisible, walk on water, and climb castle walls. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Director Nagisa Oshima's film uses the "pink" genre to mask an allegory about the materialism of post-war Japan (the original title translates as "Indulgence"). Katsuo Nakamura stars as a man blackmailed by a thief, who makes him hold on to some stolen loot while the thief serves a jail sentence. Nakamura is led into temptation by all that money sitting around, so he decides to spend it on wild partying and sex before killing himself to avoid retribution. Like the films of Paul Morrissey, Etsuraku simultaneously exploits its subject matter and condemns it, to peculiar effect. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Widely regarded as the most personal of director Nagisa Oshima's three 1960 films, Night and Fog in Japan centers around a gathering of former student activists, all of which protested the signing of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. Preferring to let go of the past, the old protestors had regrouped for a mutual friend's marriage, and maintained a peaceful atmosphere until the last of their old companions arrives and immediately begins hurling accusations. Now a fugitive, the party crasher denounces the party as a charade and claims that those in attendance betrayed their own ideals in exchange for personal security. Before long, all pretenses of a happy reunion are thrown aside, and the marriage is reduced to an all-out brawl. Oshima himself was once a student protestor, and the film served as an open display of his disappointment with Japan's left-wing political movement meant to illustrate how those who once united in hopes of making a positive chance in Japanese society have denigrated into bickering, weak-minded versions of their former selves. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Nagisa Oshima's groundbreaking film opens with young, attractive Mako and her friend hitching a ride from an old man. After her friend leaves, the man tries to rape her, and she is saved only by the handsome Kiyoshi. Later, against the background of the tumultuous 1960 U.S./Japan Security Treaty demonstrations, Kiyoshi and Mako walk along a grungy seaside lumberyard while talking about sex. He attempts to kiss her, she slaps him, and he throws her in the water. She cries out that she can't swim. When she continues to refuse his advances, he steps on her fingers as she clings to a log. Kiyoshi then saves Mako from a trio of seedy pimps looking to impress her into working for them, but after rescuing her, he forces himself on her again. With this unlikely beginning, Kiyoshi and Mako form a passionate though doomed romance. Soon she stops going to school and moves into his flea-ridden dive of an apartment. Utterly disillusioned with all trappings of societal convention, the two get cash by blackmailing businessmen and by shaking down Kiyoshi's middle-aged sugarmama. Tension with this Bonnie and Clyde duo builds after Mako has an abortion in a run down clinic, performed by an alcoholic doctor. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

An essentially religious film about a young, self-sacrificing Catholic devotee, this true story by director Heinosuke Gosho might be too slow in the telling for most Western audiences. Maria Isabel Kitahara was converted to Catholicism by Basque nuns. After her conversion, she took on the task of helping out the poor who live in a large slum area on the outskirts of Tokyo. The dynamism and roughness of the "ragpickers" she helps stand in sharp contrast to her fragile, nearly ethereal presence. Whether from this unsavory environment or not, Maria contracts a serious illness that leads to tragic consequences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi