Black House / Kuroi ei (1999)

Makatsuki processes claims for an insurance company. One day he gets a phone call from an unidentified woman who asks if life insurance pays off for suicides. He tries to explain that it all depends on the nature of the policy, but he also thinks the woman is about to commit suicide herself and encourages …

Angel Dust / Enjeru dasuto (1994)

Serial killers in the modern sense of the term have been comparatively rare in Japanese films,* though of course there have been no shortage of killings in the chanbara and yakuza genres. Angel Dust is arguably the first Japanese appearance of the serial killer story such as we now know from endless Euro/American films and …

Demon / Kichiku (1978)

Ken Ogata had been a major star on TV since the mid-sixties, usually playing samurai heroes. His occasional big-screen appearances had been in supporting roles, some fairly large but for the most part not particularly memorable. Then suddenly, in 1978-79 he catapulted to the position of one of Japanese film’s most highly regarded actors by …

Policeman’s Diary/Keisatsu nikki (1955)

There is a type of movie the Japanese have regularly made that I have rarely found in any of the other major film cultures. It's not quite a comedy, though there are often many chuckles (rather than laughs). It's not quite a tragedy, though things often end badly for many of the characters. It's not …