Movies by Sumiko Fuji

Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall
A headstrong young man seeks to join the Shinsengumi, but while his determination impresses his superiors, questions begin to arise as to his true identity and intentions.

Isshin Tasuke: Edoites Festival
A costumed film featuring the famous hero of Japanese history, Isshin Tasuke, arranged in the form of a popular song.

Gambler Tales of Hasshu: A Man's Pledge
This is one of the many films based on the legend of Chuji Kunisada, a wandering gambler and a defender of the weak in the Edo period. In other words, he was the Japanese Robin Hood. In this film Kunisada (Chiezo Kataoka) arrives to a small town terrorized by an evil gang. He insists that he is not Kunisada, as the word is Kunisada has been executed, but of course the audience know better. Sonny Chiba plays an unusual supporting role as a helpless young man unable to defend himself from the gangsters. He does, however, get to play taiko drum...

April Fools
Ayumi Nitta is a member of a hospital cleaning staff and suffers from extreme social anxiety. After having a one-night stand with genius surgeon and sex addict Wataru Makino, Ayumi discovers she’s pregnant. However, when she tells Wataru, he dismisses her claim as a bad April Fools joke. Refusing to believe he could possibly be the father of Ayumi’s baby after just one night together, Wataru takes a woman named Reiko on a date to an Italian restaurant. However, Ayumi also shows up, leading to a major incident.

House of Gamblers
Ken Takakura stars as Ryoji one of the Aramasa family's loyal lieutenants whao takes the burden of his family being insulted by the Tanuma's family goons, by retaliating on his own. After injuring the head of Tanuma's family, and slaying others along the way, he then surrenders to the law and serves time. Before his last year to serve, the head of the Aramasa family falls ill and decides to retire, Ryoji miss chance to be successor, his old friend is reluctant but accepts. Now this gives the Tanuma family a chance for revenge! But with Tomi...

Okoma, the Orphan Gambler
Taking place in Shinshu in the 1920s, Tsumakoi Okoma, while traveling to hone her gambling skills, teams up with the vagabond Tsukuba Tsuneji and comes into conflict with gamblers plotting to take over a rustic hot-spring town. Handling a gun and sword as skillfully as a man, Fuji Junko portrays an appealing personality that differs from Oryu in the Red Peony Gambler series. Tsuruta Koji stars as the vagabond Tsukuba Tsuneji that tops the list of an impressive all-star cast that includes Endo Tatsuo, Kogure Michiyo, Ashiya Gannosuke, Kitamu...

DIVOC-12
"DIVOC-12" is a project by Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. to produce an omnibus consisting of 12 short films, aiming to enable creators, production staff, and actors affected by the coronavirus infection to continue to engage in creative activities.

The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang
The Ni Family is the most well know and respected group of firefighters in the Kanto region. When their leader dies and the successor disappears, Tsuruji, a beautiful yet tough geisha, becomes the boss. But will she be able to confront a yakuza gang trying to take over the area?

The Domain
The feud between two rival delivery companies, Kibamasa and Okiyama, heats up as the head of Kibamasa falls ill.

Trials of an Okinawa Village
A boss from a trucking company has run-ins with evil yakuza during the American occupation of Okinawa. Her hometown is threatened by usurers, gangsters and indirectly by American GI influences. She must battle a yakuza organization with her employees to help settle things.

Gambler Biography
Historical Yakuza gangster film set the early years of the Showa era.

Bloodiest Flower
A dramatic captivating tale tells of widowed Tei (Junko Fuji), she has become a coalmine operator and is determined to be successful despite mining being a predominately male domain. Overcoming the natural hardships, a more serious threat to Tei and her mine, the menacing presence of rival mining gangs who sense her vulnerability... Nihon jokyo-den:ketto midarw-bana is an outstanding drama, highlighted by wonderful characterizations/performances. Yamashita's excellent direction maintains a rich emotional flow from the opening seconds to the ...

Bitter Tears of a Woman Gambler
Bunta Sugawara replaces Koji Tsuruta as the leading man for this sequel of Okoma, the Orphan Gambler.

A Modern Yakuza: The Code of The Lawless
Just released on parole, one young man hurtles towards a face-off with the gangsters controlling Shinjuku and its lucrative prostitutes.

Twilight: Saya in Sasara
A drama about a struggling young widow with a baby whose dead husband returns to the world of the living to help her.

Two Lives, Two Yakuza
An early ninkyo film from before the genre had truly established its form. Koji Tsuruta plays an honourable outlaw who saves an older man from an ambush. It turns out the man is the head of a hard working clan appointed to a railway construction project. A ruthless yakuza gang is also trying to get their share of the project and attempts to sabotage the work. After the old man dies, his son (Sonny Chiba) and daughter (Junko Fuji) try to complete the project. Tsuruta joins them while also falling in love with a local woman working in a bar (a...

Yakuza Vassal
A young samurai defends townsfolk from evil forces.

Hishakaku and Kiratsune: A Tale of Two Yakuza
With his penultimate film, Uchida revisited one of his popular prewar titles, 1936’s Theatre of Life, an adaptation of Shiro Ozaki’s eponymous novel. Three-time Seijun Suzuki collaborator Goro Tanada wrote a gangsterized adaptation of Ozaki’s story for Uchida at a time when the yakuza had eclipsed the samurai genre as Toei's main cash crop. Protagonist Hishakaku murders a man in a quarrel over a barmaid and goes to jail. In his temporary absence, his girlfriend Otoyo, a former geisha, falls for Hishakaku’s brother, inciting a dangerous love ...

The Tattooed Lord