73rd San Sebastian Festival - 19/27 September 2025
73SSIFF - 19/27 September 2025
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Agenda
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Thematic retrospective. JAPANESE FILM NOIR
Films
Films
Thematic retrospective. JAPANESE FILM NOIR
Thematic retrospective. JAPANESE FILM NOIR
Daisuke Ito
Japan
95 min.
The hero, Chuji, who is not a member of the ruling military class, strives to save the geisha Oshina. A silent film in black and white portraying this legendary gambler from the late Edo period as a veritable revolutionary at odds with an oppressive system, bringing a social touch to the adventure.
Daisuke Ito
Japan
79 min.
Jirokichi, a thief, meets a geisha named Osen on a boat. Osen?s brother, Nikichi, another criminal, tries to take advantage of the luckless young Okino with his eyes set on her father?s money. Jirokichi saves Okino from Nikichi?s claws and kills him for being a man of such highly doubtful scruples.
Tomu Uchida
Japan
121 min.
At a roadblock, a novice policeman, Itami, runs into his old high school friend, Tetsuo Tomioka, as he makes his way back into Tokyo after a day?s golf. As they re-kindle their friendship, Itami finds it odd that Tetsuo is so reluctant to talk about certain aspects of his personal life. One night, Sergeant Miyabi, Itami?s mentor, is seriously wounded in a bank heist. The thieves flee into the night, but one of them is injured and leaves his fingerprints on Miyabe?s sword.
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan
119 min.
Set in Yokohama, which, like most port cities, is noted for the prevalence of prostitution and vice, the film focuses on the troubled relationship between a gangster and his moll, Tokiko, who works in a company typing pool during the day. Her rival, the typical good girl, works in a record shop and is concerned about her younger brother?s drift towards crime.
Akira Kurosawa
Japan
122 min.
The tale, set in post-war Japan, of a young detective whose gun is stolen. Racked by disgrace, he sets out on an unflagging quest to retrieve the weapon taking him into the depths of the Tokyo underworld accompanied by a veteran colleague.
Hideo Suzuki
Japan
94 min.
A modest radio repairman in a working-class district witnesses one of his neighbours being murdered. Unfortunately for him, the recognition is mutual, and the killer forces him to stay quiet with threats of death for himself and his wife. To prove his intentions and ensure that the hero isn?t tempted to squeal, the murderer kills someone close to him as a lethal warning.
Yoshitaro Nomura
Japan
116 min.
Two Tokyo detectives, Yuji Shimooka and Takao Yuki, are hot on the trail of the suspected murderer, Kyuichi Ishii. When the trail goes cold in Tokyo, they try their luck at his ex-lover Sadako Yokokawa's house in a small town on Kyushu Island. There they see how hopeless and gruelling Sadako's life is: her children show her no respect and her husband is so tightfisted that she has to sew for the neighbours.
Shohei Imamura
Japan
101 min.
On the tenth anniversary of Japan's capitulation to the Allies, five people descend upon a butcher shop basement used as an air-raid shelter during the war. There to dig up a cache of morphine are the ferocious widow of the man who buried it, the owner of a Chinese restaurant, a gangster, a pharmacist, and a high school teacher.
Yasuzo Masumura
Japan
96 min.
When Takeo is released from prison for attacking the rival yakuza lord, Handa, the last thing on his mind is taking over the position of his recently deceased father, leader of the Asahina clan. He and his older brother Aikawa entertain the idea of falling in love with eligible young women and leaving the yakuza life altogether. But their exit proves more difficult than planned when their rival clan steps in to exact revenge.
Nagisa Oshima
Japan
85 min.
Shin, leader of one of Osaka's two rival criminal gangs, tries to operate on Ohama turf. The gang is constantly on the move, afraid that if they stop for longer in any one place, Ohama will find and kill them. Takeshi, a newcomer, tries to find ways to either leave the gang or do some good, no matter how small. But it?s Shin?s inexplicable soft spot for Takeshi that will be his undoing.
Kihachi Okamoto
Japan
95 min.
This film, with the participation of two famous actors of the moment, Toshirô Mifune and Koji Tsuruta, is part of Kihachi Okamoto?s Ankokugai trilogy and describes how a warped detective is posted to the district in which the Ooka and Kozuka clans clash.
Kinji Fukasaku
Japan
82 min.
A gangster planning to rob the wages from US army barracks enlists a team of outcasts: a Korean immigrant, a black American soldier and a blonde nymphomaniac. The problem is that another similar gang has its eyes set on the same loot, resulting in a merry-go-round of deaths and betrayals.
Shohei Imamura
Japan
108 min.
Kinta is caught in the mesh of poverty and opts out by joining the local yakuza gang. His greed draws him into the drug dealing, pimping, and racketeering that fill the gang's coffers. One day he is given the legitimate job of tending the pigs owned by his mob boss, which live on the slop thrown out by the neighborhood's American military base. Kinta's girlfriend begs him to go straight and settle down, but he can't see a future in it.
Yoshitaro Nomura
Japan
95 min.
Teiko, a young newlywed, bids farewell to her new husband, Kenichi, in a Tokyo station, as he leaves to conclude business in Kanazawa, promising to return on December 12. But the 12th comes and goes with no word from Kenichi. Teiko's only clue to her husband's whereabouts is a couple of strange postcards she finds among his belongings. When Kenichi?s employers invite her to Kanazawa to help them locate him, Teiko finds herself embroiled in a complicated mystery.
Akira Kurosawa
Japan
142 min.
Arriving home, Gondo tells his family that he?s going to buy the company for which he works. But that night he gets a phone call. Someone claiming to have kidnapped his son demands an enormous sum of money. However, the kidnapper has mistakenly taken the chauffeur?s son, which changes nothing, as he continues to demand a ransom in exchange for the boy?s life. Gondo finds himself at the crossroads of having to decide whether to keep his money and buy the business, or save the boy and lose everything.
Tadashi Sawashima
Japan
95 min.
Kaku, as decent a gambler as the vice permits, is in love with Otoyo, a courtesan. But his obligations in the yakuza world keep them apart, not least because of his stint in prison. During this time, Otoyo struggles against sinister gangsters who see her not as the sweetheart of a chivalrous gambler doing time for his gang, but as a simple commodity.
Seijun Suzuki
Japan
92 min.
A violently behaved man captures the attention of a Tokyo yakuza gang leader who hastens to recruit him. But the newcomer also takes sides with a rival band, causing a war between the two factions. As the reasons for the newcomer?s behaviour become clear, we see that they all connect to the murder of a policeman at the start of the story.
Masahiro Shinoda
Japan
96 min.
At a gambling house, Muraki, a hard-boiled gangster fresh out of prison after serving a sentence for murder, meets Saeko, a mysterious woman drawn to the dangerous high-stakes lifestyle. Their doomed love propels them through Tokyo's underworld, down a road filled with hoods, drugs and murder.
Teruo Ishii
Japan
92 min.
Abashiri prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men are handcuffed to one another. One of them tried to flee his poor farmer?s life by joining a yakuza gang. The other is a hardened underworld gangster who already has five crimes to his name. Despite their hatred for one another, they join forces in a risky escape. Still cuffed to one another, their pursuers? bullets whistle in their ears.
Kiyoshi Saeki
Japan
90 min.
After WW II, Gennosuke, the Kamizu leader, continues to uphold yakuza chivalry by trafficking in the black market at his legal open-air stall. Taking advantage of the confusion, Iwasa and his gang nab US military goods and control the black market. Iwasa has Gennosuke killed, but, before he dies, he names Shinji as his successor, making him swear not to seek revenge. But despite his efforts, Shinji reaches the point where he can no longer keep his word.
Sadao Nakajima
Japan
89 min.
A bunch of young angry misfits and hoods who aren't quite up to joining the yakuza, hatch and execute a variety of petty scams. The youngest, a high school student who has a way with women, is approached by a yakuza and asked to spy for them.
Takashi Nomura
Japan
84 min.
A hitman hired by a gang to whack a rival boss makes his escape with his sidekick on completing the contract. But they?re caught by thugs from the rival gang before they can board the getaway plane. Making a narrow escape, they end up at a cheap inn for truckers near Yokohama. Having arranged their passage on a boat bound out of the country, they are forced into an explosive showdown with killers from the rival gang just before they are due to set sail.
Kosaku Yamashita
Japan
95 min.
The oyabun (yakuza capo) of the clan controlling gambling in the Tokyo district dies suddenly and his followers have to decide who will take his place. The mafiosos choose the honest and loyal Nakai, but he refuses the offer alleging that he?s not a direct disciple of the dead oyabun, and suggesting that they choose the next person in the line of succession, Matsuda, who?s currently doing time in prison.
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Japan
115 min.
One day, Hiro Nemuro, a worker, leaves home to deliver some documents. Having forgotten a paper-clip to keep them together, he returns home, speaks to his wife and leaves again, this time forever. His wife hires a detective to find him. As the investigation progresses, the detective?s life increasingly mimics the one of the man he?s looking for.
Tai Kato
Japan
90 min.
A killer driven by revenge tracks down and murders the five women who sexually molested his mentally unstable best friend and drove him to suicide.
Koji Wakamatsu
Japan
66 min.
A man from Kyushu Island comes to Tokyo to find the men who killed his son. Heading for the boy?s Shinjuku flat, he gets no joy either from the youngster staying there or from his son?s former girlfriend, who is in deep shock after being gang-raped by the murderers. Finally, the father learns that the ringleader is a certain Shinjuku Mad, a presumed revolutionary and leader of a group of bikers who admits to killing his son because he was a traitor and a stool pigeon.
Yasuharu Hasebe
Japan
85 min.
The storyline focuses on the rivalry between the all-female gang the Alleycats, led by the sultry Mako, and the brazen young men who form the Eagles, headed by the ultra-cool Baron. When one of the Alleycats turns down the advances of Eagle Susumu in favour of her half-black boyfriend Ichiro, Baron's memories of his sister's rape by a group of halfbreeds spurs on the Eagles to rid the town of its mixed-race population.
Masahiro Makino
Japan
102 min.
The action takes place towards the end of the Meiji period in Tokyo?s popular Yanagibashi area. The famous geisha Tsuruji, as skilled in the art of serving tea as she is at fighting, takes the place of her murdered father Kashimasa as a leader of the firefighters in the absence of Shinzo, her former partner and son to the head of the Ni family, whose father, Kichigoro, has disowned him for being a yakuza.
Shunya Ito
Japan
87 min.
After being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cohorts with the mob with whom she was whole-heartedly in love, Matsushima's desire for revenge knows no bounds. Her failed attempt to stab him lands her in jail, where, to Sugimi's surprise, she refuses to testify against him. But now the sheer fact that Marsushima knows so much makes her a liability and Sugimi joins forces with the Japanese mafia to orchestrate her death in prison.
Kinji Fukasaku
Japan
99 min.
Working as a street killer in chaotic post-War Hiroshima, Shozo Hirono still believes in the yakuza code. When shooting a rival gangster lands him in prison, he meets Wakasuji, with whom he strikes a pact of brotherhood, but without the required ceremony: instead of drinking sake to close the agreement, they drink their own blood. Wakasuji slits his stomach in the purest seppuku style so that he'll be taken to hospital.
Kinji Fukasaku
Japan
85 min.
A misfit wanted by both his mafia clan and the cops, Ishikawa only finds support in a whore he had previously raped and who ends up falling in love with him. When she dies of tuberculosis, Ishikawa visits his oyabun, or mafia capo, to ask him for money. He refuses and Ishikawa starts grinding the dead woman?s bones until the oyabun finally gives in.
Kon Ichikawa
Japan
146 min.
Sahei Inugami, powerful head of the Inugami clan, dies in his mansion at the venerable age of 81. In his youth, Sahei was rescued from poverty and certain death by a Shinto priest. But after Sahei?s death, his debt of gratitude with the priest unleashes a curse provoking a series of strange, appalling murders, while the members of the Inugami family become embroiled in a desperate fight for his fortune.
Kazuhiko Hasegawa
Japan
147 min.
Makoto, a high school science teacher, is a lonely individual who has for some time been hatching a plot to make an atomic bomb. Filled with Dutch courage after surviving a bus hijack, he steals plutonium and gets down to work. Now that he?s made the bomb, Makoto has fun blackmailing the authorities with trivialities like having them broadcast baseball games with no commercial breaks.
Toru Murakawa
Japan
119 min.
A policeman is murdered and his gun, stolen, used to commit the next crime. Detective Kashiwagi, who is leading the investigation, learns that the author of the killings ?walks like a dead man?. Kashiwagi runs into Date, a former correspondent in the Vietnam War. There, Date discovered hell and something snapped in his mind.
Hideo Gosha
Japan
120 min.
While her husband is in prison doing time, Tamaki, the wife of a yakuza capo, runs her spouse?s gang with an iron hand. Meanwhile, Makoto, her younger sister, marries a member of a rival band after being raped by him. The two sisters, united by blood ties but married to enemy yakuzas, will ultimately have to decide whose side they?re on.
Takeshi Kitano
Japan
103 min.
Detective Azuma breaks the rules of moral conduct when his sister is kidnapped by the yakuza and his friend and workmate, Iwaki, dies. Azuma responds with violence to any situation and turns to not particularly ethical methods as long as they work.
Kaizo Hayashi
Japan-China-Taiwan
92 min.
Hai Ting, a waiter at a gambling joint, hires detective Maiku to find his brother, disappeared since arriving in Japan a year earlier. Making his investigations, Maiku discovers that the Taiwan and Hong Kong mafias are planning a territorial war in Japan, and that Hai Ting?s brother in fact belongs to the Hong Kong mafia. Trying to unite both brothers lands Maiku in the middle of a gang brawl.
Takashi Ishii
Japan
109 min.
Bandai owns a discoteque that?s going downhill fast. As if that wasn?t bad enough, he doesn?t have the money he owes the local yakuza. He comes up with the solution of robbing the gangsters and puts together a team of other unfortunates affected by the economic decline. The heist goes wrong and the yakuza start looking for its authors, contracting a group of hired killers for the job.
Rokuro Mochizuki
Japan
101 min.
Noriyuki Kunihiro is a yakuza just out of prison, where he was doing time for a double murder. Although his former sidekicks try to tempt him back into the fold, he prefers to work in construction. Finally, his friend Naoto convinces him to accept the job of driver for the Myojin clan. During a visit to another yakuza clan, the Myojin are taken captive, tortured and humiliated, leaving Noriyuki no option but to come to the rescue.
Takashi Miike
Japan
95 min.
A yakuza forced to flee to Taipei, Yuuji, sees his life become even more complicated when he is suddenly landed with the care of a mute child. A woman with whom he had a liaison some time back turns up at his house and leaves him the boy, claiming that he is his father. Shortly afterwards, the brother of one of Yuuji?s victims turns up looking for revenge and puts a price on his head.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Japan
85 min.
Nijima is an astrophysics teacher who, for some dark reason, helps the half-crazed mafioso, Miyashita, to find those responsible for brutally raping and murdering his daughter. They kidnap several of Miyashita?s colleagues, take them to a remote warehouse and torture them into confessing. As the number of deaths rises, it becomes clear that Miyashita and his gang were involved in the production of snuff movies.
Shinya Tsukamoto
Japan
87 min.
One day, middle-aged Goda arrives home to find that the woman with whom he has been living for some time has killed herself. Depressed, he starts drinking heavily, unable to understand why she did it. He runs into Chisato, a drug addict and member of a gang that sets upon him and beats him up, sending Goda off in search of a firearm and revenge.
Masato Harada
Japan
114 min.
A yakuza confesses that Asahi Central Bank, an important financial institution, has been lining the mafia?s pockets for years. Hiroshi Kitano, who works in middle management at the bank, and another three colleagues, ask the board of administrators to appoint someone capable of making the necessary changes as chairman. Their efforts are frustrated by the yakuza, which has no intention of relinquishing its cash cow, and by a number of their superiors.
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