Utamaro's World

Utamaro, a great artist, lives to create portraits of beautiful women, and the brothels of Tokyo provide his models. A world of passion swirls around him, as the women in his life vie for lovers. And, occasionally, his art gets him into trouble.

The landlord of a boarding house in 1923 Tokyo, is keen on spying on the bizarre close encounters taking place beneath his roof. One day he sees a prostitute killing a customer, and decides he's found his soulmate.

After the director's message, "I visualize the romance of Roman Porn and I attempt to share that image," a loosely-connected series of softcore sex scenes unfolds. The plot concerns Kyoko, a young Japanese woman married to a man in France. When he abandons her, she returns to Japan. With her sexual appetite now at a high pitch, she engages in sexual escapades with a wide assortment of people, including old friends, both male and female, and an entire soccer team.

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.

A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.

This horror tale relates the consequences of a Japanese legend which tells of a man who has to betray his wife in order to achieve power.

1615. Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is assigned the task of finding a hidden treasure that will restore his clan to their full power. However, sexy ninja warrior Kagero stands in Sasuke's way. Complications ensue when a sudden time warp occurs and both Sasuke and Kagero find themselves thrust hundreds of years into the future to Tokyo, Japan in 1984.

A young woman who is prone to romantic dreams involving her supervisor time-travels from 1986 to 2001 and becomes involved with a private investigator who is working on a divorce case and is having his own marital difficulties.

Sayaka is a sexually frustrated housewife whose husband rarely talks and is always busy with work. But she soon finds an antidote to her loneliness and boredom in the form of a door-to-door salesman in this erotic drama.

Mio is a young woman whose husband is a millionaire's son. When he becomes impotent following an automobile accident, she begins an affair with their gardener and chauffeur, Nitta. After her husband discovers Mio's infidelity, he forces her to leave.

Three characters' stories are all woven together in a complex web of depravity and sexual obsession as their lives randomly cross paths and give an insight into a back-story that drives it all forth.

Nikkatsu Roman Porno production featuring Ayako Meki in her film debut.

Hisako Ōuchi (Naomi Tani) is the sexually-frustrated wife of the older art academy Professor Ōuchi (Minoru Ōkochi). Ōuchi is a repressed conservative who disdains modern art, and expels Kazuo Kobayashi (Tachiki Bessho), a student who specializes in SM painting. Hisako becomes obsessed with the expelled student, and has an affair with him. Kazuo and Hisako retire to a cabin in the countryside where they indulge in SM activities.

Nikkatsu Roman Porno

Yuko has a rendezvous with her old boyfriend who has just returned to Tokyo. Blackmailers with evidence of this transgression force Yuko to work as a call girl to pay them. Yuko becomes the client of a foreigner who is in the employ of her husband, a prominent businessman.

The Joy of Painting was an American television show hosted by painter Bob Ross that taught its viewers techniques for landscape oil painting. Although Ross could complete a painting in half an hour, the intent of the show was not to teach viewers "speed painting". Rather, he intended for viewers to learn certain techniques within the time that the show was allotted. The show began on January 11, 1983, and lasted until May 17, 1994, a year before Ross' death.

Takemoto Yuuta, Mayama Takumi, and Morita Shinobu are college students who share the small apartment. Even though they live in poverty, the three of them are able to obtain pleasure through small things in life. The story follows these characters' life stories as poor college students, as well as their love lives when a short but talented 18 year old girl called Hanamoto Hagumi appears.

In an absorbing study, Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of a national art that conveys passion, precision, hope and renewal. He juxtaposes escapism with control and a deep affinity with nature against love for the machine. The fascinating story takes us from the towering cathedral of Cologne, the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer and paintings of Grünewald to the gothic fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle, the Baltic landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich and the industrialisation lent expression of Adolph Menzel and Käthe Kollwitz. As the series progresses, it presents a rare focus on the cultural impact of Hitler's obsession with visual art, reveals how art became an arena for the Cold War and examines the redemptive work of the "visionary" Joseph Beuys – the most influential artist of modern times.

Art writer Waldemar Januszczak explores the revolutionary achievements of the Impressionists.

Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on his most ambitious journey yet, an exploration of the rich, exciting and diverse art history of the United States of America

First broadcast on October 2, 1989, these 18 original 30-minute episodes provide a panorama of 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture, and studies the art masterpieces as reflections of the Western culture that produced them.

The chaotic and violent struggle to control wealth and power in the North American fur trade in late 18th century Canada. Told from multiple perspectives, Frontier takes place in a world where business negotiations might be resolved with close-quarter hatchet fights, and where delicate relations between native tribes and Europeans can spark bloody conflicts.

It is a nationwide search to find the best landscape artist. Filmed at picturesque locations around the UK, contestants paint National Trust properties for a chance to win a £10,000 commission for a British institution's permanent collection. Through several rounds, winners are selected to advance to the semifinal, and then to the final. Judging the competition are British art historian Kate Bryan, independent curator Kathleen Soriano, and award-winning artist Tai-Shan Schierenberg.

Four former classmates share an apartment in Daikanyama, Tokyo and pursue their own happiness. Arisugawa Fuu works for a design production company and spends most of her salary on fashion, Hada Mizuhois a budding manga artist, Sakuragawa Rio practices psychosomatic medicine, and Enjoji Sayuri works for a Ginza art gallery.

Art historian Waldemar Januszczak uncovers the secret meanings hidden within some of the greatest paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Seurat .

In the 1770's, the shrewdest man of the age, Tanuma Okitsugu, had abused his political power, and the corruption of government officials and moral decay of the public were prevalent. At that time, there was a box for complaints made by the general public. It was called "Meyasubako" and was placed at the front gate of the central government's Supreme Court. The appeals went directly to the shogun who assigned the “Otakagumi” (Falconers Unit) to investigate. Led by Uchiyama Kanbei (samurai superstar Mifune Toshiro) they fought injustice and helped the oppressed. Not only were they skilled swordsmen, but their trained falcons would swoop down on enemy troops, especially those using firearms. Superb fighting throughout with Mifune at the forefront in one of his finest roles. As the vile Tanuma Okitsugu continues to abuse his political power, more and more clashes with the Falcons of Edo, who stand for justice and morality are bound to occur, leading to a conclusion the likes of which has never been seen. Putting his life on the line, time and time again, Uchiyama Kanbei fights to prevent Tanuma from destroying the falconers’ group and take him to task for his vicious treatment of the Japanese people. Aided by his trusty Vice-Chief Ichiyanagi Kakuto, he wades bravely into battle in a land where “Take no prisoners” is the mantra. Brilliant fighting and a clever story line create a highly charged action series that brings out the best in samurai cinema. Can the Falcons of Edo prevail and save Japan from being crushed underfoot!

The story is set in Nagasaki prefecture in Minami Shimabara city, the fabled origin of the Shimabara Rebellion that sent shockwaves through all of Japan in the early Edo period. It is also where a third-year junior high school student named Shirou spends his days with his school friends. One summer day, Shirou's older childhood friend Akane returns to Minami Shimabara from Tokyo. Shirou and Akane take a stroll around Minami Shimabara with another longtime friend, Tokiya. While these friends are dealing with nostalgia and more complex feelings, a mysterious creature named Goron suddenly appears before them. This encounter with a mere little creature causes great events to unfold once more in this city...

Artist Helen Dealtry gives a glimpse into the creative process of painting.

Fern Britton presents this revival of the fondly remembered daytime watercolour painting competition. Talented amateur artists are challenged to paint a picture of a scenic location with their efforts judged by a professional artist.

In an alternate history where the male population is nearly decimated, eligible men serve as concubines to the woman shogun inside the walls of the Ooku.