Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past.

An episodic film about life in and around a rural police station and the people it serves.

A dying businessman intends to will ¥200 million to his three illegitimate children, but his associates scheme to take advantage of the situation.

The Panorama Group, a group of young people who work together with an old professor who is passionate about making hot air balloons a reality, dream of taking to the skies of the South Seas, but there are various obstacles in their way.

Home drama about tin craftsmen and their families in downtown Tokyo. Though poor, they do not lose their cheerfulness or give in to oppression.

A professional hunter, Tetsuya, returns from Alaska to find that his hometown had become a lawless slum. He is shocked to learn that his younger sister had committed suicide after being raped by unknown men. One day, he rescues a girl from being attacked by some gang, and discovers that the same gang had driven his sister to death. Using his lethal hunting skills, Tetsuya begins to take revenge…

A scrap iron carrier arrived at Tokyo bay. The ship swarmed with the stevedores, the souvenir seller and the hookers. The crews of ship were oppressed by arrogant captain and his officers. The crews caused an uprising. A manager of stevedore ordered his employee leader to suppress an uprising...

A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a plan to rob a cash delivery truck in order to provide for their families.