A rugged drama of initiation set in an isolated part of northeastern Japan. A young man tries to overcome the hostility of his girlfriend's father, a tuna fisherman, by getting the older man to teach him the secrets of his dangerous trade. Print courtesy of The National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. The boys form a bond with the recluse and set about weeding and replanting the garden. Print courtesy of Yomiuri-TV Enterprise LTD.

In Somai's final film, an alcoholic civil servant wakes up under a cherry tree in Tokyo next to a bar hostess with whom he's impulsively made a suicide pact. Though he's now changed his mind, he agrees to travel with her to Hokkaido, her preferred site for ending it all. An elegiac road movie of restrained emotion. Print courtesy of Be Wild.

This dazzling portrait of an orphaned girl at several stages of her life, from childhood to adulthood, opens with one of the most famous long takes in Japanese cinema, a single shot spanning months of time and disparate locations. Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation.

After witnessing the rape of his wife, a man's mind snaps and he attacks a prostitute. Two years later, the man and the prostitute meet by chance. Somai's entry in Nikkatsu studios' roman porno series is a subversive mood piece with an unforgettable melancholy atmosphere. Print courtesy of Nikkatsu Corporation.

In this delirious candy-coloured concoction, a hulking man from the country pursues his beloved to the underworld of Tokyo nightclubs, where he finds work as a sideshow wrestler and becomes involved with a faded opera singer. Print courtesy of Dentsu Corporation.

In one of Somai's most acclaimed films, a young girl must adjust to her new life after the divorce of her parents. Physically separated from her father and at odds with her distraught mother, the girl must negotiate her own passage to maturity. Print courtesy of Yomiuri-TV Enterprise LTD.

Three high-school students tangle with indulgent yakuza and lackadaisical police as they set out in search of the class bully, who has been kidnapped. Their bizarre, distinctively Somai-esque journey involves some of the director's most astonishing long takes. Print courtesy of The National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

A high-school girl inherits a declining yakuza organisation, which seeks to repair its fortunes under her leadership. This mixture of deadpan comedy and outlandish action was a smash hit in Japan. A generation of young Japanese women grew up reciting lines of dialogue from this movie. Print courtesy of Kadokawa Shoten Co. Ltd.

Through a clerical error, a studious tenth-grade boy is forced to share a house with the prettiest girl in school – an arrangement that could mean expulsion if it's found out. In his first film, Shinji Somai turns a popular boys' manga into a vigorous and bittersweet study of the fears and longings of adolescence. Print courtesy of The National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

A pampered young model is killed in a traffic accident. Given the chance to return to earth, she becomes involved with the advertising executive who is trying to cover up her death. A blend of fantasy and trenchant realism in which Somai uses the ethereal glow of advertising images to comment on the transience of life. Print courtesy of Shochiku.

One of Somai's masterpieces. As a typhoon approaches their small Tokyo suburb, a group of high-school students confront issues of sexuality, mortality and their place in the world. A riveting work with a rich and beguiling atmosphere, showing the director's full dynamic range. Print courtesy of The National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

A salaryman faces a major life change as his firm undergoes financial difficulties. To add to his troubles, a man claiming to be his long-estranged father shows up at his house requesting shelter. One of the best of Somai's seriocomic studies of the messiness of family life. Print courtesy of Shochiku.