Biography: Biography not available
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: June 26, 1895
Deathday: February 26, 1962
Popularity:
1961-01-28
Overview: After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.
Genres: War Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-01-28
Popularity:
1960-03-22
Overview: The success story of a group of ronin who fights against traffickers during the Edo Tenpo period.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-03-22
Popularity:
1951-10-26
Overview: Director Hiroshi Inagaki's early version of the life and death of famed swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. Otani Tomoemon gives a brilliant performance as Sasaki Kojiro, who rises from humble beginnings to national fame, and a young Toshiro Mifune appears as the legendary master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi for the first time and essentially sets the standard for future portrayals.This masterpiece is based on the original story as written by noted author Murakami Genzo and is far superior to any other versions. Following Kojiro from his earliest days through his fateful meeting with Musashi, this movie is filled with exciting and dramatic moments culminating in the best version of the final duel ever seen on film.
Genres: Action History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-10-26
Popularity:
1939-12-20
Overview: Another adaptation of Tange Sazen.
Genres: History Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-12-20
Popularity:
1954-05-18
Overview: 1950s Japanese drama.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-05-18
Popularity:
1936-06-01
Overview: This film is based on a real Meiji era performer -- and tells of Tochuken's partnership with his wife (played by Chikako Hosokawa) who played shamisen for his songs/recitations), his affair with a geisha (Sachiko Chiba), and the deterioration of his partnership and marriage.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1936-06-01
Popularity:
1936-11-01
Overview: As suggested by the title, this film takes up the theme of the city, beginning with a series of traveling shots from Chiyo's point of view on a bus leaving the countryside and entering the metropolitan cityscape. After some fruitless job hunting in downtown Tokyo, Chiyo accepts a job as a bar hostess in Shiba ward. Well away from glamorous Asakusa and Ginza, this is a neighborhood bar where the women are dirt poor, each having only one kimono to their name....
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1936-11-01
Popularity:
1937-10-01
Overview: Part 1 of a 2-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan. The central character here is Toyomi (played by Takako IRIE, star of Mizoguchi’s "Water Magician), a rich young woman in love with Shintaro (Minoru TAKADA), a rich young man. Unfortunately, Shintaro’s father is in the process of arranging a marriage for him with Yurie (Chieko TAKEHISA), the scion of an even wealthier family. In order to avoid this, the two young lovers flee to Tokyo to live together. When Shintaro comes back to proclaim his intent to marry Toyomi, his father browbeats him into attending the long-arranged marriage meeting with Yurie. While Shintaro is back home, Toyomi goes on a vacation trip with her closest chum, Michiko (Yumeko AIZOME). At a class reunion, Toyomi is to distressed (at not having heard from Shintaro for so long), she doesn’t go out on the town with her classmates. Michiko, however, runs into Shintaro and Yurie (also out on the town), and pulling him aside, demands an explanation.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-10-01
Popularity:
1954-01-03
Overview:
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-01-03
Popularity:
1939-01-11
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-01-11
Popularity:
1938-02-01
Overview:
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-02-01
Popularity:
1953-03-21
Overview: A villager's family is ostracized after he makes an accusation of rigged elections
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-03-21
Popularity:
1949-11-28
Overview: 1949 drama film
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-11-28
Popularity:
1938-06-11
Overview: A priest in Hokkaido adopts a blind orphan girl, and as she grows up he finds himself falling in love with her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-06-11
Popularity:
1939-06-22
Overview: Kichigoro, a firefighter from the Maeda family of the Kaga Principality, rescues Oshimo, the younger sister of Jirokichi, a city firefighter from the Ha-gumi group, from a samurai who is trying to kidnap her. Oshimo has feelings for Kichigoro. At this moment, a fire warning bell sounds in the city...
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-06-22
Popularity:
1955-07-03
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-07-03
Popularity:
1954-03-13
Overview: The Lord of Okazaki is killed by his brother-in-law. Although the Lord's widow bears a child, she is also killed. Then, a ghost cat begins stalking in the castle.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-03-13
Popularity:
1956-07-12
Overview: Oiwa has been searching for the one who killed her father for a long time. She comes to Yedo and sees a man named Naosuke. The film is based on the kabuki classic: Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan (1826) written by Tsuruya Nanboku and is one of the most famous ghost stories throughout Japan.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-07-12
Popularity:
1958-02-08
Overview: Five boys escape from their life of bondage on an island 10 miles off Hiroshima, and are picked up in the Inland Sea, drifting in an open boat.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-02-08
Popularity:
1940-07-30
Overview: Following Flower Picking Diary (1939), Tamizo directed another film starring Hideko Takamine, based on a story by Nobuko Yoshiya. Takamine plays a poor young girl, trying to become a teacher on her quest to become independent to be able to look after her younger brother. But then tragedy strikes...
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-07-30
Popularity:
1937-03-11
Overview: "Karayuki-san offers a no-holds-barred depiction of the discrimination faced by a former prostitute who returns to Japan from Singapore with her mixed-race son." - Alexander Jacoby (Oxford Brookes University)
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-03-11
Popularity:
1937-01-21
Overview: Japanese domestic drama.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-01-21
Popularity:
1940-03-20
Overview: Twenty-year-old Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) and her younger sister Asako (Yōko Yaguchi) struggle to accept changes in their home during the preparations of their widowed father's wedding to his chosen bride, Maki Tsuneko (Sadako Sawamura), who's anxious about her conduct as the bride.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-03-20
Popularity:
1935-12-22
Overview: A story of two sisters, the older being more traditional, the younger a "moga" ("modern girl"). Their widowed father runs the family sake shop, but is running into financial trouble, causing him to tamper with his stock; Meanwhile, his long-time mistress yearns for something more serious. Amidst this, the older sister is introduced to a well-off suitor: A university boy, much more intrigued by the less traditional little sister. A doddering grandfather, an officious uncle and busybody neighbors also don't make the lives of the hardworking members of the family any easier.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1935-12-22
Popularity:
1935-10-21
Overview: The main focus is on the 5 member band of a small circus as it runs into problems while touring rural Japan. It also pays lots of attention to the two daughters of the aging and irascible ringmaster-circus owner. The high points are the sound (and score) and cinematography featuring a lot of vertiginous panning (appropriate - as high wire trapeze artists are also an important element in the film). A fascinating side-light on 30s Japan.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1935-10-21
Popularity:
1940-12-18
Overview: This film depicts a troupe of wandering kabuki players traveling through rural Japan.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-12-18
Popularity:
1959-03-03
Overview: Focuses on the mutual antipathy of two groups of children in an Izu village.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-03-03
Popularity:
1955-07-12
Overview: After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers. While Otsu waits, Akemi also seeks him, expressing her desires directly. Meanwhile, Takezo is observed by Sasaki Kojiro, a brilliant young fighter, confident he can dethrone Takezo. After leaving Kyoto in triumph, Takezo declares his love for Otsu, but in a way that dishonors her and shames him. Once again, he leaves alone.
Genres: Drama Action Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-07-12
Popularity:
1941-08-27
Overview: A "slice-of life" film about a group of high school girls in 1940s Japan.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1941-08-27
Popularity:
1935-06-01
Overview: Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1935-06-01
Popularity:
1940-01-02
Overview: Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese merchant marine officer. Part spy thriller and part Shanghai travelogue, it was part of a popular series known as "Chinese Continental Friendship" made by the occupying Japanese in China.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-01-02
Popularity:
1957-07-13
Overview: On Wings of Love is a 1957 Japanese romantic musical film directed by Toshio Sugie. It was Toho's highest-grossing film of the year and the first film released in Tohoscope.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-07-13
Popularity:
1938-11-09
Overview: An episodic film about life in and around a rural police station and the people it serves.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-11-09
Popularity:
1952-02-14
Overview: Kanae, who broke up with her husband and moved to her uncle's house, met two men when her father, a university professor, collapsed. Michihara, a wealthy man and Miyashita, a youth scholar. Kanae is attracted to Miyashita, but ...
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-02-14
Popularity:
1938-02-02
Overview: Japanese adaptation of LES MISERABLES. The last film of director Itami took inspiration from Les Miserables. Transpiring during the Southwestern War of 1877 in Japan, which was the last civil war in the country, a criminal escapes prison only to be found by a monk. The criminal decides to turn a new leaf based on their conversation and goes on to become a town's mayor. He hears news of a mistaken arrest and identity. The revelation of truth is the start of a series of miseries.
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-02-02
Popularity:
1939-11-30
Overview: Song of the White Orchid was a co-production of Toho and Mantetsu, the railway that served the colonial region of Manchuria, and the first film in the Kazuo Hasegawa/Shirley Yamaguchi (Ri Koran) “Continental Trilogy.” Handsome Hasegawa (representing Japan) runs up against an impertinent Yamaguchi (representing the continent); not surprisingly, in the course of the film the woman comes around and realizes the benevolent intentions of the Japanese. In Song of the White Orchid Yamaguchi leaves Hasegawa, who plays an expatriate working for the railway, because of a misunderstanding. She joins a communist guerilla group plotting to blow up the Manchurian railway. Learning of the subterfuge that led to the misunderstanding, she renews her faith in Hasegawa—and by extension Japan—and tries to undermine the plot.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-11-30
Popularity:
1961-09-13
Overview: A story of an orphan boy who wanted the love of parents so badly, another orphan sincerely pitied him to the point he gives his secret birthright as an illegitimate son to a Shogun as a "gift of hope" to the sad boy. As the orphan boy grew up, his loving heart became bitter and he saw the opportunity to take advantage of this birthright with the help of a man who wanted to use this orphan's desire to be loved, for seizing power in the shogunate by using the imposter. Many obstacles to hurdle along the way of deception, however, will they succeed or will he be exposed?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-09-13
Popularity:
1938-03-11
Overview: A half brother and sister work at a hotel in Hakone respectively as a porter and a souvenir shop clerk. They are close. One day a woman named Hasegawa checks into the hotel in order to recuperate in a calm environment with fresh air. She is the mother of the store employee. The mother and daughter were separated due to the Kanto earthquake. The girl was practically raised by her older half brother.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-03-11
Popularity:
1942-01-14
Overview: What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy in 1942.
Genres: Comedy Drama Romance War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1942-01-14
Popularity:
1936-04-14
Overview: 1936 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1936-04-14
Popularity:
1956-11-27
Overview: Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-11-27
Popularity:
1959-10-06
Overview:
Genres: Mystery Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-10-06
Popularity:
1960-04-26
Overview: Detective Tarao investigates the deaths of police officers who were involved in solving a kidnapping case.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-04-26
Popularity:
1954-11-30
Overview: Fukagawa's chef Ushimatsu of the restaurant Kawatake fell in love with a maid named Omame and changed dramatically. He stopped gambling and womanizing much to the surprise of his friends. As their wedding day approached, Minosuke who had long been infatuated with Omame threatened her mother Okuma by using a promissory note for three ryō that he lent to her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-11-30
Popularity:
1954-08-10
Overview: As a bid to win contacts, ship building companies wine and dine political leaders, inviting the geisha Hidekoma and Hidechiyo to entertain the politicians.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-08-10
Popularity:
1938-04-21
Overview: A biographical film chronicling the life of composer Setoguchi Tōkichi (1868-1941) from his early days as a clarinetist in the Imperial Japanese Navy band to his later years when his music, in particular the famed “Warship March” (Gunkan kōshinkyoku), surged in popularity.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-04-21
Popularity:
1954-11-08
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-11-08
Popularity:
1959-10-18
Overview: An Edo appointed official Baba must ensure the safe delivery of shogunate funds to Kyoto.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-10-18
Popularity: