Kinuyo Tanaka
Also Known As: 다나카 키누요, کینو تاناکا
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kinuyo Tanaka (田中 絹代 Tanaka Kinuyo, 29 November 1909 – 21 March 1977) was a Japanese actress and director. Tanaka was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She became a leading actress at an early age, appearing in Yasujirō Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929. The following year she played the lead in Aiyoku no ki, and in 1931 she appeared in Japan's first talkie, The Neighbor's Wife and Mine, directed by Heinosuke Gosho. She had a close working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi, having parts in 15 of his films, including leading roles in The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). Their working relationship ended when Mizoguchi countered a recommendation from the Directors Guild of Japan for the Nikkatsu studio to hire her as a director. Despite this, the production of her second film as director went ahead, but Tanaka never forgave Mizoguchi, and the reasons for his behaviour are unclear. She also played Noboru Yasumoto's mother in Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (1965). For her portrayal in Kei Kumai's Sandakan N° 8 she won the Best Actress Award at the 25th Berlin International Film Festival in 1975.[2] Her last screen appearance was in 1976 in Kei Kumai's Kita No Misaki. Tanaka was the second Japanese woman who worked as a film director, after Sakane Tazuko (1904‐1975). Her first directing job was on the film Love Letter in 1953, and she made five further films in that role. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kinuyo Tanaka, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan
Birthday: November 28, 1909
Deathday: March 21, 1977
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
Cape of the North
Overview: A Swiss nun falls in love with a Japanese engineer.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1976-04-03
Popularity:
Sansho the Bailiff
Overview: In medieval Japan, a woman and her children journey to find the family's patriarch, who was exiled years before.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-03-31
Popularity:
Sandakan No. 8
Overview: A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.
Genres: Drama War History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1974-11-02
Popularity:
Equinox Flower
Overview: Wataru Hirayama's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares that she is in love with a musician and is adamant to live life her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-09-07
Popularity:
Kaisen no Zenya
Overview: Kempeitai fights American spies in Japan
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1943-01-14
Popularity:
Mother
Overview: A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-06-12
Popularity:
The Life of Oharu
Overview: In Edo Period Japan, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-04-17
Popularity:
The Love of the Actress Sumako
Overview: The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1947-08-16
Popularity:
Miss Oyu
Overview: Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu to marry so that she can remain close to Shinnosuke.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-06-22
Popularity:
The Woman in the Rumor
Overview: Yukiko's fiance learns her mother runs a geisha house and ends their engagement. She despises what her mother does until one of her clients shows interest and starts to woo her.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-06-20
Popularity:
Flowing
Overview: Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mother's trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-11-20
Popularity:
Kono sora no aru kagiri
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-11-14
Popularity:
The Munekata Sisters
Overview: Setsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them failed to propose when Hiroshi left for France a few years ago. Now he is back and Mariko tries to reunite them. She too is secretly in love with Hiroshi.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-08-08
Popularity:
Zoku aizen katsura
Overview: 1939 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-05-05
Popularity:
Alone Across the Pacific
Overview: Kenichi Horie is determined to challenge his family, the law and the nature crossing the Pacific to America in a small sailboat. Despite his careful planning many unforeseen events will test his determination.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-10-27
Popularity:
Women of the Night
Overview: In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law, descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1948-05-26
Popularity:
Miyamoto Musashi
Overview: The first of five Musashi series, Shinobu and her brother Genichiro plead with the famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto to teach them swordsmanship to avenge their father's death. The killers of their father see the sister and brother practicing with Miyamoto, and so enlist the help of another powerful swordsman, Kojiro Sasaki, which gives Sasaki an excuse to battle Miyamoto.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1944-12-29
Popularity:
Utamaro and His Five Women
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1946-12-17
Popularity:
Her Brother
Overview: Set in 1926 when Japanese tradition was much stronger, this drama looks at the inner workings of a small family, especially the relationship between a sister and brother.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-11-01
Popularity:
Flame of My Love
Overview: A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-02-13
Popularity:
Woman of Tokyo
Overview: Ryoichi and Chikako, brother and sister, live together. Chikako toils during the day and, at night, prostitutes herself to fund his college tuition.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1933-02-09
Popularity:
Phoenix
Overview: A Japanese war widow recalls her love affair with her deceased husband.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1947-12-11
Popularity:
Bright Sea
Overview: On the day of college graduation, Mieko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) stood on stage as the valedictorian for the Department of English. During her university years she made sure that she would always come out on top, and she did. With a victorious graduation behind her, she plans out the next chapter of her life: become a successful novelist and go out with a classmate she's been secretly eyeing for the past couple of years.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-12-26
Popularity:
Ornamental Hairpin
Overview: A Japanese mountain inn patron's foot is cut by an ornamental hairpin accidentally left behind by a former patron, leading to much curiosity among the other patrons regarding her identity.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1941-08-26
Popularity:
Sincere Heart
Overview: A young student falls into a hopeless romantic attraction to a sick girl, whom he can only see from afar.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-01-29
Popularity:
The Village Bride
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1928-01-27
Popularity:
Riku no ôja
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1928-11-10
Popularity:
A Tale of Archery at the Sanjusangendo
Overview: In A Tale of Archery, young, timid bowmaster Kazuma (Akitake Kôno) seeks to beat the archery record set by Hoshino Kanzaemon, a mysterious figure who, it is rumored, drove the previous champion (Kazuma’s father) to suicide. Possessed of much raw talent, Kazuma is also very much a coward, holing himself up in an inn run by the kindly Okinu (Kinuyo Tanaka) and generally avoiding confrontation of any sort. Despite his clandestine manner, enough of the locals know of Kazuma’s purpose and an attempt is made on his life. He is saved by Karatsu Kanbei (Kazuo Hasegawa), a samurai who offers to help Kazuma hone his archery skills, though it soon becomes clear that this apparently selfless stranger has several potentially shady ulterior motives.
Genres: War Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1945-06-28
Popularity:
Karabotan
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1926-08-30
Popularity:
The Life of Workers in the Big City
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1929-05-18
Popularity:
The Ballad of Narayama
Overview: In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a family of thieves are dealt with severely, and an old man, past 70, whose son has cast him out, scrounges for food. Will Orin's loving and accepting spirit teach and ennoble her family?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-06-01
Popularity:
A Wanderer's Notebook
Overview: Considered one of the finest late Naruses and a model of film biography, A Wanderer’s Notebook features remarkable performances by Hideko Takamine – Phillip Lopate calls it “probably her greatest performance” – and Kinuyo Tanaka as mother and daughter living from hand to mouth in Twenties Tokyo. Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, the novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, A Wanderer’s Notebook traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the twentieth century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-09-29
Popularity:
The Neighbour's Wife and Mine
Overview: A playwright moves to a rural neighborhood to avoid the distractions of the city, but he discovers there are plenty of ways to get sidetracked in his new home, too.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1931-08-01
Popularity:
The Dancing Girl of Izu
Overview: "The Dancing Girl of Izu" tells of the story between a young male student who is touring the Izu Peninsula and a family of traveling dancers he meets there, including their youngest girl. The student finds the naïve girl attractive even though he eventually has to part with the family after spending memorable time together.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1933-02-01
Popularity:
A Legend, or Was It?
Overview: A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-08-11
Popularity:
Burden of Life
Overview: A middle-aged father has just married off his third daughter, but still has his nine year old son to raise whom he resents as he was unwanted.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1935-12-10
Popularity:
Army
Overview: Though plagued by ill health all his life, a young Japanese man is obligated to fulfill his family's longstanding military tradition.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1944-12-07
Popularity:
Youth, Why Do You Cry?
Overview: A modern girl suddenly intrudes into a widower's family home.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1930-11-15
Popularity:
The Three Treasures
Overview: The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. But Ouso prevails in the mission and returns to his father's castle under a new name, Prince Yamato Takeru. Otomo plots to have the Prince sent into even greater danger, but Otomo is unaware that the gods have favored the Prince and the outcome is far from what any of them expected.
Genres: Fantasy Action Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-11-01
Popularity:
The Eternal Rainbow
Overview: Two men at an ironworks encounter roadblocks: the first does not have the grades to get a job, while the other finds himself falling for a co-worker.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-10-28
Popularity:
Banchō sarayashiki
Overview: short film about Banchō Sarayashiki.
Genres: Drama Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-11-01
Popularity:
Love, Be with Humanity: Part 2
Overview: The three-hour Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are / Love, Be with Humanity (1931) starts as a satire of alienation in the world of money, develops into a lumberland epic with a forest fire on Sakhalin Island, turns into a tragedy of King Lear dimensions, and manages to amaze the blasé audience with a happy end in the Wild West.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1931-04-17
Popularity:
Wedding Ring
Overview: A jewelry store president begins to fall for the doctor treating her husband's illness.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-07-01
Popularity:
Yotsuya Ghost Story Part 1
Overview: Iemon Tamiya is an impoverished masterless samurai who craves a better life, which he cannot have because of his marriage to Oiwa, who is completely devoted to her husband.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-07-05
Popularity:
Yotsuya Ghost Story Part 2
Overview: Part 2 starts where the first film ended, with Iemon disposing of the bodies of his wife and Kohei, marrying upward, and being blackmailed by the evil Naosuke.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-07-16
Popularity:
A Man's Recompense: Part 1
Overview: Sabu Toshinobu is an archaeologist who has taken a liking to Kinuyo Tanaka, the daughter of an archaeologist at an inn in Izu, where he is visiting to conduct an excavation. Sabun gets along well with his childhood friend Michiko Kuwano, but his mother (Fumiko Okamura) is against her, so he gives up easily and ends up being married to Kinuyo Tanaka.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-08-13
Popularity:
A Man's Recompense: Part 2
Overview: Sabu Toshinobu is an archaeologist who has taken a liking to Kinuyo Tanaka, the daughter of an archaeologist at an inn in Izu, where he is visiting to conduct an excavation. Sabun gets along well with his childhood friend Michiko Kuwano, but his mother (Fumiko Okamura) is against her, so he gives up easily and ends up being married to Kinuyo Tanaka.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-08-24
Popularity:
Flower
Overview: Most of the students studying Ikebana with Kozoe Iemoto are daughters of rich Tokyo families. Kozoe meets and grows close to a doctor who proposes marriage but whose mother harbours ill feeling towards her because of an incident in the mountains where a child got into difficulties. Kozoe rejects the proposal but falls ill and when she recovers, decides to devote herself entirely to the world of flower arranging.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1941-07-15
Popularity:
A Certain Woman
Overview: Pretty Oshige is deceived by her first love. After this, she lives a hard lifestyle, working at a number of jobs. Her only pleasure is her nephew, who eventually becomes a merchant marine. When Oshige meets her old love ten years later, she is able to forgive him and even thank him for the path her life has taken.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1942-10-29
Popularity:
The Travels of Kinuyo Tanaka
Overview: Compilation of film footage documenting Japanese film star Kinuyo Tanaka's goodwill tour of the U.S. in 1949.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2009-10-17
Popularity:
Forever a Woman
Overview: Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In the last stage of her life, she meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her life.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-11-23
Popularity:
The Moon Has Risen
Overview: Mokichi is the widowed father of three daughters, with whom he lives on the premises of a temple since the war. All three daughters become involved in some sort of complicated relationships.
Genres: Drama Romance Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-01-08
Popularity:
Record of a Woman Doctor
Overview: A group of female doctors travel to a remote village during their summer holiday to offer free medical care to villagers. There they must battle prejudice and superstition as much as disease.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1941-11-23
Popularity:
Okoto and Sasuke
Overview: A period piece about the love of a wealthy blind woman, a teacher of koto and shamisen, and her devoted manservant. Based on a novella by Tanizaki Junichiro.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1935-06-15
Popularity:
An Heir's Place
Overview: This film stars Tanaka Kinuyo as the mother of the heir to the Hosho name, a famous lineage of Noh actors. The heir, Hosho Yagoro, is played by Hasegawa Kuzuo who went on to become familiar among Ichikawa Kon fans as Yukinojo in An Actor's Revenge, which was also co-written by Ito, adding to the relatedness of An Heir's Place.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-06-03
Popularity:
Victory of Women
Overview: Representing a destitute mother in an infanticide trial, a female lawyer attempts to convince a conservative prosecutor of the benefits of Japan's democratized post-war legal system.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1946-04-18
Popularity:
Five Sisters
Overview: The story of five sisters.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-06-08
Popularity:
Yellow Crow
Overview: In this Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, director Heinosuke Gosho -- a master chronicler of Japanese middle-class life -- presents the story of Kiyoshi Yoshida (Koji Shitara), who feels estranged from both parents after his father returns from war. How the boy adapts to life with the virtual stranger his father has become is the film's focus. Chikage Awashima, Yûnosuke Itô and Yoshiko Kuga also star.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-02-27
Popularity:
I Graduated, But...
Overview: Tetsuo Nomoto, a young graduated student tries to find a decent job by himself. Later on, he will marry his girlfriend, Machiko, whom he hides the fact that he has no job. Hardships come quickly, which forces Machiko to find a job in a bar.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1929-09-06
Popularity:
The Scent of Incense
Overview: After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-05-24
Popularity:
ABC Lifeline
Overview: Directed by Yasujirô Shimazu.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1931-12-12
Popularity:
The New Road: Akemi
Overview: The eldest daughter of a noble family is in love with an aviator while being courted by a fellow aristocrat she thinks is a dullard. This part is told from the perspective of Akemi.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1936-11-30
Popularity:
Wakarete ikiru toki mo
Overview: A Hiromichi Horikawa movie
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-04-04
Popularity:
Hahakogusa
Overview: Based on the Nobu Koito story
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-04-22
Popularity:
The Storm
Overview: A widowed high-school teacher tries to raise his four children alone.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-10-24
Popularity:
Where Chimneys Are Seen
Overview: Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-03-05
Popularity:
Kinuyo Tanaka, a Woman We Talk About
Overview: This documentary composed of numerous testimonies and archives, filmed in Japan highlights the extraordinary career of the actress-director Kinuyo Tanaka and her singular ambition to impose a female point of view on cinema, reflecting her own vision of the world.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2022-10-18
Popularity:
Marching On
Overview: A farmer’s boy, obsessed with his balsa-and-paper flying models and with dreams of real aircraft, develops a friendship with the daughter of the local squire, who introduces the lad to her pilot brother and his flying officer friends; through hard work, and despite the handicap of a lowly class status, he eventually succeeds in qualifying as a pilot and joining the air force.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1930-03-07
Popularity:
The Man Who Has Returned
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1944-07-20
Popularity:
I Flunked, But...
Overview: This bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a group of college roommates attempting to cheat their way through their exams. As the title goes, things don't work out for our roguish main character, but his classmates soon find themselves in a similarly sorry state...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1930-04-11
Popularity:
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?
Overview: When a young man inherits his father's lucrative business, he cheats the system to set up three of his college friends with jobs.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1932-10-13
Popularity:
Dragnet Girl
Overview: A gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.
Genres: Romance Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1933-04-27
Popularity:
Okayo's Preparedness
Overview: A young student of traditional dance falls in love with a handsome young man who visits the dance school in order to take photographs.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-04-01
Popularity:
Red Beard
Overview: Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-04-03
Popularity:
Mama, I Need You!
Overview: After finishing the course of junior high school, Kazuo comes up to Tokyo, leaving his mother alone in the unproductive northern district. He finds a job in a small laundry in downtown Tokyo and works hard till late at night. At a nearby restaurant a brother and sister are working, and Kazuo becomes friendly with the girl, Yoneko. Love blossoms between the two. However, Yoneko's brother objects to his sister marrying Kazuo.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-10-13
Popularity:
(Street of Wandering Pigeons) When Will the Birds Come Home
Overview: Yoshida Denkichi does loses sight of his wife Chiyoko and daughter Toyoko during the war, and is taken in by a familiar woman, Oshige, and becomes the owner of "Fujimura" in the town of Hato. Eiko is a timid woman who hates Terada, a watchmaker who is obsessed with her; Tamie is a hard worker who asks for money from customers to support her mother and daughter Teruko; Tane, who dreams of the day they can be together, gives money to her lover Takeda; Machiko, an apres girl, is selective about her customers in the name of romance. They are women working in the red light district at "Fujimura."
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-06-21
Popularity:
Osayo koisugata
Overview: The poor novelist Yamamoto is writing his novel, determined and with a headband around his head. With him, the novelist who is always in trouble paying his bills, is the girl Saya who becomes the model for his novel. Saya however is in love with a young driver. When he is forced to move into a spa town as the result of the jealousy of another man Saya is terribly sad. But with the help of Yamamoto the driver's rival can be revealed and Saya can finally be with her beloved.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1934-09-14
Popularity:
The Bride Talks in Her Sleep
Overview: This pair of gentle yet witty and inventive comedies from the director of The Neighbour's Wife and Mine typify both the formal experimentation of early Japanese sound cinema and the social milieux that Shochiku tended to depict. 'Virtually plotless, and feeling more like comic sketches than fully developed stories,' writes Arthur Nolletti, Jr, 'these light comedies, or farces, take a wholly trivial matter (often a socially embarrassing situation) and use it as a springboard for a succession of gags.' Much of the films' distinction comes from the wit of Gosho's direction, the imaginative use of the new sound technology and the charm of the acting, particularly of the heroines (Kinuyo Tanaka in Bride; Hiroko Kawasaki in Groom). Yet in both films, Gosho finds room for some shrewd observation of character and environment, subtly exploring the values and assumptions of the suburban petit bourgeoisie.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1933-01-14
Popularity:
Lullaby of the Earth
Overview: The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world when her grandmother dies.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1976-06-12
Popularity:
The Loyal 47 Ronin
Overview: This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), such as the internationally celebrated Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and although he is now most famous as the maker of the avant-garde silent films A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeji, 1926) and Crossroads (Jujiro, 1928), Chushingura is in fact more typical of his output than those experimental works. The film ranked third in that year’s Kinema Junpo critics’ poll, and Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie noted that 'not only the sound but the quick cutting was admired by many critics.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1932-03-01
Popularity:
Ginza Cosmetics
Overview: A luckless geisha struggles to make a living for herself and her young son.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-04-14
Popularity:
The Inner Palace Conspiracy
Overview: A period mystery in which an unconventional priest exposes the truth behind the bizarre death of a maid in the shogun's harem. Kinuyo Tanaka stylishly plays a constantly intoxicated geisha in this all-star entertainment film.
Genres: Adventure History Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-01-13
Popularity:
The Tree of Love
Overview: A young doctor, Kozo Tsumura, falls for young nurse Katsue Takaishi. But she's got a secret: she's a widow with a son. Kozo and Katsue decide to run away to Kyoto, but her child suddenly became sick and she just missed the train and Kozo. She makes it to Kyoto finally, but is unable to meet him. Plus she isn't accepted into Kyoto society. She goes back to her hometown and tries to forget him. She quits the hospital to concentrate on her singing. She makes her professional debut with the hit "Aizen Katsura". Kozo is in the audience.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-09-15
Popularity:
Tsukiyo no kasa
Overview: Housewives from four neighboring households casually gather at an old well at Kaneko's house in a residential area on the outskirts of Tokyo. If two people come together, they will talk about selling kimonos, if three people come together, they will discuss food shopping, and when four people come together, there will be laughter. Focusing on four housewives who gather at the edge of the well, it depicts the daily life of each household.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-08-21
Popularity:
The Lady of Musashino
Overview: Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-09-14
Popularity:
Marriage
Overview: In postwar Japan a young woman is unable to marry her sweetheart because her family's in difficult circumstances and needs her income to keep afloat.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1947-03-18
Popularity:
Sôbô
Overview: Directed by Mikio Naruse. It is presumed to be lost.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-12-07
Popularity:
Geisha in the Old City
Overview: Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, the drama, set in the brothels of Shimabara in post-war Kyoto, is a moving look at the lives of women of tenacity and resilience.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-10-13
Popularity:
Love Letter
Overview: A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-12-13
Popularity:
How Sorrowful
Overview: The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when her parents accuse him of cashing in on her misfortune.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-09-07
Popularity:
The Ataka Family
Overview: Soichi Ataka is the eldest son of Ataka family. Although mentally challenged, he's a person with a gentle heart. Soichi's wife, Kuniko is devoted to her husband and together the couple runs the family farm. Their happy family life comes to an abrupt halt when Soichi's half-brother, Joji returns with his wife Masako after failing in a business.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-05-15
Popularity:
The Fencing Master
Overview: The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting – he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New National Theatre Company, he wants nothing more than to choreograph the swordfights for the modern plays put on by the company.
Genres: Drama Action Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-09-30
Popularity:
The Genealogy of Women
Overview: A melodrama by noted auteur and father of director Yoshitaro Nomura, Hotei Nomura. This is apparently the first adaptation of Izumi Kyoka's The Romance of Yushima.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1934-02-22
Popularity:
Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka
Overview: The adopted son of an Osaka courier falls in love with a prostitute and, discovering that she is about to be purchased by a client, steals money from his employer to redeem her. Hunted criminals, the two young lovers take flight to Yamato, but, as in Chikamatsu's other domestic tragedies of love and duty (known as sewamono), they must be pursued and their passion destroyed by death. Favourite Uchida themes, such as the indenturing of a prostitute , and his characteristic emphasis on performance and theatrical artifice re-emerge here; but the daring device of having Chikamatsu appear as a character - not unlike having Shakespeare interpolated into a film adaptation of one of his plays - is just one of many surprises this remarkable film holds. “Extraordinary” (Donald Richie).
Genres: Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-09-13
Popularity:
The Age of Emotion
Overview: A young man torn between love and friendship.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1928-03-01
Popularity:
Victory Song
Overview: Hisshoka is a 1945 Drama film directed by four Japanese directors.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1945-02-22
Popularity:
My Elder Brother
Overview: Jyuta, an honest owner of a taxi company, has a younger half-brother who is involved in the yakuza world and doesn’t get along well with his mother. Jyuta tries to correct him…
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1934-12-13
Popularity:
On This Earth
Overview: Kanazawa in the Taisho era. A former junior high school student, Ichiro's family used to be a large landowner, but now they are living in poverty with his mother. His mother works hard to get her son through school. Under such circumstances, Ichiro meets Wakako, the daughter of a wealthy man, and they fall in love with each other, but they are opposed by those around them because of their different social status.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-11-22
Popularity:
Lady Doctor Kinuyo
Overview: Kinuyo is a daughter of doctor of Chinese medicine, and Yasuo is a son of surgeon. Their families always fight like cat and dog. This relationship is ancestral. Although Kinuyo and Yasuo love each other, they have different thoughts toward treatments.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-04-29
Popularity:
Seisen aiba fu: Akatsuki ni inoru
Overview:
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-04-17
Popularity:
Song of the Flower Basket
Overview: Three men fall in love with the same young girl who works in a tonkatsu restaurant in the Shitamachi district of Tokyo.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1937-01-14
Popularity:
Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
Overview: In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1975-05-24
Popularity:
Men vs. Women
Overview: A musical film made for the inauguration of Shochiku's Ofuna Studio, with an all-star cast of the era.
Genres: Comedy Music Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1936-08-29
Popularity:
Sisters of Nishijin
Overview: A family of Kyoto textile workers struggles after tragedy.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-04-17
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Sanbaba
Overview: A story about being scared of getting old.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1974-06-01
Popularity:
Stepbrothers
Overview: In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers. A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted Japan between 1921 and 1946. Winner of the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-06-25
Popularity:
An Innocent Maid
Overview: In a back alley of the Shitamachi district of Tokyo, Kihachi bears witness to a series of romantic complications involving the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Considered to be a lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1935-01-20
Popularity:
Young Lady
Overview: Two reporters find that they are repeatedly beaten to the scoop by a new female journaist, 'young miss'. They decide to team up with her to investigate a secret club for wealthy voyeurs. Considered to be a lost film.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1930-12-12
Popularity:
A Hen in the Wind
Overview: Tokiko is a mother patiently waiting for her husband's return from the war when her 4-year old son becomes ill. She takes him to the doctor for treatment but has no way of paying. She resorts to prostitution. One month later her husband returns from WWII to find his desperate wife, who tells him the truth. Together they must deal with the consequences.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1948-09-17
Popularity:
Women in Prison
Overview: The woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-09-11
Popularity:
Ugetsu
Overview: In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.
Genres: Fantasy Drama Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-03-26
Popularity:
Double Wedding
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-07-13
Popularity:
Sorrow Is Only for Women
Overview: The beauty of the Japanese family system is portrayed through the women who greet a woman who went to America thirty years ago to visit her grave.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-02-26
Popularity:
Tora-san's Dream-Come-True
Overview: When Tora-san returns to visit his family, he is surprised to find an arrogant professor occupying his room. The professor and Tora-san become rivals for the affection of Chiyo.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-12-29
Popularity:
Air Raid of the Enemy Plane
Overview: Japanese war movie.
Genres: War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1943-04-01
Popularity:
Spring Thunder
Overview: Eiko is an innocent young lady born into a wealthy family with nothing to offer. She was good at singing, and lived her life playing around with her cronies, organizing music concerts and so on. However, things change when her father's business fails and she was suddenly thrown out into the world without any foundation. Eiko has no one to support her after she loses her social status, and her only tutor, Shinnosuke (Natsukawa Daijiro) was the only one who was sincere. Eiko is a stickler for using everything she can get her hands on, and she quickly moves into Shinnosuke's house.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-04-13
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Confession
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-03-21
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The New Road: Ryota
Overview: The eldest daughter of a noble family is in love with an aviator while being courted by a fellow aristocrat she thinks is a dullard. Told from the perspective of Ryota. In this second part, we learn that Akemi is pregnant...
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1936-12-16
Popularity:
The Blacksmith of the Forest
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1929-01-05
Popularity:
Let's Go in Good Spirits
Overview: In the movies of those times, you can see young boys in the company scene often. Those boys were called kyuji (給仕), which means “waiter” literally. They are doing odd jobs in the company including serving tea, ushering visitors, buying tobacco, etc. Ordering lunch for the individual requests was also an important job. Those boys were hired often as soon as they graduated from elementary school.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1941-05-01
Popularity:
Let's Go, Grandma!
Overview: Let's Go, Grandma! plays like an exuberant, goofy update to Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. Kinuyo Tanaka plays the titular Grandma, who, after selling her Hokkaido property, is apparently flush with cash but newly homeless. Her grown children take turns hosting her, making extravagant performances of filial devotion with an eye to potential profit. Making use of a catalog of wacky visual effects, bracketed by gratuitous ham-fisted fight scenes, and costarring pop singer Hideki Saijo, the film is balanced by Tanaka's nuanced performance, which delivers a denunciation of hypocrisy and greed.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1975-07-12
Popularity:
Mother and Child
Overview: The movie follows a young woman (Kinuyo Tanaka), a daughter of a high-ranking businessman and his neglected mistress, as she struggles to ease her mother's loneliness, while also having an affair with her father's subordinate.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1938-07-01
Popularity:
Kinuyo's First Love
Overview: Kinuyo is a daughter of rice cracker shop in downtown. She fell in love with her sister's boyfriend. It is a story whose theme is warm human relationships in a town of customs and manners.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-03-31
Popularity:
Osaka Woman
Overview: When Ochika, from a rich family, marries Danpei, a poor Shamissen player, she devotes herself completely to him and takes over her business, to the point of sowing dissensions within the Jōruri troupe in which her husband plays. Considered a lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-09-19
Popularity:
Weeds with flowers
Overview: Weed with Flowers
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1939-06-15
Popularity:
Okinu and Banto
Overview: A story of a store that makes Tabi socks.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1940-12-31
Popularity:
That Night's Woman
Overview: That Night's Woman
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1934-10-17
Popularity:
Story of Lightning
Overview: Gensaburo Funaki and Oyuki were childhood friends, but Gensaburo misunderstood that Oyuki was hesitant to get married because he had to feed his father and younger brother. I left the town.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-12-30
Popularity:
少年死刑囚
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-07-03
Popularity: