Nobuko Otowa
Also Known As: Nobuko Kaji, 오토와 노부코, Нобуко Отова, نوبوکو اوتاوا
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Nobuko Otowa (1 October 1925 – 22 December 1994) was a Japanese film actress. She appeared in 134 films between 1950 and 1994. She was married to film director Kaneto Shindō. She posthumously won the award for best supporting actress at the 19th Japan Academy Prize for A Last Note, having been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer during its production. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nobuko Otowa, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, Japan
Birthday: October 01, 1925
Deathday: December 22, 1994
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
Lantern Under a Full Moon
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-07-11
Popularity:
Women of Ginza
Overview: At Shizumoto, a geisha shop not far from Ginza, a group of geisha are going about their day, putting up a modest resistance to the tragedies of life. The proprietress, Ikuyo, is a ridiculously good-natured woman who gives money to a poor but brilliant young man, Eisaku Yanoguchi, to attend college on the condition that he will take care of her in the future.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-04-01
Popularity:
Onibaba
Overview: While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
Genres: Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-11-21
Popularity:
The Naked Island
Overview: A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-11-23
Popularity:
Turbid Youth
Overview: Shigeki Kachi, Tosuke Satomura, and Nanako, who belong to the theater company Vuanbert around Dosa, withdrew at the indignation of the chairman Hayashi and seeked their own careers in the film industry.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-09-21
Popularity:
傑作推理劇場 不安な階段
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-04-15
Popularity:
Ryûri no kishi
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-06-21
Popularity:
Kuroneko
Overview: In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women in an eerie, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight.
Genres: Horror Fantasy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-02-24
Popularity:
Till Tomorow Comes
Overview: 1962 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-02-10
Popularity:
Dolls floating down the river
Overview: A touching story of pure love and tears between a boy and a girl, drawn by the innocent duo of Chieko Baisho and Shinichiro Mikami, based on "Nagashi bina", which absorbed the customs of the Tottori region.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-03-03
Popularity:
Long Way to Okinawa
Overview: 1962 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-03-07
Popularity:
Strong Women, Weak Men
Overview: After a mine collapses and leaves her husband employed, Fumiko moves to Kyoto with her daughter Kimiko and becomes a hostess.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-06-30
Popularity:
Asshii-tachi no machi
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1981-03-28
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:
Who Will Judge Me?
Overview: Directed by Senkichi Taniguchi
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-05-18
Popularity:
Ika naru hoshi no moto ni
Overview: 1962 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-04-15
Popularity:
Koina no Ginpei
Overview: 1954 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-01-15
Popularity:
Don't Mind
Overview: Set in downtown Tokyo, it depicts the activities of a weak youth baseball team, the Chidori Boys, and the ordinary people who live there.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1990-03-03
Popularity:
Children of Hiroshima
Overview: Shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-08-06
Popularity:
The Ceremony
Overview: Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1971-05-18
Popularity:
Edo Porn
Overview: The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1981-09-12
Popularity:
Hanayome-san wa sekai-ichi
Overview: A young Japanese-American comes from California looking for a bride, going on blind dates with three candidates from Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-11-22
Popularity:
The Last War
Overview: A Japanese family is torn apart by the tensions of an avoidable nuclear world war between the superpowers.
Genres: Drama Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-10-08
Popularity:
A Last Note
Overview: A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1995-06-03
Popularity:
Yaji and Kita on the Road
Overview: Two residents of Edo city Yaji and Kita make a journey to the temple of Ise, as part of a religious pilgrimage, but actually to get away from their wives for a little while. As they travel, they are constantly beset by complications involving women, mistaken identity, and misunderstood events. Another film adaptation of the famous novel Ikku Jippensha Footing It Along the Tokaido (Tokaidochu Hizakurige)
Genres: Comedy Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-04-29
Popularity:
Human
Overview: The ship Kaijin Maru is left adrift after losing all means of navigation in a storm. The four people on the ship are becoming increasingly desperate as food and water run out.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-11-04
Popularity:
Red Lion
Overview: Japan, February 1868. As the Tokugawa shogunate declines and the power of Emperor Meiji grows, Gonzo, a soldier of the Restoration Army, returns to Sawando, his hometown, to announce the end of tyranny.
Genres: Comedy Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-10-10
Popularity:
Lucky Dragon No. 5
Overview: An ageing fishing boat, Dai-go Fukuryu Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5") sets out from the port of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It travels around the Pacific line fishing. While the ship is near Bikini Atoll, the ship's navigator sees a flash. All the crew come up to watch. They realize it is an atomic explosion, but take time to clear their fishing gear. A short time later, grey ash starts to fall on the ship. When the ship returns to port the sailors have been burned brown. They unload the fish, which are then transported away. They visit the local doctor and then go to Tokyo for an examination. It turns out they are all highly radioactive. Their symptoms become worse, and the contaminated fish causes a panic.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-02-18
Popularity:
Tree Without Leaves
Overview: Haru, an aging scriptwriter, has isolated himself somewhere in the woods of Nagano to work on his first novel. As the last surviving member of his kin, he intends to chronicle the family he grew up in.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1986-11-15
Popularity:
Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu - Part II
Overview: In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess Yuhime steals the scrolls, Tasaburo, a samurai with magical powers, and his brother Senshiro are sent to retrieve them. In Part II, the search for the scrolls continues.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-01-03
Popularity:
Live Today, Die Tomorrow!
Overview: Michio Yamada, a recent school graduate, is sent to Tokyo to work as a fruit-packer in a department store as part of a government programme. He takes a gun from a house on an American base and uses it to kill several people. The scene changes to Yamada's childhood. Yamada is born the child of a reprobate and a weak-willed woman. As a boy Yamada, experiences poverty and the rape of his sister at first hand.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1970-10-31
Popularity:
Demon
Overview: Shuji was once a feared member of the Yakuza crime syndicate, but he's reformed his ways, abandoned his old life and left the city for a small coastal fishing town where he's become an honest fisherman.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1985-08-31
Popularity:
An Inn at Osaka
Overview: An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life. Notable for its exquisite framing and cinematography, An Inn at Osaka allows its complicated plotlines to disappear behind the minutiae of penury and humiliation that Mito and others suffer during the post-war economic and social reconstruction.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-04-20
Popularity:
Flower Shop Curtain
Overview: The movie depicts the strength and resilience of a woman who spent her entire life as a merchant in Semba, Osaka.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-01-27
Popularity:
Conquest
Overview: Provincial 14th century governor Moronao, attracted to the wife of a court magistrate, tries to seduce her and when she rejects his advances plots to send her husband into battle.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-11-21
Popularity:
The Iron Crown
Overview: A woman takes revenge on her husband after he leaves her for a younger woman by harassing the couple with unwanted phone calls at night.
Genres: Drama Horror
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-04-22
Popularity:
Yajikita dōchū sugoroku
Overview: 1958 Japanese movie
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-12-07
Popularity:
Black Board
Overview: Takeshi Yasui, a junior high school student is found dead in a river. The police investigate it as a murder related to bullying. The dead boy turns out to have been murdered by two of his schoolmates, who he had been bullying.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1986-09-17
Popularity:
My Way
Overview: Based on a true story, an elderly woman resiliently spends nine months attempting to retrieve her husband's dead body, fighting government bureaucracy and indifference all along the way.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1974-09-07
Popularity:
Nami kage
Overview: Ayako Wakao won the Blue Ribbon and the Kinema Jumpo for this film.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-01-31
Popularity:
The Ditch
Overview: Postwar Tokyo. Pin and Toku live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru, a slightly demented woman who has run away from a geisha house.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-07-27
Popularity:
Love's Family Tree
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-11-22
Popularity:
Children on the Island
Overview: The story of a teacher who comes to a village on the Inland Sea and the relationship that develops between her and her 12 pupils.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1987-07-11
Popularity:
Story of a Beloved Wife
Overview: Story of a Beloved Wife is an autobiographical work based on Shindo's first marriage. Jūkichi Uno stars as a struggling screenwriter, and Nobuko Otowa stars as the wife who supports him through his early struggles.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-09-07
Popularity:
Arashi Tatsunari
Overview: Can a woman love two men at the same time? Set against the backdrop of Kyoto's rich history, this story depicts a woman's difficult choice for love. Ayako, played by Yukiyo Toake, is an international conference coordinator. Torn between her childhood sweetheart (played by Kenji Sawada) and her English professor (played by Noboru Nakaya), Ayako will seek answers to love, marriage, and choice.
Genres: Drama Romance TV Movie
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-08-25
Popularity:
The Life of Chikuzan
Overview: A 1977 Japanese biographical film directed by Kaneto Shindo based on the life of shamisen player Takahashi Chikuzan.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1977-03-17
Popularity:
喜劇 駅前飯店
Overview: The fifth "Ekimae" film set in Yokohama's Chinatown.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-12-23
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:
The Radish and the Carrot
Overview: One day a company executive learns that his younger brother, whom he recommended, embezzled company funds. To save the situation he withdraws his life savings and gives money to his younger brother. He then suddenly disappears…
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1965-01-03
Popularity:
Izayoi kaidō
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-12-14
Popularity:
Murahachibu
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:
Miniature
Overview: Ginko, a poor cobbler's daughter, becomes a geisha to support her family. She passes from one geisha house to the next, trying to find love and hope in the process. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't escape her sad fate.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-04-01
Popularity:
The Tale of Genji
Overview: Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his heart is broken by Awaji does Genji realizes how much pain he himself has caused.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-06-11
Popularity:
Hymn
Overview: The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1972-12-29
Popularity:
Heat Wave Island
Overview: Otowa is a former Seto Inland Sea island farmer who has moved to the mainland in order to find work, but instead ends up dead. The film begins with the discovery of her corpse, which leads to an investigation that uncovers the narcotics, prostitution, and murder in which many poor farmers had found themselves trapped after World War II.
Genres: Mystery Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-10-29
Popularity:
The Approach of Autumn
Overview: A single mother from the country raising a 6th grade boy comes to Tokyo, leaves the boy to live with his uncle's family, runs a struggling grocery store, and works a local inn. The boy befriends a girl, the daughter of the innkeeper.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-10-01
Popularity:
Ekisutora
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-08-07
Popularity:
Ore to aitsu no monogatari
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1981-08-08
Popularity:
Monument to the Girl's Corps
Overview: In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the fiery breaths of war hadn't yet reached Okinawa Normal School for women. Nothing seemed the least bit out of the ordinary, as Kazuko and her friends enjoyed a day of sports. A year later the war takes a devastating turn, as US forces plan an amphibious attack known as "Operation Iceberg" on the Ryukyu island.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1968-09-21
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:
Lost in the Wilderness
Overview: The life and travels of adventurer Naomi Uemura, who disappeared in Alaska in 1984. A member of the first Japanese expedition to reach the summit of Mt Everest in 1970, Uemura also accomplished several "firsts". He was the first man to reach the North Pole solo, climb Denali solo, and float down the Amazon river solo. In the film, Uemura returns to Tokyo after a stint in Siorapaluk in Northern Greenland. In Tokyo, he reconnects with an old friend and, over coffee, shares his life story - from his days as a college dropout to his successful expedition to the top of Everest.
Genres: Adventure History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1986-06-07
Popularity:
A Woman’s Uphill Slope
Overview: Tradition and modernity clash when a young woman inherits a sweet-making firm in Kyoto.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-06-17
Popularity:
The Wolves
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:
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:
Nurse's Husband
Overview: “Quit working as a nurse!” “All right, I will!” thus began the married life of Yasuo and Keiko. But the reality is harsh. Keiko even had to work on the first night after her marriage. Ten years later, the married couple is still at it. Yauso tends to the house and their children, while Keiko sacrifices family life for life as an overworked nurse. One day, after Keiko comes home utterly exhausted and dejected from her work, Yasuo makes up his mind and writes a letter of resignation in her place. Upon learning of this, Keiko angrily declares that nursing is what she lives for and she will keep on working. Realising that that is one battle he will never win, Yasuo sends a letter to a newspaper -- “Nurses’ husbands, aren’t you having a hard time? Get together nurses’ husbands. Contact me.” There is a tremendous response. This leads to the formation of many unions of nurses’ husbands throughout the country.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1980-05-10
Popularity:
Before Dawn
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-10-13
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:
Onna no Natsu
Overview: It depicts the emotional ups and downs of a designer who runs a clothing store and her husband over the course of a summer.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1975-06-29
Popularity:
The Twilight Story
Overview: In this Japanese drama, a village girl goes to Tokyo and becomes a hooker to support her ailing mother. While there she meets an unmarried teacher (at least he says he's unmarried) and falls in love. When she learns that he lied and is married to a woman whose child was fathered by another man, she is crushed. He returns to his wife. The woman becomes more distraught when she learns her uncle has misused the money she has sent. As the final straw, her mother dies, and the girl becomes sick.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-08-28
Popularity:
The Heart
Overview: The relationship between a rich young student and his lower class friend changes when they start to live both at a guest house. Both will be attracted towards Iko, the beautiful daughter of their landlady.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-10-27
Popularity:
Immortal Love
Overview: The year is 1932, and a woman, whose tenant-farmer fiancé is fighting in China, is raped by the landowner's son, who has returned from the war with a crippling injury, and then forced into marriage with him. In four more chapters, presented over three decades, their children undertake their own searches for love, while the parents try to make each other as miserable as possible.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-09-16
Popularity:
Hunting Rifle
Overview: Story of a woman, Saiko, who divorces her doctor husband when she is given a baby by a stranger who claims it is the husband's child. Saiko embarks on an affair with her cousin's husband, but a crisis threatens when she discovers that her ex-husband is about to remarry.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-01-03
Popularity:
When Women Lie
Overview: Three stories about the relationship between men and women: "Playgirl" (Masumura/Shirasaka), "Company No. 2" (Yoshimura/Kasahara), and "San Nyotai" (Kinugasa/Shindô).
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-03-30
Popularity:
Once a Rainy Day
Overview: Former playmates (Naito and Tamura), both long ago abandoned by their parents, recall their youth and fall in love.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1966-10-01
Popularity:
Rush to Our Sweetheart
Overview: Japanese comedy film.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-02-09
Popularity:
Libido
Overview: aka Libido.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1967-06-28
Popularity:
旗本退屈男 八百八丁罷り通る
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-01-22
Popularity:
Location
Overview: The melodramatic story of a pink crew’s tragi-comedic adventures on location. A fictionalized adaptation of set photographer Ichiro Tsuda's 1980 book The Location (Za Rokēshon), an illustrated 229-page document about the cameraman’s experiences with pink cast and crew on the sets of several films produced in the late 1970's.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-09-22
Popularity:
The Twilight Years
Overview: A woman looks after her father in law.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1973-01-15
Popularity:
The Long Way 'Round
Overview: 1980 Japanese film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1980-08-02
Popularity:
The Incident
Overview: The body of Sakai Hatsuko, a woman of 23 who has been slain with a knife, has been found in a forest. Some days later, Ueda Hiroshi, a 19-year-old shipyard worker, is arrested and charged with the murder. At Ueda's trial, a complex story unfolds.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1978-06-03
Popularity:
When a Woman Loves
Overview: Story of a romance between a middle-aged journalist and a young woman.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-09-24
Popularity:
Seikurabe
Overview: Japanese drama film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-06-03
Popularity:
By Player
Overview: The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2000-12-02
Popularity:
The Strangling
Overview: The men who surround and torment the young protagonist (demanding teacher, owner of the company that rapes his own daughter, despotic and uncompromising father) are opposed to women (victims of men) as embodiment of salvation.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1979-06-02
Popularity:
Mother
Overview: A divorced woman enters a marriage arranged by her mother in exchange for money to save the life of her seriously ill son.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-11-08
Popularity:
Free and Easy 5
Overview: Hama-chan shows up to work with his son on his back when his wife goes to her class reunion and his mother throws her back out.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1992-12-26
Popularity:
Room for Let
Overview: When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-06-02
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:
Reminiscence
Overview: Kazuo Miyagawa’s prizewinning black-and-white cinematography draws out the moral shadings of Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s 1952 novel Thousand Cranes, a quietly devastating story of a young man, orphaned during the war, who stumbles into a passionate yet tragic relationship with his late father’s mistress and her daughter.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-01-15
Popularity:
Makeraremasen katsumadewa
Overview: Comedy based on the writings of Ango Sakaguchi.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-01-09
Popularity:
Pressure of Guilt
Overview:
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-02-17
Popularity:
Born in Sin
Overview: A dark family secret sends a 21-year-old French student (Hoshi) on a journey of self-discovery.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-11-23
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:
Love is Lost
Overview: Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-02-05
Popularity:
The Maid Story
Overview: Nine maids serve the household of a writer and his wife. The couple treat their maids like daughters and marry them off to eligible men. So, they are forever looking for new maids. As the years go by maid servants become hired help and more bossy and independent, so Chikura and his wife find themselves adjusting their lives to keep up with changing times.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1963-06-16
Popularity:
The Three Undelivered Letters
Overview: A young Japanese-American man arrives at his grandmother's old hometown in Yamaguchi, begins to stay at her family's elite but dysfunctional household, and gets entangled in a sinister plot of murder.
Genres: Drama Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1979-10-06
Popularity:
Lost Sex
Overview: A well-respected drama teacher confesses to his housekeeper that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has left him impotent. With the coming of spring, the sympathetic housekeeper suggests that the Master observe the Yobai , a custom in which the young men of a village steal into the bedrooms of susceptible women to have sex.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1966-08-27
Popularity:
Rise Against the Sword
Overview: Farmer Abare Goemon is confronted by brigand-like samurai. He raises an army of farmers to fight them and does so brilliantly. When Lord Asakura sees the success Goemon has achieved, he attempts to recruit him to fight in a conflict between Asakura and another clan. Goemon refuses, and Lord Asakura sets out to destroy him.
Genres: History Action War Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1966-11-25
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The Shop Curtain
Overview: Based on the novel by Toyoko Yamazaki.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-06-15
Popularity:
Shin ono ga tsumi
Overview: 20th film adaptation of the novel Ono ga tsumi (published 1900-1901).
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-10-09
Popularity:
The Youth and His Amulet
Overview: Gen is a lonely orphan boy. His sole sense of companionship comes from an imaginary friend, the god Prince Fudo-Myo. Prince Fudo-Myo comes to the boy's rescue in times of difficulty.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-09-17
Popularity:
The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-01-03
Popularity:
Strange Affinity
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1970-06-03
Popularity:
The Island Closest to Heaven
Overview: A Japanese teenager travels to New Caledonia in search of the fabled "island closest to heaven" that her late father had told her about.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-12-15
Popularity:
Floating Vessel
Overview: Floating Vessel (源氏物語 浮舟 , Ukifune) is a 1957 color Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Drawn from parts of the famous Genji monogatari by Lady Murasaki.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-04-29
Popularity:
Actress
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:
Dream Street
Overview: A comedy about the lives of people living in the shopping district of Osaka.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1989-08-05
Popularity:
The Shrikes
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-03-01
Popularity:
This Madding Crowd
Overview:
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-06-28
Popularity:
The Strange Tale of Oyuki
Overview: A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1992-06-06
Popularity:
Sakura-tai Chiru
Overview: A documentary about the lives of actors in the Sakura-tai theatrical troupe, which had arrived in the island of Hiroshima to begin preparations for the staging of a play just before the atomic bombing.
Genres: Documentary Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1988-04-01
Popularity:
Twice on a Certain Night
Overview: Poor social conditions badly affect the relationship between a married couple, when the husband, who is desperately searching for work, fails to notice the terrible sacrifices made by his wife when she accepts a job at a local inn.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-06-08
Popularity:
Ai Sureba Koso
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-07-05
Popularity:
Onna no issho
Overview: Based on "Une vie" by Guy de Maupassant
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-11-23
Popularity:
Yokubo
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-05-13
Popularity:
Ten Duels of Young Shingo: Chapter 3
Overview: The final part takes Shingo into a confrontation with his friend Yagyu Katsunoshin’s uncle in a duel that could change the destiny of Japan.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-07-30
Popularity:
The Child Writers
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-08-23
Popularity:
The Beauty and the Dragon
Overview: Kabuki adaptation: A princess, a figure from the literary past who anticipates a modern woman, tempts a self-righteous priest.
Genres: History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-10-03
Popularity:
The Horizon
Overview: Hideo is sold in marriage to a Japanese farmer in San Francisco to settle her family's debt. Over the next 20 years, the couple works hard and raises 4 children. After Pearl Harbor is attacked, they are interned with other Japanese immigrants in a camp, losing both their land and their assets.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1984-02-11
Popularity:
A Good Man, A Good Day
Overview: The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-08-13
Popularity:
Shojohou
Overview: A beautiful but sad romantic melodrama about three sisters who are uninhibited, pure and lovely, and who stand tall like the peaks of a place that has endured the winds and snow of love! Eisuke Taniguchi (Shimizu), president of Towa Electric Works, has three beautiful daughters. The eldest, Kozue (Todoroki), is an intelligent and dynamic modern girl, the second, Yoko (Otowa), is a modest girl with Japanese tastes, and the third, Hanayo (Wakayama), is a mischievous girl who has not yet lost her schoolgirl temperament. All three have feelings for Kiichiro Matsuzaki (Uehara), the president of a magazine company. He was married to Kozue, the eldest daughter, by agreement between their parents, but it was Yoko whom he loved, so he asked her to end her engagement to him.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-12-02
Popularity:
Kyukei no Koya
Overview: A film adaptation of Seicho Matsumoto's novel of the same title, starring Muga Takewaki and Yoko Shimada. Set in Japan at the end of the war, the film depicts the fate of a diplomat who abandoned his country, his wife and children, and risked everything to save his country from ruin, and the bond between father and daughter.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1975-06-07
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The Go Masters
Overview: Ten years before the outbreak of the Second World War in Asia, a Japanese Go master and his Chinese rival meet in China to play a game of Go (loosely described as an Asian version of chess). It soon becomes evident that the Chinese master's son is the most talented player that the Japanese master has ever encountered, and he convinces the boy's father to let him bring the child back to Japan to train him as a professional Go player. Years pass, and as the young Chinese master grows to maturity in Japan, the Japanese invasion of China forces him to choose between his triumphant career and his loyalty to his native country. His decision is complicated by his marriage to the daughter of the Japanese master, with whom he has produced a child. His choice will profoundly alter the lives of two families. Their saga serves as a reflection of the tragic relations between their two great countries, and the possibility of reconciliation and healing.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1982-04-01
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The Valley Between Love and Death
Overview: A great ambition to portray with sharp satire and humor the course of modern anxiety and love that is about to be driven to despair.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-09-21
Popularity:
Wakai hito-tachi
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-11-08
Popularity: