Yoshiko Kuga
Also Known As: Kuga Yoshiko, Ёсико Куга, یوشیکو کوگا
Biography: Yoshiko Kuga (久我 美子, Kuga Yoshiko, 21 January 1931 – 9 June 2024) was a Japanese actress. Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. In 1946, while still attending Gakushuin Junior High School, she became an actress for Toho studios. In 1947, she made her debut as one of the lead actresses in the omnibus movie Four Love Stories (四つの恋の物語, Yottsu no Koi no Monogatari). In the 1950s, she started working independently and starred in many productions of the Shochiku studios under the direction of Keisuke Kinoshita. Other important directors include Kenji Mizoguchi (The Woman in the Rumor), Yasujirō Ozu (Equinox Flower), and Tadashi Imai (An Inlet of Muddy Water). Since the 1970s, she appeared mainly on television and on stage. Kuga was married to actor Akihiko Hirata from 1961 until his death in 1984. She died from aspiration pneumonia on 9 June 2024, at the age of 93.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Ushigome, Tokyo, Japan
Adult: No
Birthday: January 21, 1931
Age: 94 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: June 09, 2024
Popularity:
Known For:
Oogonju
Overview:
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-11-04
Popularity:
The Idiot
Overview: Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-05-23
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Drunken Angel
Overview: Doctor Sanada treats gangster Matsunaga after he is wounded in a gunfight, and discovers that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Sanada tries to convince Matsunaga to stay for treatment, which would drastically change his lifestyle. They form an uneasy friendship until Matsunaga's old boss Okada returns from prison.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1948-04-27
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
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Good Morning
Overview: A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.
Genres: Comedy Family Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-05-12
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Taira Clan Saga
Overview: Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-09-21
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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
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Portrait of Madame Yuki
Overview: A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-10-21
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Goryokaku
Overview: After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, there was a series of battles fought while the former supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate retreated to the north where they actually started a sovereign nation that was recognized by more than one European country. Survivors of the Shinsengumi were among the followers of Enomoto Takeaki who took them to the northernmost island of Ezo where they fought their final battle at the star shaped fort, Goryokaku. The Japanese Civil Wars fought in the name of the emperor signaled the complete end of the feudal system and Japan’s entry into the modern world as those brave samurai tried to halt progress and learned that the age of modern warfare and weaponry had passed them by. Swords were no match for rifles and cannons, nor was any man a match for the power of the imperial flag. Japanese loyalty to the emperor has long defined the nation and culture despite the changing times.
Genres: Action History Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1988-12-30
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Godzilla vs. Biollante
Overview: After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese government uses the cells to create a new bio-weapon, ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). They seeks the aid of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who's experiments result in a new mutation.
Genres: Action Horror Fantasy Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1989-12-16
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Cruel Story of Youth
Overview: A budding gangster enthralls a freeloading young woman, soon taking advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class, middle-aged men.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-06-03
Popularity:
Umineko ga tonde
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-12-05
Popularity:
Yagyu Secret Scrolls
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.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-04-14
Popularity:
Zero Focus
Overview: One week into newlywed Teiko Uhara's marriage, her husband, Kenichi, leaves on a short business trip and never returns. Teiko travels across Japan to search for him, and along the way discovers some surprising facts about her husband's past. With only a pair of old photographs among his belongings to go off of, Teiko tries to figure out what has happened to him.
Genres: Drama Crime Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-03-19
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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:
Brother and Sister
Overview: The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a college student Kobata, which causes a scandal that will threaten the marriage prospects of the younger sister San, in her cash-strapped family. The ill-tempered eldest brother Inokichi decides to take on the role of disciplinarian, with harrowing results.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-08-19
Popularity:
Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky
Overview: This drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-11-23
Popularity:
The Snow Flurry
Overview: After surviving the double suicide pact she made with her lover, a woman gives birth to their child.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-01-03
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Beautiful Days
Overview: Masaki Kobayashi directs this romantic drama concerning a family of florists.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-05-25
Popularity:
Farewell to Dream
Overview: A coming-of-age story portrayed as the loss of all youthful illusions. Sixteen-year-old Yoichi dreams of becoming a sailor. His parents are fishmongers, and Yoichi lives together with them and his four siblings in cramped living conditions. His beloved younger sister is given to a wealthy, childless uncle; his best friend moves away; the girl he fell in love with from afar is with someone else: little by little, Yoichi loses all the people that are important to him.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-04-17
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A Billionaire
Overview: An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-11-22
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:
The Garden of Women
Overview: A student at a woman's university takes a controversial action against the school's old-fashioned doctrines.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1954-03-16
Popularity:
Thus Another Day
Overview: A father curries favor with his bosses to further his career, but his wife has lost faith in him. She returns to her family home while they rent out their house during the summer to pay off their mortgage, and there she meets a lonely old man...
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1959-09-27
Popularity:
Spring Dreams
Overview: When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous friends.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1960-01-03
Popularity:
I'll Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki
Overview: A Japanese soldier who died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Hawaii entrusted Henry Gray with an unfinished score and promised to complete it.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-03-27
Popularity:
Daredevil in the Castle
Overview: During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyotomi to overcome the seat of power, Osaka Castle. Mohei's daredevil skills will be put to severe tests.
Genres: History War Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-01-03
Popularity:
Spring Awakens
Overview: Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1947-11-02
Popularity:
Elegy of the North
Overview: A sensitive young woman aged 22 fell in love with a middle aged man who was troubled by his unfaithful wife.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-09-01
Popularity:
Samurai Banners
Overview: Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?
Genres: Action War History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1969-03-01
Popularity:
Four Love Stories
Overview: Omnibus of love stories from 1947 directed by famous directors, featuring big stars.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1947-04-01
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:
An Inlet of Muddy Water
Overview: A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about the difficult situation a young woman finds herself in.
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-11-23
Popularity:
Yellow Crow
Overview: Ichiro Yoshida, the father of the boy Kiyoshi, who has been repatriated from China, returns home after a ten-year separation. The father, who has been estranged from his son for many years, pays no attention to the boy, often punishes him unfairly, and gives all his tenderness to his little daughter, who was born after his return. The boy sees all the injustice of his father and, offended, leaves home. The father realized that he was wrong, that he was guilty before his son. The mother finds the boy and brings him home. The father and the son become friends from that day on.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-02-27
Popularity:
Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-10-05
Popularity:
Mune yori mune ni
Overview: Japanese drama
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-12-06
Popularity:
Tokyo Fair Weather
Overview: This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1997-10-18
Popularity:
119
Overview: In Harari-cho, a small and quiet bayside town by the sea, the firemen have not seen a fire for nearly twenty years. Each day passes eventlessly... until one day. The monotony of their daily lives is interrupted by the appearance of a beautiful female college student, Momoko, who comes to visit her aunt. After catching a glimpse of Momoko, both Tatsuya and Nobuyuki can't stop thinking about her. Since then, the small town is not so quiet anymore…
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1994-11-05
Popularity:
As the River Flows
Overview: 2000 live-action Japanese film.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 2000-04-29
Popularity:
Okoge
Overview: A straight young woman living in Tokyo becomes involved in the lives of a gay man and his married lover.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1992-05-26
Popularity:
The Paths of Two Maidens
Overview: Melodrama about two sisters with different mothers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-08-07
Popularity:
Guntō nanban-sen
Overview: 1950 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-06-13
Popularity:
Nowhere Man
Overview: Sukezo, a former manga comic artist, takes up the art rock business by setting up a shop in a shed by the river. He tries hard to be successful, but business does not go well and the family becomes progressively poorer.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1991-11-02
Popularity:
Till We Meet Again
Overview: Saburo and Keiko fall in love with each other but the tide of war separates them.
Genres: Romance War Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-03-21
Popularity:
The Angry Street
Overview: The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of the University of Tokyo, and the high life of jazzy dance halls. Sudo (Hara Yasumi) and Mori (Uno Jukichi) are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, Sudo becomes involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister, Masako (Wakayama Setsuko). In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1950-05-14
Popularity:
Rinchi
Overview: Japanese noir.
Genres: Action Drama Crime
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-12-20
Popularity:
The Rose on His Arm
Overview: Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza.
Genres: Drama Crime Action
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1956-11-14
Popularity:
Ballad of a Workman
Overview: A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-08-12
Popularity:
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Overview: A high-school girl acquires the ability to time travel.
Genres: Science Fiction
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1997-11-08
Popularity:
Whirlwind
Overview: Set at the end of the Siege of Osaka this film follows the exploits of several members of the defeated Toyotomi clan as they cope with the post battle chaos and the persecution of the Shogun's army. Five samurai decide on different fates when it becomes clear that their side is being destroyed. One wants to attack the enemy head on in a final honorable death. Another decides to commit hari-kiri but wants to find a glorious view to do it. His close friend, the "coward", just wants to run and give up the life of a samurai. The final two set their own castle on fire to garner favors from the enemy and therefore avert their own death during the massacre of all defeated soldiers as
Genres: History Action Adventure
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-07-26
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Akireta musumetachi
Overview: Japanese comedy film.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-10-11
Popularity:
Four Days of Snow and Blood
Overview: Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading politicians were killed and the center of Tokyo was briefly held by the insurgents before the coup was suppressed.
Genres: Drama War History
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1989-06-17
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Beyond the Seasonal Wind
Overview: Japanese drama film.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-06-10
Popularity:
Sky Cannot Be This Blue
Overview: Kantarou Kobayashi is an ordinary businessman who has multiple troubles on hand. He's been having an affair with a woman working in the same company, but she does lots of eccentric things. His wife has no interrest in anything but her plan to build a new apartment where their old house is. His son suffers skin eruptions. His mother appears to have senile dementia.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1993-02-20
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Woman Unveiled
Overview: Story of a family torn apart when Teiji (Mori), the father, develops intimate feelings for a runaway (Kuga) the family has taken into their home.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1958-01-15
Popularity:
Delinquent Girl
Overview: A melodramatic love story, a would-be apprenticeship between the titular bad girl and the optimistic scholar returning from the big city. It is presumed to be a lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-03-22
Popularity:
Honoo no hada
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-10-19
Popularity:
This Way, That Way
Overview: An intellectual couple in a staid and tedious marriage are surprised when the wife’s niece, who has run away from home, turns up unexpectedly to stay with them. Their mundane lives are sent into disarray by the emotional and energetic Ako.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1952-12-23
Popularity:
The Bitch
Overview: The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1951-08-10
Popularity:
Mother Country
Overview: In 1919, a group of Japanese immigrants arrives in Hawaii. Among them Yoshio Inoue and his wife Kishimo and Sumi, a young woman ready to get married soon. With the soil that is hard to work and the subtroipical climate, the immigrants have to cope with a hard life. But after years of hard work, Yoshio finds work as a teacher while his wife manages to open a small grocery store. But with the war around the corner, life becomes more and more complicated for the Japanese immigrants in a foreign country.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1962-04-29
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:
A Case of Honor
Overview: The obstinate black market trader Okyo lives together with her son Seitaro, who works as a mechanic for a bus company. She also looks after her son's colleague, the bus driver Fujita. When he causes an accident one day, Seitaro testifies against him due to his moral scruples, thus getting his company into trouble.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1957-02-20
Popularity:
Ai Sureba Koso
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1955-07-05
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Haitoku no mesu
Overview:
Genres: Drama Mystery
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-08-06
Popularity:
Jakoman and Tetsu
Overview: In a village subsisting on it herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one of the fish companies by the name of Tetsu, decides to overthrow Jakoman and his cohorts.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1949-07-11
Popularity:
To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2
Overview: Based on Muneta Hiroshi's military novel. The main character, Yamaguchi Zensuke, is a military dog soldier. He joins the army and winds up sent overseas to China as a part of the military dog unit. He's ridiculed by others due to his inability to advance.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1964-01-01
Popularity:
Reunion
Overview: If two clouds go away, the eyes of a maiden who gets wet in tears, Tsukaman Aise who earnestly wished, and the two who cried under the harsh trials of ten years when they fell in love and fell in love, climbed the hill of memories again. Surprisingly, there was an event that turned a moment of joy into tears ...
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1953-07-07
Popularity:
Hijō no otoko
Overview: 1961 Japanese movie
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-02-13
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Moonlight in the Rain
Overview: A home drama about a mother and her three daughters, based on the novel by Fumiko Hayashi.
Genres: Family Drama
Original Language: ja
Release Date: 1961-05-16
Popularity: