Mariko Okada

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

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 portrays the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.

This is the story of "The Forty-Seven Ronin." Based on historical events in 1701-2, the movie tells the tale of the Asano clan's downfall and the revenge of its former samurai on the perpetrator of the catastrophe. Lord Asano was goaded, or tricked, into drawing his sword inside the Shogun's palace -- a crime which carried the death penalty. The newly installed Shogun was furious at Asano and ordered all his clan's assets seized, meaning some 20,000 samurai and commoners were unemployed and landless at a stroke. Forty-seven of these ronin (masterless samurai) banded together to take attempt revenge on Lord Kira, who had goaded Asano into drawing his sword.

Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.

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.

Obayashi's take on the famous Kosuke Kindaichi series, made popular partly thanks to the numerous movie-adaptions by Kon Ichikawa, the most known being The Inugami Family. Kosuke Kindaichi is the most famous detective in Japan. Kindaichi gets a new case to figure out who has beheaded a valuable statue and made off with its head.

Once an average and seemingly ordinary Tokyo girl, she suddenly finds herself as a TV star owing to her discovery by a casting company, which noticed photographs that her cousin had sent. When another actress falls ill she is given the role instead. Her first film is a success propelling the young actress to popularity, her own fans, money and a house. While everything looks dandy from the outside not all is well within the family however.

Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.

"The Time of Reckoning" transforms a screwball-comedy plot into a sober study of a successful businessman with serious relationship problems involving three women: his wife of ten years who announces she is pregnant by another man; a mistress who wants to have a baby with him; and an ex-lover who claims he fathered her son.

When wealthy pharmaceutical magnate Sahei Inugami dies in 1949, his family gathers for the reading of his will, only to discover that his enormous fortune has been left under extraordinary conditions. Detective Kosuke Kindaichi is drawn into the inheritance dispute when the family begins to turn against itself and a series of murders follows. As Kindaichi investigates the Inugami family's tangled relationships and long-hidden secrets, the mysterious return of Sahei's grandson Sukekiyo—whose face is concealed behind a white mask after suffering severe injuries during the war—adds another layer to the deadly mystery.

Hiroyuki, a married executive, falls madly in love with Ikuko, the mistress of a ruthless jeweler. The two arrange to meet at a hot spring, but Hiroyuki becomes torn between his love for Ikuko and his duty towards his sick wife.

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1962 Japanese movie

Nakadai is an English teacher at a local school. He’s put-upon like the patron figure of dozens of films and televisions shows. Viewers who are especially fans of Nakadai will appreciate how the actor comically rants about here. His home life is almost disastrous, with a ditzy (but attractive) wife, three young children, a loud school nearby that’s controlled by a corrupt businessman he loathes, and frequent visits from layabout friends. And the grey-furred, green-eyed cat!

This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for "pine" and "green") from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight. The novel portrays the remainder of her stormy life, during which she is impregnated by her teacher and raises a fatherless child; through it all she devotes herself to her painting, undaunted.

A story about four best friends and their lives inside and outside college. Then suddenly one of them receives a surprising offer to be a movie star.

A squadron of Japanese fighter pilots realise that they are never going to win the war when they understand that Japanese military tactics have little regard for life. Seeking the companionship of any woman who will have them, they spend their days indulging in every fantasy in order to escape the overwhelming fear of death looming just over the horizon.

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.

The common-law wife and daughter of a wealthy old man plot to murder him and steal his fortune, with the help of their male acquaintances.

A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.

When a mob boss retires under political pressure, his successor and yakuza family are tested to their limits as new alliances and enemies are formed.

1953 Toho adaptation of Natsume's novel.

Walking home late one night, a down-on-his-luck sewage worker runs into a drunk businessman with a briefcase full of cash. His impulsive decision will lead to a long, dark night of the soul, while his lady love, a bar hostess, tries to cope with her sudden change of fortune.

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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.

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Just after WW2, a romance between an innkeeper and a man with tuberculosis unravels near a thermal spring.

The troubled relationship between a writer and his ballet teacher wife, who has for years loved another man, finally leads to the breakup of the family.

Rikiya Shoda is an engineer working for the Atomic Agency in Japan. One day, his wife Nanako returns home with a lost teenager called Ayu. A man, pretending to be the father, comes to get her back; Ayu keeps telling him that Rikiya and Nanako are her parents. Through this disruption, Rikiya suddenly starts remembering his youth as a revolutionary.

Masahiko Koseki, a judo master, gets in several fights as a result of protecting a young woman. Despite his success, Koseki is expelled from his judo school because of his propensity for street fighting. He goes to work for a gangster named Joji, but when he realizes that Joji is mixed up in the slave trade, Koseki helps the police in their attempts to foil Joji.

Hikaru and Ichiro are close friends in high school. Hikaru's elder brother Tadashi fell in love with Ichiro's elder sister, Mikako at first sight. Although she gave the cold shoulder to Tadashi, she gradually became fond of Tadashi.

This suspense drama set in the mid 1700's depicts the plan of the Tokugawa rulers to send a number of homeless men to a remote island Sado to perform forced labor. Living conditions on the island are terrible and the men soon become rebellious. Based on a short story by Seichō Matsumoto.

After a random encounter at a bar, two couples collide. Two men, two women, embroiled in a love-and-hate drama that threatens to engulf them. The sexual anxiety between the interwoven couples tautens right up to the nearly unbearable tension of the climax...

Set in a Kyoto geisha house during the post-WWII era, the young Omocha begins her rigorous apprenticeship within the traditional community of geiko and maiko. She must navigate complex internal rivalries and a strict social hierarchy while the house struggles to maintain its customs. As modern society shifts around them, the residents face the increasing pressure of Japan's changing cultural identity.

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…

A.D. 2015: A virus spreads in many cities globally, a suicidal disease infected by pictures. Once infected, the diseased will soon meet death. They have no way of fighting back, filled with fear and despair. The media calls it the 'Lemming Syndrome'.

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A notorious abortion doctor fell down from a night train and he was dead. A man who knows the truth of this accident starts to chase a up-and-coming model.

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Period film about a feudal era judge living in Edo

Comedy about a 50-something movie director, his new bride, a classical dancer, and his adult son and daughter and their loves.

Coach Shimamura of the hapless Sparrows baseball team is pleased to obtain a hot new pitcher named Onishi. But when Onishi begins a romantic relationship with the coach's daughter Michiko, Shimamura becomes angry with the young man, lashing out at him when he disobeys instructions during a game. In turn, Michiko becomes angry with her father, who becomes increasingly depressed. When a tragedy strikes the family, Coach Shimamura begins losing control of his life, just when his family and his team need him most.

Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.

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."

Gangsters Ken and Maki are rivals in the ticket-scalping game. They make an uneasy truce, but Ken wrecks the truce by agreeing to fix a boxing match in which Maki has an interest in one of the fighters. After a terrible brawl, the two gangsters discover that they have both been played for suckers by their bosses. They join forces to turn the tables on the bosses.

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A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety.

A screwball tale of a suspected “lady thief” and the detective who is on her trail, following her from Osaka to her home village, where she is going to hold a memorial service for her father. Of course, the detective falls in love with his prey.

1962 Japanese movie

In an isolated mountain resort, a woman gets involved in a love triangle between herself, her volatile lover and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she had platonic feelings.

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.

Film about a station master's romance with a young prostitute.

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A sequel to Geisha Konatsu (1954).

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In this intricately layered Japanese film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.

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Urban love comedy in which Koji Tsuruta, who works for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Parks and Greenery Department, plays love shepherd to a number of women, including his true love, Inako Arima.

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.

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

A family comprised of a man, woman and their only son is torn apart when the father, who is a doctor with his own clinic, is to go off to war. Soon the wife and the son are left without an update of his status and whether he is alive or not. With the clinic lying dormant the doctor's wife rents the premises to her husband's underling. This is a man who does not accept payment from the poor. The woman, in the meantime, works at a restaurant whose owner being ill has given her additional duties. Her younger sister is an unmarried finance writer who also lives with them. It is both sisters, however, who receive marriage proposals.

A road trip comedy set against the backdrop of the famous historical sites of Tohoku and Hokkaido.

As a young woman, Oriko condemned her widowed mother for openly pursuing relationships with younger men. After her mother passes away, she finds herself in an unhappy, loveless marriage and begins to understand her mother’s actions.

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1962 Japanese movie

The crew of the Red Ocean, shipwrecked off Taiwan, was mostly rescued, but only the radio operator Toyono was missing. Toyono, drifting at sea, was rescued by a smuggling ship. However, fearing the secret would leak, the leader Inomoto ordered the captain to kill him. But the captain left him a mysterious message to wait at the Ibo Jewellery Store on Okinawa Island before escaping him. Upon arriving in Okinawa, Toyono went to the jewellery store and heard from the owner that the captain said he would wait for a while so that he could definitely return to the mainland.

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After graduating from a high school in the Seto Inland Sea, Koji, a childhood friend of Yaeko, went to Tokyo to enter university wearing a heartfelt sweater.

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A film by Hiroshi Inagaki.

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The story tells of Tsuchiya, a university professor and a widower who is in love with a widow who runs a small restaurant, and his son is in love with a runaway girl who turns out to be the leader of a religious sect. Kusano is the henpecked proprietor of a rice biscuit shop who dreams of owning a bird and dog shop and his daughter is in love with a boarder, employed by the private detective agency searching for the runaway girl. The agency head has his own dream of arranging thirty marriages and has already accomplished twenty-seven. Tatsumi is a newspaper reporter who dreams of a big scoop to enable him to marry a girl TV producer and his friend a mountain climbing enthusiast who dreams of joining a Himalayan expedition but is opposed by his wife. His love of the mountains is shared by a boarder in their home and by a fishmonger's son.

A 1959 Yoshiaki Bansho adaptation of an Osaragi Jiro story.

In the 15th year of the Genroku era (1688), the world praised the 47 ronin who avenged the death of their master Asano Takumi-no-kami. Shogun Tsunayoshi, who ruled at that time, experienced difficulties in what punishment to impose on the soldiers. As a result, it was decided to sentence them to seppuku (ritual suicide).

Forced on the road by yakuza obligations, a man sets out on a reckless journey to Tsumagoi. Movie posters for local cinemas were often displayed at sento (public baths) too. The handwritten text on the bottom here announces the film will play at Hassen for 3 days.

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Yoko Shintani, an instructor at an aerobics school, secretly enjoys eavesdropping on the rooms next door. She eavesdrops on the frequent comings and goings of men by her neighbor, the model Reiko Saegusa. She relieves her frustrations as she is approaching marriageable age and her dissatisfaction with the school by eavesdropping. However, Yoko is also being watched by the photographer's assistant Naito through a telephoto lens. One night, Yoko hears Reiko's death throes. Thinking that Reiko has been murdered, Yoko calls the police, but...

Tradition and modernity clash when a young woman inherits a sweet-making firm in Kyoto.

When the patriarch of Japan's most powerful yakuza family is shot, his wife is left to pick up the pieces and carry on the legacy.

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Girls in the Orchard (1953) is about tension between the life of a family in a rural area with all the traditions (continuing family business, taking care of the land)-- and the modernity and lure of a life in the city.

The wife of a famous resident of Kamakura awakens to carnal passion . . . And when her blood cools down it's because she's been murdered!

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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.

The ghost of a samurai's wife takes revenge on her husband.

Three women who share memories of the Hiroshima disaster try to uncover the hidden family ties that may or may not bind them together.

A young doctor starts working at a mental hospital in the Yokohama region and falls in love with one of the patients there.

Japanese romantic comedy film.

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This drama centers on an elderly politician and depicts how humans can return to their true selves when they are freed from selfish desires and self-interest.

A man who seemed to have found happiness with a wife and child loses his wife and his daughter gets married... A man's life, full of joy and sorrow, is vividly depicted to the tune of "Moonlit Desert" in this humanistic drama full of pathos, starring Hisaya Morishige.

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A married woman lets her lover take naked pictures of her. The photos end up in possession of a man who starts blackmailing the couple.

Shingo and Ritsuko have a baby: Takashi. They happen to be a happy couple, but soon Ritsuko wants to know who is the true father of Takashi, born by artificial insemination.

Soichiro Ishizuka, the head of a prestigious Tokyo textile company, lives a comfortable life with his wife and three daughters. Their current family focus is securing a good marriage for their middle daughter, Yuko, since their eldest has already wed the man chosen to inherit the family business. However, their domestic routine is upended when an old school friend arrives with somber news: another former classmate, now a ceramic artist in Kyushu, is terminally ill with cancer.

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Tane, the lady proprietor of an inn for amorous couples, lives there with her three children. When her eldest daughter loses her fiancé due to the fact her mother is a mistress, her despair drives her to become a cabaret hostess.

After the death of previous Boss, a gang war lasts for more than four years.

Parent apathy to sexual education leads to various troubles for the young cast.

Makino Masahiro film starring Okada Mariko

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Battles of an average salaryman.

Comedy of a phony doctor.

Backstage romance about opera singers.

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A former company man turned drifter is pulled back to lead a struggling toy company, enforcing bold reforms that shake up its corporate culture. Just as success arrives, he quietly walks away, leaving a changed company behind.

The stage is Tokyo, a factory town in a downtown area. The young people who work at the bottom of society and one of them, the older sister of the people who work at the bottom of society, no matter how much they are trampled, are written to live a strong life. It is a film adaptation of two short stories of Fumio Niwa's "Water Pool" and "Insects in the Schoolyard."

Akiko Mizushina, a university student, is in love with Keisuke Okazaki, a member of the rugby team at the same university. Sugiura, a brilliant scholarly student, also has feelings for Akiko. During the summer vacation, Akiko thought she was enjoying the joys of youth, but she was filled with a feeling that something was missing.

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1962 Japanese movie. Remake of the 1939 movie

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Assistant Police Inspector Saburo Tatsuno, a former jazz pianist, is assigned to uncover a narcotics ring. But he falls victim to the seductive wiles of Maki, the beautiful night club singer and one of the leaders of the ring. One by one, Maki's discarded lovers vanish and Tatsuno faces a similar fate. Tatsuno confesses to his identity under torture and this leads to the murder of his undercover colleague. He realizes that his career is ruined and this, plus Maki's charm, induces him to join the smugglers. Before submitting his resignation, however, he leads the police on a wild-goose chase while a big narcotics transaction is taking place in another part of town, and this puts him among the leaders of the underworld. When Maki turns her attention to a youthful singer, Tatsuno realizes that he has gambled his whole life and lost. So he stabs the tantalizing beauty, and is in turn shot down in a gangland revenge killing.

In a seaside town, local boys run each morning to glimpse wealthy Miyako, sparking a prank-filled rivalry with the shopgirls. Hoping to impress her idealistic crush, Miyako starts working at a daycare, and the town’s youth soon get swept into lighthearted mix-ups and new romances.

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The film adaptation of the famous tragic love story of the young samurai Shirai Gonpachi and the beautiful courtesan Komurasaki.

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An overview of the life and work of legendary Japanese filmmaker Kijû Yoshida, a notable figure of the Japanese New Wave.

An Ishiro Honda film.

Prosecutor Takayama investigates the sudden death of a third baseman in the middle of a game.

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A spontaneous romance blooms between Kawamura, a professor touring Europe, and Naoko, a married woman living in Paris, scarred by the Nagasaki atomic bombings. The two protagonists travel around Europe trying to find themselves.

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Based on Shinichi Mori song

1967 Japanese movie

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1961 Japanese movie

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A multifaced portrayal of ordinary life, revealing its hidden aspects! The second film in the "Bride Series" following "The Embraced Bride" is an Ofuna-style comedy.