Acting
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82 movies sorted by popularity
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.
1969 Nikkatsu yakuza movie
"Karayuki-san offers a no-holds-barred depiction of the discrimination faced by a former prostitute who returns to Japan from Singapore with her mixed-race son." - Alexander Jacoby (Oxford Brookes University)
When bribe money from a rigged election funnels into a dam construction project, collusion, lust, greed and even murder are on the ballot.
Taking the Chilean coup as an example, a group of young officers plan to overthrow the Japanese government on V-J Day. They aim to abolish the post-war constitution, restore the national army and revive the traditional spirit of Japan. As the conspiracy is exposed, the coup squadrons are wiped out one by one. The remaining squadron takes over a night train bound for Tokyo.
Tadashi Iki returns to Japan from a Soviet gulag 11 years after being captured during the invasion of Manchuria. He is offered a position in the expansive Kinki Corporation, but rival corporations are competing for a government contract to produce fighter planes.
Among Yoshimura’s complex and political works, this episodic film, set in the early 1930s, follows the life of a young left-wing student activist disenchanted by the increasingly hawkish state of Japanese society.
Jiro, a young yakuza, and Mami, a diplomat’s daughter, are two young lovers from different worlds. Having met by accident, they soon discover a new life together. But their love is ill-fated. Mami's family will not accept her choice, while leading an honest life seems like an unattainable goal for Jiro. Can there be anything else but a tragic ending?
No description available.
Renowned detective Kosuke Kindaichi is called to an island where a dying man's words lead him to investigate a series of murders connected to the 'Nue' legend and the powerful Osakabe family, who separate twins at birth.
Across the Inagawa River that runs through the center of the village, the children of the two villages scrambled for a swimming pool, and each time a stone battle took place. Takemaru, the only son of the priesthood of Tada Shrine, was weak and was always forced to carry stones. However, neither swimming nor stone-throwing was a secret to his sick mother, Kouko... Seishi Matsumaru, Ryuichi Yoshida, and Ado Matsuyama were adapted from "Tenmangu" and "Ishigassen", directed by Mitsuo Wakasugi of "Waran Hayashi", and photographed by Hanjiro Nakazawa of "The Last Women".
A boxing melodrama. Two friends become boxers and begin training for the championship. These two boys eventually face each other in the ring.
When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miyagi, tries to honor his dying wish to rescue his sister. Upon finding Kaoru at a party working as a geisha and later rescuing her from committing suicide, Col. Miyagi allows her to move in with him. Over time, the two grow close, but in spite of Kaoru's growing feelings for him, Col. Miyagi is unable to bring himself to return her love. On the night of his deployment to war, Col. Miyagi finally admits his feelings for Kaoru, but will they ever be able to enjoy a peaceful life together now that a very violent and bloody military revolt is under way...
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.
Taro Uno, nicknamed "Fighting Taro," has joined Hyakusho Trading Company, which is currently busy with bidding for Southeast Asian reparations supplies. This is because their competitor, Toyo Bussan, is considered a strong contender. One day, Taro comes to the rescue of Toyo Bussan's president, Iwashita, and his illegitimate son, Kenji, who are being harassed by a local gangster named Kankichi.
Fearless Edo-period police inspector Hanzo Itami, nicknamed The Razor, has developed his own unique way of extracting information for his inquiries. His first adventure sees him investigating his superior officer's mistress, whom he suspects of having ties with a reputed criminal on the loose.
Four henchmen kill Ryu, the head of a group of dollar buyers, on a dark construction site. They divide 1.2 million yen from Ryu's bag into 4 parts and disperse. However, one by one, the henchmen die. The last survivor, Sima Kyuhei, gets a call and is informed that Ryu is alive. He is told that if he does not return the money, he will be killed, and he goes to the meeting place...
Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances. The film depicts their lives as thieves, menial laborers who can get little pay, society outcasts, and of course, lovers. Junai Monogatari depicts, mostly, their struggles within the Japanese reformatory system and Mitsuko's worsening sickness.
After their father dies, his children try to get by on a house boat.
After his own gang sets him up to kill a rival mobster, a hit man is forced to flee with his younger brother.
Katiri is a reporter so ambitiously amoral that he’ll sell out anyone—including his partner and the drug dealer he’s sleeping with—to get a scoop. But what happens when an even more ruthless female gang boss kidnaps his sister?
As Japan's economic growth policies intensify, small-scale farmers embark on a first-ever communal dairy farming initiative in their village. They are joined by Riki, a young man who thinks communal farming will give him some leisure time.
A young doctor falls into a despair of developments. He plans to revenge the disgrace inflicted upon his sister, whose engagement was broken as a result.
Shinsaku was once a renowned playwright, has now been left behind by journalism and is living a lethargic life in Oiso. His family is concerned with Shinsaku regaining his old vigor as a writer and Sakie, his daughter, finding a suitable match, while the family is struggling with the losses of war.
Hiroshi, a small-time racketeer, makes a name for himself extorting vulnerable companies and their directors for financial gain.
A college student takes over the family business in the field of organised crime.
A young yakuza in love with the girl who's to marry his clan oyabun, kidnaps the girl before fleeing with her. In Tokyo, he hides under the identity of a worker while the young woman becomes a waitress in a restaurant.
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.
A musical film based on the original work of Saigo Teruhiko. After leaving the juvenile detention center and returning to his hometown of Ibusuki, Hachiro begins to investigate the cause of his older sister Sumiko's suicide. While Hachiro was in juvenile detention, Sumiko committed suicide, but there are too many mysteries surrounding this suicide...
What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy in 1942.
Ryoji, a wanderer, arrives in a remote mountain town, carrying a shotgun and claiming to be a hunter. He quickly becomes embroiled in a web of trouble surrounding the town's mill.
Death stalks a towering hotel under construction in Tokyo and love brings the guilty parties to a justice of their own choice. The motives are control of the hotel, blackmail and jealousy. The principals involved are two business partners, a political string puller and his son, lovers carrying on an illicit affair and a secretary turned blackmailer.
A comedy-action film depicting a kind-hearted protagonist who, feeling disillusioned with the world, asks a hitman for assistance with suicide, only to find himself embroiled in a thrilling and hilarious journey involving money and women.
A movie adaptation of Funayama Kaoru's novel of the same name, which depicts the story of a modern youth who is attracted to the evil path. Saburi Shin, a well-known actor who also demonstrated his skill as a director in a bold social work, embodies a person with a complicated dilemma in a shadowy manner, and is a dramatic work that plays a part in the lead role.
Murder case and trial.
Sixth part in the Enblem of Man series.
It is 1922 and Fumiko is a high school student. Her family is poor but she loves to study literature. Her father, a peddler, does not return home and Fumiko finds herself in financial trouble, not being able to pay for her schooling and her school excursion trip. Still, she gets a temporary job at a factory and tries to make ends meet. A film about bright side of youth adapted from the television serial of the same name.
"She's out there somewhere, well and alive." Eiji (Teruhiko Saigo) and his sister hadn't seen their mother in almost 20 years. The war had separated them. When Eiji learns that his sister is engaged, he is determined to reunite with his mother and relay the wonderful news. With a pocket full of hopes and just one clue that may lead him to his mother, Eiji sets off for Taiwan.
Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.
One summer day, the chief monk of the Hojuin Temple dies. Harumichi rushes back to town hearing about his brother's death and requests for a grand funeral. He had been unwilling to take over the family business and had chosen a life as a middle school teacher far away from home, but considering the circumstances, he changes his mind. As the new chief of Hojuin, Harumichi scrambles around day after day for donations. He has kept strictly to the straight and narrow, until he passes a bicycle race track where the sounds of cheering fans induce him into a new way of life...
Based on the Seichō Matsumoto's story The Woman Who Took the Local Paper.
Toyomi is pregnant -- and while Shintaro and Yurie are on their extended honeymoon, she bears his child, a girl named Kiyoko. She is supported in adversity by close friend Michiko and her mother but also, surprisingly, Shintaro's mother and siblings. Even moreso, Toyomi and Yurie become friends. Part two of a two-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan.
Koji Wada, who is good at shooting, karate, judo and boxing, has a tough fight with the sea gangsters!
Motomu Ida movie
It was supposed to be about a love story, but it was and was not. An aircraft mechanic working for the government is matched by his boss with the latter man's daughter (Setsuko Hara) who is both beautiful and aggressive. Yet, he picks a woman who is less assertive as his bride.
An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses.
The monologue and mysterious death of a man who survived and returned from Iwo Jima. A newspaper reporter writes an article about "The Man from Iwo Jima" asking the people who were close to him about his character and the painful memories off all those involved.
Based on the novel by proletarian writer Sunao Tokunaga. The story is about a long strike by workers at a large printing house and the strikers' steadfastness, which neither hunger nor violence could break. The heroine of this story actively participates in her colleagues' struggle against layoffs, oppression, and police brutality.
Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese merchant marine officer. Part spy thriller and part Shanghai travelogue, it was part of a popular series known as "Chinese Continental Friendship" made by the occupying Japanese in China.
A detective sets out on a manhunt to catch a murderer before the crime's statue of limitations runs out.
Like a girl runaway, Tsuyu moves to Osaka to work as a bar hostess. She meets the owner of a model school, Yoko, and seriously thinks about becoming a fashion model. Yoko tells her that she can move in to Yoko’s house to take lessons, while making a living at the same time.
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.
Woman melodrama by Shiro Toyoda
Set in Qingdao, China, a Japanese company locates an office there and begins work and cooperation with a local Chinese company for business. Many Japanese engineers also move to China, with their families, for the company in order to construct a canal. There are young Chinese resisting the Japanese in this area.
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.
A 1943 film.
A period film about a peasant revolt in the region near Mount Fuji, occasioned by high officials' depriving the farmers of their water rights.
Based on the comic by Yutaka Asou
The story deas with the experiences of an exceptionally strong-willed, middle class Tokyo "ojōsan" who comes to teach in a middle school in the countryside.
Kohei Misugi works in a vegetable market, but his ambition is to be a photographer. He is given his first opportunity to demonstrate his talent by the Sakura Film Company which offers him an assignment to "Cover Tokyo" with a camera. But he is disillusioned when he is told he must work together with Miharu, a good looking girl in the film company's publicity department. Then the fun begins.
A small provincial town surrounded by mountains and fields in northeastern Japan. Here a group of eight policemen solve a series of unusual cases, ranging from extortion, to drunken fathers, to corruption and even the persecution of a man who claims to be an alien. This entertaining film shows these cops with a human heart with humor.
1962 Japanese movie
Miyamoto Tokunosuke works at a Detective Agency in the heart of Tokyo. When his lover Ranko tells him that she's pregnant, he begins to worry. His company hasn't paid his backsalary and he doesn't know how he will pay for the new baby. His friend Suihei tells him about a job at a bar, but on his way there, Tokunosuke meets a mysterious man who sells him a newspaper...for tomorrow!
Wealthy young Toyomi and Shintaro are in love. However, Shintaro’s father is arranging for him to marry Yurie, the scion of an even wealthier family. The two lovers flee to Tokyo, but when Shintaro returns to proclaim his intent to marry Toyomi, his father browbeats him into attending the marriage meeting with Yurie. Part one of a two-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan.
During the Tokugawa Shogunate, a band of smugglers use a tavern on an isolated island in Edo's Fukagawa district as their base of operations. After the unexpected arrival of an injured man with a troubled past, the men find themselves in a life-or-death situation.
Comedy of a phony doctor.
Arikawa runs a transport company. But this is only a front for his gambling house. Yuriko is a regular on the scene, and she is fascinated by the dice and the one who throws them. A year before, Yuriko's father died in mysterious circumstances; she decides to go in search of the truth.
Hikoroku Laughs a lot
Kazuo Kitagawa lives on a farm on the Tateshina Plateau with his late teacher's widow and daughter, continuing his research. One day, Kazuo is attracted to the beautiful young lady who is visiting the villa when he goes out to the town…
Maki, a porter at the Sakura Hotel, finds a body in Room No. 2 and picks up a piece of paper on which is written "one-third of the key", also the part of a key. From a newspaper he learns that the dead man is an official who has been detained as a suspect in a bribery case involving 150,000,000 yen and that another suspect named Matsunaga is still in custody. Maki realizes that if he can obtain the other two-thirds of the key, he will be a multi-millionaire.
An exciting and fast-paced entertaining action in which G-Man Joe of Aces (Japanese version 007) challenges a terrible international mafia organization based in Japan. To defeat the villains, Joe uses his unprecedented skills of fast shooting and karate secrets!
Japanese comedy film.
A lighthearted comedy that tells the story of love and the cheerful heroism of a young salesman pursuing a man's dream.
A youth drama about a sincere and pretty young maiko who comes to Tokyo for the first time in her life and fills her little heart with the joys and sorrows she experiences there.
Twelfth film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.
Four criminals break into the home of a jewelry merchant, Sanpodo, rob the diamonds, and escape. However, one of them receives a bullet during a skirmish between bandits, and the second is wounded by the police. To help their wounded comrades, criminals lock themselves in a city clinic...
