Acting
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157 movies sorted by popularity
In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Ittōsai, who trained in the Itto-ryu style deep in the mountains of Nara, joins a professional baseball team.
Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.
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.
Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.
When the wife of a 17th-century Kyoto scrollmaker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves truly falling for one another.
The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.
Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
A coming-of-age film.
A heartwarming comedy about Osaka’s slowest taxi driver who searches all over the city for the missing daughter of a former general who has just returned from military service.
No description available.
In post-war Japan, The Second Drawer follows Funada, a devoted company man whose planned family trip is disrupted by the sudden death of his boss. Thrust into a delicate business negotiation and a chance encounter with a mysterious woman, he becomes entangled in a quiet storm of corporate intrigue, personal sacrifice, and emotional complexity. As relationships shift and secrets surface, Funada must navigate the fine line between duty and desire in a world where ambition and morality rarely
A group of friends try to find success in corporate Japan.
A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to a remote branch in a small town. Before he leaves, he gives the man's widow a large sum of money that she uses to move back to her hometown.
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.
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.
A heartbroken beauty has slipped into the ranks of the "Golden Horse" circus troupe. The circus's two star performers, vying for her affection, face off on a perilous trapeze, staking their love and friendship on the outcome.
Melodrama about high school students.
A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising baseball player to The Toyko Flowers.
War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.
In a peaceful town near the Seto Inland Sea, a threatening letter arrives along with the ringing of a telephone... A thriller-comedy that sets this stagnant town ablaze.
Tashiro coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako. In an effort to further relieve his tortured sense of guilt, he then confesses to Sugimoto. Neither his wife nor his friend can believe that he could have been involved.
Comedy about a car salesman delivering a late model station wagon from Tokyo to Izumo to a representative of the Japanese Diet, who plans to use the car in a bribe.
The story of five sisters.
The Matsukawa family lived modestly as a close-knit trio of mother and daughters, relying on the income from the younger daughter, Motoko, who worked at a Western-style clothing store in Ginza, and their meager savings. This film was adapted from Nakano Minoru's original work "Otohime-sama Gojouiki" (The Landing of Princess Otohime), serialized in Lucky magazine.
Following the Second World War, the lives of various people in a poverty-stricken area of Tokyo are entertwined. Pachinko parlor girls, shoeshine boys, a maker of costume jewelry, and a streetcorner artist all struggle to make their livings and to find happiness in difficult surroundings.
Kita Ippei (Atsumi Kiyoshi) became a security officer in the Metropolitan Police Department's Security Division after catching a thug who attacked a writer living in the area while working at a police box. His dream is to become a bodyguard (BG) for the Prime Minister, just like his senior, Detective Inspector Takagi (Ryu Chishu). Kita Ippei is very successful in both work and love, getting attacked while guarding a female minister, getting some perks as a BG for a foreign princess, and becoming friends with a woman at his favorite bar.
After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much.
A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo.
Detective Tarao goes undercover to battle an evil gun smuggling business.
Writer Jippensha Ikku hears Tsutaya Juzaburo, a wholesaler of picture books, mutter on his deathbed, "Where has Sharaku gone?" He begins to figure out the true identity of Sharaku, who disappeared after about 150 portraits of actors he created came out.
A traditional bar mistress in Kyoto clashes with her Tokyo rival.
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.
The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.
A union-busting Yokohama dockworker learns that the loyalties that rule his life are based on shaky foundations. Believing that his manager was responsible for saving his life as a baby, he falls victim to a manipulative cycle of deceit and revenge.
Daughter of a lumber shop in Edo strives to protect her family business from the competitor. Sado Masasaburo, the founder of Sado Masa, one of the oldest lumber merchants in Kiba, has recently become very old and ill, and his tomboyish daughter Nobuko, a native of Edo, cannot stand the methods of Tadayoshi, who has risen to prominence through unscrupulous business practices. In a thrilling period drama in which Hibari plays a chic and stubborn lumberyard girl who, together with her partner Takakura Ken, punishes an evil lumber merchant. A thrilling youth drama that combines familiar songs with the stubbornness and love of Hibari and Takakura.
When the only son of a working class woman is fatally struck by a car driven by the adulterous wife of a company president in a hit-and-run, the victim's mother changes her identity and infiltrates the couple's home to work as their maid, plotting to murder their similarly-aged son.
Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off. However, it is not to be: on this hectic day a man just back from the war front visits the doctor with a medical emergency, followed by a woman who claims to have been molested. Then a yakuza arrives to ask the doctor to cut his finger off...
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.
Comedy of high school where students and teachers run wild, based on a popular comic strip.
The real mother of the two children of a respectable university professor is not his wife, but his mistress, the hostess of a Ginza bar the family frequents.
After his home gets attacked by a rival gang, underworld boss Masamichi Omatsu finds himself in a tangle of familial and criminal obligations.
A "hustler's hustler" (Takarada), works his way up the corporate ladder at a camera company. His biggest scheme involves winning the business of a foreign visitor by setting him up with a beautiful "model" (Tsukasa), actually a bar hostess, but the plan backfires when the would-be executive falls for the woman himself.
The story of three sportsman brothers living in the Ginza. One day, the three meet a raving beauty on separate occasions and are unaware they have met the same girl.
The Second movie based on a popular TV show about Pintemps Cosmetics and their struggles to make new successful products, filled with singing, dancing, and laughter.
The southern tip of Shikoku. This village, surrounded by a bay, where, according to legend, the former warriors of the Heike clan settled, is famous for its bullfights. Today there is also a bull market in the village, and there are extremely many people here. The black bull "Great Tengu", which Gonzo from Misaki offered, cost 50,000, but was forcibly taken away by a Bakuro soldier, who possessed extraordinary strength and physique, for less than half the price. However, the violent soldier was in love with Tsunayo, the hostess of the inn and the organizer of the bullfight. One day, a young man from the city, an Ihara police officer, arrives in the village. And soon the real problems will begin…
Kurando is a retired samurai. Granted a last-second reprieve from the obligation to commit harakiri, he decides to settle down and marry one of the two kabuki actresses who helped him enjoy what he thought would be his final days.
A low ranking yakuza who spends more time enjoying life than doing the yakuza work falls in love with a pretty student girl, whose brother later gets drawn into the yakuza business against his own wishes.
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.
Story about a poor Japanese woman living near an American army base who resorts to prostitution.
After a promotion brings new professional challenges, a diligent employee is pulled into corporate matchmaking and a high-stakes business conflict over a critical eel supply.
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.
A film about the rivalry between Captain Gondo and the harpooner Yosuke Yamagami, working on the best whaling ship Hayabusa Maru. One day they will have to face a giant, monstrous whale.
The story of a group of young people who organise their own travelling symphony orchestra to provide music for people living in remote villages shortly after the war.
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.
High-end cabaret hostess Masuko discovers her long-term lover is actually married. Determined to secure her future, she aggressively manipulates him into divorcing his wife, only for their new marriage to be destabilized by the arrival of her young niece.
1958 Japanese movie
Can a sinful man change and find peace? It's unlikely in gang-plagued Japan. Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter (and hired sword), goes straight after protecting a woman in distress: they marry, have a son, and Jokichi pursues his father's craft. After three years, the gangs he embarrassed when he saved his wife find the family and leave Jokichi in grief, vowing revenge. To parry his terrible swift sword, rival gangs join forces, hiring a prostitute to pose as a woman needing help and breaking the code of honor to double cross the drifter. He finds unlikely allies: a thief who aids him for fun and a one-eyed swordsman who may be Jokichi's equal in skill and honor.
Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer. Part three (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi’s novel, Oban.
Television production of I Want to Be a Shellfish. On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation by GHQ, Toyomatsu "attemped to kill a US prisoner", which was nothing but an order by his superior and failed after all with hurting the prisoner by weak Toyomatsu. Also, Toyomatsu was driven to corner at the trial by the fact that he fed the US prisoner some burdock roots to nourish him. Toyomatsu believes nothing but being not guilty, but he is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to the execution, Toyomatsu writes a long farewell letter to his family, the wife and the only son: "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."
Japanese comedy film.
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.
The Crazy Cats, a Japanese musical-comedy group, were showcased a series of comic adventures throughout the 1960s. Las Vegas Free-For-All, one of their most popular movies, featured scenes filmed on location in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Hawaii. Appearing with the seven Cats were the lovely Mie Hama and such Japanese musical artists as The Peanuts, The Johnnys, The Drifters, and Jackie Yoshikawa & the Blue Comets.
1967 Japanese movie
Koharu, a young geisha, is in love with Kenichi, an apprentice carpenter to her father Masagoro. Their love life comes to a sudden halt after an argument between their two fathers. Can their love survive in spite of the bitterness between their two families?
A skilled country doctor's talents are such that he can even perform operations as difficult and novel as removing a patient's kidney for the first time in Japan. Unfortunately for him, however, his wife's addiction to gambling is of such a magnitude that he is down to selling his underwear to make money. The image sticks and he becomes known as the 'underwear doctor.' On the other hand, his successful surgery's patient is so grateful he himself wants to become a physician.
Former boxer Daishiro lost his wife, and his only son, Kaoru, went missing, it was a heavy blow for Daishiro. One day, Daishiro got a call from his relative Morihiko. He said he forgot the winning lottery ticket of 2 million yen at the hotel, so he wants Daishiro to go and pick it up. Morihiko used the hotel for secret meetings, so he said he couldn't go there himself because he was afraid it would become public. When Daishiro entered the hotel, the Yakuza, who learned about the lottery from the newspaper, threaten the hotel maid Noriko, and want to rob her. Daishiro helps Noriko and safely picks up the lottery, but a message arrives from his relative Seikichi from Osaka. His missing son Kaoru is said to be a boxer in Osaka. "My son... He has the blood of a boxer in him..." Daishiro is heading to Osaka in a hurry...
Movie adaptation of the TV series.
Teacher Yuki (Natsuki) is appointed to a high school where he stages a big soccer match.
On his way to Tokyo one night, a truck driver picks up a country girl and has his way with her amidst a forest. A few days later he loses his job after a run-in with some punks, but is offered a job by a gangster impressed by his fighting skills. He tries to make amends with the girl he ravished, but becomes caught up in the ways of the underworld...
An Ishiro Honda film.
Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba returns as the reckless son of a private detective takes on the case of a minor league baseball pitcher who disappears right before signing a contract into the major leagues. Meanwhile, the body of an orthopedist is discovered in the river.
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.
Kanae, who broke up with her husband and moved to her uncle's house, met two men when her father, a university professor, collapsed. Michihara, a wealthy man and Miyashita, a youth scholar. Kanae is attracted to Miyashita, but ...
Minamimura, who had always wanted to be free, suddenly quits his job. His hardworking wife is surprised and angry, and throws him out of the house. Confused by his sudden freedom, Iosuke ends up living as a vagrant under a bridge. His wife, Komako, also finds herself freed and is unable to ignore her confusion.
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.
"Pure White Nights" - A romantic tale that depicts love between married people and the psychology of their marriage with elegant and a controversial touch. Love, art and suffering until the tragic and absurd ending.
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.
Helping her mother manage a nightclub, young Emiko quickly realizes how difficult life is.
The life of a toilet-seller during the Japanese Economic Miracle.
The eleventh film in the comedy series starring Japan's leading comedy group, the Crazy Cats. Susumu Sakamori and his friends travel to Mexico to find a stone statue that contains the location of the secret treasure "Olmeca".
Chiba Sōsaku, whose childhood name was Otome, was raised by his father Yukiuemon, the successor of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū style, and his wet nurse in Rikuzen Onikobe, where he early on earned the nickname "Little Tengu of Chiba." One day, Otome heard a rumor that Arao Miyauchi, who once was an internal student at the Chiba family but now ran his own dojo in Onikobe, was spreading false rumors out of resentment for not inheriting the Chiba house—a situation that led to his mother's suicide and his father's abandonment of the sword to become a doctor. Enraged, Otome stormed into the Arao dojo only to be captured and publicly humiliated at Onikobe Pass. However, in his heart, Miyauchi hoped to marry his daughter Nanae to Otome and have him inherit the Chiba family.
Life of a bachelor gynecologist in a hospital for women.
Hibari Misora plays Yoshiko, the popular daughter of a fish market owner. After discovering that she was adopted, she sets out to help her biological father who has fallen victim to an evil plot orchestrated by those who would take over his successful business.
Japanese life during the past thirty-five turbulent years is depicted in this film through the eyes of two police detectives. One is Henmi, who comes to Tokyo in 1926 from faraway Kagoshima to join the Tokyo police force. His closest friend is Nihei, a farmer's son from Tohoku who becomes the steadying influence on headstrong Henmi.
Ichiro (Chiba) is a scrappy little sport in a big car and funny hat always looking for some fun and some extra cash on the side. He and his friends get themselves involved in some shady business dealings involving a kidnapping.
Docudrama about Rikidozan. When Rikidozan is accused by a school teacher of selling autographs to children for ¥50 apiece, "Riki" (as he was popularly known) investigates, eventually putting a stop to such unseemliness. Later, as he is about to wrestle an American (modeled after Lou Thesz), a young boy is injured by another youngster who imitated his famous karate chop.
Early adaptation of the book "The Inugami Clan", featuring the detective Kōsuke Kindaichi.
A gang plans to steal twenty billion yen by safecracking tactics; however, they discover that one of the gang members is an infiltrating cop.
Mega star Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro in the rambunctious tale of a chef who opens a restaurant in the busy Ginza district. His culinary skills and dashing good looks bring in the women as well as unwanted trouble, while an explosive political scandal builds around his girlfriend’s business...
Tells of the feelings and sufferings of a young girl with an incurable paralytic disease.
Battles of an average salaryman.
The fifth installment of ten in Nippon Ichi film series.
1962 Japanese movie
A straight-laced employee is tasked with supervising his impulsive CEO during a business trip intended to revive struggling sales.
A story of unhappy youths and the perils of lack of sex education.
Goto Tamiko starred in TV commercials and her father, Keisuke, was a powerful financier who is now fallen on hard times. Tamiko wants to marry her boyfriend Sanpei, an aspiring composer, but her father wants her to marry a young company president.
Story of girls in a Japanese reform school.
1961 Japanese movie
Movie directed by Kunio Matoi
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.
The orphaned son of a count who was assassinated by his subordinates in a conspiracy during the Pacific War becomes obsessed with taking revenge on his late father's enemies.
The movie depicts the youth of kamikaze pilots who scattered young lives in the sky.
Film about the life of a bitter female reporter with a pure heart.
Melodrama about high school life.
Kemeko (Rumi Koyama), a girl who loves go-go dancing, one day encounters two men who are about to commit suicide. They are Rokuzo (Kanichi Tani), a bankrupt real estate agent, and Kyosuke (Keizo Kawasaki), a former ballet teacher. Unable to carry out their suicides because Kemeko is in the way, the two men reluctantly go with Kemeko to Kyosuke's ballet studio. When Kemeko starts dancing with the band led by Susumu (Haruo Suzuki) who are practicing there, Kyosuke recognizes her talent and decides to make her a big star. Of course, Rokuzo, who has given up on suicide, also volunteers to help promote her. A few days later, Kemeko enters a go-go competition on television and wins. Kemeko was delighted to hear that the winner would get to go to Africa.
A food company undergoes leadership changes, with younger staff rising to key roles.
A story of aristocratic star-crossed love.
When a young woman named Kanako goes to Lake Yamanaka with her close friends, she meets a young businessman, Saeki, who gives her an expensive pearl necklace to win her favor. As Kanako sets out to return the gift, she meets her father, who steals the necklace in order to repay his creditor.
Set in a rubber company in Tokyo, this comedy depicts the sorrows of salarymen in a humorous way, centering on the commotion caused by the passionate salaryman Goro Mutsu, who is transferred from Kyushu.
A coming-of-age story that depicts the crisis of love in marital life in a light-hearted way, centering on the family of a young scholar whose young wife is a female doctor who has made a name for herself in sex medicine.
The TV drama of Ima Harube was adapted by Yagi Ryuichiro ("Komuso Henge"), directed by Mori Issei ("I Am Fujikichirou"), and cinematographed by Honda Shozo ("The Return of the Ghost"). The main cast includes Katsu Shintaro ("Flower of the Wandering Bird"), Saga Michiko and Mita Tokiko ("Matashirou's Fighting Journey")
About schoolgirls in a rural town, and a love letter which has the entire community in an uproar.
A heartfelt story about a young girl from the choir and her sympathy for a poor boy until she organizes a birthday celebration for him.
At Kaikō Girls’ School, a fake love letter sparks a heated PTA debate. Teacher Shimazaki wins the vote, while students and staff navigate misunderstandings and mischief. Amid the chaos, romance blooms: Numata proposes to Yukiko, and Rokunosuke declares his love to Shinko, ending with a joyful countryside outing.
