Hisako Takihana

In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.

Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his heart is broken by Awaji does Genji realizes how much pain he himself has caused.

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she is not who she thought she was.

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Two college girls who work part-time as shrine maidens swap their names with private investigators conducting a marriage background check, throwing their boyfriends into total chaos.

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The relationship between Tetsuro, a university student from a disgraced, burdened family, and Shino, a waitress supporting her impoverished relatives. The couple decides to marry despite the significant emotional and social hardships each faces, viewing their love as a means to overcome the shame and despair inherited from their pasts.

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.

The story contrasts the life of two doctors, former classmates and now both assistant professors at Naniwa University Hospital in Osaka. The brilliant and ambitious surgeon Goro Zaizen stops at nothing to rise to a position of eminence and authority, while the friendly Shuji Satomi busies himself with his patients and research.

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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.

In this downbeat, emotionally gripping drama, a lone guardian of some small huts on one of the northernmost, small islands off Japan remembers his once happier past and the events that destroyed everyone he held dear.

A man and a woman whose love is forbidden due to a feud between their parents resolve to die together and head to the island of Sado.

Yosuke Machida of the Daito Shinpo hears from a boy named Toshi-bo, whom he found on the street, that Toshi-bo’s older sister, Toyo, was deceived by a man named Taichi Tachikawa and sold into prostitution in a red-light district. He then set foot in this district for the first time and met Michiko Kawabe, a female reporter known by the nickname “Yoshie.” After hearing various details about the situation from her, he learned that Toyo was at “Kotogawa.”

Kyoko is the third daughter of the Nonomiya family, a very ordinary family. Momoko, the eldest daughter, is married to Ichiro, the president of Mihara Shoji, and Riko, the second daughter, is married to Jiro, the managing director, and they plot to marry Kyoko to Saburo, the third son of the Mihara family. Kyoko is angry at the marriage talk that is being pushed forward without her permission, and declares that she "definitely won't get married," but before she knows it, she begins to become aware of the other person...

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Based on the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. Story of the beautiful blind daughter of a wealthy businessman who falls in love with a servant.

A youth lyrical story of pure love of a girl who grew up in the Kyoto Gion quarter, with a geisha mother and sisters Maiko and a college student.

One of Uchida’s early sound films, Unending Advance is based on a curious story by Yasujiro Ozu, in which an examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into an idyllic dream of an implausible future. The surviving print, although incomplete, offers an essential glimpse into Uchida’s prewar period, when he was associated more with realist dramas than with the period films that dominated his work after the war.

Fascinated with women from an early age, Yonosuke had his first sexual encounter at the age of seven. From that day on, he recklessly and forwardly pursues women, feeding his fascination and experience. As Yonosuke's salacious behavior brings much cause for shame to the family, his father eventually breaks relations with him. Expelled from the family, 19-year-old Yonosuke embarks on a pilgrimage of lust, traveling far and wide to acquaint himself with women of all walks.

Judo movie.

A mystery story set on a haunted island: a student is murdered, followed by the suicide of his lover.

Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Takashi Shimura.

Baseball movie about Eiji Sawamura.

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.

The film centers a compassionate teacher (Setsuko Hara) who teaches at a Tokyo grade school where students curse and gamble. The school has a pond on-premises that she's in charge of and cares for. The pond holds a number of carp, but someone is snatching them. The teacher forms a special bond with a child who lives in abject poverty.

With his mother’s wishes and a young woman’s prayers in his heart, a spirited young man fights to uphold the honor of college judo.

Two men clash over the beautiful star of a motorcycle show.

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.

A couple in love are separated between the city and the countryside and face misunderstandings due to slander from those around them, but are ultimately reunited at the apple orchard in their hometown.

One of Japan's most popular stories is the tale of Kutsukake Tokijiro, a traveling gambler who finds that he must take care of the wife and child of a yakuza he had been forced by the code of the gamblers to fight man to man. In a brilliant performance from super-star Ichikawa Raizo, with strong support from two of the greats from Toho, Shimura Takashi (7 Samurai) and Aratama Michiyo (Sword of Doom) the heartfelt story reaches new heights. Tokijiro, having learned the true nature of the boss to whom he was obligated for having spent a night and eaten at the gang's headquarters takes up arms against them in a running battle fought across the back roads of the entire nation. Another powerful rendition of this superb story, it is not to be missed!

Atsuko is an office secretary who is also her family's primary source of income and caretaker in postwar Japan.

In 1945, in a Shanghai filled with a palpable sense of unease as the war was still raging, Atsuko Kijima and Ryuji Kudo fell in love and exchanged promises of marriage. Ryuji was deployed shortly thereafter, and after the war ended, he was taken to Siberia as a prisoner of war. Atsuko, who had returned to Tokyo, clung to the promise she had made with Ryuji—that if he were safe, he would “come to the garden of St. Nicholas Cathedral at noon on Christmas Day.” Relying on that promise, she went to St. Nicholas Cathedral at noon on Christmas Day in both 1946 and 1947, but Ryuji never appeared.

Romantic thriller film.

Film about poet Ishikawa Takuboku

Japanese war film.

The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. Her plan for a solid financial future has a double whammy. In the second story, a beautiful young woman is employed by an unscrupulous real estate agent to convince male clients to invest in worthless property. The last story is about a widowed geisha who has no real financial worries and who falls in love with a forger.

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A journalist decides to do his own investigation after a series of strange murders are committed during a local election campaign.

A wife is diagnosed with an incurable disease at a young age. Her husband loves her, supports her, and tries to stay with her. However, the wife is tormented by the fact that she is ruining her husband's future, and decides to divorce him as the only thing she can do for him.

The biopic of Shigenobu Ōkuma, one of the main Japanese leaders at the turn of the 20th century, a supporter of rapprochement with the United Kingdom, and who brought his country into the Triple Entente against the German Empire.

The story of Kiyoko, a young woman who has successfully managed to make a break with her dysfunctional family who have been trying to arrange a marriage for her with a disagreeable man whom she has rejected.

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…

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A classic melodramatic love tragedy addressing social inequality in Taishō-era Japan, The nostalgic scenes of 1920s Tokyo provides a valuable visual experience set against the background of the title song, "Tokyo March." (Sadly, less than a half hour of the footage has been recovered and restored.)

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1956 Japanese movie

1958 Theater of Life adaptation.

1956 Japanese movie

In Meiji era Japan a sixth grade boy is smart, likable and confident and owing to his academic success liked by his teacher. Things are not going well at home, however, where his father does not work leaving the mother to toil . With the boy's family having no money he cannot progress his education and has to drop out of school. A neighbour, who is a bookstore owner, offers the family money to allow the boy to continue his schooling, but the father is too proud to accept and rebuffs the offer forcing the boy to work.

1962 Japanese movie

A biting portrait of the world of classical Japanese dance: an ambitious young woman (Wakao Ayako) shoves aside her mentor (Kyo Machiko) on her way to the top.

Melodrama by Kiyoshi Saeki

Obscure Masumura film shot in 1961.

Based on the play ”Mabuta no haha” by famed author Shin Hasegawa, this is the first major starring role for Tomisaburo Wakayama. This heartfelt story concerns a wandering gambler from Banba by the name of Chutaro. Set during the Tenpo Period, Chutaro runs afoul of Boss Sukegoro of Iioka. Pursued by vengeance seeking swordsmen, Chutaro displays his phenomenal martial art skills. Abandoned as a child, he seeks to find his long lost mother, while at the same time fighting off numerous attacks by Iioka’s men.

The story of two sisters in post-war Japan. One is a geisha and the other works for the tourist board.

When a corrupt magistrate rapes Oshima, Masa (Raizō Ichikawa) avenges her by killing the officer, becoming thereby a fugitive, haunted and grief-stricken by the fact that Oshima committed suicide. Going underground in the gambling world, perpetually hiding from the law, Masa eventually meets a young woman named Onaka, who looks exactly like Oshima. Tales having two look-alike heroines are a commonplace in Japanese period films, a plot affectation inherited from the kabuki theater. Based on a novel by Shin Hasegawa, Nakayama shichiri was already twice filmed in 1930, one version directed by Namio Ochiai, and from which less than 40 minutes survive, the other directed by Kyotaro Namiki. Both are silent films, preserved by the Makino film institute.

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Jidai-geki about the life of Yasubei Nakayama, a famous ronin who did participate in the revenge against Lord Kira Yoshinaka as detailed in Japan's famous epic Chushingura

Directed by Tomotaka Tasaka.

This film begins with a teacher describing to his students how brave the crew was which died as result of Japan's first submarine accident. The film then follows two of the pupils, one becomes a submarine captain and the other designs submarines.

Adaptation of the Yukio Mishima novel.

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

Depicts four cheerful, young former college students with promising futures who die tragic deaths as pilots in the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps.

A beautiful older sister and her younger brother, both designers who paint the dreams of young hope, are paired with an innocent young artist and the daughter of a company president, creating a miniature picture of the youth of Tokyo that revolves around these four characters.

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.

Based on the famous novel by Junichiro Tanizaki, this is a story of the four sisters of the ancient and reputable Makioka family of Osaka.

The Stormy Era of Twenty Years

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Yutaro Kodan, born under a cloud because his aristocrat father died opposing the shogunate, stumbles onto a treasure map. Lusting after the treasure, Lord Sumi Tadamasa convinces trusting Princess Tsu that the gold will help to avenge her lost clan.

A girl marries her elderly employer but in reality is in love with his son.

Based on a story by Akiyuki Nosaka.

A young female president of a company who hates men and a new male employee who hates women: a one-on-one fight in which sparks fly! A cheerful youth film!

Shikiko Oba is nimble with her fingers and teaches dressmaking and designing. Among her pupils are Rinko, Katsumi and Tomie. Ginshiro, who is as shrewd as the shrewdest of the older generation of dyed-in-the-wool Osaka businessmen, steps into picture and Shikiko soon feels that he is indispensable to her. But the advent of a man in their midst breaks up the harmony that has existed among the four women, as gradually he forces himself on them with promises of love.

A dead beauty is found in the trunk. Kubota (Miaki), Okayama (Kawazu) and Tsuji (Funakoshi) begin investigating this mysterious crime at the investigation headquarters. Since the cause of death was poison gas, he asked Yusaku Tominaga (Tsukigata), a now retired drug crime specialist, to cooperate. Kubota and his friends soon find the house of the murdered beauty and upon entering, they are surprised to find another corpse, this time of a man…

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Set in Tsukuda Island, Tokyo, this drama SP depicts a misunderstanding between an old man with old-fashioned spirit and a young tenant.

Yumiko, the president's daughter, meets a suspicious woman after her wedding ceremony with Tamio.

1962 Japanese movie

The intense selfishness of a man brings him fame and fortune but not happiness.

Two brothers run a factory canning crabs. The elder brother Kotaro is righteous and insists on honesty. The younger brother is fixated on money. They are polar opposites. When a boat sails out looking for crab and does not return one day the brothers begin to argue over how to run their facility. They had just received a large order from a foreign country and had obtained a loan from a lender that needed to be repaid.

1962 Japanese movie

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Directed by Senkichi Taniguchi

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The middle of the Meiji period. Tororo Goro, a Nanjing expedition hit the first time to join the white thread at the water entertainer waterfall, thought that he would go to the Kanazawa in the first place of the year and try to interrupt the white thread. Tororo Goro troupe crossed the Yabe gawa River and tried to borrow a carriage at a carriage company on the other side of the river, but he was forced by Jinya murakoshi, a charter, and started with jinrikisha without stopping.

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The movie depicts the youth of kamikaze pilots who scattered young lives in the sky.

Film directed by Eichi Koishi and starring Wakao Ayako

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Soichi Ataka is the eldest son of Ataka family. Although mentally challenged, he's a person with a gentle heart. Soichi's wife, Kuniko is devoted to her husband and together the couple runs the family farm. Their happy family life comes to an abrupt halt when Soichi's half-brother, Joji returns with his wife Masako after failing in a business.

Sweat (1929) is a slapstick riff on tendency-film themes, as a bored young millionaire has his clothes stolen by a tramp; dressed in the tramp’s clothes, he has to accept work as a labourer. As the hero ends up building the mausoleum he had himself commissioned.

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Tomotaka Tasaka's A Pebble by the Wayside (Robo no Ishi), made in 1938 and taken from a Yuzo Yamamoto novel, takes place around 1902, was about a young boy brought up entirely by his mother since his drunken father is never home. An intelligent teacher wants to send him to middle school, but instead the father apprentices him to a clothing store to which he is in debt. The mother dies and the boy is forced to quit work when his father insults the store owner. Later the boy goes to Tokyo, but only to continue his hardships. First he is forced to do a maid's job at a boarding house and later is used by an old woman to steal at funerals. Finally he is rescued by the teacher, whom he meets in Tokyo.

A bright and cheerful story about a young girl who comes to Tokyo from the countryside, relying on her aunt to become a maid, and willingly aspires to become a maid and lives a healthy life despite the hardships she encounters with people from all walks of life. Ririko Tachibana moved to Tokyo in reliance on her aunt Motoko, who lives in Tokyo. When Ririko leaves her classmate Chizuko Misawa, who says she is going to rely on jazz singer Michi Nozoe, and arrives at her aunt's house, she is disappointed to find that a job has been arranged for her as a nanny. Her dream of attending night high school was dashed, but Ririko made up her mind to do her best to do as much as she could. The Honbashi family, where she was employed, lived alone with the widow Shinae, and Mrs Shinae was asked to go to her daughters' house to help out...

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Keiko, Kirie, and Toshi, a trio of close friends, go their separate ways after graduation, vowing to hold a “New Wives’ Meeting” once they are all married.

Shunji Mitamura's wife died very early and left him a young son. Shunji's sister Hideko decided to fulfill her sisterly duty and moved to the main character to take care of the boy and the house. Time passes and Shunji marries Mieko Takamine. But since her father is often ill, she spends a lot of time in his dental clinic to do his work.

A story of aristocratic star-crossed love.

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Father, son Kentaro and daughter Ochiyo, who live on the banks of the Sumida River, regain their love for each other after family discord and separation. The film is considered lost.

1947 Japanese movie

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The first time that up-and-coming architect Yuji Muraoka (Yujiro Ishihara) met Natsuko (Ruriko Asaoka) was at a contemporary art exhibition at the Ueno Museum of Art. At the time, he didn't feel anything special about her, other than being impressed that she was the younger sister of the respected Nonomura-san. Later, at Nonomura's birthday party, some people who were jealous of Yuji's talent tried to embarrass him by forcing him to perform a hidden talent show, and Natsuko quickly came to his rescue. This incident caused the two of them to become much closer...

A young woman seduced by a rich man, takes revenge on him with the help of a young idealistic worker. Considered a lost film.

A young woman decides to leave school in order to help her sister.

Even a peaceful married life has its dissatisfactions. Then a female reporter appears, and love takes a complicated turn!

Yukiko Shiba, a doctor, and Akira Sakai, a composer and musician, are lovers. Their love is a forbidden one. He is married, with children. She is a doctor with a bright career ahead of her.

A twice-remade ironic comedy about a writer's encounter with a female thief.

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Engineer Shuichi defies his wealthy family to live with bar hostess Kazuyo, whose loyalty to her struggling family complicates their love. As class, pride, and temptation test them, true affection proves stronger than circumstance.