Known for Acting
Born
April 8, 1932 (age 94)
Birthplace
Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Filmography
38 films, 12 shows


Whisper of the Heart
1995 · 1h 51m · JP
Shizuku lives a simple life, dominated by her love for stories and writing. One day she notices that all the library books she has have been previously checked out by the same person: "Seiji Amasawa."


Sea of Wandering
1990 · 2h 8m · JP
Set in Osaka just after the end of the war, the story depicts an unconventional merchant who returns from evacuation. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Teru Miyamoto, and the screenplay was written by Eizo Sugawa, who also wrote "Horagawa". The director is Takeichi Saito, who also directed "Kawachi no Osan no Uta: Yokita no Ware". Kozo Okazaki, who worked on "I am a Cat," is in charge of the cinematography.


Memories of You
1988 · 1h 44m · JP
A mother discovers that her 14-year-old daughter Yumi has leukemia and only six months to live. She decides to keep the information secret and pushes her past tutor Akira, now a university student, to reconnect with her.


Fireflies in the North
1984 · 2h 5m · JP
Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced to forced labor to build the roads needed to open up the territory.


Cold Current
1983 · 1h 49m · JP
Set against the backdrop of a bitter power struggle between the faction of the chairman of the board and the faction of the vice-chairman of the board of a large bank, this business mystery explores the lust, suffering and vindictiveness of one of the branch managers caught in the middle of the struggle. The term “cold current” refers to a current in which those who, once in it, find themselves will never emerge.


Eijanaika
1981 · 2h 31m · JP
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.


Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
1972 · 1h 24m · JP
Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.


The Pirates of Buban
1972 · 46m · JP
By going to the Philippines, Imamura comes to meet people living in an extreme poverty. He discovers very quickly that some communities are under the control of cruel & armed pirates. Imamura will come to meet those men in order to understand their position.


Mysterious Thirteen Nights: Chapter 5 - The Mystery of the Skull Wife
1971 · 1h · JP
Fifth film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.


The Summit of Mt. Fuji
1970 · 2h 5m · JP
The Japanese government decides to install a radar on the top of Mt. Fuji, in order to detect typhoons as far as 800 km south of the Japanese archipelago, but the task will not be easy.


The Falcon Fighters
1969 · 1h 40m · JP
In the prewar days leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937, head flight instructor Lt. Katō Tateo of the Imperial Japanese Army-Air Corps trains new volunteers from the Army's Infantry to become Japan's next generation of fighter pilots at the Tokorozawa Flying School. Flying Kawasaki Ko-4 biplanes, Lt. Katō will train both friend and future foe alike. But as war in China breaks out, Katō now in command of the 5th Rentai will take his untested men flying antiquated planes into aerial combat against the Chinese Air Force who is now headed by Lt. Cho who Katō both earlier befriended and personally trained himself. While Katō's squadron ultimately achieves air superiority over the skies of Manchuria, it comes at a high price in men to which each loss carries a heavy burden that he alone must carry. As the war widens into the Second World War, Captain Katō must battle an ever advancing array of deadlier new enemies flying ever more modern fighter planes.


The Girl I Abandoned
1969 · 1h 56m · JP
Tsutomu Yoshioka, a Tokyo office worker, is engaged to Mariko, the niece of his company's president. But Yoshioka has a crisis of consence when he remembers his former love Mitsu, a rural girl whom he met and later left while in college. Shimako, a former friend, persuades Yoshioka to meet with Mitsu while she plots to blackmail Yoshioka by photographing the meeting to break up Mariko and Yoshioka.


Gateway to Glory
1969 · 2h 1m · JP
A young man leaves his widowed mother on her improverished farm and makes his career in the Japanese navy.


Ruthless Gambler
1969 · 1h 28m · JP
Unlike traditional gangster movies, it is a gangster swashbuckler that mixes romance and humanity with a yakuza lover as the main character. A young man who heard that his former boss was killed is imprisoned by slashing his family's minions, and his lover is tortured by the enemy, but rescued by the imprisoned young man's nemesis.


Broken Swords
1969 · 1h 30m · JP
The tragic, yet exciting story of the friendship between Nakayama Yasubei, a member of the 47 Ronin, and Tange Tenzen, a relative by marriage of the vile Lord Kira.


Kanto Woman Infamy
1969 · 1h 22m · JP


Family Crest: Die Like a Man
1969 · 1h 26m · JP
The story of three brothers who, after loosing their parents in the Great Kanto Earthquake, continued their respective yakuza family business and the revenge of the youngest one when his siblings were killed by a rival vicious yakuza boss. The first in the two part Daimon series.


Two Enemy Women Gamblers
1969 · 1h 23m · JP
Twelfth film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin.


Outlaw: Black Dagger
1968 · 1h 26m · JP
A street war breaks loose between two rival gangs in the Kansai region of Japan. Goro is in the middle of action. Through a knife fight against Sueo, a high profile gangster from Busou-kai, Goro notices a familiar face approaching him from amidst the chaos - his girlfriend, Yuri. Goro had sent her to safety, but she had returned, aching to see him. Caught between Goro and his enemy knife, she reunites with her love - the price was her life.


Scrap Collectors
1968 · 1h 47m · JP
Based on a story by Akiyuki Nosaka.


Trigger-Happy
1968 · 1h 22m · JP
A 72-hour story about a group of rookie police officers and detectives who are candidates for the Mexican Olympic team and are in training camp for shooting competition, as they hunt down a violent criminal.


Where did Sharaku go?
1968 · 53m · JP
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 Man Vanishes
1967 · 2h 10m · JP
A Man Vanishes examines the concept of Johatsu, tackling the phenomenon of people missing in Japan over the years. It picks one such person from the list, someone who had seemed to disappear from the face of the earth due to embezzlement from his company, and the filmmakers begin an investigative documentary into the reasons behind and attempt at tracking him down.


Organized Violence II
1967 · 1h 30m · JP


Scorpion
1967 · 1h 29m · JP
Japanese drama film.


Mesu ga osu o kuikorosu: Kamakiri
1967 · 1h 32m · JP


Band of Ninja
1967 · 2h · JP
The son of an assassinated feudal lord, in the Muromachi period, attempts to avenge his father's death and meets Kagemaru, a renegade ninja helping peasants and farmers rebel against Oda Nobunaga's regime, all depicted through an experimental form of filming pages from the original manga set to sound.


Woman of the Lake
1966 · 1h 42m · JP
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.


Four and A Half Mats
1966 · 1h 30m · JP
Shino, a resilient young woman sold into prostitution must navigate the gritty realities of the red-light district to survive. Within the confines of her small 4½-mat room, she encounters a variety of men, using her wit and body to endure a system designed to exploit her.


A Trap
1965 · 1h 51m · JP
When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan's top lawyer to defend her brother. Unfortunately her naive idealism is shattered when the lawyer refuses to take the case based on her insufficient funds. What follows is a long determined revenge plot that sees the heroine become a Tokyo bar hostess and worse to punish the lawyer. The plot thickens with another murder mystery and a sleuthing reporter.


The Black Cat
1965 · 1h 35m · JP
Helping her mother manage a nightclub, young Emiko quickly realizes how difficult life is.


The Spying Sorceress
1964 · 1h 30m · JP
Second part of the series where sex magic skills of female and Iga ninjas clash over enourmous treasure of the Toyotomi family, discovered in connection with the plot to overthrow the shogunate.


Female Ninja Magic
1964 · 1h 28m · JP
In Osaka during the Edo period, ruler Sanada Yukimura was in losing position, fearing Toyotomi's blood descendents would end, he impregnates one of five Shinano female ninja with the seed of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in hopes of continuing the bloodline. Princess Sen and the five female ninja escape from Osaka castle by blending in with the handmaidens. Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu who was supposed to rule all under the heavens was informed of this secret. So Ieyasu orders five samurai of the Iga Ninja clan (brought by Hattori Hanzo) to stop the Toyotomi bloodline by killing the Kunoichi ninja. An attack of ninja magic arts unfolds in a battle of the sexes.


Intentions of Murder
1964 · 2h 30m · JP
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.


The Insect Woman
1963 · 2h 3m · JP
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.


Obon's Dipping Contest
1961 · 1h 13m · JP
Comedy based on a popular manga.


The Akasaka Sisters: Soft Touch of Night
1960 · 1h 44m · JP
Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.


The Cola Game
1959 · 1h 28m · JP
Explicit drama about a young woman who becomes involved with a group of college students who play "spin-the-bottle" and the women must make love or strip. The woman, Junko, becomes involved with Makoto, leader of the gang, becomes pregnant, has an abortion, then gets involved with an architect.