Known for Lighting
Born
June 7, 1918
Died
February 26, 1983 (age 64)
Birthplace
Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
85 films


Godzilla
1977 · 1h 36m
country: Italy
A re-edited Italian-language dubbed version of the original Godzilla, using as a basis the U.S. version, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956), plus WWII newsreel footage and clips from other science fiction films. The re-edited film was then colorized via a process called "Spectrorama 70" consisting of applying various colored gels to the black and white footage. The film's opening and ending also features new music composed by musicians Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio, and Vince Tempera (under the pseudonym Magnetic System).


The Last Swordsman
1974 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Personal tale of Okita Soji who fights to survive in a world without pity in the merciless era of the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate.


Long Journey into Love
1973 · 2h 48m
country: Japan
A beautifully told story of a woman hardened by marriage to a man she doesn't love, after giving herself to another. She dedicates herself to her work, designing and creating plaited cords for kimono.


Kamishibai Showa History: The Golden Bat is Here
1972 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
The dramatized tale of the 1935 creation of Japan's first superhero, the "Golden Bat", alongside the changes during and after the Second World War, not just to the hero himself, but the art of "kamishibai" picture stories that he originated from.


I Hear the Whistle
1971 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
Tells of the feelings and sufferings of a young girl with an incurable paralytic disease.


300 Million Yen Mission
1971 · 1h 27m
country: Japan


Too Young to Die
1969 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
A young couple, composed of a cheating wife and a retired car racer, arrive at a drive-in. A man with a gun arrives at the restaurant and takes hostages. Chaos ensues.


Where Love Springs
1968 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
A romantic triangle comprised of two brothers in love with the same woman.


Comic Storyteller — The Great Burglar
1967 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
The fourth and final "Comic Storyteller" feature.


The Daphne
1966 · 1h 46m
country: Japan
Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their long-suffering mother. The mother and her brother try various schemes to find husbands for them.


The Stranger Within a Woman
1966 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
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.


Yearning
1964 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
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.


A Woman's Life
1963 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
A woman remembers her own marriage when dealing with the love life of her son.


The Wiser Age
1962 · 1h 51m
country: Japan
Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.


The End of Summer
1961 · 1h 43m
country: Japan
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.


The Other Woman
1961 · 1h 46m
country: Japan
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.


Yojimbo
1961 · 1h 50m
country: Japan
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.


Happiness of Us Alone
1961 · 2h 9m
country: Japan
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.


The Lovelorn Geisha
1960 · 1h 51m
country: Japan
A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself 'already dead'.


Leader of the Bomb Girls
1959 · 1h 19m
country: Japan


A Whistle in My Heart
1959 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
The story is about the social problems faced by Japan's indigenous Ainu, mostly centered on the reactions of the characters to their oppressed state.
The Spell of the Hidden Gold
The Spell of the Hidden Gold
1958 · 1h 31m
country: Japan
Historical drama about a sleepy-eyed ronin.


Little Peach
1958 · 1h 49m
country: Japan
Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.


Zoku Ôban: Fûun hen
1957 · 2h 1m
country: Japan
Ushinosuke returns broke to his hometown, where everyone believes he's rich and successful. Part two (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi's novel, Oban.


Godzilla, the Monster of the Pacific Ocean
1957 · 1h 32m
country: France
Obscure French version of the original Godzilla. The film combines elements of the original Toho version and the American King of the Monsters! in a unique assemblage exclusive to the Francophone market. Released by Les Films du Verseau.


A Brother and His Sister
1956 · 1h 41m
country: Japan
In a household of three the husband is a salaryman who lives with his younger sister and wife in Tokyo. He is returning home late in the evenings because he plays go, or a Japanese version of chess, with his boss. The wife and sister are unhappy about this. The man's co-worker advises him to stop the late evenings out with the boss, but the man cares less. His sister works at a foreign firm and speaks English. When a man who had earlier visited her workplace returns and asks her out for dinner, she rejects him by lying about a husband. He had made impolite comments about her in English during his earlier visit not realizing she understands him.


A Wife's Heart
1956 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
A young woman tries to raise money to open her own coffee shop. She arranges a loan when her rigid family won't help and then her husband becomes jealous of the loan officer.


Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
1956 · 1h 21m
country: Japan
During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.


Beyond The Stars
1956 · 1h 41m
country: Japan


Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree
1955 · 1h 49m
country: Japan


No Time for Tears
1955 · 1h 49m
country: Japan
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.


Floating Clouds
1955 · 2h 3m
country: Japan
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.


Godzilla
1954 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.


Late Chrysanthemums
1954 · 1h 41m
country: Japan
What is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? Kin has saved, and become a wealthy money-lender, spending her days coldly collecting debts. Even her best friends, fellow Geisha Tomi, Nobu, and Tamae, are now indebted to her. For all of them, the glamour of their young lives has passed; Tomi and Tamae have disappointing children. Kin has two former lovers who still pursue her; one she wants to see, and the other she doesn't. But even the one she remembers fondly, when he shows up, proves less than satisfactory.


Sound of the Mountain
1954 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.


The Lovers
1953 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
Comedy about a 50-something movie director, his new bride, a classical dancer, and his adult son and daughter and their loves.


Mr. Pu
1953 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.


Husband and Wife
1953 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
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.


Forbidden Path
1952 · 1h 53m
country: Japan


Mr. Lucky
1952 · 1h 24m
country: Japan


Nightshade Flower
1951 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
Japanese "kayo" film based on the song "Ieraishan" by Yoshiko Yamaguchi.
Beyond the Hills
Beyond the Hills
1950 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
Adaptation of a novel by Yojiro Ishizaka, originally released in two parts.


Stray Dog
1949 · 2h 2m
country: Japan
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.


Case Files of Zenigata Heiji: Heiji Covers All of Edo
1949 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Police detective Heiji is assigned to catch the masked Maboroshi gang of robbers who have terrorized all of Edo leaving few clues as to who their leader is.


Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two
1945 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must reconcile strength with restraint and the true spirit of his art.