Known for Acting
Tanie Kitabayashi (北林谷栄, Kitabayashi Tanie, May 21, 1911 – April 27, 2010) was a Japanese actress and voice actress. Born Reiko Ando in Tokyo, she began as a stage actress. Early in her career, she became well known for portraying older women. Kitabayashi was a founding member of the famed Mingei Theatre, founded in 1950. In 1960, she won best actress awards at the 10th Blue Ribbon Awards and at the Mainichi Film Awards for Kiku to Isamu. She also won the Japan Academy Prize for best actress in Rainbow Kids (1991), a film that also earned her honors from the Mainichi Film Awards and from Kinema Junpo. She died on April 27, 2010, of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. She was 98.
Born
May 21, 1911
Died
April 27, 2010 (age 98)
Birthplace
Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
167 films, 2 shows


Yomigaeri
2003 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
When dead people starts returning to the small Japanese town of Aso, government official Kawada is dispatched to uncover the “truth”.


Letter from the Mountain
2002 · 2h 8m
country: Japan
Husband and wife Michiko and Takao move from their urban existence in Tokyo to the isolated, rural farming village where Takao grew up.


Rainbow Kids
1991 · 2h
country: Japan
A wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three. She is insulted by the amount of money they propose to demand as ransom, and a strange interchange of roles takes place.


Rikyu
1989 · 2h 15m
country: Japan
Late in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan’s most powerful warlord, unifying the country.


My Neighbor Totoro
1988 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.


Yamada Village Waltz
1988 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
In Yamada Village, which is suffering from a serious shortage of wives due to the wave of depopulation, four young men from the village decide to go on an arranged marriage. However, they are rejected by the other women because of Yamada Village's too rural character. Then, a beautiful young writer, Ayakoji Reika, who has fallen into a slump, comes to Yamada Village in search of the countryside...


Twilight of the Cockroaches
1987 · 1h 45m
country: Japan
The cockroaches of Saito's apartment live in peace with their human host, who gives them lots of space to breed and plenty of leftovers to munch on. In the midst of these high living times, Naomi and Ichiro plan to get married and start a family. But when a hard-bitten stranger roach named Hans appears with news of war with the humans across the lawn, it foretells disruption-not only of Naomi and Ichiro's relationship, but of the hive's entire way of life.


The Burmese Harp
1985 · 2h 13m
country: Japan
In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.


Love: Starting on a Journey
1985 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
A girl suffering from an incurable disease get in a coma, while her boyfriend visit her to the hospital, she visits the beyond.
Haze of Love
Haze of Love
1985 · 1h 47m
country: Japan
Rumiko Arai, a 20-year-old girl working in a sawmill, meets a driver, Sekiguchi, and they begin a relationship with the promise of marriage. But Rumiko's grandmother tells her that they are both cursed by an ancient evil.


Dangerous Women
1985 · 2h 2m
country: Japan
Shuhei, a mystery writer, is invited to a dinner party at a country house. The guests include Tanase and his wife Noriko. Next day, Tanase is shot and Noriko with a gun stands near him. Tanase calls one of the guest's name and dies.


White Snake Enchantment
1983 · 1h 58m
country: Japan
Uta married a priest who saved her when she tried to commit suicide at a waterfall. The love triangle between a lustful priest, his second wife and his son Masao.


Our Teacher
1983 · 1h 43m
country: Japan
Japanese film.


Tora-san's Song of Love
1983 · 1h 41m
country: Japan
Tora-san returns to his family home to learn that his brother-in-law cannot go to Mitsuo's (Tora-san's nephew) athletic event. Tora-san volunteers to take his place, but gets into an argument with his brother-in-law's boss and returns to the road. He meets a young woman in Niigata who, unbeknownst to him, is a popular enka singer.


Amagi Pass
1983 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
Japan in the 1940s. A high school boy went into a magic encounter with Ozuka Hana, a geisha (pub-girl) when he traveled through Amagi Pass. A mysterious murder took place afterwards, an Ozuka was held responsible. 40 years later, the boy, who became a printing shop owner, was visited by a retired policeman who came from Amagi Pass. The truth then started to reveal itself.


The Legend of Sayo
1982 · 1h 48m
country: Japan
Sayo has just celebrated her sixteenth birthday when she attends a temple festival. On her way back she sees a large cherry tree which is infamous for the legend of dead white horse. When her fiancé returns from war and visits her he comes across a white horse which he takes in. The man also does not see himself engaged anymore as his family has lost its wealth.


Suspicion
1982 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving unhurt is his second wife, Kumako. It soon comes to light that Kumako’s husband was insured for 300 million yen and she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband for the insurance money. The newspapers denounce her as an evil woman, while the public is in no doubt about Kumako’s crime. Ritsuko Sahara is chosen as her defence attorney but the pair clash over almost everything...


Station
1981 · 2h 12m
country: Japan
A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.


Call from Darkness
1981 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
Keiko Inagawa pays a visit to neurologist Aizawa about her fiancé Tatsuo Tamura. A mysterious case involving the disappearance of Tatsuo’s three brothers, one after the other, is yet to be resolved and now Tatsuo, seized with the idea that he too may disappear, has had a nervous breakdown. Aizawa suggests that Tatsuo recount his dreams as a means of solving the mystery, since human beings have an instinct that foretells the near future in the form of a dream. Keiko and Tatsuo eventually discover that the three disappearances have a strange connection…


Kanebo Human Special: Pediatric Ward - Her devoted love saved Taro's soul
1980 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
Hatsuko, a nurse who was put in charge of Room Zero in the pediatric ward, couldn't believe her eyes when she entered the room. There she found a boy named Tarou, 1 year and 4 months old, a lump of flesh with no human shape whatsoever. Hatsuko was so shocked that she even wanted to quit the hospital, but as she worked hard to nurse Tarou, who had never even been held by his own mother, she began to feel affection for him. Original work: "Pediatric Ward" by Egawa Haru


Writhing Tongue
1980 · 1h 54m
country: Japan
Masako, a five-year-old girl living, gets a scratch on her finger. After that, she suffered horrible spasms. The doctor checks on her and arrives at the conclusion that she has tetanus. Her parents have to bear the sufferings of their child. The once peaceful family has changed completely.


Gassan
1979 · 1h 43m
country: Japan
Akira leaves for the Mt. Gassan foothills before winter's onset, visiting the local temple and interacting with the residents all while falling for fair Fumiko.


The Three Undelivered Letters
1979 · 2h 10m
country: Japan
A young Japanese-American man arrives at his grandmother's old hometown in Yamaguchi, begins to stay at her family's elite but dysfunctional household, and gets entangled in a sinister plot of murder.


Nomugi Pass
1979 · 2h 34m
country: Japan
The story of the silk industry and the young girls who worked as silk spinners in the early 1900s in Japan. The silk mills were located in Okaya which lies just beyond the Nomugi Pass. The women and girls worked in a hot, humid atmosphere without rest, and endured those conditions and sexual harassment to earn money for their poor families. Across the ocean, it was the great depression in America.


Never Give Up
1978 · 2h 23m
country: Japan
Special forces officer Ajisawa leaves his paramilitary group to take care of his newly-adopted daughter, Yoriko: the sole survival of a bloodbath for which he is responsible. Years later, Ajisawa is forced to return to the scene of the tragedy for his new job as a claims adjuster where he is subsequently arrested for his suspected involvement. But the threat of jail time is the least of his worries as his former organization comes gunning for him.


The Incident
1978 · 2h 18m
country: Japan
The body of Sakai Hatsuko, a woman of 23 who has been slain with a knife, has been found in a forest. Some days later, Ueda Hiroshi, a 19-year-old shipyard worker, is arrested and charged with the murder. At Ueda's trial, a complex story unfolds.


Proof of the Man
1977 · 2h 12m
country: Japan
When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.


The Wild Daisy
1977 · 1h 15m
country: Japan
Teenage cousins Masao and Tamiko fall in love when she comes to his riverside brewery house to take care of his sickly mother. Family objections ensue as Tamiko is older than Masao, and the two cannot marry in peace.


The Possessed
1976 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Oshima, a rich girl married Shinzo, and her cousin girl Sawa has been jealous of Oshima deeply. Sawa cursed Oshima so Shinzo could not hold her and do anything at all. Shinzo hated Oshima, and he made love with Sawa.


The Sea of Eden
1976 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Nanjo, a new teacher at a girls' high school, unwittingly becomes the object of gossip when he buys underwear for Shimizu and spends his vacation with a female teacher. It turns out that Nanjo and Shimizu have fallen in love.


Kobayashi Takiji
1974 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
A tribute to proletarian author Takiji Kobayashi (1903-1933)


Musume-tachi wa kaze ni mukatte
1972 · 1h 51m
country: Japan


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.


My Voiceless Friends
1972 · 1h 45m
country: Japan
A man who survived the war carries the will of his comrades in arms, walking across the country visiting the bereaved families.


Umarekawatta Tamegorō
1972 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
A drifting gambler named Tamegorō befriends a weary salesman and helps connect him with a nightclub hostess whose father has just been released from prison. In a rapidly industrializing coastal town dominated by yakuza influence, Tamegorō becomes entangled in gang conflicts and the exploitation of local workers. As he grows attached to the struggling people around him, the carefree drifter finds himself driven toward an act of rebellion against the corrupt underworld controlling the city.


Price of Life
1971 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
Comedy of a phony doctor.


Mysterious Thirteen Nights: Chapter 3 - The Mysterious Haunted Mansion
1971 · 47m
country: Japan
Third film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.


Patience Has An End
1971 · 1h 50m
country: Japan
Young coal miner Takeda leaves Kyushu in search of a better job in Tokyo, only to fall into the lucrative yet dangerous life of a yakuza.


A Woman Called En
1971 · 2h 3m
country: Japan
Set at the end of the feudal period. A woman spends most of her early life in prison, incarcerated by political opponents of her father. When she is released at the age of 44, the power struggles of her clan continue to disturb her life and the man whom she loves.


Pure Land, Poisoned Sea
1970 · 49m
country: Japan
In this program based on the book of the same name by Ishimure Michiko, Kitabayashi Tanie plays “Goze,” a blind wandering performer who drifts around the stricken region of Minamata in the wake of methylmercury contamination.


The Little Hero
1970 · 1h 29m
country: Japan
A five year old boy leaves his mother and grandparents to see his father who has gone to work in Osaka.


Oh, My Comrade!
1970 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
Fukuzo, Kato and Matsuko, Kato's wife, are operating the "Kurenai Sightseeing Service" in Tokyo. Fukuzo and Kato were comrades during the war. One day Fukuzo guides Harumi, an old woman, to the Yasukuni Shrine where the souls of fallen soldiers are enshrined. Finding she has no place to go, Fukuzo carries her to his shack by the sea.


Terror in the Streets
1970 · 1h 16m
country: Japan
Yuri Ebara is inexplicably laid off, abandoned by her closest friend, and is suddenly asked to move out of her apartment. As she nears rock bottom, she begins to suspect someone is out to drive her insane, or worse.


River Without a Bridge Part 2
1970 · 2h 20m
country: Japan
Second part to "River Without a Bridge" (1969)


Apart from Life
1970 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
A film set in Nagasaki examining prejudice against atom bomb victims.


Heat Wave Island
1969 · 1h 44m
country: Japan
Nobuko Otowa plays a former Seto Inland Sea island farmer who has moved to the mainland in order to find work, but instead ends up dead. The film begins with the discovery of her corpse, which leads to an investigation that uncovers the narcotics, prostitution, and murder in which many poor farmers had found themselves trapped after World War II.


Thousand Cranes
1969 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasunari.


River Without a Bridge
1969 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
Brothers Koji and Seitaro Hatana, belong to the "outcast" caste. Despite their personal qualities—intelligence and fairness—they encounter numerous obstacles due to their caste affiliation. Together with other "outcasts," the brothers take up the fight for their human rights.


The Human Bullet
1968 · 1h 56m
country: Japan
A soldier has been in the Japanese military for the entirety of WWII, and in that time, his dedication to the army has never faltered. However, as the war draws to a close, his commanding officers become increasingly desperate and push their men to ever more absurd extremes. The ridiculousness of the orders from above peak when the hero of the story is assigned to drive a one-man submarine straight into the hull of an enemy battleship.


The Final Winner?
1968 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
In a high school, two men are fighting over a beautiful female teacher who has been assigned as an English teacher.


The Sands of Kurobe
1968 · 3h 16m
country: Japan
Kitagawa is an engineer charged with construction of a gigantic tunnel through the Japan Alps for the transportation of equipment in the building of the massive Kurobe Dam. The tunnel crosses an earthquake fault and Kitagawa is beleaguered not only by cave-ins and flooding, but by strife between management and the workers's union. Adding to Kitagawa's stress is the knowledge that as his attention is pulled inexorably toward the tunnel construction, his youngest daughter is dying from leukemia.


Slave Factory
1968 · 2h 23m
country: Japan
After the death of a colleague, the workers at a factory form a labor union.


The Last Lady
1967 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Based on Haruko Ōta's memoir.


The Greatest Challenge of All
1967 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
After an argument with his father a son leaves his home and comes back only, as an adult, many years later just to cause them problem after problem.


Song of Love
1967 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
The life in a small village in Shikoku and the love story between two young people.


Journey to the North
1967 · 1h 24m
country: Japan
Winter holidays at the university. Eikichi visits a city in the north of the country, the hometown of Yuko, a classmate for whom he has feelings. However, Yuko, having returned home, has just become engaged to a local young man, and the sudden appearance of Eikichi makes others worry that their good relationship will be spoiled. An epic about pure love, which tells the story of a man who leaves his beloved woman, praying for her happiness. Adapted from the novel "Kiri no Naka no Shojo" Yojiro Ishizaka.


Wrath of Daimajin
1966 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
In a mountainous region of Japan, Lord Arakawa kidnaps the men of nearby villages to use as slave labor, producing gunpowder from his sulfur pits. A band of young boys decide to rescue their enslaved fathers on their own.
A Windmill, Tulips and Love
A Windmill, Tulips and Love
1966 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
Young Mariko is torn between two admirers, Natsukawa and Rikizo.


She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum
1966 · 1h 29m
country: Japan


Trigger Happy Romeo
1965 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
Fifth film in the "Inu" series.


Blood and Sea
1965 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
The Nami family lives in a quiet fishing village at the tip of the Shima Peninsula overlooking Ago Bay. The family of four consists of her grandmother, Tom, who is in her sixties, her mother, Kura, and older sister, Saki, all women. Toma, despite her advanced age, is still the best diver in the village, Nami has grown up to be an excellent diver too. However, her older sister Saki was born with a mental disorder and no one in the village wants to do business with her. Nami, on the other hand, is very popular among the boys of the village, she is healthy and beautiful. The fisherman Shosaku is crazy about Nami, and day and night he asks her on dates. However, Nami has a crush on her cousin Yuji, who works for the fishermen's union, and casually rejects Shosaku's advances.


A Chain of Islands
1965 · 1h 56m
country: Japan
When a US army sergeant is found drowned in Tokyo Bay, an investigation is launched to determine how and why he lost his life. The investigation uncovers a black market scheme involving counterfeit money, murder, and conspiracy.


Tale of Japanese Burglars
1965 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
Gisuke Hayashida is an illegal dentist during the day and a burglar by night. One night during a burglary he witnesses a train derailment. Some communists are found guilty of causing the incident, but he knows it wasn't them. He can save innocent people but for that he must confess his own crime.


The Start of Life
1965 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
A young girl in an industrial town is saving her money to enter college. But her drunken father loses his job, her mother cannot make ends meet, and then the boy she likes loses everything when his factory fails. She takes all her savings out of the bank and offers them to him to make a new start. He refuses at first but eventually agrees and so she goes back to school to tell her teacher that she has decided not to continue college, that she is young and strong, and can make her own way in life.


Ane to imôto
1965 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
A drama centered on women, adapted from the novel of the same name by Ineko Sata.


Gazing at Love and Death
1964 · 1h 58m
country: Japan
A young girl knows that she is going to die and in this she is supported by the devotion of the boy who loves her. They originally met at the hospital. There it transpired that the only way to save her life was to sacrifice an eye and part of her face. The operation seems a success. Later, however, her other eye becomes affected. She feels she must let the boy go, and yet she depends so much upon his devotion.


Intentions of Murder
1964 · 2h 30m
country: Japan
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.


A Story from Echigo
1964 · 1h 52m
country: Japan
A sake factory worker on holiday returns to his home town, where he rapes the wife of one of his co-workers in the forest. The other man returns home to find his wife changed and suspects that she has been unfaithful.


The Long Death
1964 · 1h 49m
country: Japan
On January 26, 1948, a robbery of the Teigin bank took place in Tokyo - the criminal poisoned the bank employees and fled the scene with a large amount of money. In parallel with the investigation conducted by the Japanese police, journalists are also trying to find the culprit. Based on a true incident.


Only on Mondays
1964 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Yuka is a “good-time girl” from Yokohama who is persuaded by her papa to sleep with a foreign business executive so that he can close an important deal. Nakahira presents a shrewdly observed portrait of a modern, sexually assertive woman—an unsettling character for a changing but still patriarchal society.


Welcome, My Baby
1964 · 1h 16m
country: Japan
Two friends, both members of a Japanese cargo boat, return to Japan after a three-month voyage and have just 24 hours shore leave. In those hectic hours, they vie for the affections of a hotel owner's daughter but wind up with separate girl friends and attempt to bring together the parents of a baby who have separated.


Daybreak Chorus
1963 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
In a small town, Tomoko, a new bus conductor, works hard to prove herself. She crosses paths with Saburō, the company president’s playful younger brother, who slowly reveals a more sincere side.


The Insect Woman
1963 · 2h 3m
country: Japan
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.


The Third Will
1963 · 1h 51m
country: Japan
AKA Family of Women. A story about a wealthy family and the greed and selfishness of three daughters and relatives, after the passing of their old father.


Bad Girl
1963 · 1h 54m
country: Japan
Wakae is a 15 year old girl who lived under the same roof with her alcoholic father and stepmom. Her mother had died years ago. She spends her nights at a rundown bar, sharing drinks and cigarettes with the lowlife drunks. She has nowhere to turn and no one to talk to, until she is reunited with her childhood friend, Saburo, who brings warmth to her heart.


All My Children
1963 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.


Beyond the Green Hills
1963 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was against school regulations, Shinko was the first to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit. Expelled from her former school, she finds herself in an all-girls school in Jokamachi, where rumors fly. One day, Shinko delivers an anonymous love letter addressed to her English teacher, Ms. Shimazaki. Convinced that the students are playing a prank, Ms. Shimazaki is adamant about getting to the bottom of this "problem”.


Children of Izu
1962 · 1h 41m
country: Japan


Ashita au hito
1962 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
1962 Japanese movie


Asu no hanayome
1962 · 1h 17m
country: Japan
1962 Japanese movie


The Young and Bad
1962 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Not too long ago, Soichiro was considered one of the most powerful men in business. But his business had failed, his granddaughter had committed suicide. There was nothing in his life anymore that he could look forward to. Sochiro was ready to put an to it end to all. As he drives down the Usui Pass, headed toward his summer house in Karuizawa, a girl in red heels, wearing nothing else but a coat jumps in front of the car.


Red Bud and White Flower
1962 · 1h 20m
country: Japan
A high school boy and girl in the midst of their youth try to get their parents to remarry.


Foundry Town
1962 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.


Dolls floating down the river
1962 · 1h 17m
country: Japan
A touching story of pure love and tears between a boy and a girl, drawn by the innocent duo of Chieko Baisho and Shinichiro Mikami, based on "Nagashi bina", which absorbed the customs of the Tottori region.


Ningen Gari
1962 · 1h 29m
country: Japan
A detective sets out on a manhunt to catch a murderer before the crime's statue of limitations runs out.


Nippon no obaachan
1962 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast about their loving sons but in reality, one had just escaped a retirement home and the other was looking for an escape from her son and daughter-in-law. With nowhere to go, the two wander around, befriending a cosmetics salesman and a kind waitress who give them beer. This biting social satire starring two memorable grandmothers, scripted by Yôko Mizuki, picked up on Japan’s aging population problem far ahead of its time.


Buddha
1961 · 2h 37m
country: Japan
An Indian prince leaves his world of comfort and riches behind to wander and meditate for six years in search of spiritual enlightenment. Siddartha (Cojoin Hong) turns his back on the old religion when people are starving needlessly and holy rituals include human sacrifices. During his meditations, he is tempted by erotic dancing women, demons, and the evil machinations of his criminal cousin. Devastate to attain the spiritual perfection and become the Buddha. He travels to convert followers by his kindness and wisdom, gaining a multitude of believers when he stops an elephant from crushing a local priest. Buddha of course goes on to become one of the great religious leaders of the world.


A Good Man, A Good Day
1961 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.
Enraptured
Enraptured
1961 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
A promising dancer asks her professor to write a libretto for a Nō play. He then introduces her to a student of classical literature, but also a classical theatre student in the hope that the latter will marry Senya..


The Famous Wanderer
1961 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
小父さんありがとう
小父さんありがとう
1961 · 47m
country: Japan
1961 Japanese movie


Blind Devotion
1961 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
Late romance by acclaimed filmmaker Kinugasa Teinosuke.


Shokei zen'ya
1961 · 1h 41m
country: Japan
1961 Japanese movie


Marriageable Age
1961 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
The three Matsunami sisters navigate adulthood and the complex social pressures of finding a husband while living under their traditional father’s roof. As they balance their personal desires against the family's obsession with status, their search for "marriageable age" stability is complicated by secret affairs and the cold reality of arranged matches. They must ultimately decide whether to conform to the rigid expectations of their upper-class upbringing or break away to pursue their own independence.


Yakuza sensei
1960
country: Japan


The Sun's Burial
1960 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.


Bonchi
1960 · 1h 45m
country: Japan
Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give them an heiress for the family business, he stands by helplessly as his wife is thrown out of the house for producing a son. Driven to a life of dissipation - his mistresses also fail to produce daughters - in the end he is just too tired to care.


The Grave Tells All
1960 · 1h 24m
country: Japan
Yamazaki Ryotaro is an Olympics' athlete and an asset. He accepts two jobs and responsibilities that are thrust upon him. One involves a a painting and an advertising poster. The other is about coaching the hockey team. Simultaneously, however, he is head over heels for three gals, one is a hairdresser, one is a fashion model and of course the third is part of the cheering squad for the hockey team.


My Second Brother
1959 · 1h 41m
country: Japan
The film tells the story of four orphans living in an impoverished mining town. An adaptation of a best-selling book based on the diary of a ten-year-old zainichi (ethnic Korean Japanese) girl, it was one of the first films to deal with the subject of zainichi identity and struggles in Japan.


The Human Wall
1959 · 2h 26m
country: Japan
Drama which shows the struggle of Fumiko, a female teacher, at work and at home.


Odd Obsession
1959 · 1h 47m
country: Japan
A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introduction of his daughter's lover to his wife.


Paper Pigeon
1959 · 1h 32m
country: Japan


Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan
1959 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
Kiku and her brother Isamu are social outcasts, children of a prostitute mother and black GI father, in postwar Japan.


Musume no boken
1958 · 1h 47m
country: Japan


Conflagration
1958 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.


Stakeout
1958 · 1h 56m
country: Japan
Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.


Chance Meeting
1958 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Aya successfully stages a fashion show in Osaka and in the train on her way home to Tokyo accidentally treads on a man's foot. The man whose name is Rentaro is not amused. Just afterwards she notices that he is reading a magazine which carries her picture which he crushes and throws under his seat. One of her customers in Tokyo is a pretty girl named Kana for whom she had designed a dress which at first seems quite satisfactory. But a few days later Kana brings it back. It seems her brother thinks it terrible. But when Kana brings the dress back she meets Aya's brother, Takeshi, with whom she becomes friendly and Takeshi gives her a new dress which he smuggles out of his sister's office. When Aya finds Kana's discarded dress and misses one belonging to another customer she goes to see Kana's brother, and to her surprise finds him to be the fellow whose foot she'd stepped upon in the train...
Omoni to shounen
Omoni to shounen
1958
country: Japan


But the Flesh is Weak
1957 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
A woman who grew up in a prestigious household, begins to have an affair outside the marriage.


Hole in One
1957 · 1h 43m
country: Japan
A female reporter is fired for writing about police corruption; to make money while hiding from the press, she posts a bounty upon herself.


Actress
1956 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.


Saigo no sentō-ki
1956 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
The first postwar war movie depicting the tragedy of a special force that shook the world at the end of the Pacific War, with thrill and speed


Summer Storm
1956 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
A woman falls in love with her sister's fiancé.


The Shadow of Fear
1956 · 1h 8m
country: Japan
In the backstreets of Ginza, the boss of a hairdressing salon is found dead, killed by strangulation. The detective on the case soon hears rumors about the murder.
How Sorrowful
How Sorrowful
1956 · 1h 48m
country: Japan
The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when her parents accuse him of cashing in on her misfortune.


Our Town
1956 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
In 1906, after finishing a tough migrant job in the Philippines, Takichi has returned to Japan. He starts to work as a rickshaw driver, but his lover had died of an illness, leaving a baby girl, Hatsue. Hatsue grows up beautifully and falls in love with Shintaro. But Takichi objects to their relationship...


Hana no unga
1956 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Film by Buichi Saitô


Shiawase wa doko ni
1956 · 1h 20m
country: Japan


Darkness at Noon
1956 · 2h 2m
country: Japan
Police beat a murder confession out of four innocent men who are then sentenced to death. Based on a true story.


Jigoku no hatoba
1956 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
A battle for a large sum of money unfolds on the docks near a steel mill in a foggy atmosphere. Manzo, an engineer on the verge of retirement, witnesses two men shooting each other and collapsing on the quay while his assistant Shinsuke is away.


Love is Lost
1956 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.


The Burmese Harp
1956 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a POW.
The Motherless
The Motherless
1955 · 1h 29m
country: Japan
Japanese drama film.


Policeman's Diary, Part 2
1955 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
From runaway brides to a typhoon, the continued adventures of Ushikata police station.


Youth
1955 · 1h 28m
country: Japan


The Dawn of Judo
1955 · 1h 42m
country: Japan


A Hole of My Own Making
1955 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
Nobuko is a widow who lives with her stepchild Tamiko and her brother Junjiro. The family's gatekeeper, Komatsu, is attracted to Tamiko, but she is encouraged to marry a doctor and he is afraid to tell her his feelings.


The Heart
1955 · 2h
country: Japan
In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past.


The Wolves
1955 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
A group of five rookie insurance salespersons, driven to desperation by the impossibility of their work in Japan's failing postwar economy, form a plan to rob a cash delivery truck in order to provide for their families.


The Maid's Kid
1955 · 2h 23m
country: Japan
In order to pay back Mrs. Kajiki for her good deed in the past, Hatsu moves from her village in Akita to Tokyo to start working as a maid for her family. She grows close to their youngest son Katsumi, experiencing things that will change her view on life.


Inhibited Love
1955 · 1h 24m
country: Japan
Chieko Izumi is a reporter for the magazine "Weekly Japanese Women". She had come to Tokyo to stay with her aunt in order to escape her stubborn grandmother in her hometown in Kyushu, who was trying to force her to marry Komori, the local ringleader.


Ghost Story of Youth
1955 · 1h 54m
country: Japan
A melodrama of the ups and downs of youth, based on Bunroku Shishi’s popular novel. Chiharu, a ballerina, and Shinichi, a thorough rationalist and childhood friend. A woman named Tomi Funakoshi appears in front of the two, who are thinking of getting married someday.


Sisters
1955 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Keiko and Toshiko are sisters who leave their mountain home, where their parents live in a hydroelectric plant company house to study in the city. They stay with their kind-hearted aunt and her jovial but heavy-drinking carpenter husband. Keiko, the 17-year-old eldest of five siblings, is gentle and responsible, while 14-year-old Toshiko is lively and childlike, affectionately called "Konchi."


Dawn Chorus
1955 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
An innocent bus girl who gave up on getting into a women’s college and is now filled with new hope and the cheerful, slightly flirtatious young man who loves her, inside the car on a stormy night...


A Girl Who Delivers Happiness
1955 · 1h 35m
country: Japan


Victory or Defeat
1954 · 1h 31m
country: Japan


A Billionaire
1954 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.


The Valley Between Love and Death
1954 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
A great ambition to portray with sharp satire and humor the course of modern anxiety and love that is about to be driven to despair.


The Street Without Sun
1954 · 2h 20m
country: Japan
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.


Tomoshibi
1954 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Students in a small rural school love their poor but unconventional teacher Mr. Matsukuma, although he is misunderstood by most of the villagers and is forced to leave. After his departure there is great depression, but there is a chance to rekindle the lantern of the title and the values Matsukuma represented ...


Shinzōyaburi no oka
1954 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
A moving story depicting the spirit of a young marathon runner who set a new world record in Boston, encouraged by the love of his family, a young woman’s prayers, and warm friendship.


Jūdai no yūwaku
1953 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Film directed by Seiji Hisamatsu and starring Wakao Ayako


Outlaw
1953 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
A young engineer and a pure-hearted mountain girl take on the challenges of the Akan primeval forest, where lawlessness and violence run rampant.


Before the Dawn
1953 · 2h 22m
country: Japan


A Japanese Tragedy
1953 · 1h 56m
country: Japan
At the close of the war in Japan, a widowed mother makes every possible sacrifice to bring up her ungrateful son and daughter who are unimpressed with their poor standard of living at home. They gradually reject her in search of the material comforts that working as a maid cannot provide. The mother's despair becomes interminable.


Desire
1953 · 1h 56m
country: Japan


Miniature
1953 · 2h 11m
country: Japan
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.


A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
1953 · 2h 44m
country: Japan
Onna Hitori Daichi wo Yuku (A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land, Kinuta Production, 1953) was the second feature film directed by Kamei Fumio, who is known as a master of documentary films, and followed his “Haha Nareba Onna Nareba(Become a Mother, Become a Woman)” (1952).


Jinsei Gekijo: dai ni bu
1953 · 1h 52m
country: Japan
Part two of Shin Saburi's Theater of Life adaptation.


Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu
1952 · 1h 18m
country: Japan
Part one of Shin Saburi's Theater of Life adaptation.
Haha no nai ko to ko no nai haha to
Haha no nai ko to ko no nai haha to
1952 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
Japanese film.


Muntinlupa no yo wa fukete
1952 · 1h 22m
country: Japan


Beauty and the Thief
1952 · 1h 20m
country: Japan
The picture belongs to the jidai gekki (historic) genre. It is a powerful story of violence and eroticism, picturing a world at once sordid and poetic, with two central themes which intermingle to compound an admirable panel of a critical period in Japanese history: the great famine in the mid 19th Century.


Children of Hiroshima
1952 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath.


Farewell to Spring
1952 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Bittersweet shomin-geki drama by Keigo Kimura


Become a Mother, Become a Woman
1952 · 1h 40m
country: Japan


The Bitch
1951 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer.


限りなき情熱
1951 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Is it the sin of a woman's heart that casts ripples unexpectedly among peaceful people? In the bustling streets of dazzling colors, where revelry abounds, a tale of love and chivalry blossoms into a beautiful flower of emotion.


男の哀愁
1951 · 1h 27m
country: Japan


Koibito
1951 · 1h 11m
country: Japan


The Scarlet Bat
1950 · 1h 31m
country: Japan
A bizarre duel on a snowy night with a woman at stake, a sudden and brazen murder, and a thrilling chase of love and passion.


Les Miserables II: Banner of Love and Freedom
1950 · 2h 2m
country: Japan


Les Miserables I: God and the Devil
1950 · 1h 52m
country: Japan


White Beast
1950 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Keiko Yukawa is a former prostitute and the newest inmate at White Lily, a female rehabilitation facility.


Scandal
1950 · 1h 44m
country: Japan
A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.


Koga Manshion
1949 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Kazuo Hasegawa's debut at Daiei.


Learn from Experience, Part Two
1937 · 1h 19m
country: Japan
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.