Known for Camera
Born
January 1, 1938
Died
January 16, 2025 (age 87)
Birthplace
Funabashi, Chiba, Japan
Filmography
31 films


The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai
2022 · 1h 54m
country: Japan
In the turbulent last days of the Edo period, Kawai Tsugunosuke, a Japanese samurai serving the Makino clan of Nagaoka, dreamt of independence from the restraints of vassalship. Despite his progressive views and his desire for his estate to remain neutral during the Boshin Civil War, he was bound by loyalty and duty to the clan and was compelled to choose sides.


A Samurai Chronicle
2014 · 2h 9m
country: Japan
A retired samurai must redeem himself for a crime that he committed earlier in his life.


For Those We Love
2007 · 2h 15m
country: Japan
In 1943, as Japan's WWII effort falters, a vice-admiral proposes training squadrons of "volunteer" flyers to crash their armed planes into Allied warships. Yarn follows the lives of kamikaze pilots, as remembered by an aging Kyushu restaurateur who cherishes their memory. Honoring the dead and multiple military anthems may stir the soul of some Japanese, but elsewhere auds will make a one-way trip for exits. Battle scenes are well-executed and script delivers some memorable scenes, but overall competent helming and thesping are powerless over writer-cum-Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishiara's repetitive storytelling. A post-war postscript adds considerable length to an already over-extended narrative. Tech credits are good quality.


The Professor and His Beloved Equation
2006 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
This is the story between single mother housekeeper and mathematics professor,who has a brain damage.


To the Bracken Fields
2003 · 2h 4m
country: Japan
A poor village in the Tohoku area has a law that states when a resident becomes sixty years old, they must move to the place called Warabino, far away from home.


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.


After the Rain
2000 · 1h 31m
country: France
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the trapped travelers.


Marriage
1993 · 2h 17m
country: Japan
An omnibus featuring the work of three different filmmakers.


Madadayo
1993 · 2h 14m
country: Japan
In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.


Rhapsody in August
1991 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.


Dreams
1990 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.


Only 5 Grams
1988 · 1h 31m
country: Japan
Asuka Kotobuki, a junior college student, is in the middle of her job hunting. She spends all her time visiting companies and taking job exams, but her honesty and truthful personality causes her to keep receiving rejection notices.


Ran
1985 · 2h 40m
country: Japan
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.


I Want To Live Once More: Shinjuku Bus Fire Incident
1985 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
On the night of August 19, 1980, a bus was set on fire by the vagrant Hirofumi Maruyama at the Shinjuku West Exit Bus Terminal. In the burning flames, Mitsuko, who was exhausted by her affair, suddenly thought of suicide. As a result, she escaped too late from the bus and suffered a serious injury. From there, she was hospitalized for a long time. As she gradually recovered, the wife of her affair partner, Soroku Sugihara, died of cancer. Soroku proposed to Mitsuko again, and they lived together. Due to Soroku's mounting debt, they decided to flee to Tojinbo. With the desperate persuasion of her acquaintances, Mitsuko regained her desire to "live again."


F2 Grand Prix
1984 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
Drama set in the world of Formula 2 motor racing in Japan.


The Mysterious Gemini • Y&S
1982 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Youth suspense movie.


Good Luck Love
1981 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
Depicting the friendship of three boys in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo.


The Bushido Blade
1981 · 1h 44m
country: United Kingdom
A steel samurai blade that was to be given to the American ambassador by the Emperor of Japan is stolen. American sailors and Japanese samurai are sent to find it.


Return of the Champ
1981 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
A not-so-young "Young Guy" (Kayama) returns in this reunion feature, which takes Yuichi and Ishiyama to New York, where the former runs in the New York Marathon and romances TV producer Minagawa. A delightful throwback to Toho's '60s style filmmaking.


Kagemusha
1980 · 3h
country: Japan
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.


Murder in the Doll House
1979 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Yūsaku Matsuda plays the part of a private detective in this modern day "who dunnit" mystery, full of suspense, thrills and chills.


The Last Dinosaur
1977 · 1h 46m
country: Japan
Wealthy big game hunter (Boone), along with his group, gets trapped in pre-historic times where they are stalked by a ferocious dinosaur.


Greatest Game Ever Part II
1976 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
Shōzō, heir to a tonkatsu shop and ice hockey star, faces a series of challenges when his team’s fundraiser goes wrong. Amid rivalry, romantic tension, and an amateur rule violation, Shōzō’s determination leads him to a triumphant return to the ice with help from his girlfriend, Ayako.


Slope of the Sun
1975 · 1h 56m
country: Japan


Greatest Game Ever
1975 · 1h 30m
country: Unknown
Part of the Young Guy [若大将] series.


ESPY
1974 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Two Japanese spies with extrasensory powers go to Istanbul to stop a global agenda of assassinations.


Horror of the Wolf
1973 · 1h 18m
country: Japan
Enigmatic teenager Akira Inugami is, by night, a powerful werewolf, who falls for a beautiful young teacher, and copes with a ruthless teen gang leader, whose yakuza father murdered Akira's parents years before.