Isao Tamagawa
Known for Acting
Born
January 11, 1922
Died
January 1, 2004 (age 81)
Birthplace
Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
59 films, 4 shows
Known for Acting
Born
January 11, 1922
Died
January 1, 2004 (age 81)
Birthplace
Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
59 films, 4 shows
A Tale of Youth at Hirosaki High School
A Tale of Youth at Hirosaki High School
1992 · 56m
country: Japan
A semi-autobiographical film about a young man from Tokyo who moves to Hirosaki in the early Shōwa era. A straight-to-video production made for the Hirosaki Senior High School Alumni Association that also incorporates footage from contemporary Hirosaki, and features cameos by regular Suzuki performers like Tamagawa Isao and Nogawa Yumiko.

Nezumi Kozō kaitō den
1984 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
Japanese comedy film.

Kagero-za
1981 · 2h 20m
country: Japan
A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife.

Port Arthur
1980 · 3h 5m
country: Japan
Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War of (1904 - 1905). In the story dominated the character Lt Takeshi Kogyo (Teruhiko Aoi), teachers, and a reserve officer who became commander of the platoon and later company. At the same time monitors the conduct of the army commander general Nogi (Tatsuya Nakadai), which was commissioned of the emperor Matsuhito (Toshirô Mifune) to the conquest of the fort.

Zigeunerweisen
1980 · 2h 24m
country: Japan
A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.

The Fall of Teenager
1979 · 1h 20m
country: Japan
High school student Keiko struggles with the pressures of college entrance examinations and a chaotic home life, ultimately succumbing to alcohol, marijuana, gang members and rape.

Take Me Away!
1978 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Kyoko met Tetsu during her trip to San Francisco. Soon they fell in love but getting married was not in his mind. They were to meet again back in Tokyo but Tetsu didn't turn up. She went to look for him in San Francisco but all she found was him with his new girlfriend. Kyoko went back to Tokyo and eventually married a big corporate CEO.

Sweet Revenge
1977 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
Masao is falsely accused and jailed for the murder of a loanshark to whom he owed a lot of money. His sister Kiriko makes the long trip to Tokyo, specifically to accost Otsuka, Japan's top criminal defence lawyer, and plead with him to take her brother's case. They live in Kitakyushu which, though a city, she contends that the local lawyers are not up to the job. Otsuka contemptuously brushes her off. A year passes. Masao has suicided in jail, his appeal having failed due to the lack of interest and competence of the local defence lawyer. Kiriko returns to Tokyo, planning revenge on Otsuka for refusing the case and causing her brother's death.

Black Jack: The Visitor in the Eye
1977 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
Komori Chiaki is a budding tennis student. However, one day while training, her coach hits a ball into her eye on accident. At the hospital, the news that she will never regain the sight in her eye leaves her heartbroken. As a last resort, she undergoes a costly surgery from the mysterious doctor known as Black Jack, where after a successful operation, a mysterious figure starts to emerge in her vision, and only she can see it.

Utamaro's World
1977 · 2h 20m
country: Japan
Utamaro was an artist who lived in Edo (which was later to become modern-day Tokyo) in the late 18th century. This film, which has a complex and wide-ranging storyline, recreates the world of that time, as it appeared in Utamaro's paintings.

Mount Hakkoda
1977 · 2h 49m
country: Japan
Two infantry regiments of the Imperial Japanese Army—210 men overall—tackled Mt. Hakkoda in the winter of 1902 to prepare for war with Russia.

A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness
1977 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
A rookie golfer must cope with the stress of fame after a marketing executive transforms her into a sports celebrity.

Cobra 2
1976 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
A Datsun driving, face-punching moody super-cop Cobra Cumera battles homicidal mobsters intent on causing mayhem and trouble in beautifully shot Tokyo. Complete with strippers, muggins, drugs, car chases, bouncy pop tunes, freak-outs, and a saucy lady assassin.

Graveyard of Honor
1975 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the yakuza but quickly loses his self-control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.

Cross-Currents
1972 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety.

Shadow Hunters
1972 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
Set during the declining years of the Tokugawa shogunate, Shadow Hunters details the questionably noble exploits of three ronin who act as "Shadow Hunters". These three ronin are not your normal ornery ruffians who are looking for a drink, a broad and someone to jab a sword into, but are in fact former samurai who, rather than follow their destroyed fiefs and murdered masters into death via seppuku, have dedicated their combined sword prowess to stopping the government from raping its daimyos for valuable resources.

Men and War II: Land of Love and Sorrow
1971 · 3h 1m
country: Japan
Second part of an epic drama of war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family from 1935 through Japan's invasion of China. Based on the novels by Jumpei Gomikawa, who also penned The Human Condition.

Hazardous Graduation
1970 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
Sex games by students at a junior high school are exposed by the principal and teachers, but the tables are turned in favor of the students.

The Militarists
1970 · 2h 14m
country: Japan

The Summit of Mt. Fuji
1970 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
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.

Penitentiary Brothers
1969 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
Authentic action drama of modern gangsters.

Safari 5000
1969 · 2h 57m
country: Japan
A Japanese racing driver for Nissan named Godai (Yujiro Ishihara) have a rivalry with a French driver named Pierre (Jean-Claude Drouot). Godai is enlisted to race in an annual endurance race, The East African Safari Rally. Peripheral to this is the story concerning Godai's former lover Yuko (Ruriko Asaoka), a fashion designer, and her friend Anna (Emmanuel Riva), who happens to be Pierre's wife.

The Rough One
1969 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
A tale of wannabe yakuza youths. When not cooking up scams with his buddies, Zenkichi develops a crush on Taro's disgusted sister, Miki. But soon the young hoods run afoul of their underworld idols when they rob the wrong gang, led by brutal boss Konno. When Zenkichi's pals start to bite the dust, he hooks up with a more traditional yakuza, Tetsugoro, to retaliate.

若い川の流れ
1968
country: Japan
The story follows Misako Kitaoka, a junior college graduate and Nitto Lease sales department employee, as she grows through work, love, and friendship. For the sake of the company's managing director and his wife, Misako recommends her colleague Tensuke Sone to Fusako, the managing director's daughter and best friend. Fusako and Sone meet at the executive director's Karuizawa villa, but for some reason Kensuke becomes angry when he learns that Misako is the one who recommended him...

Outlaw: Heartless
1968 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) was indebted to Mitsugimoto. Sawada, a low rank yakuza with a gambling problem owed Mitsugimoto three million yen. This equation can only lead to one answer. Mitsugimoto needs to pay and Goro's coming to collect.

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.

対決
1967 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Late Taishō period. The Shibatora family, led by Naojirō, held power over the Tomigawara area in Jōshū. After launching an attack on the Takayasu family for encroaching on their territory, they were instead ambushed by Takayasu's forces. Taking full responsibility, Naojirō turned himself in to the police. Six years later, upon his release, he is enraged to find that everything has changed drastically from how it once was.

Japan's Longest Day
1967 · 2h 37m
country: Japan
Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen. Emperor Hirohito, however, joins with his ministers in asking the unthinkable, the peaceful surrender of Japan. When the military plots a coup to overthrow the Emperor's civilian government, Anami must face the choice between his desires and loyalty to his Emperor.

Branded to Kill
1967 · 1h 31m
country: Japan
After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

Barren Love
1967 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
A young surgeon and a nurse working at a hospital fall in love, but numerous trials stand in their way.

Fighting Elegy
1966 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.

Zero Fighter
1966 · 1h 32m
country: Japan

Tokyo Drifter
1966 · 1h 23m
country: Japan
After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.

Blood Shed
1966 · 1h 29m
country: Japan
Ginjiro was born to a family of nobility, though he yearned for freedom. To earn this freedom, he affiliates himself with the worst of the worst. Swearing his allegiance to the notorious Kuroiwa crime syndicate, the yakuza family known for its thirst for blood, Ginjiro equips for battle. When a rival family raids their gambling parlor, he slashes a masked henchman. Unbeknown to him, his victim was no henchman.

Kokoro no sanmyaku
1966 · 1h 44m
country: Japan
A film dealing with the trials and tribulations of a primary school before and after the Pacific War, set in Fukashima Prefecture.

Invasion of Kanto Government
1965 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
A passionate man, driven by his boss's will, who fell to an assassin's blade, dedicates himself to rebuilding the gang. This thrilling, entertaining masterpiece by Eiki weaves together love and longing into its intense portrayal.

The Stars and I Decided...
1965 · 1h 20m
country: Japan
The brother of an up-and-coming kendoka is mysteriously murdered while working on a new model of motorboat.

House of Terrors
1965 · 1h 21m
country: Japan
A hunchbacked caretaker presides over a forlorn mansion inhabited by the ghosts of his previous masters. An unbelieving trio (a doctor, his assistant and his niece) fail to heed the caretaker's warnings and are slaughtered horribly by the jealous occupants.

The Black Gambler: The Gambling Syndicate
1965 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Place your bets! Koji Himuro (Akira Kobayashi) is a makeout artist with unparalleled gambling skills. Shortly after his return to Tokyo, he is invited to attend a reception being held at the Suvenian Embassy of Tokyo. This “reception” was an undercover gambling operation that was run by an international gambling syndicate. Up against a cardsharp by the name of Inumaru and his mistress Reiko, Koji plays a flawless game of Seven Bridge. Outraged by his loss, Inumaru orders Reiko to stalk Koji like a shadow.

Seishun no Sabaki
1965 · 1h 25m
country: Japan
University karate club member Kikuo is actually the son of a yakuza boss. However, he disliked his father's business and never spoke about his family at school. One day, his father, Tatsuzo, becomes the guardian of the Yamanaka-gumi.

Gambling is My Destiny
1965 · 1h 26m
country: Japan
Shadowed and alone. Today, a melancholy guitar sobs in a wandering seaside town.... To make amends, he hides his identity and saves his girlfriend's sister from certain death. Filmed on location on the scenic Manazuru Peninsula, the action is set amidst rugged rocky terrain and raging waves!

Story of a Prostitute
1965 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story of a Prostitute is a tragic love story as well as a rule-bending take on a popular Taijiro Tamura novel, challenging military and fraternal codes of honor, as seen through Harumi's eyes.

Kwaidan
1965 · 3h 3m
country: Japan
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Profit from Killing
1964 · 1h 29m
country: Japan
The bustling Ikebukuro area was under the control of the Hanamura Kogyo yakuza gang, and there was no end to the violence. The tramp Bin Tsuzuki returns to his hometown after being released from Abashiri prison, and he is noticed when he saves a student from gangsters from the Hanamura gang. But this was only the beginning of a bloody struggle...

The Flower and the Sword
1964 · 1h 43m
country: Japan
A dangerous mobster threatens the life of a businessman's mother in this thriller. As Ryuji oversees the building of a bridge in Japan, a powerful gangster plans to stop the project. By any means necessary.

Call My Black Dice
1964 · 1h 21m
country: Japan

Homecoming
1964 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
Moriya Tomoko, a young girl working for a publishing company, is told by a woman art dealer that her real father did not die, as everyone believes, during the revolution in Cuba, but is now living in Japan. Tomoko's mother has remarried a strict, narrow-minded university professor, whose only worry is protecting his family name from the slightest blemish.

Gate of Flesh
1964 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post–World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama, shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister
1964 · 1h 29m
country: Japan
Kakumaru (Kiyoshi Atsumi) is an unpopular manzai performer who is too good-natured but has a very bad manners. Moulin, Kakumaru's former partner, gained popularity through her comedy routine with his wife Rouge, and in contrast to Kakumaru, she became a popular talent. Meanwhile, Kakumaru, inspired by his master's death, decides to move to Tokyo and reunites with Mulan. However, Moulin is caught having an affair by Rouge and is in trouble. For now, he introduces Kakumaru to an entertainment company, but instead of performing manzai, Kakumaru is entrusted with the job of firing a boiler. Kakumaru is completely tired and spends his days drinking alcohol, but one day he meets his childhood friend Ayako again...

Pale Flower
1964 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

The Flower and the Angry Waves
1964 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
A young yakuza in love with the girl who's to marry his clan oyabun, kidnaps the girl before fleeing with her. In Tokyo, he hides under the identity of a worker while the young woman becomes a waitress in a restaurant.

At the Side of the Bridge 4
1963 · 1h 30m
country: Japan

Tale of Army Brutality
1963 · 1h 38m
country: Japan
Director Jun'ya Satô's debut film focuses on the inhuman training of recruits, the brutal drill system that reigned in the Japanese army during World War II, where in the first two years of training, ordinary people were turned into inhuman killers. For his first film, the director was awarded the Blue Ribbon Awards in the Debutant of the Year nomination.

To Your Majesty, The Emperor
1963 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
A conscript from a poor background writes the Emperor asking if he can stay in the army when his service is up.

Tokyo Bay
1962 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
An investigation into a drug smuggler who is assassinated in front of an insurance building sets two detectives, Sumikawa and Akine, into a sprawling investigation through Tokyo's underworld.

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

Twice on a Certain Night
1956 · 1h 39m
country: Japan
Poor social conditions badly affect the relationship between a married couple, when the husband, who is desperately searching for work, fails to notice the terrible sacrifices made by his wife when she accepts a job at a local inn.

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.

Birth of a Jazz Star
1954 · 57m
country: Japan
Keiko Togawa, a chorus girl at the Toyo Theater, is told by director Miyauchi that she has been chosen to play the lead role in the next production.