Mitsuharu Hirata

Movies

Barefoot Gen Part 3: Battle of Hiroshima
Lighting Technician
Second live action "Barefoot Gen" sequel.
Waga seishun no eleven
Lighting Technician
Soccer movie.
If You Were Young: Rage
Lighting Technician
If You Were Young: Rage highlights the other side of post-war Japanese prosperity, focusing on the throngs of young people who missed out on the boom. We follow a group of young men that can't seem to get ahead, despite their willingness to try. Then one hits upon a plane - to work together to save for a dump truck and thus become independent contractors and be their own bosses at last. Ultimately life presents obstacles: jail for one, violence at the hands of the police for another and a girlfriend and subsequent children for the third. An early Kinji Fukasaku gem that imports the freewheeling style of the French New Wave and the hip detachment of American noir.
As the Clouds Scatter
Gaffer
A provincial bus driver plans to marry his conductress, but one night he glimpses the woman he once loved, which throws him into turmoil.
Hunting Rifle
Lighting Technician
Story of a woman, Saiko, who divorces her doctor husband when she is given a baby by a stranger who claims it is the husband's child. Saiko embarks on an affair with her cousin's husband, but a crisis threatens when she discovers that her ex-husband is about to remarry.
The Human Wall
Lighting Technician
Drama which shows the struggle of Fumiko, a female teacher, at work and at home.
Maria of the Ant Village
Lighting Technician
Alongside Tokyo's Sumida River is a ragpickers' settlement known as Ant Village. One night, a young Catholic girl, Satoko Kitahara, who has been baptized under the name of Maria, comes to offer her services. However, Ant Village is not just an ordinary vagrants' community but a fine autonomous organization, and as the municipal authorities have long been demanding that the people of Ant Village leave the site, Satoko is utilized to publicize the Village and win public sympathy. While being utilized in this manner, Satoko is nevertheless glad to be able to help the people of Ant Village, especially the children, and when the summer vacation comes she decides to take the children on an excursion to Hakone. To raise funds for this purpose she becomes a rag-picker herself.
The Adulteress
Lighting Technician
Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially greeted by the effusive welcome of his family, spiteful whispers also reach his ear about an adulterous affair carried on, in his long absence, between his wife and a famous drummer. With Hikokuro’s honor imperiled by rumor, his family insists on a formal investigation into the veracity of the gossip. Through the combined testimony of many witnesses, a tale unwinds around the visits of a traveling musician hired to tutor the family heir, the spurned attentions of the man who started the rumor, and the ultimate truth behind the accusations. The conclusion of events prove as much an indictment of bushidō as it is of the reluctant parties involved. Adapted from a 1706 play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and based on a true case.
Island of Fury
Lighting Technician
Five boys escape from their life of bondage on an island 10 miles off Hiroshima, and are picked up in the Inland Sea, drifting in an open boat.
Elegy of the North
Lighting Technician
A sensitive young woman aged 22 fell in love with a middle aged man who was troubled by his unfaithful wife.
Yellow Crow
Lighting Technician
In this Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, director Heinosuke Gosho -- a master chronicler of Japanese middle-class life -- presents the story of Kiyoshi Yoshida (Koji Shitara), who feels estranged from both parents after his father returns from war. How the boy adapts to life with the virtual stranger his father has become is the film's focus. Chikage Awashima, Yûnosuke Itô and Yoshiko Kuga also star.
How Sorrowful
Lighting Technician
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.
Tower of Lilies
Lighting Technician
A group of Okinawan high school girls are drafted as nurses during the American invasion of the island. As the enemy army advances further, the situation for the girls becomes increasingly desperate as food and shelter run out and the number of injured climbs, leading to the film's tragic finale.
The Stand in Hakone
Lighting Technician
A period film about a peasant revolt in the region near Mount Fuji, occasioned by high officials' depriving the farmers of their water rights.
Till We Meet Again
Lighting Technician
Saburo and Keiko fall in love with each other but the tide of war separates them.
Snow Trail
Lighting Technician
Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman and her father, as well as Honda, a mountaineer. The inn folk do not realize their guests are wanted criminals and the visitors are treated with great kindness. Honda volunteers to lead them over the mountains, but Eijima's paranoia endangers all of them as they make the perilous trip.
Mother Never Dies
Lighting Technician
The premature death of a young mother serves as inspiration for her husband and son.