Iwao Akune

Birth : 1925-01-16, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan

Movies

River of Fireflies
Art Direction
During the winter in Toyama in 1962, Tatsuo Mizushima is fretting about his feelings for his classmate Eiko Tsujisawa while agonizing about his upcoming high school examinations. When he was little, he and Eiko had heard that in April of a year when the winter has been very harsh, any couple finding fireflies together needs to get married. However, his family's situation does not allow Tatsuo to continue his worrying about such things for very much longer.
The Imperial Navy
Art Direction
A lavish retelling of the true story of the final voyage and ultimate destruction and sinking of the battleship Yamato, Japan's greatest flagship during the Second World War.
Magnitude 7.9
Production Design
A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored.
The House of Hanging
Art Direction
This time, Kousuke investigates a murder in a hospital. The murderer leaves misleading evidence to divert Kousuke's attention on the case. Suspicion and doubt clouds Kousuke's mind.
Queen Bee
Art Direction
To solve the mystery of a murder of an old governess which takes place at a wealthy Daidoji family's country estate, family secrets and lies dating back several generations must be sorted out once and for all.
Sugata Sanshiro
Production Design
The story of Sanshiro Sugata, a young man who wants to learn the new art of judo. A wise teacher reveals to Sanshiro that judo is not merely a means of combat nor a demonstration of physical skill, but an art which reveals the artist to himself.
The Inugamis
Art Direction
When a tycoon passes away, he unexpectedly leaves the family fortune to outsider Tamayo on the condition that she marries one of the grandsons, pitting blood against blood.
Main Line to Terror
Art Direction
Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.
The Last Swordsman
Art Direction
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.
Aoba shigereru
Art Direction
Based on the novel of the same name by Hisashi Inoue.
The Blossom and the Sword
Art Direction
Tai Kato’s early 20th century set yakuza epic about an ordinary merchant girl (Hiroko Maki) who crosses paths with an assassin (Tetsuya Watari). The encounter sends her to jail as a suspected accomplice. Years later she marries a yakuza boss, whose gang is affiliated with working class people.
Take Care, Red Riding Hood
Art Direction
A high-schooler involved in turn-of-the-decade student movements works to escape his comfort zone and apply himself.
Too Young to Die
Art Direction
A young couple, composed by 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 in director's Kiyoshi Nishimura's debut film, almost totally filmed in one space.
Devils-in-Law
Production Design
Japan's Longest Day
Production Design
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.
The Age of Assassins
Art Direction
A nerdy young college instructor named Shinji Kikyo returns home one day to find himself the target of a mad assassin. Surviving somewhat miraculously, he fends off other assassins and with the help of reporter Keiko Tsurumaki and car mechanic Bill Otomo, eventually discovering that a "population control" association is really an assassination squad led by Shogo Mizorogi, who has been training patients of a mental asylum to become killers.
The Daphne
Art Direction
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.
A Smell of Money
Art Direction
Banjun organizes a group of con men to fleece the greedy and rich.
Fort Graveyard
Production Design
Charged with insubordination for punching a superior, Sergeant Kosugi is shipped to China in the last desperate days of the Second World War. His commander, Captain Sakuma, is vicious and dictatorial. Sakuma places Kosugi in charge of training for combat what once was the military band. Kosugi must somehow prepare his inept soldiers for the rigors of combat.
Samurai Assassin
Production Design
Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.
Oh, Bomb!
Production Design
During the mayoral election, two ex-prisoners decide to replace the lucky pen of an annoying candidate with a mini-bomb.
Me and Me
Production Design
Toho comedy shot in Tohoscope featuring performances from the Peanuts and the Crazy Cats. Original released alongside another Toho comedy, King Kong vs. Godzilla.
The Witness Killed
Production Design
Japanese neo-noir crime drama movie directed by Jun Fukuda
Challenge to Live
Art Direction
An employee at an oil cartel (Mihashi) is haunted by an act years before when he euthanized a fellow soldier when the two were adrift at sea during the Pacific War. Matters are complicated further when he falls in love with the soldier's younger sister (Tsukasa).
Blueprint of Murder
Art Direction
Yuzo Kayama plays the protagonist, a whale-hunting cannon manufactuing supervisor, whose brother is an automobile tester for Komatsu Motors which has a fatal accident. As his brother investigates the "Accident" with his old college friend (makoto Sato), now a reporter... They stumble across murder, espionage and cover-ups. High-class night club, femme fatale, and a "Blueprint of Murder" all adds up to a bigger plot then first expected.
Westward Desperado
Art Direction
Follow-up to Desperado Outpost (1959) sees Japanese soldiers seeking the flag of a defeated regiment in China.
The Last Gunfight
Art Direction
Japanese police detective Saburo Fujioka is suspected of corruption, demoted, and sent to the city of Kojin. Kojin is the scene of fierce fighting between rival gangs. Fujioka is assigned to investigate the death of the wife of gangster Tetsuo Maruyama of the Kozuka gang, probably at the hands of one of the Oka gang. During a gang gunfight, Maruyama is rescued by Detective Fujioka and the two become friends. But Maruyama insists on avenging his wife's murder, even if it means conflict with his new friend.
Desperado Outpost
Art Direction
When Sergeant Okubo's brother is murdered at a Japanese outpost in Northern China during the Second World War, Okubo poses as a war correspondent and seeks out his brother's killer.
The Big Boss
Art Direction
Ryuta and Mineo Komatsu are brothers, both yakuza (gangsters). Mineo, although complicit in crime, even murder, wants out of the gangster life, hoping to become a successful singer instead. Ryuta loves his brother, but Mineo's possible defection presents problems for the gang, and Ryuta realizes he must kill his brother if he wants to survive.
Adults Cannot Understand - Record of Youth
Production Design
The first work of 27-year-old director Eizo Sugawa, contrasting a politician father and his son, a drummer in a student band. It depicts the conflict between old and new morals, and the lives of young people.
All About Marriage
Art Direction
Ultra-perky model likes single freedom but feels ryosai kenbo ("good wife, wise mother") pressure, exemplified by her bored-to-tears sister.
A Farewell to the Woman Called My Sister
Production Designer
An Ishiro Honda film.
A Rainbow Plays in My Heart: Part 1
Production Design
An Ishiro Honda film. The first part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the second film.
A Rainbow Plays in My Heart: Part 2
Production Designer
An Ishiro Honda film. The second part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the first film.
A Teapicker's Song of Goodbye
Production Designer
An Ishiro Honda film.
The Lonely Swordsman (Part 2)
Art Direction
Historical drama about a sleep-eyed ronin
The Lonely Swordsman (Part 1)
Art Direction
Historical drama about a sleepy-eyed ronin.
The Underworld
Art Direction
Yakuza boss Furuya leans more and more on his protege Takao Shoji, though Shoji has become romantically involved with Furuya's mistress, Natsue. Furuya himself has fallen in love, with a nurse after his recent hospital stay. As the gang grows more jealous of the favoritism Furuya shows Shoji, they decide to reveal Shoji's relationship with Natsue. But Furuya's affection for Shoji cannot be easily destroyed, even in the gang war that erupts.
The Maiden Courtesan
Art Direction
Period romantic drama.
No Response from Car 33
Production Design
Film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi
A Man Among Men
Production Design
Gangsters Ken and Maki are rivals in the ticket-scalping game. They make an uneasy truce, but Ken wrecks the truce by agreeing to fix a boxing match in which Maki has an interest in one of the fighters. After a terrible brawl, the two gangsters discover that they have both been played for suckers by their bosses. They join forces to turn the tables on the bosses.
Eagle of the Pacific
Art Direction
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan's navy into war with the United States. He opposes the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, overruled, he leads his forces to the best of his ability.
Jirocho's Home-Coming
Art Direction
Her Captive Gamblers
Art Direction
Mr. Pu
Art Direction
A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.