Kei Kumai

Kei Kumai

Birth : 1930-06-01, Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Death : 2007-05-23

Profile

Kei Kumai

Movies

What's a Director?
Works commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Japan mapping Supervision Association
The Sea Is Watching
Screenplay
O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.
The Sea Is Watching
Director
O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.
Darkness in the Light
Screenplay
A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade.
Darkness in the Light
Director
A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade.
To Love
Writer
Mitsu works in a factory and has a crush on Tsutomu, a young man she met on the Tokyo streets. One day the two go out, and after some deception, Tsutomu manages to have his way with her. Coming from a broken home, he is frightened by love, so he cruelly allows her to wake up alone. A month passes and a more grown-up Tsutomu returns. The lovers joyously reunite and move in together. All is blissful until both notice a strange sore on Mitsu's arm. The doctors diagnose it as leprosy. Without telling Tsutomu, Mitsu checks into a leper sanitarium. Hanging out with society's pariahs gives her much insight. She discovers the old lepers to be wonderful people. In turn, Mitsu becomes their source of joy and renewed hope. Still, she misses her Tsutomu. One day, the doctors inform her that they erred and that the sore is not leprosy. Happily she heads back to her true love until she realizes with a guilty pang that to return to him would mean unhappiness for her newfound friends
To Love
Director
Mitsu works in a factory and has a crush on Tsutomu, a young man she met on the Tokyo streets. One day the two go out, and after some deception, Tsutomu manages to have his way with her. Coming from a broken home, he is frightened by love, so he cruelly allows her to wake up alone. A month passes and a more grown-up Tsutomu returns. The lovers joyously reunite and move in together. All is blissful until both notice a strange sore on Mitsu's arm. The doctors diagnose it as leprosy. Without telling Tsutomu, Mitsu checks into a leper sanitarium. Hanging out with society's pariahs gives her much insight. She discovers the old lepers to be wonderful people. In turn, Mitsu becomes their source of joy and renewed hope. Still, she misses her Tsutomu. One day, the doctors inform her that they erred and that the sore is not leprosy. Happily she heads back to her true love until she realizes with a guilty pang that to return to him would mean unhappiness for her newfound friends
Deep River
Screenplay
A group of Japanese tourists try to forget their pasts and find themselves in India.
Deep River
Director
A group of Japanese tourists try to forget their pasts and find themselves in India.
Luminous Moss
Writer
A headmaster and a novelist, looking for inspiration, regard a strange natural phenomenon before sharing stories of their own.
Luminous Moss
Director
A headmaster and a novelist, looking for inspiration, regard a strange natural phenomenon before sharing stories of their own.
Shikibu monogatari
Screenplay
Toyoichi Otomo suffers from psychological and spiritual troubles after a horrific industrial accident. He lives with his elderly mother and wife near Mt. Aso in rural Kyushu. He seeks solace in a small religious group run by Buddhist nun Chishu-bo who claims to be the 68th descendant of famed 11th century poet Izumi Shikibu. The members of her sect regard her as a living saint. Yet instead of balming his soul, she riles his libido by playing a sexual cat-and-mouse game with the fragile Toyoichi. When she does bed him, it leads to a miracle healing -- followed by a terrible calamity.
Shikibu monogatari
Director
Toyoichi Otomo suffers from psychological and spiritual troubles after a horrific industrial accident. He lives with his elderly mother and wife near Mt. Aso in rural Kyushu. He seeks solace in a small religious group run by Buddhist nun Chishu-bo who claims to be the 68th descendant of famed 11th century poet Izumi Shikibu. The members of her sect regard her as a living saint. Yet instead of balming his soul, she riles his libido by playing a sexual cat-and-mouse game with the fragile Toyoichi. When she does bed him, it leads to a miracle healing -- followed by a terrible calamity.
Death of a Tea Master
Director
Years after the death of legendary tea master Rikyu, his disciple Honkakubo attempts to resolve the mystery of the master's death.
The Sea and Poison
Screenplay
Two interns and a nurse are interrogated by American MPs for their involvement in an atrocity during the war: the vivisections of a downed American air crew.
The Sea and Poison
Director
Two interns and a nurse are interrogated by American MPs for their involvement in an atrocity during the war: the vivisections of a downed American air crew.
Willful Murder
Director
The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical reporter follows the case for years, but the basic question remains unanswered: was the victim killed by members of the burgeoning Communist movement in Japan, or was the death stage-managed by the authorities in hopes of discrediting the Communists?
An Ocean to Cross
Director
Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin.
Love and Faith
Director
Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin's father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord's plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse.
Cape of the North
Screenplay
A Swiss nun falls in love with a Japanese engineer.
Cape of the North
Director
A Swiss nun falls in love with a Japanese engineer.
Sandakan No. 8
Writer
A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.
Sandakan No. 8
Director
A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.
Rise, Fair Sun
Writer
Though a farmer and his fellow villagers in this Japanese film resist the effort to turn the unspoiled region in which they live into a land development, they are ultimately unsuccessful.
Rise, Fair Sun
Director
Though a farmer and his fellow villagers in this Japanese film resist the effort to turn the unspoiled region in which they live into a land development, they are ultimately unsuccessful.
The Long Darkness
Writer
A delicate study of the relationship between two disillusioned young people, shot in atmospheric monochrome among Tokyo's decaying lumberyards and the inhospitable snowscapes of the north.
The Long Darkness
Director
A delicate study of the relationship between two disillusioned young people, shot in atmospheric monochrome among Tokyo's decaying lumberyards and the inhospitable snowscapes of the north.
Apart from Life
Writer
A film set in Nagasaki examining prejudice against atom bomb victims.
Apart from Life
Director
A film set in Nagasaki examining prejudice against atom bomb victims.
The Sands of Kurobe
Writer
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.
The Sands of Kurobe
Director
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.
A Chain of Islands
Screenplay
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.
A Chain of Islands
Director
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.
The Long Death
Director
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.
The Long Death
Screenplay
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.
Love in Ginza
Screenplay
Hanjiro is a struggling painter that shares a tiny apartment in the back streets of Ginza with his jazz pianist friend who works at a bar. When he and his sweet heart, Hisako decide to get married, Hanjiro is faced with a tough decision. Needing to buy a ticket back home to tell his mother the good news, he compromises his creative principles for love and sells his portrait of Hisako. Hisako heads to the station to see him off, but gets hit by a car...
Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi
Screenplay
1962 Japanese movie
Pursuit
Screenplay
Tsuiseki is a 1961 crime film.
Isseki Nicho
Screenplay
The Call of the Foghorn
Writer
A sailor is stuck in harbor due to an engine failure in his boat, and he learns that a friend of his has died, reportedly from suicide. He begins to investigate the matter himself, and finds there may be more to the story...
The Cards Will Tell
Screenplay
A 1960 crime film
Wounded Beast
Screenplay
A tense action game that skillfully intertwines the human love between a criminal, his sister and his lover, and the desperate pursuit of a detective who is trying to catch a fleeing young criminal.
Hiroshima
First Assistant Director
The film shows the bombing of Hiroshima and the horrific aftermath following the detonation of an atomic bomb on humans for the first time in history.