Yoshio Miyajima

Movies

Shikake-nin Baian
Cinematography
The Fall of Ako Castle
Director of Photography
This is the story of "The Forty-Seven Ronin." Based on historical events in 1701-2, the movie tells the tale of the Asano clan's downfall and the revenge of its former samurai on the perpetrator of the catastrophe. Lord Asano was goaded, or tricked, into drawing his sword inside the Shogun's palace -- a crime which carried the death penalty. The newly installed Shogun was furious at Asano and ordered all his clan's assets seized, meaning some 20,000 samurai and commoners were unemployed and landless at a stroke. Forty-seven of these ronin (masterless samurai) banded together to take attempt revenge on Lord Kira, who had goaded Asano into drawing his sword.
Empire of Passion
Cinematography
A young man has an affair with an older woman. He is very jealous of her husband and decides that they should kill him. One night, after the husband had plenty of sake to drink and was in bed, they strangle him and dump his body down a well. To avert any suspicions, she pretends her husband has gone off to Tokyo to work. For three years the wife and her lover secretly see each other. Finally, suspicions become very strong and people begin to gossip. To make matters worse, her husband's ghost begins to haunt her and the law arrives to investigate her husband's disappearance.
The Tattered Banner
Director of Photography
Film about the Ashio Copper Mine Incident and Shozo Tanaka.
Forward, young people!
Cinematography
The second film tells about the life of matured brothers and sister Sato. Taro became a foreman. He saves every yen to fulfill his dream of building his own house with stone gates. Jiro continues to work in the transportation office, he dreams of getting married. Saburo faces a moral problem: in order to get a good position, he must answer the questions of the entrance test differently than his conscience tells him. At the exam, Saburo does not hide his views on life and is deprived of the promised position. Orie and Suekiti believe that he did wrong and betrayed his older brothers. But the anxiety in the Sato family is not limited to these events. Orie was being asked to marry a handsome, well-established young man, but she suddenly announced her decision to marry Tozaka, who was suffering from radiation sickness. Sato's peaceful home is falling apart...
Young People
Cinematography
"Young People" is a story about the lives of four brothers and a sister, Sato. After the death of his parents, the older brother, Taro, who works in construction, decides to replace them. The second brother, Jiro, is a truck driver. The third, Saburo, is a student, dreams of a better future for the whole family are connected with him, with his career. Brothers and sisters are fighting to give him a higher education. And, finally, the youngest of the brothers, Suekichi, is also going to enter the university after graduation. The life of the Sato family is complicated. Taro is kind, but limited, not always able to find a common language with his brothers and sister Orie. The girl cannot stand the despotism of her brother, leaves her home and goes to work at the factory. With her departure, everything in the house goes upside down. Suekichi fails her university entrance exams, Orie is forced to return to her family.
Kwaidan
Cinematography
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.
Harakiri
Director of Photography
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.
Love Under the Crucifix
Director of Photography
The basic story in Love under the Crucifix is about Ogin, daughter of a tea master, who are both Christians in feudal Japan. Ogin falls in love with a feudal prince, also a Christian who is already married, and that creates problems. Further, when the Shogun bans Christianity, the situation worsens.
The Weavers of Nishijin
Director of Photography
The Weavers of Nishijin captures the process of traditional textile manufacture in Nishijin.
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
Director of Photography
After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
Director of Photography
Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against the recruit Obara. He also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.
Diary of Forsaken Love
Director of Photography
Follows the life of Tsuru, the poor daughter of farmers in Shinshu, Japan.
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
Director of Photography
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
The Naked Sun
Director of Photography
A young, struggling couple are making every sacrifice so they will one day in the not-too-distant-future, have enough money to get married. As they have agreed on this procedure, it comes as a shock to the young woman to find out from her husband-to-be that he just loaned all the money they had saved to a friend. She is understandably miffed, and a big disagreement results. But after some time goes by, she discovers why the friend needed the money so badly, and the couple are back on solid footing again.
Beyond the Seasonal Wind
Director of Photography
Japanese drama film.
Firefly Light
Director of Photography
Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small inn in the Kyoto suburb of Fushimi. She does not have an easy life. Her husband, Isuke (Ban Junzaburo), is a wastrel who fancies himself a kabuki singer and who is obsessed with cleanliness. Her mother-in-law, Sada (Miyoshi Eiko) dislikes her because of her humble origins (her family are farmers) and because she fears that she will inherit the inn instead of Sugi, her daughter. Sada's hopes for Sugi, however, are dashed when she runs off with a con artist and leaves her child behind for Tose to take care of. When Sada becomes seriously ill, it is Tose who nurses her. On her deathbed, Sada asks her daughter-in-law's forgiveness. Meanwhile Isuke spends most of his time with a mistress he has taken, forcing Tose to manage the inn by herself
Harbor Rats
Director of Photography
A scrap iron carrier arrived at Tokyo bay. The ship swarmed with the stevedores, the souvenir seller and the hookers. The crews of ship were oppressed by arrogant captain and his officers. The crews caused an uprising. A manager of stevedore ordered his employee leader to suppress an uprising...
Stepbrothers
Director of Photography
In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers. A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted Japan between 1921 and 1946. Winner of the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Yellow Crow
Director of Photography
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.
Joyu
Director of Photography
Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.
Twice on a Certain Night
Director of Photography
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.
Ai Sureba Koso
Director of Photography
Cape Ashizuri
Director of Photography
1950s Japanese drama.
Before Dawn
Director of Photography
The Cannery Boat
Director of Photography
Describes the oppressed life of the crab fishermen and their final revolt which is bloodily suppressed by the Royal Navy. (Set in the 1920's)
Still I Live On
Director of Photography
About the struggles of day labourers to achieve dignity and a standard of living above the starvation level. Utilising the Zenshinza theatrical troupe.
War and Peace
Director of Photography
The Dawn of Freedom
Director of Photography
This film was made by the Japanese occupation authorities in the Philippines as a propaganda film to show the Philippine people the "benefits" of the Japanese invasion and takeover of their country.
Pastoral Symphony
Cinematography
A priest in Hokkaido adopts a blind orphan girl, and as she grows up he finds himself falling in love with her.
Banner of the young
Cinematography
The final part of the trilogy. It is about a younger brother, Suekichi. He learned well the lessons that life taught his older brothers. Therefore, he does not think to study, but strives for material well-being alone. To make a career, he ruthlessly pushes his colleagues with his elbows. For him, the high ideals of trade union activists Jiro and Saburo are an example of old-fashioned thinking, naive behavior.