Teruko Nagaoka

The 25 minute film tells the tale of an ailing elderly woman named Itako who encounters a fox named Okon. The story opens with Itako lying bedridden, as she has for a long time. Okon enters her home and Itako tells the fox that he is welcome to take anything that he wants, for she has no use for anything anymore. Okon is delighted and in order to return the favour (the act of ongaeshi), Okon performs a magic jyōruri (a ballad with shamisen accompaniment) that heals Itako so that she is fit enough to walk again. Everyone is surprised by Itako's sudden recovery. She then hears of a hunter who has been badly injured and is near death. Itako hides Okon in the back of her shirt and has the fox sing the song while she plays shamisen in order to heal the man. This act of kindness is repeated for others until Itako's good fortune leads some to be suspicious of her.

Tashiro coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako. In an effort to further relieve his tortured sense of guilt, he then confesses to Sugimoto. Neither his wife nor his friend can believe that he could have been involved.

In this Japanese drama, a village girl goes to Tokyo and becomes a hooker to support her ailing mother. While there she meets an unmarried teacher (at least he says he's unmarried) and falls in love. When she learns that he lied and is married to a woman whose child was fathered by another man, she is crushed. He returns to his wife. The woman becomes more distraught when she learns her uncle has misused the money she has sent. As the final straw, her mother dies, and the girl becomes sick.

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself "already dead."

Japón, años 50. Como todos los días, los miembros de una familia se disponen a afrontar sus problemas, sueños y realidades. El padre, con los altibajos de su trabajo y las exigencias que impone la educación de los hijos. La madre, administrando los ingresos familiares y atendiendo a las múltiples complicaciones de la vida doméstica. Y los hijos obsesionados por tener televisión en casa, y uno de ellos enfrascado en sus estudios y angustiado por un defecto físico.

Kiku and her brother Isamu are social outcasts, children of a prostitute mother and black GI father, in postwar Japan.

A un hombre de negocios sus amigos le piden constantemente consejos sobre el matrimonio, la vida conyugal y la vida familiar. Su serenidad y sus agudos análisis le permiten encontrar el consejo oportuno para cada situación. Sin embargo, cuando él mismo tiene que afrontar una delicada situación que afecta a su hija mayor, tropezará con grandes dificultades para encontrar una solución al conflicto.

A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his wife. Her older brother tries to marry off his children and hang on to/ extend his farm through an advantageous marriage in the face of threatened land confiscation and the desire of his children to get comfortable urban jobs instead of the backbreaking work in the paddy fields under parental control.

Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances. The film depicts their lives as thieves, menial laborers who can get little pay, society outcasts, and of course, lovers. Junai Monogatari depicts, mostly, their struggles within the Japanese reformatory system and Mitsuko's worsening sickness.

Shokichi, the owner of the clothing store, lives with his daughter Hideko and plans to open an art gallery. One day, Hideko led a handsome art student, Shohei and a poor painter, Sohei. Sohei’s painting was praised by a great printer at the completion ceremony of the art gallery. Since he became successful as a painter, but he looked quite indifferent. Around the same time, Shohei’s sister brought Sohei’s pictures to the gallery and Shokichi noticed that she was a daughter of his first love.

Dos hermanas viven con su padre: la más joven ha tenido una aventura y se ha quedado embarazada, la mayor ha abandonado a su marido y se ha refugiado con su hijo en la casa paterna. Cuando, de repente, reaparece su madre, a la que creían muerta, su estupor no tendrá límites. (FILMAFFINITY)

Un hombre casado de mediana edad, aburrido de la rutina cotidiana tanto en el trabajo como en su matrimonio, tiene una aventura amorosa con la hija de un colega suyo. Cuando su mujer descubre su infidelidad, tanto su vida como la de su familia quedarán completamente trastornadas.

A husband and wife's pet peeves and minor irritations escalate into major rifts and animosity.

Shuichi, hijo de Shingo, un próspero hombre de negocios de Tokio, vive con sus padres y su esposa Kikuki en una confortable casa. Por las tardes, se queda a menudo en la capital, bebiendo y divirtiéndose con su querida. Kikuko aguarda pacientemente su regreso a altas horas de la noche. Shingo, hombre sabio y de talante moderno, es consciente de los desenfrenos de su hijo y compadece a la solitaria Kikuko. (FILMAFFINITY)

Three short tales from stories by Ichiyo Higuchi. In one, a young woman is degraded by her family after an arranged marriage. Another deals with the troubles heaped upon a young servant by her family and the wealthy people who employ her. The final story tells of a prostitute and her hopes of finding a new, respectable life.

Una pareja de ancianos viaja a Tokio para visitar a sus hijos, pero ninguno de ellos tiene tiempo para atenderlos, por lo que deciden enviarlos a un balneario. Cuando regresan, la madre pasa una noche en la casa de una nuera, viuda de uno de sus hijos. A diferencia de sus cuñados, Noriko muestra afecto por sus suegros y conforta a la anciana.

Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off. However, it is not to be: on this hectic day a man just back from the war front visits the doctor with a medical emergency, followed by a woman who claims to have been molested. Then a yakuza arrives to ask the doctor to cut his finger off...

Situada poco después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, El almuerzo cuenta las dificultades matrimoniales entre el salaryman Hatsunosuke y su mujer Michiyo. Se centra en la crisis emocional de una ama de casa aburrida. El tedio de su vida doméstica -consumida por la repetición de labores como cocinar y limpiar- aumenta con la visita de la sobrina de su marido, Satoko. Su llegada y la excesiva atención que le presta su marido, provocan el aumento de la infelicidad de Michiyo, forzada a enfrentarse con su futuro