Ranko Akagi

昭和14年、中国大陸。従軍看護師の西は、赴任先でいきなり患者に暴行されるという手荒な洗礼を受ける。2カ月後、前線に送られた彼女は、兵士たちが運ばれるそばから手足を切り取られるというこの世の地獄を目の当たりにする。そこでは感情を捨て、機械のようになるしか正気を保つすべがなかった。そんな時、西は患者の中にかつて自分を暴行した男を見つける。葛藤の末、彼女は男を救おうと上官である岡部軍医に相談するが…。

「黒髪」：妻を捨て、京都から遠い任地へと赴いた武士。そこで彼は、良い家柄の娘と結婚するが、彼女は冷酷な女で、男は今さら、別れた妻のことを思い出すのだった。やがて任期を終え、京都に戻った彼は最初の妻と再会するが…。「雪女」：きこりの巳之吉は、森へ薪を採りに入ったところで吹雪に遭い、山小屋に閉じ込められるはめに。その晩彼は、雪女の姿を目の当たりにし…。ほかに「耳無し抱一の話」「茶碗の中」の計4編。

Sadako, cursed by generations before her and neglected by her common-law husband, falls prey to a brutal home intruder. But rather than become a victim, she forges a path to her own awakening.

15歳の若枝はうす汚ないバーで酔客と酒を飲み、ヤケクソのように女給のハイヒールをかっぱらってとび出した。東京で仕事に失敗して帰って来た21歳の三郎は、職安通いの空虚な毎日を送っていた。暗く陰うつな北陸の空、金沢の映画館の前で幼ななじみの二人は再会した。三郎はうらぶれた彼女に、なけなしの金からスカートを買ってやった。喜んだ若枝は、のんだくれの父親長吉と、いやな継母のいる家をとび出したわけを話した。若枝をこれ以上堕落させまいと決心した三郎は、翌日から少しずつおくれた勉強を教えてやった。若枝の心にやすらぎがよみがえり、三郎はうれし泣きする彼女の涙をそっとすすってやるのだった…。

School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.

Emi Ikushima, a star actress in the Roses, is half-hearted, but she wasn't disappointed by the news of her father Enmy's sudden death, and she performed enthusiastically on the stage that night, attracting a crowded audience.

Toku, a factory worker gives food to a starving woman, Tsuru, who then follows him home. He shares a shack in a shanty village in Kawasaki with his friend Pin-chan. The two men try to get rid of her but then let her stay when she gives them money. Tsuru tells the people of the village that she lost her job due to a strike, then was robbed of her severance pay, then sold to a brothel in Tsuchiura. She ran away with a friend from Kawasaki. Toku and Pin-chan sell her to a geisha house and spend the money. She is thrown out. The owner demands his money back. Tsuru earns the money to pay their debt by working as a prostitute outside the station. The other prostitutes beat her. She fends them off with a policeman's revolver and is then shot dead by the police.

Woman melodrama by Shiro Toyoda

During his summer holiday, Kawasaki Ryuichi (Ryuzaki Ichiro), a handsome engineer in his late twenties, visits his teacher and mentor, Professor Inagaki (Sugai Ichiro), at his seaside home. There he meets the professor's lovely young wife, Sachiko (Hamada Yuriko), and is unsettled by the striking resemblance she bears to his wife, who died three years earlier. Attracted to Sachiko, he does his best to hide his feelings. The couple, however, senses a deep-seated melancholy in him. Attributing it to the loss of his wife, they urge him to marry their niece, Kaoru, but he is not interested. Shortly after, Fumiko , Sachiko's older sister, realizes that Sachiko and Kawasaki have feelings for each other, but she keeps her counsel. One day Kawasaki, Sachiko, and Kaoru go boating when a storm forces them to stay overnight at a hotel. Unable to sleep, Kawasaki takes a walk along the beach where he finds Sachiko, also unable to sleep. He declares his love for her.

Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu,a scholar who brought some of European realism to the Japan's stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society. This is another version of Kenji Mizoguchi's film "The Love of Sumako the Actress" ("Joyû Sumako no koi"), from the same year. Both tells the story of the famous actress Sumako Mitsui (1886-1919), considered the first great modern theater actress in Japan. Mizoguchi himself is said to have preferred Kinugasa's version.

This film focuses on Koreans living in Japan. The filmmaker’s humanism comes across in the portrayal of a girl living in a shabby tenement, the warmth of a Korean girl she meets, and the friendliness of this Korean girl’s family.

Movie about a devoted and single woman and her daughter. The mother's nickname is "Bokuseki" (wooden head) because of his supposed stubbornness. No.10 in the list of "The 10 best films of 1940" by Kinema Junpo.

Okumura Ioko story directed by Shiro Toyoda

Based on an autobiographical story by Toyota Masako.

As suggested by the title, this film takes up the theme of the city, beginning with a series of traveling shots from Chiyo's point o view on a bus leaving the countryside and entering the metropolitan cityscape. After some fruitless job hunting in downtown Tokyo, Chiyo accepts a job as a bar hostess in Shiba ward. Well away from glamorous Asakusa and Ginza, this is a neighborhood bar where the women are dirt poor, each having only one kimono to their name....

Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.