Chikage Awashima

Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.

クリスマスイブの夜、不倫関係を清算し、泣きながらホテルのエレベーターに乗り込む美寿々（井川遥）。エレベーターボーイで中国人研修生・李冬冬（阿部力）が彼女の顔を心配そうに覗き込んだとき、東京中のイルミネーションが消えはじめエレベーターも急停止した。

第二次世界大戦直前、戦雲うずまく亜細亜の魔都・マンチューリ。ヨーロッパ情勢を視察した山下奉文陸軍大将は、モスクワから帰国すべくシベリア鉄道に乗車していたが、謎の鉄道爆破で、急遽“満州菊富士ホテル”に宿泊を余儀なくされる。そこに同宿することになったシベリア超特急の一等乗客たち。やがて、密室で乗客のひとりが殺される事件が起きる。

小学6年生のサッカー仲間である諄、河辺、山下の3人は近所で独り暮らしをしている老人、喜八に興味を抱いて観察を始めることに。最初は虫が好かなかった喜八も、次第に3人と打ち解け合い、彼らに指示して自宅をきれいにしてもらう。諄たちは喜八がかつて弥生という女性と結婚していたと知り、喜八と別れた弥生のゆくえを捜そうとする。やがて3人は、喜八が3人のクラスの担任である静香先生の祖父であると知る。

京都から帰京した文芸評論家の秋葉大三郎は、東京駅に降りた時、「鯖の味噌煮が食べたい」と珍しいことを言っていた銀座のホステスを想いだした。里美というそのホステスのいるバー「魔呑」へ友人、能村と出かけた秋葉は彼女をデートに誘った。デートの日、泥臭さが抜けきらないが素朴なところに魅かれた秋葉は、里美を抱いた。里美は本名を八島霧子といった。霧子は不思議な魅力を持っていた。髪形やファッションを変えると見違えるように変身した。秋葉には編集者で38歳の田部史子という愛人がいたが、霧子と付合うようになってから、仲が遠のいていた。たちまち「魔呑」の売れっ子となった霧子を別荘に連れて行った秋葉は、そこで史子と出くわす。史子は秋葉の心変わりを知った。霧子は「魔呑」を辞め、秋葉は彼女のために高級マンションを与えた。彼は日毎に容姿も肉体もいい女になっていく霧子に充足感を覚えていた。霧子が代官山に洋服のリサイクルの店を出したいと言ってきた。二千万近い資金は秋葉が都合し、霧子は店の名を秋葉のアと霧子のキから「アンティック・阿木」と名付けた。新しい情報と品物の仕入れの為に霧子がニューヨークに発った。秋葉も同行するはずだったが、母の久子が脳血栓で倒れたため、仕方なくニューヨーク在住の商社員、室井達彦に霧子の世話を頼む。ある日、秋葉は「阿木」から出て来た史子と会った。彼女とは一年近くも会っていなかったが、昔のことにはふれず逆にサバサバした様子だった。霧子が帰国した。出迎えた秋葉は別人のように美しくなった霧子を見て呆然とする。霧子の身辺は急に多忙になった。マスコミの付合いなどで秋葉が介入する余地がないほどだ。霧子は自立する女に変りかけていた。ある夜、別れ話をきりだした霧子はマンションを飛びだした。追いかけた秋葉は史子の部屋に入って行く霧子を見て呆然とした。二人は半年前からの知り合いだと言う。久子の葬儀の日、霧子が焼香に現われ、秋葉に別れの理由を語る。霧子はまだ秋葉を愛していたが、史子と彼の関係を知り愛の不確さを感じたのだ。そして、男に去られる前に生甲斐を見つけて去って行くことを考えたのだった。

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

August 9, 1945. An atomic bomb drops on Urakami, Nagasaki at 11:02am. The story of Dr. Nagai and his family.

Love-hate drama of three beautiful sisters in Ooku in Edo Castle.

森村桂の青春小説を吉永小百合主演で映画化。就職活動中の娘が、社会と現実の壁にぶつかりながらもたくましく成長していく姿を描く。

#13 in the Ekimae series of films. Set at Todai University, Professor Sakai (played by Frankie Sakai) mentors a group of university hopefuls. Cut to 25 years later, the students have each settled into their careers and cross paths with Professor Sakai's son, a P.E. teacher (also played by Sakai).

The last judgment.

The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, cold-hearted father and a submissive mother. The year is 1910 and the place is a small Japanese village. Goichi is suffering because he wants to go to school, but his family is too poor to afford that luxury. Even when a kind friend agrees to help out, Goichi's father refuses to give in to his son's request for an education. Instead, he sends Goichi off to work as an indentured servant for a cold-hearted merchant and his family. As tragedy strikes and the suffering of the young boy increases, he begins to look for some way out of his bleak situation.

Nine maids serve the household of a writer and his wife. The couple treat their maids like daughters and marry them off to eligible men. So, they are forever looking for new maids. As the years go by maid servants become hired help and more bossy and independent, so Chikura and his wife find themselves adjusting their lives to keep up with changing times.

不忍池近くの老舗のフレンチレストラン青龍軒を飛び出して、とんかつ屋「とんQ」を始めた久作は名人気質の頑固者。師匠だった伝次とは、伝次の妹と結婚したこともあって犬猿の仲。伝次の息子・伸一はコック修行を投げ出して、久作のところに入り浸り、とり子とイチャイチャ。そして、伝次の後妻の連れ子・復二は未来食クロレラの研究に熱中していた。そんな中、青龍軒が経営不振で人手に渡ることに… 個性あふれる人物たちが織りなす、ユーモアとペーソスの大型喜劇。

The film takes place at the junction of the two eras of Meiji and Taisho. Sakata Sankichi, an uneducated zori sandal maker, becomes a professional shogi player through his genius shogi skills and lives a fanatically devoted shogi game supported by the love of his family. This is the 3rd adaptation of Hideji Hojo's famous play.

A dark family secret sends a 21-year-old French student (Hoshi) on a journey of self-discovery.

A story about the lives of four sisters and their manipulative mother who must come to terms with each of their decisions in life.

A boss of underworld helps the police crush an evil gang.

Megastar Kataoka Chiezo is Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi in this realistic tale of Japan’s inner battles that led to the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Excellent performances and extremely good swordplay highlight this glimpse into the heart and soul of Japanese history. Although known as “Razor Blade” Hijikata, the vice-commander is a man of deep conviction with a little-known sense of humanity. Starting after the famed Ikedaya Incident, in which they saved Kyoto from Choshu’s plot to burn the city to ashes, they work hard to change the public’s view of them as merciless killers to their true mission of protecting the shogun. This is an extraordinary tale of blood and guts! From the pen of award winning author Shotaro Ikenami (Bandit Vs. Samurai, Hunter in the Dark, Misumi's The Last Samurai)

Japanese comedy film.

In the late 1950's prostitution was banned in Japan and if a woman was found exercising this profession they were sent to a reformatory. This is a story of one of these brave women Kuniko who is released from the reformatory and tries to build a new life.

Follow-up to "Ekimae Ryokan." Set around the Yurigaoka and Nishi-Ikuta stations on the Odakyu-Odawara line, the film takes up the problem of real estate around the expanding Yurigaoka apartments.

The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.

In "The Other Woman" the children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to regard as their racy and slightly disreputable Ginza aunt is really their mother.

Action and adventure abound in this story of friendship between two rival firefighters, Kichigoro and Jirokichi in old Japan. When Mukai Sadayu, the vassal of Kaga Clan's accounting officer, Shinagawa Daihachi demands that Omon serve him tea in his mansion and she refuses, the clan's samurai abduct her setting in motion a series of events that will bring the two firefighters into a world of danger and excitement. Jirokichi, leader of the Edo firefighting team "Ha-gumi" must first rescue Omon from the clutches of the vile Kaga Clan's retainers.

Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.

The plot is based on the novel "Akechi Samanosuke no Koi," the final work in a trilogy by Hiroshi Kato about the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga at the temple Honnoji. Historically, the general Akechi Mitsuhide is credited with causing Nobunaga's downfall. Kato's novel focuses on Mitsuhide's nephew Samanosuke, who fought alongside his uncle during the assault on Honnoji.

This subversive period film features a hotheaded young samurai, Kurodo, who threatens to commit harakiri in response to the humiliation meted out to his family by the Shogun. The film critiques the inhumanity of feudal obligations, and Uchida’s direction slyly satirizes the contemporary cinematic audience, whose taste for onscreen bloodshed is mirrored in a crowd gathering to watch the protagonist’s planned suicide. The Master Spearman is imbued with Uchida’s characteristic blend of dark humor and stylized action, and Ryutaro Otomo gives an admirable performance in the lead.

When Kaneko Ichinosuke aims to avenge his father who was wrongly accused of embezzlement, the samurai Kochiyama Soshun agrees to assist.

Nakamura Yukinojo gains popularity in Edo's kabuki scene as a handsome onnagata (a male actor who plays female roles). But hidden behind the placid expression of his stage face is a deep grudge for the men responsible for dishonoring his parents' names and leading them to suicide when he was still a child. When he discovers that the mastermind behind those crimes has come to see him act onstage, he begins in earnest to plot his revenge. With the help of a renowned Robin Hood-like thief named Yamitaro, he makes out his first target: the daughter of the man who orchestrated his parents' demise.

Kitagawa Utamaro is a famous ukiyo-e artist known for his paintings of beautiful women. The courtesan who became his model became even more popular. Ocho, a resident of an apartment building, hears about this and secretly plans to follow Otose, the owner of Mizuta-ya, who became famous as Utamaro's model. At this time, the Kano school, headed by Kano Eikawa, which was under the control of the shogunate, is dissatisfied with Utamaro's fame and tries to compromise him…

Adapted by Yasumi Toshio and directed by Toyoda Shiro, this is a literary work based on a full-length novel of the same name published by Shiga Naoya of the Shirakaba School.

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.

When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence.

During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government supporters and is persecuted. Can Nichiren persevere before the Mogol fleet reaches Japanese shores?

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.

A longtime hotel employee (Morishige) struggles to bring his old-fashioned ryokan in line with postwar Japanese business practices.

Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official, who will become the target of a merciless revenge.

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

Comedy based on the writings of Ango Sakaguchi.

From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious swordsman named Noriyuki Gennojo has crossed Naruto’s waters to uncover the Awa clan’s secrets. He puts his life on the line after finding a testament of Awa’s secrets, written in blood by a dying man. Joining Noriyuki are a female ninja who loves him, and the beautiful daughter of an enemy who’s sworn to kill him. Awa’s defenders willl stop at nothing to prevent the blood-soaked letter from reaching the shogun.

A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community.

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own.

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.

In Asakusa, Tokyo, a couple of a violinist Yamano and a revue dancer Hanae lives in poverty. One day Hanae’s little sister rolls into their apartment and begins to stir things up with her riotousness.

Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a tanbi-ha work of decadence, aestheticism, and intrigue. Ichikawa's film presents the tragic plot of the young geisha who is unable to enact her love for a man publicly in any way other than a histrionic story of torment, a heart-rending tale of lovers being crushed by fate. Instead, Ichikawa shows the contest of wills that transpires as two geisha, Oko and Kiyoha fight for the top spot in Nihonbashi, the pinnacle of the Tokyo geisha world. Nihonbashi is an elegant, if steely, exposition of manners. The young doctor, Shinzo Katsuragi, is the object of affection for both women, but appears to be more the choice reward for the plotting and thieving of these two early modern superwomen, than a lover they swoon over.

蒲田に妻と住む杉山正二は、丸ノ内への通勤途中で知り合ったサラリーマンたちと仲良くなり、退社後に遊びに行くのが日課となっていた。妻は退屈な毎日から逃れるように、おでん屋を営む母の実家へ帰ったりしている。通勤仲間と出かけた江ノ島で、杉山は金子千代と接近。千代の誘惑に耐えきれず、関係を持ってしまう。二人の関係に気づいた杉山の妻は家出して、旧友のアパートに転がり込んだ。同僚の死をきっかけに、杉山は自分の生き方を振り返り、千代と別れようと考え始める。ちょうどその頃、会社で地方工場への転勤話が持ち上がった。小津安二郎が野田高梧とともに書いたシナリオを監督し映画化。不倫に揺れる昭和30年代のサラリーマン夫婦を描く。

This period film is inspired by one of the most notorious scandals to have taken place in Edo-period Japan. The heroine, Ejima, was a lady of the Ooku, the harem of Edo Castle in which the Shogun’s mother, wife and concubines resided, forbidden from contact with any other man except in the presence of the Shogun. The institution played a key role in the Byzantine world of Japanese court politics during the Edo era. In 1714, Lady Ejima was sent to pay her respects at a Buddhist temple in the city, and chose to pay an unauthorised visit to the kabuki theatre – a violation of protocol that was to have tragic consequences.

The story of a couple, a spoiled son and a down-to-earth girl, in Osaka in the early Showa era. The film won the prestigious Blue Ribbon awards for best director, best actor (Morishige) and best actress (Awashima), and the Mainichi Concours award for best actor and best screenplay (Yasumi Toshio). It ranked second (after Naruse Mikio’s Ukigumo) on the Kinema Junpō top ten films for the year.

Shuzenji Monogatari (The Mask and Destiny) is based on a 12th-century Japanese legend. An abortive royal romance leads to an escalating series of tragedies. The central character is a Japanese monarch who would prefer to live a humble existence as a maskmaker. Unfortunately, events -- and destiny -- are against him. When first released, Shuzenji Monogatari was held in far lower esteem than such recent Japanese films as Gate of Hell and Samurai. Nevertheless, the film was selected as an entry at the Venice Film Festival, possibly on the strength of its excellent production values.

元禄十四年三月、勅使接待役浅野内匠頭は高家吉良上野の侮辱をうけ、ついに殿中で刃傷に及んだ。目付役多門伝八郎の正論にも拘らず、幕府は一方的に浅野の非を責め、、即日田村邸で切腹の上、家は断絶となった。知らせを受けた赤穂では城代家老大石内蔵助のもとに幾たびも総登場の会合が開かれる。

A young man hands in his notice at work and breaks up with his girlfriend in order to pursue his true nature and dream of shaping the world according to his own desires. Against all the odds, he manages to push through his business idea – the foundation of an airline. At the same time, his ex-girlfriend refuses to accept their separation and attempts to force her way back into his life by any means possible. He in turn feels attracted to a young woman, who turns out to be the wife of one of his airline investors and who has herself had a secret lover for several years.

Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Machiko is not allowed to see Haruki. They finally meet again, but Haruki departs to Europe.

Each one of us lives differently. So, there are many tragedies and comedies in our lives. She feels many conflicts in living her life between truth and love.

Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Two meet again in Hokkaido only to be separated again.

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.

Machiko Ujiie and Haruki Atomiya first meet and fall in love on Ginza’s Sukiyabashi Bridge during the Great Tokyo Air Raid in March 1945. Machiko and Haruki pledge to meet again at the bridge in six months but part without asking each other’s names.

Carmen falls in love with an artist in this sequel to Carmen Comes Home. The film is noted for being entirely shot with canted (Dutch) camera angles.

田舎出身の佐竹茂吉は、社長の親友の娘で上流階級育ちの妙子と結婚した。妙子は一等車での旅行や野球観戦などで遊び回り、茂吉は妙子の嫌いなタバコ「朝日」を吸い、出かけるときは三等車に乗り、酔って帰ってはお茶漬けを食べていた。茂吉と妙子の溝は深まるばかり。妙子が同級生の住む神戸へ旅行している間に、茂吉の海外出張が決まり、妙子に連絡がつかないまま茂吉は日本を発ってしまう。

Drama about a famous one-eyed, one-armed samurai swordsman of the middle of the Tokugawa period by the name of Tange Sazen. By chance, Tange gets an old pot in which the secret of the treasure of 1000000 ryos of gold is hidden. However, a bunch of different people hunt for the pot and Tange will have to apply his phenomenal fencing skills with the sword.

Nami (波 Nami) is a Japanese film directed by Noboru Nakamura. It was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

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...

Inochi uruwashi

結婚にあまり興味のない娘と、そんな娘に早く結婚してほしいと気を揉む家族を中心にさりげない日常をユーモアを織り交ぜ淡々と細やかに描く感動作。敗戦後わずか6年の作品とは思えないモダンな息づかいには驚かずにはいられない。北鎌倉に住む間宮家では適齢期を過ぎた娘紀子の結婚が何より気がかり。当の紀子は大手の会社で秘書として働き、いまだのんきに独身生活を楽しんでいる風だった。やがて、そんな紀子に縁談話が立て続けに舞い込むのだったが……。 　巨匠・小津安二郎監督を代表する傑作の1本。

Two journalists and their lovers share an uncertain future.

Also known as Crazy Uproar.