(archive footage)
A narrative feature made from a collage of clips from various films around the world.
三田静香は劇団「海」の研究生で、女優になるために努力を重ねる20歳の女性。そんな真摯な静香を公園で見初めた森口は元劇団員の26歳、今は不動産屋の社員をしている。静香は劇団の次回公演『Wの悲劇』の主役選考オーディションに臨むが、同期のかおりが役を射止め、静香は物語の冒頭でひとことだけ台詞のある端役を担当することになった。オーディションに落ちて落ち込む静香に、森口は俳優時代の心理的な苦悩を語る。そして、森口は、静香がスターになれなかったらという条件で結婚を申し込み、反対に静香が役者として成功した場合はサヨナラの意味も込めて楽屋に大きな花束を贈ることを約束する。
Small Old Man
ある日、俳優の井上侘助（山崎努）と妻で女優の雨宮千鶴子（宮本信子）は夫婦共演のCM撮影を行っていたが、そこに突然連絡が入る。千鶴子の父・真吉（奥村公延）が亡くなったのだ。親族代表として葬式を出さなくてはならなくなった侘助はマネージャー里見（財津一郎）の助けを借りつつも途方に暮れる。 千鶴子の母・きく江（菅井きん）や千鶴子の妹・綾子（友里千賀子）夫婦、そして真吉の兄・正吉（大滝秀治）とともに遺体を伊豆の別荘に運び、お通夜の準備に取り掛かる。葬儀屋・海老原（江戸家猫八）とともに、お通夜当日の朝を迎える侘助達。だがそこには、喪服を着た侘助の愛人・良子（高瀬春奈）がいた。
Ryuji Hoshi
四人しか子分のいない小さなヤクザ、目高組の親分が跡目は血縁者にと遺言を残して死んだ。その頃、女高生の星泉は、成田空港の前で車に轢かれて死んだ父・貴志と火葬場で最後の別れを惜しんでいた。泉の母はずっと昔に亡くなって、これで彼女は本当の一人ぼっちだ。泉がマンションに帰ると、マユミという女がおり、彼女は「もし自分が死んだら泉をよろしく」という父の手紙を持っていた。翌日、黒いスーツを着こんだ大勢の男たちが学校の前に並んでいる。泉のとりまき、智生、哲夫、周平が止めるのを無視して、泉は校門に向った。すると、あの火葬場にいた男が歩み出て「星泉さんですね」と言う。佐久間というその男に汚ない事務所に連れていかれた泉は、そこで、目高組四代目組長を襲名してほしいと頼まれた。
Doctor
巨匠・黒澤明監督が手がけた戦国スペクタクル巨編。武田信玄の影武者として生きた男の悲喜劇を荘厳にして絢爛な映像で描く。戦国時代。家康の野田城攻めの折り、鉄砲で撃たれこの世を去った武田信玄。弟信廉は信玄死すの報を打ち消すため信玄の影武者を立てる。男は盗みの罪から処刑されるところを信玄と瓜二つだったことから助けられたのだった。だが男にとって戦国の雄・信玄として生きることはあまりにも過酷だった……。カンヌ国際映画祭グランプリ受賞。
First live action "Barefoot Gen" sequel.
Doctor
Two semi-slackers with an ultra-intimate friendship work, slack and drink in a freezing Hokkaido town.
Tai Kato’s early 20th century set yakuza epic about an ordinary merchant girl (Hiroko Maki) who crosses paths with an assassin (Tetsuya Watari). The encounter sends her to jail as a suspected accomplice. Years later she marries a yakuza boss, whose gang is affiliated with working class people.
Final part of epic drama about war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family through the Sino-Japanese War through the Soviet Union's sudden attack upon Japanese troops at the end of the war.
Minoru visits his home on Okinoerabu island for the first time in thirty years. Seeing the old man who used to be in love with his mother, Minoru recalls the old days spent on the island with his young, beautiful mother.
江戸北町奉行所の同心で、その切れ味鋭い頭脳と精力絶倫ぶりから“かみそり半蔵”との異名を取る板見半蔵。ある日、江戸市中で無宿人狩りが行なわれ、半蔵は、島送りにされていた重罪人の人斬り屋・三途の竿兵衛が島破りをしてどうやら江戸に潜んでいることを知る。竿兵衛の愛人・お美乃を捕らえた半蔵は、自らの男性的魅力で彼女を陥落させて、今回の事件の裏に大奥にまで広がる意外な悪事が秘められていることをさらに知る。
Pinku from 1971.
国内最大の激戦となった沖縄戦の全貌を圧倒的な迫力で映像化した戦争大作！太平洋戦争で日本が経験した唯一の国内戦として多数の犠牲者を生んだ悲劇の沖縄決戦を、岡本喜八監督が壮大なスケールで描いた戦争大作。１９７１年の沖縄返還協定調印という当時の時局を背景に製作された。敗色濃厚な日本軍は、連合軍を沖縄で食い止めるため、大量の兵力を注ぎ込んだ。しかし連合軍の空爆によって、沖縄第三十二軍はあえなく四散、やがて米軍の上陸をゆるしてしまう・・・。
Suicidal Old Man
This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.
An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.
Owner of the Yamatoya
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.
Shinkichi, a peasant employed as a cloth-dyer, has a dream: in the midst of the civil war which ravages Japan, he hopes to revive the long-banned custom of the Kyoto Gion Festival, and by doing so, bring together the warring clans and rampaging brigands in peaceful celebration.
Shinshichi, father
In the 19th century Edo period, sisters Oshizu and Otaka have sacrificed their personal happiness to work and care for their ailing father. Otaka falls in love, but can’t accept a marriage proposal since her older sister needs to marry first. When Oshizu learns of this decision, she takes matters in her own hands.
An inspirational teacher is the focus of this Japanese drama. After his friend kills himself, Natsuki takes a teaching job on an isolated island. His new students, the children of ignorant fishermen, can see no value in education; therefore, they have no desire to learn. Natsuki then introduces the children to volleyball. The kids are immediately fired up by the game. After winning the island tourney, they go on to win the national championship. Suddenly learning has taken on a whole new dimension. Meanwhile Natsuki gets married. Unfortunately for his wife, he refuses to leave the island.
Omatsu's grandfather
物語始めの舞台は、甲州と江戸。御嶽山奉納の剣術試合で、宇津木文之丞との勝負をゆずらなかった机竜之助は、文之丞の妻だったお浜と夫婦になる。大菩薩峠で、机竜之助に斬られた老人の孫のお松は、七兵衛の世話で厄介になった生け花の師匠のところから、神尾主膳の屋敷へ奉公にあがる。竜之助が組する江戸の浪士組（新徴組の前身）では、近藤勇と芹沢鴨が頭角を顕す。舞台の後半は、清河八郎の暗殺以後、新徴組が新撰組へ、江戸から京都へ移っていく。大菩薩峠と御嶽山奉納試合からの因縁、近藤勇や芹沢鴨の新徴組に身を置いた流れに、文久3年、机竜之助の音無しの剣術は、その在り方が求められていく。
The Artist
A former comic is on the run from the mob.
佐平
海の若大将の紹介：1965年日本映画。永遠の若大将、加山雄三主演の「若大将シリーズ」第5弾です。第1作以来の水泳部に返り咲いた若大将が、ライバル青大将の船に乗り込み、小さな島である女性と出会いますが…。
Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money.
Rokusuke
山本周五郎原作の『赤ひげ診療譚』を基に、巨匠・黒澤明監督が三船敏郎、加山雄三主演で映画化したヒューマニズム溢れる人情ドラマ。江戸時代の小石川養生所を舞台に、そこを訪れる庶民の人生模様と通称赤ひげと呼ばれる所長と青年医師の心の交流を描く。長崎で和蘭陀医学を学んだ青年・保本登は、医師見習いとして小石川養生所に住み込むことになる。養生所の貧乏くささとひげを生やし無骨な所長・赤ひげに好感を持てない保本は養生所の禁を犯して破門されることさえ望んでいた。しかし、赤ひげの診断と医療技術の確かさを知り、また彼を頼る貧乏な人々の姿に次第に心を動かされていくのだった……。
The Sengoku Era was coming to an end. The monopoly of the ever powerful shogun, Ieyasu Tokugawa, was at a near. Only one man was brave enough to stand in Ieyasu's way - A lone wolf samurai by the name of Kagekatsu Uesugi. Inspired by Uesugi's courage to revolt, a young samurai warrior, Touzou Kuruma decides to join the fight. Their target: the Tamonyama Castle.
A musical romance.
Jinbei
丹波哲郎、平幹二朗、長門勇。若き日の大御所３人が暴れまわり、当時大人気となったTVシリーズの映画化。五社英雄の記念すべき初監督作品でもある。時代劇全盛期の迫力ある殺陣は今でもまったく色褪せない。
Miyuki Sasa
のるかそるか、弥十郎が早わざに賭ける生と死!熱砂の荒野に息づまる興奮をよぶ4対1の決斗！！好漢・大友柳太朗が魅せる、騎馬と槍を駆使した時代劇アクション。
人入れ稼業井筒屋の抱え人足で槍奴ぶりが評判の伊達男、権三と浪人者凡河内典膳の娘ちづはかねてからの恋仲だが、娘の夫は武士でなければという典繕の一徹さのために結婚出来ないでいた。そんなことから権三は武士になりたいと願うようになった。ある日、井筒屋に小大名小此木藩から九州へ帰国のための人足を雇いたいという注文が舞い込み、権三は仲間の助十たちと旅に出ることになった。ちづと変らぬ愛情を誓い合い旅に出た権三は...
A young factory worker struggles to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
The womanising master of a run-down dojo hires an unemployed samurai to make himself look good instead of learning the skills himself. He lives to regret this laziness when he falls in love with the daughter of a higher class samurai and is informed on their wedding night that he must defeat her before their marriage can be consumated....
Junkyard Cook
ナショナル・シューズの権藤専務は、自分の息子と間違えられて運転手の息子が誘拐され、身代金3千万円を要求される。苦悩の末、権藤は運転手のために全財産を投げ出して3千万円を用意する。無事子どもは取り戻したが、犯人は巧みに金を奪い逃走してしまい、権藤自身は会社を追われてしまう……。
The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder.
Japanese drama.
A carpenter, Shigetsugu, learns a lesson of love and humanity from five orphaned children and an affectionate woman named Oritsu. It's a winning combination of drama and humor. The warm friendship that grows between the carpenter, the woman and the children making this into a true masterpiece.
An ambitious young woman uses her sex appeal to solve financial problems in her family, including a brother in debt to the yakuza, and a father who stole money from his firm to repay his son's debt.
Takebayashi
凄腕の浪人が、上役の不正を暴こうと立ち上がった9人の若侍に助太刀する痛快アクション時代劇。薄暗い社殿で密議をこらしていた9人の若侍。上役を告発するも逆に窮地に陥っていた。それを図らずも聞いていた浪人は、権謀に疎い彼らに同情し一肌脱ぐことに……。
京南大学法学部の学生、田沼雄一は水泳部のエースであり若大将というニックネームで呼ばれている。おっとりとした性格で授業中にドカ弁を食べる豪快さもある。麻布の老舗のすき焼き屋・田能久の長男でもあるが、謹厳実直な父親の久太郎とは意見が合わず、ぶつかってばかりいる。
Tazaemon
やくざと元締めが対立するさびれた宿場町。そこへ一人の浪人者がやってくる。立ち寄った居酒屋のあるじに、早くこの町を出ていった方がいいと言われるが、その男は自分を用心棒として売り込み始める。やがて男をめぐって、二つの勢力は対立を深めていく……。ハメットの『血の収穫』を翻案、時代劇に西部劇の要素を取り込んだ娯楽活劇。
The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.
Tsunekichi Yamada
A single mother from the country raising a 6th grade boy comes to Tokyo, leaves the boy to live with his uncle's family, runs a struggling grocery store, and works a local inn. The boy befriends a girl, the daughter of the innkeeper...
Assistant-to-the-Chief Wada
日本未利用土地開発公団の副総裁、岩淵の娘佳子と、秘書の西幸一の披露宴が執り行なわれようとしていた。しかし、この西という男、実は5年前、新庁舎の建設に絡む不正入札疑惑で自ら命を絶ち事件の幕引きを図った課長補佐・古谷の一人息子だった……
Batasuke, peddler
In Osaka's slum, youths without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of blood. Alliances constantly shift. Tatsu and Takeshi, friends since boyhood, reluctantly join Shin's gang. Shin's an upstart and moves his gang often to avoid the local kingpin. Hanoko is a young woman with ambitions: first she's in the blood business with her father, then she joins forces with Shin. She soon breaks off that partnership, even though she's taken the sensitive Takeshi under her wing. Double crosses multiply. Those with the closest bonds become each others' murderers.
An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip.
Kumakichi Furukawa
Story of young love in the hills.
Rakuzo the sake seller (uncredited)
Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a lady. But she sees him only as a friend, so he helps another man to woo her by giving him the poetry of his own heart.
On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder.
Gentaro Matsuda
An Ishiro Honda film.
Matashichi
戦国時代、秋月家の武将・六郎太は、生き残った世継ぎの雪姫と共に隠し砦(とりで)にこもる。六郎太たちは、一獲千金をもくろみ、戦に参戦した農民の太平と又七に軍資金の黄金を背負わせ、敵陣を突破して友好国へ逃げ込もうとするが…。次々にふりかかる絶体絶命の危機を切り抜けていく大脱出劇。
狂言回し的な百姓コンビが、後に「スターウォーズ」の“C-3PO”“R2-D2”のモデルとなったことはあまりにも有名な話。
An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series shot in TohoScope.
Mr. Takakura
東京の深川で2人組の犯人による質屋強盗殺人事件が発生。主犯は逮捕されたものの、共犯の石井は目下逃走中。彼が昔の恋人に会いたがっていたという主犯の証言をもとに、2人の刑事、柚木と下岡が、暑い夏のさなか、横浜駅から満員の夜行列車に乗り込み、九州の佐賀県まで出向くことに。彼らは、いまや人妻となっているさだ子という女性を見張るため、彼女の家の真向かいにある宿の2階の部屋に陣取り、辛抱強く張り込みを続ける。
Adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series shot in color.
The Actor
黒澤明監督が、ゴーリキイの同名戯曲に材をとり、脚本の小国英雄とともに舞台を江戸の場末の棟割り長屋に移し社会の底辺に生きる人々の人生模様をユーモアも忘れずに描いた辛口群像劇。物語のほとんどが長屋の中で展開されていながら観客を飽きさせない脚本に感服。
A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community.
Noodle vendor
親子愛の断層に焦点を当てた巨匠・小津安二郎の異色作――― 杉山周吉は、20年前、妻にその愛人と逃げられ、長女を嫁がせた今、次女・明子とひっそりと暮らしている。だが、最近明子の帰宅が遅れがちなことに気をもんでいた。明子は年下の恋人の子を妊娠、それを知って姿を消してしまった彼を毎晩探しさまよっていたのだ。そんなある日、ふとしたことから明子は自分や父を捨てた実母と再会。何も知らなかった明子は、母のみだ…
An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip.
Historical drama about a sleep-eyed ronin
A young man and woman are determined to marry despite opposition from her parents.
Historical drama about a sleepy-eyed ronin.
An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip. The first entry in Toho's Sazae-san series.
Yoshizo (Rumiko's father)
Period romantic drama.
Yayoshi (Father)
美空ひばりが音痴なバスガイドのヒロインと自分自身の二役を務めた青春映画。「ひばりのチャチャチャ」「リンゴ追分」などを披露する。共演は『マタンゴ』の久保明。
野溝トミコは、東京の真中を走るバスの見習車掌。大スターの美空ひばりに瓜ふたつだが、鼻の横にホクロがあるので“びばりちゃん”と呼ばれる人気者。トミコの悩みは、父親が家出してしまったことと、美空ひばりとは似ても似つかぬ大音痴なこと。だが、そんなトミコに、ある日、本物の美空ひばりに会うチャンスが巡ってくる。
Okamoto
町工場を経営する財産家・中島喜一は突然、原水爆とその放射能に対して強い恐怖を抱くようになり、地球上で唯一安全と思われる南米ブラジルへの親類縁者全員の移住を計画する。しかし、このあまりにも突拍子もない行動に対し、現実の生活が脅かされると感じた家族は喜一を準禁治産者として認めてもらうため裁判にかけるのだった。
Gorosaku
Forced on the road by yakuza obligations, a man sets out on a reckless journey to Tsumagoi. Movie posters for local cinemas were often displayed at sento (public baths) too. The handwritten text on the bottom here announces the film will play at Hassen for 3 days.
Tokugoto Izumi
An Ishiro Honda film.
Saito
Two youths - the serious son of a Buddhist abbot and his rakish pal - quarrel over a restaurant keeper's daughter. When one of the youths die the other boy and the girl find they cannot forget him.
Sano
An Ishiro Honda film.
Mariko's grandfather
When an invisible man is run down by a car it’s up to an eager young reporter and a strange clown to bring a dangerous gang to justice.
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.
Manzô - Father of Shino
麦の刈入れが終わる頃。とある農村では野武士たちの襲来を前に恐怖におののいていた。百姓だけで闘っても勝ち目はないが、麦を盗られれば飢え死にしてしまう。百姓たちは野盗から村を守るため侍を雇うことを決断する。やがて、百姓たちは食べるのもままならない浪人たち7人を見つけ出し、彼らとともに野武士に対抗すべく立ち上がる……。
An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life. Notable for its exquisite framing and cinematography, An Inn at Osaka allows its complicated plotlines to disappear behind the minutiae of penury and humiliation that Mito and others suffer during the post-war economic and social reconstruction.
Kimura
Ten years into a marriage, the wife is disappointed by the husband's lack of financial success, meaning she has to work and can't treat herself and the husband finds the wife slovenly and mean-spirited: she neither cooks not cleans particularly well and is generally disagreeable. In turn, he alternately ignores her and treats her as a servant. Neither is particularly happy, not helped by their unsatisfactory lodgers. The husband is easily seduced by an ex-colleague, a widow with a small child who needs some security, and considers leaving his wife.
三流どこの補習学校教師野呂は、税務署吏員金森風吉の家に間借りしている。独身者だ。久かたぶりに銀座へ出て目をまわし、トラックに轢かれそこなった。当分右腕が利かず、学生泡田に代って黒板に字をかいてもらうが、かき賃一時間百円也を請求され、びっくりする。学校経営者の土建屋から夜間担任に格下げされ、無体な時間外勤務を強いられても文句ひとついえぬ野呂が、心ひそかに想うのは金森の娘－－銀行事務員のカン子であった。カン子は無類のガンコ娘で、同僚とはりあい恋人とはりあい、張りのない野呂なんか念頭にもない。野呂と金森は散歩中、戦記物で売りだし今は時めく代議士の五津元大佐に会釈された、というので大感激、警官の甲賀をまじえ外食券食堂で五津礼讃の一くさりをはじめる。途中から一枚加わった学生泡田と甲賀が、話のはしばしに互いの身分を知り、掴みあいとなる。つられて食堂中が大格闘、野呂は丼をもってにげだした。この顛末にもこりず、野呂は学生ちの誘いにのってメーデーに参加宮城前の紛糾にまきこまれて拘置される。同じ署内に選挙違反で検挙された五津もいたが、前後して裟婆に出てからは、五津は「牢獄記」出版でまたまた大ヒット、野呂は学校もクビ、しごと探しに必死である。漸く金森の妻らんの世話でミシン会社荷造り係の口がみつかり、今や入社詮衡へでかけよう、というまぎわ、カン子自殺未遂の報がくる。恋人との結婚を反対されてカンシャクをおこしたのである。が、無我夢中の野呂は「人でなし！」と呼ばうらんの声を背に、とっととわき目もふらず詮衡場へかけつけた。...
A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.
Drunken man B
Takasaki-Shochou
An Ishiro Honda film.
A screwball tale of a suspected “lady thief” and the detective who is on her trail, following her from Osaka to her home village, where she is going to hold a memorial service for her father. Of course, the detective falls in love with his prey.
Sub-Section Chief Ono
市役所の市民課長・渡辺勘治は30年間無欠勤のまじめな男。ある日、渡辺は自分が胃癌であることを知る。命が残り少ないと悟ったとき、渡辺はこれまでの事なかれ主義的生き方に疑問を抱く。そして、初めて真剣に申請書類に目を通す。そこで彼の目に留まったのが市民から出されていた下水溜まりの埋め立てと小公園建設に関する陳情書だった……。
Aoyama
Following the Second World War, the lives of various people in a poverty-stricken area of Tokyo are entertwined. Pachinko parlor girls, shoeshine boys, a maker of costume jewelry, and a streetcorner artist all struggle to make their livings and to find happiness in difficult surroundings.
Isaburo
Jidai-geki by Kiyoshi Saeki
Once an average and seemingly ordinary Tokyo girl, she suddenly finds herself as a TV star owing to her discovery by a casting company, which noticed photographs that her cousin had sent. When another actress falls ill she is given the role instead. Her first film is a success propelling the young actress to popularity, her own fans, money and a house. While everything looks dandy from the outside not all is well within the family however.
Innkeeper of Oiso no Yado
A movie directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Doctor
A high-born woman named Okuni travels around the country with Gohei, a samurai retainer who is in service to her. They are in search of Tomonojo, who has killed the man who was Okuni’s husband and Gohei’s master, and they cannot return to their lord’s home until they have fulfilled their duty of hunting down and killing Tomonojo.
Shunpei Goto
When a group of young geologists declares a mountainside marked for residential development unstable, they are met with scorn on two fronts. On one end, they must contend with the local villagers who balk at the prospect of relocation; on the other, they face the ambitions of the headstrong lumber baron, whose actions will only further destabilize the land. Their pleas for reason ignored, the scientists can do little but observe as nature runs its inevitable course.
Old man Omura
In a small town, according to the homecoming of Professor Ishinaka, the youth culture group was overwhelmed to make a presentation for the summer festival, but because of lack of funds, she works part-time at the spectacle of a tour, a haunted house Especially. The ghost was a struggle amongst the people, it was a great success in filling the crowd, but in the circus hut next to it, Kenji who was supposed to have disappeared was pitiful.
Kawashima
A Hibari Misora musical about an impoverished girl and her brother in Postwar Japan.
Director Hiroshi Inagaki's early version of the life and death of famed swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. Otani Tomoemon gives a brilliant performance as Sasaki Kojiro, who rises from humble beginnings to national fame, and a young Toshiro Mifune appears as the legendary master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi for the first time and essentially sets the standard for future portrayals.This masterpiece is based on the original story as written by noted author Murakami Genzo and is far superior to any other versions. Following Kojiro from his earliest days through his fateful meeting with Musashi, this movie is filled with exciting and dramatic moments culminating in the best version of the final duel ever seen on film.
Setsuko is unhappily to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them failed to propose when Hiroshi left for France a few years ago. Now he is back and Mariko (Setsuko's sister) tries to reunite them. She too is secretly in love with Hiroshi.
Also known as Crazy Uproar.
Adaptation of a novel by Yojiro Ishizaka, originally released in two parts.
Melodrama by Kiyoshi Saeki
Shôjirô
映画『窓から飛び出せ』は、二組の家族の交流を描いた心温まる作品です。徳山周介（大日方傳）は農業と畜産業を営み、父の理太郎（汐見洋）、弟の勇二（小林桂樹）、妻の藤子（轟夕起子）、4人の子供（うち3人が大日方の息子と娘2人）の8人という大家族で暮らしていました。隣家の藤枝家は、船長だった夫を海での遭難事故で亡くした千栄子（岡村文子）と娘の茉利子（香川京子）、足に障がいがありリハビリを続ける息子の道夫（大日方の息子）の3人家族でした。その徳山家と藤枝家の交流を通して、家族の大切さ、人の優しさが画面いっぱいに映し出されます。
Tokunaga
Woman melodrama by Shiro Toyoda
Three humorous love stories set in rural Japan.
Mr. Okamoto
Teacher Yukiko finds herself in opposition to conservative faculty and villagers after defending a student for being in a relationship with a young man from Tokyo.
Soutaro
In a village subsisting on it herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one of the fish companies by the name of Tetsu, decides to overthrow Jakoman and his cohorts.
The mistress of a crook real estate broker comes to terms with her soulless existence after an artist paints her portrait.
1948 Japanese drama film.
Directed by Daisuke Ito.
The premature death of a young mother serves as inspiration for her husband and son.
A bizarre murder at a hot springs resort threatens to disrupt an Edo detective's (Hasegawa) vacation. When his hot-blooded wife (Yamada) starts snooping around, however, he finds himself reluctantly drawn in to the case.
Kamezo
What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy in 1942.
Sonoda - the bus driver
Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the dwindling number of passengers when her job and the bus company itself are at stake.
Ine Onoda, the eldest daughter of a poor family of farmers, raises a colt from birth and comes to love the horse dearly. When the horse is grown, the government orders it auctioned and sold to the army. Ine struggles to prevent the sale.
Hyoroku Ichikawa - the Forelegs
This film depicts a troupe of wandering kabuki players traveling through rural Japan.
9th directorial work by Yamamoto Satsuo.
Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese merchant marine officer. Part spy thriller and part Shanghai travelogue, it was part of a popular series known as "Chinese Continental Friendship" made by the occupying Japanese in China.
Chocolate and Soldiers (チョコレートと兵隊, Chokorēto to Heitai) is a 1938 Japanese war film directed by Sato Takeshi and one of the most effective Japanese propaganda films of the late 1930s. The American director Frank Capra said of Chocolate and Soldiers "We can't beat this kind of thing. We make a film like that maybe once in a decade. We haven't got the actors. It shows the common Japanese soldier as an individual and as a family man, presenting even enemy Chinese soldiers as brave individuals. It is considered to be a "humanist" film, paying close attention to the human feelings of both the soldier and his family. Cinema theorist Kate Taylor-Jones suggests that Chocolate and Soldiers provided "a vision of the noble, obedient and honourable Japanese army fighting to defend the emperor and Japan.
Sahei
Drama about a couple and how they found themselves related with music, their egos and each other.
Venice Film Festival 1939
A colourful study of theatrical life. Two acting troupes vie for the Kyoto market during the Genroku Era. Tojuro, an extremely popular actor, feels the limits to his acting when he sees his rival troupe put on a new type of play featuring its star, Nakamura. He has the famous Chikamatsu write a new play but cannot get used to the character he is to play in it.
Kaita
Hide-chan (Hideko Takamine) and her family are on a trip to Tokyo. While visiting a fairground, a pickpocket (Kamatari Furukawa) steals the father's wallet. While everyone is trying to hunt down the thief, Hide-chan decides to make the most of it and enjoy her stay, while the thief and his main pursuer (Akira Kishii) play hide-and-seek among the funfair's spectacles and freakshows
An early Tōhō salaryman musical.
The otherwise promising young man Asaji (Heihachirô Ôkawa) and his younger brother Yuji (Hideo Saeki) face blighted lives because of society's disapproval of their illegitmacy and déclassé family.
Shogetsu
This film is based on a real Meiji era performer -- and tells of Tochuken's partnership with his wife (played by Chikako Hosokawa) who played shamisen for his songs/recitations), his affair with a geisha (Sachiko Chiba), and the deterioration of his partnership and marriage.
Ochi Tofu
1936 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
Uncle
A story of two sisters, the older being more traditional, the younger a "moga" ("modern girl"). Their widowed father runs the family sake shop, but is running into financial trouble, causing him to tamper with his stock; Meanwhile, his long-time mistress yearns for something more serious. Amidst this, the older sister is introduced to a well-off suitor: A university boy, much more intrigued by the less traditional little sister. A doddering grandfather, an officious uncle and busybody neighbors also don't make the lives of the hardworking members of the family any easier.
Tadakichi
The main focus is on the 5 member band of a small circus as it runs into problems while touring rural Japan. It also pays lots of attention to the two daughters of the aging and irascible ringmaster-circus owner. The high points are the sound (and score) and cinematography featuring a lot of vertiginous panning (appropriate - as high wire trapeze artists are also an important element in the film). A fascinating side-light on 30s Japan.
Shingo (Kimiko's uncle)
Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs her absent father to act as the go-between and negotiate the marriage. Kimiko travels and finds her father living with a second family.
Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.
Baido Noso
Among the tight-knit neighbours are a poet, his actress wife, a bachelor budding author, a tobacco shop owner-cum-landlady, an insurance salesman and his nosy and greedy wife. Enter a young and seemingly high-class couple who just so happens is open to purchasing life insurance from their swift neighbour. In the meantime, life is imitating art across the street, which may end up providing for either a happy ending or a rude split - eventually that is.
Uranari
1935 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
Yopparai - the Drunkard
Three sisters earn money for their bossy mother by being samisen street musicians. This means mainly playing a banjo type instrument for tips in bars...
Enoken plays a magician real powers come from his magical hat. A jealous theater owner sends girls, then goons, to keep Enoken from performing his grand show!
Based on the comic by Yutaka Asou
The film generally regarded as Japan’s first true musical was also the first film made entirely in-house by the pioneering studio P.C.L., a company founded specifically to take advantage of emergent sound technology. P.C.L. worked in collaboration with a brewer’s firm, Dai Nihon Biru, who met the production costs of the film in full, and whose products are featured in the film in an example of the sophisticated and modern merchandising typical of the studio’s early work. The film is partially set in a beer hall, and its story concerns a beer seller at a train station and her relationship with a music student trying to create a hit song. Director Sotoji Kimura was to become a company stalwart, making such films as Ino and Mon, while actress Sachiko Chiba would emerge the studio’s first real star, appearing in such films as Wife Be Like a Rose.
