Ruriko Asaoka
The 50th film in Tora-san series, using the old footages and newly shot scenes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the series. The adult Mitsuo, Tora-san’s nephew, who runs into Izumi, his first love, whom he had once promised to marry. The familiar faces of Kurumaya Cafe, which Tora-san’s family ran in Shibamata, also return. Catching up with old friends, it is always their dearest memories of Tora-san which everyone shares on such occasions…
Doctor Rie (Miho Kanno) is know as the Joan of Ark of Obstetrics & Gynecology. She works in a challenging environment with clinics shutting down due to lack of doctors and the system itself breaking down. Dr. Rie then helps an infertile woman conceive with a surrogate mother which is prohibited in Japan...
Fifty elderly women are abandoned to die on a snow covered mountain, but instead wor together to build their own village named "Dendera." Some of the women wants to live their remaining days in peace, but others seek revenge against the villagers and their own families who left them to die.
This is the story between single mother housekeeper and mathematics professor,who has a brain damage.
Carrying a bag full of samples, Mitsuo makes rounds to shoe stores in remote cities. While staying at budget hotels, his thoughts turn to Tora-san.
Tora-san works hard to bring together his nephew, Mitsuo, and Mitsuo’s girlfriend who is engaged to someone else.
When cabaret singer Lily writes Toraya about her illness, Tora-san rushes to Okinawa to be by her side.
A wealthy Japanese sugar factory manager in Hawaii finds his wife sinking into depression and madness.
Tora-san visits Hokkaido and is reunited with Lily. Now divorced, she plans to resume her singing career and renews her unusual relationship with Tora-san.
On the road again, Torajiro meets a kindred spirit in Lily, a lounge singer.
Final part of epic drama about war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family through the Sino-Japanese Waru through the Soviet Union's sudden attack upon Japanese troops at the end of the war.
Set during the declining years of the Tokugawa shogunate, Shadow Hunters details the questionably noble exploits of three ronin who act as "Shadow Hunters". These three ronin are not your normal ornery ruffians who are looking for a drink, a broad and someone to jab a sword into, but are in fact former samurai who, rather than follow their destroyed fiefs and murdered masters into death via seppuku, have dedicated their combined sword prowess to stopping the government from raping its daimyos for valuable resources.
In this intricately layered Japanese film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.
Second part of an epic drama of war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family from 1935 through Japan's invasion of China. Based on the novels by Jumpei Gomikawa, who also penned The Human Condition.
A Japanese girl and a French boy make strides in overcoming the cultural barriers that prevent them from fully expressing the love they have for one another.
In the Edo period, a nameless ronin accepts an assignment to go to a mountain pass and wait. Near the pass he stops at an inn where a collection of characters gather, including a gang set on stealing shogunate gold that's soon to come over the pass. When the Ronin's assignment becomes clear, to help the gang, he's ordered to kill the inn's residents, including a woman he's rescued from an abusive husband. He's reluctant to murder innocent people; then he learns that the gold shipment is a trap and he's part of a double cross. How he sorts through these divided loyalties tests of his samurai honor, and perhaps of his love for a woman.
Senso to ningen: Unmei no jokyoku (戦争と人間) is a 3-part, 9 hr long war epic directed by the famed left-wing Japanese director Satsuo Yamamoto about the life of 5 generations of a family during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which features impressive cinematography and art direction, and of course, a more than impressive cast which includes Yûjirô Ishihara, Go Kato, Rentarô Mikuni, Tanba Tetsuro, Etsushi Takahashi, Mitsuko Mito, Ruriko Asaoka, Komaki Kurihara, Kyôko Kishida, etc.
It is the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926), and at the Hanazuki-tei theatre in Asakusa, the famous performance of storyteller Koiso Kikuji and performer Kataoka Koshin is reaching its climax when the Tawaraya family interferes... This is an entertaining action film bursting with righteousness and humanity, centred on men who try to live righteously against a corrupt boss who preys on the performers.
Michi (Ruriko Asaoka)'s first encounter with Nobuyuki Ishida (Eiji Okada), secretary to the chairman of a private school, takes place in the drawing room, when she attempts to swindle him out of two million yen for alleged rape by his son. Akie (Kyoko Kishida), Ishida's wife and the chairman's daughter, offers her a million, but he gives her what she demands. Now Michi is not only satisfied, but she has a mad desire for Ishida and calls him every day asking for a date. His sympathy for her gradually evolves into love, and he soon allows her insatiable passion to strip him of his decency.
In safari of torrid and all the Yujiro Ishihara is galloping bet, powerful rally and the beauty of the heroine of Ruriko Asaoka! Europe, were dared Africa long-term location, romanticism overflowing masterpiece! to sprint the burning of safari wilderness, a dream of a man who bet on the race . the Grand Prix Nissan team fulfilled the 1960s Japan is proud, Koreyoshi Kurahara director of allies and Yujiro is, Europe, and dared Africa long-term location powerful movie! "I Hate But Love" as a masterpiece of a number of Kurahara supervision in Yujiro and Ruriko Asaoka death has been co-star is, and dressed to hero lover challenge to fight you bet the life and death, the adult man and woman of the drama is expanded.
Tsutomu Yoshioka, a Tokyo office worker, is enaged to Mariko, the niece of his company's president. But Yoshioka has a crisis of consence when he remembers his former love Mitsu, a rural girl whom he met and later left while in college. Shimako, a former friend, persuades Yoshioka to meet with Mitsu while she plots to blackmail Yoshioka by photographing the meeting to break up Mariko and Yoshioka.
The chronicles of Sakamoto Ryoma, a pre-revolutionary who helped shape the face of modern Japan. In order to study swordsmanship, Ryoma heads for Edo where he meets many people who influence his thinking. He becomes close friends with men like Katsu Kaishu and Saigo Takamori and later establishes a naval training school in Kobe. Ryoma's controversial political views make him a target for shogunate assassins but his fervent belief in a classless society helps forge the Choshu-Satsuma alliance which ultimately brings about the Meiji Restoration.
The early years of the Showa period were turbulent times for Japan. The country suffered financial crisis and famine, women worked under intolerable employment conditions, and political corruption was a major issue. Out of fear that the great nation would soon fall, a group of young patriotic men gathered to lay out plans to assassinate the crooked politicians. One of these young terrorists was Shinsuke Kusaka. He receives orders to kill the Prime Minister.
Suspense drama about an assassin charged with breaking up a gold smuggling ring, and the contract subsequently purchased against him and his employer.
The year is 1926. It has been three years since the Great Kanto earthquake hit Tokyo. Everything is being rebuilt from the ground up. Odera crime syndicate saw this as an opportunity to expand its territory. The Odera boss arranges marriage between his daughter Orin (Ruriko Asaoka) and the son of notorious Gyotoku clan, but Orin’s heart belonged to Shinjiro (Yujiro Ishihara), a member of her father’s clan.
When Toru Sagara (Yujiro Ishihara) returns home from a foreign cargo route, he proposes to his beloved girlfriend Akiko (Ruriko Asaoka). She joyously agrees, promising a life together. On the day they were to be joined in matrimony, Akiko suddenly goes missing. Toru waits hours for her to show, but he is only greeted by the darkness of night. Four years later, his fiancée turns up at a night club in Yokohama with another man.
Koreyoshi Kurahara adapted a novel by Yukio Mishima for Thirst for Love (Ai no kawaki), a tense psychological drama about a young woman who is widowed after marrying into a wealthy family, and becomes sexually involved with her father-in-law, while harboring a destructive obsession with the family gardener. Kurahara’s atmospheric style is a perfect match for Mishima’s brooding sensuality.
A young yakuza hitman named Goro does a job and needs to hideout away from Tokyo for a while. He hangs out with loose women and hard men and always manages to stay one step ahead of the law. In his exile, he comes under suspicion for a murder and meets the girlfriend of the murdered man. They develop a strange bond while unbeknown to Goro, another hitman is after him for the job he did in Tokyo.
Yang Ming Xuan intercepts a truckload of contraband, but the criminals stage a brazen helicopter attack, ruthlessly eliminating their own operatives and destroying most of the shipment before it can be confiscated. In the process, Ming Xuan's partner is killed, and the young agent is brought to the unwelcome attention of the leader of the smuggling operation.
It had been a year and four months since Mitsuo was last on a movie set. Welcomed back by director Ishizaki and his film crew, Mitsuo is excited to star as the lead in "My Sweetheart". One day, half way through production, he meets his friends from a popular rock group, "The Spiders". Through their discussion regarding the climax scene, they criticize that the script is too grim. In a notion to protect their friend's career, they decide to pay the scriptwriter a little visit.
A young ex-boxer has become a successful businessman, running his various enterprises with his best friend, another boxer whom he accidentally injured in a match. When the latter is found dead, he cannot believe it is suicide and decides to investigate. Sure enough, a group of gangsters is behind his death and, resenting his intrusion, try to ruin him and to pin the murder of his young friend's fiancee on him. At the last minute he shoots it out with the villains and emerges with his reputation intact.
In 1943, Japan is amidst the Pacific War. Sobei Sonoda is one of the wealthiest landowners of the San'in region. His land spread for miles, as far as the eye can see. People treated him with respect. But even the richest must think about the future. One day, he decides to arrange a marriage between his only son, Junkichi and the daughter of an even more powerful family. Sobei, hoping to benefit from this union, soon discovers that his son was in love with a lower class girl.
A deep mist envelops the port city of Yokohama. The scent of crime is everywhere. As an executive member of a drug trafficking syndicate, Kano is pretty high up in the food chain, but "status" bears no value to him. All he cares for is Ayako, the boss' mistress. After one last job, they intend to run off together to Hong Kong, but their plans are hindered when an uninvited yakuza stirs up a vicious shootout. In the midst of it all, Ayako is kidnapped.
Hiroshi is the second officer on board the Hakuromaru. Lead by his captain, he heads out to town to recruit new crew members for their next voyage. Hiroshi is baffled when his captain approaches the Daigo-Kuroshiomaru crew, a notorious group nicknamed "the hoodlums of the sea". Their offer is greeted with scoffs and quickly turned down.
Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.
A hot-shot detective in Yokohama kills a witness during a drug investigation. He flees to the countryside and evades his past for several years, only to return to find the woman he loved married to his former partner. He searches for answers to his troubled past, knowing that his inevitable doomed fate is more or less sealed.
The tragic tale of Kiyono, a young woman from the mountain who fell in love with Takuji, a fisherman's son, and her devotion to him during a time of war.
Three girls come to Tokyo to stay with their elder sister. Actually they are running away from home because their father has married again to a very young woman. They have many romantic adventures and one finally decides against the boy she thought she loved because he, just like her father is always away from home. But directly after her marriage to another young man, her sister runs after the former boy-friend.
Kenichi Horie is determined to challenge his family, the law and the nature crossing the Pacific to America in a small sailboat. Despite his careful planning many unforeseen events will test his determination.
A youth drama directed by Kiyoshi Horiike, who was adapted from "Young Tokyo no Yane" by Akira Saiga from "Oka wa Hanazakari" based on Yojiro Ishizaka. Miwako Kazuki left the English literature department and joined Toyo Critics. She was attracted by Noro, the editor-in-chief, whose wife died a few years ago and was now living with her two orphans and her old mother....
As the post-war turmoil continued, Take, the boss of the waifs, stole the money of US soldiers and lived with friends. They were like children of wolves. By chance, they were found by and became a members of a yakuza family. Five years later, Take dominated the port town as a young boss.
Hanjiro is a struggling painter that shares a tiny apartment in the back streets of Ginza with his jazz pianist friend who works at a bar. When he and his sweet heart, Hisako decide to get married, Hanjiro is faced with a tough decision. Needing to buy a ticket back home to tell his mother the good news, he compromises his creative principles for love and sells his portrait of Hisako. Hisako heads to the station to see him off, but gets hit by a car...
A celebrity, dissatisfied with his personal and professional lives, impulsively leaves fast-paced Tokyo to deliver a much-needed jeep to a remote village. When his controlling manager, the woman he loves, follows, the two must reconcile while dodging reporters.
In the nine part Wataridori series (1959-1962), Kobayashi played a wanderer on Japan’s back roads with most of the accoutrements of a Western hero, from a horse to fringes, guitar and even a trusty bullwhip.
Joe, Okita, and Serizawa hear of the armed robbery of a truck carrying one billion eighty million yen's worth of Mint paper. Knowing that the thugs will now need a counterfeiter to make the bogus bills, they each decide to cash in on it by selling them the idea that they need Sakamoto, the best counterfeiter in Japan. A seesaw game unfolds between the three men as each tries to outdo the other two in handing over Sakamoto for one million yen to Hijikata, the big boss, who intends to make counterfeit money with the stolen paper. A little belatedly, they realize it needs their combined forces to outwit Hijikata and they raid his place together. Outnumbered, however, they are thrown into a basement room and the gas is turned on. Certain death stares them in the face, but the three men are not ones to take things lying down....
Keiko is pretty and intelligent but her home life is not a happy one. Never having known a father's love, she develops a possessive attachment to Mr. Mazaki, the new mathematics teacher.
The Ginza Whirlwind (Akira Kobayashi) attempts to solve a murder.
In the nine part Wataridori series (1959-1962), Kobayashi played a wanderer on Japan’s back roads with most of the accoutrements of a Western hero, from a horse to fringes, guitar and even a trusty bullwhip.
When Ryuji - the Gun Slinger, a drug addict leaves hospital to which he was taken after a gunfight by a notorious killer named Gin of Colt, he is employed as a bodyguard by Yo Sangen, chief of a narcotics smuggling ring.
The 3rd film of the famous "Wataridori" (The Rambler) series from Nikkatsu. The young rambler, Shinji Taki (Akira Kobayashi), with his guitar arrives in Sadogashima Island, Niigata, Japan. Of course, Shinji meets yet another beautiful girl named Noriko, who closely resembles the famous actress Ruriko Asaoka again. Of course, Noriko is in trouble. Of course, Shinji's yet another skilled rival named "Tetsu, the Gunman" comes to Sado shortly. Of course, the villain tries to kill Shinji and Tetsu. Of course, Shinji solves the problem and leaves Sado suddenly.
The young rambler, Shinji Taki, with his guitar arrives a hot spa town at the foot of Mount Aizu Bandai. Of course he solves the problems in the town while encountering the sinister rival, Masa "the pistol guy".
Sadao, is saved from death at the hands of Goro, a killer belonging to a rival gang by Joji just released from prison who has resolved to turn over a new leaf. He has returned, however, because of Keiko, his sweetheart, who he now finds is engaged to Noboru, a detective and son of Jinsaku, boss of the Otsu gang. That night at the night club, headquarters of the Highlight Group - which Noboru is investigating, Majima meets Joji who knows of his attempt to kill Jinsaku, and resolves to kill him.
Two men perform a robbery on an airplane before parachuting to safety, and a newspaper reporter attempts to solve the crime.
Mega star Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro in the rambunctious tale of a chef who opens a restaurant in the busy Ginza district. His culinary skills and dashing good looks bring in the women as well as unwanted trouble, while an explosive political scandal builds around his girlfriend’s business...
Plans to build a touristic hot spring on the island of Izu Oshima run afoul of the Kobe yakuza group, which intends to use the island as a relay base for drug smuggling.
Senko Tamagawa is a third-year junior high school student, and she is the captain of the badminton club. Her father, Kinzo, remodeled her barn and lent it to her only Mikayo. Senko was somehow envious of her flashy life... In a tragedy with a girl living in the base as the main character, Katsumi Miki of "Life like a weed" adapted the original story of Muraji Uchiki and directed by Eisuke Takizawa of "Ajisai no Uta".
The Rambling Guitarist start his journey again with more challenge wait!
An airplane loaded with 50 million yen for the reconstruction of Amami Oshima crashes en route from Kagoshima, Kyushu, but neither the money nor the remains of the pilot can be found.
Arriving in the town of Hakodate, a wandering musician, Shinji Taki, is soon recruited by the local gang as a hired hand. However, with the arrival of a sinister gunman, Taki's mysterious past catches up with him.
Kenichi, who lives like a stray dog among fellow gangsters, finds his love for the first time while the police are trying to catch him on suspicion of murder.
Kensaku Muro and his father manage a farm in Sakudaira at the foot of the Yatsugatake Mountains. One day Kensuke saves a suicidal woman, Fukiko Uzu, who jumps into a waterfall. Having injured his eyes in the process, he is brought to Tokyo for medical treatment. In Tokyo, Kensaku visits his mother Kaneko who left her son years ago. She now owns an exclusive club and has a son, Isao, with the president of Kobe Concern. Isao plots to steal Kensuke's farm as part of a land development scheme with Fukiko's husband. Without knowing they are blood related, their conflict over the farm intensifies.
Story of an ex-con trying to go straight, but of course the old ways die hard.
A youth lyrical story of pure love of a girl who grew up in the Kyoto Gion quarter, with a geisha mother and sisters Maiko and a college student.
A young doctor discovers that the city hall of records has a record of his death. He and some friends try to seek out the person who reported it, and uncover a shady group of criminals with a sinister plot.
Nobuo is a hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past.
In a warehouse area at night, a drunk chief engineer is stabbed to death by someone who whistles. After the break of dawn, two seamen join the crew of a rusty cargo ship Kaiyo Maru. One is a troublemaker with bad attitudes, Senkichi Nomura, who pursues an enemy in order to take revenge for his father's death. The other is Keizo Sasaki, a buff, eagle-eyed man on board for a certain mission.
It’s been five years since her husband had passed away. Fuyuko lives in the quiet suburbs, in a small but loving home with her three beautiful daughters. Haruko, the eldest, is the lead vocalist in a band. Natsuko is the conscientious type, who spends her days in ballet classes beautifying herself. The youngest of the three, Akiko is a bookworm who found her niche in philosophy. Although the sisters may appear to have nothing in common, there is one thing they all agree on; "Mom needs a new husband".
East-West Transportation, headquartered in Tokyo, operates daily scheduled cargo flights on the Tokaido Road from Tokyo to Osaka and back, as the name suggests. Daikichi was a driver working for the East-West transportation company, and Rokuheita served as his assistant. The Daikichi truck, which was packed with luggage today, has left for its destination. And soon after Daikichi's truck left, Rokuheita heard a cat meowing from behind, so Daikichi stopped the car and turned to check the cargo, and there in a large basket he saw a crying baby...
Ruriko's father is a well known scientist who's involved in secret research that even his family doesn't know about. Ever since he moved up to the research laboratory in Hokkaido, Ruriko hasn't heard from him. The only thing that reminder her of his warmth was the green music box that he'd left behind for her. She longed to reunited with her father. The little box played music that lifted her spirits, to a place where everything was perfect.
In the thriving Tokyo neighborhood of Ginza, a woman in the process of selling her estranged husband’s art collection attempts to identify the man who painted her own portrait fifteen years prior.
Kanako is an intelligent and beautiful girl in her third year of high school, but there was a dark shadow. Raised by her father, Jusaburo, who is the owner of the Matsukawa troupe, she grew up without knowing the love of her mother. She has been on stage since she was a child, but oneday she cried and complained to her father, and she stopped going to school. In a mock exams, Kanako overtook her classmate Tetsuji to take the lead. That evening, Kanako went to the Yasue Theater in the neighboring town with Eikichi, and saw the affair of her stepmother, Yumi, who should have been resting due to her illness. The man ran away in a hurry, and Yumi confessed that Kanako's mother, Miyako, had also run away for the same reason...
