Sayuri Yoshinaga

Yukie Kitahara is a housewife and she has devoted her life to her family. Mako Goda is a wealthy woman who runs a business. They are both diagnosed with terminal illnesses and are told they only have a short time left to live. These two women from completely different walks of life meet at the hospital. They both feel emptiness in their lives. They happen to get a 12-year-old's written bucket list. Yukie Kitahara and Mako Goda decide to carry out the girl’s wish list and they begin to feel happiness entering their lives.

The film follows the relationship between a mother and her son. In 1945, the mother played by Sayuri Yoshinaga fled with her two sons from the Russians to Hokkaido. In 1972, her son played by Masato Sakai returns to Japan after finding success in the U.S.

Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) works in Nagasaki, Japan as a midwife. Her son died 3 years earlier from the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1948, her son appears in front of her again. Since that time, Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya) appears in front of her and they reminiscence about pleasant times. These happy, but bizarre moments seem eternal.

Etsuko's café in her peaceful little seaside town is where everyone gathers to gossip and taste her famous brew. But the winds of change are beginning to blow.

2500 years ago, in India, Siddhartha was born as a prince of the Shakya clan, but he gives up his position as a prince to see the world. He meets a strange boy named Assaji, who can predict the future, a monk with only one eye and Depa. Siddhartha continues traveling. Siddhartha is overwhelmed by the sufferings he witnesses around him. Meanwhile, Prince Ruri of Kosara begins his attack on the Shakya clan. Second Buddha movie from Tezuka Productions.

A teacher, Kawashima Haru, arrives on a remote island, north of Hokkaido. She has accompanied her husband, Yukio, to become the teacher of six students. Once Haru discovers the children’s beautiful singing voices, she brightens their spirits by leading them in a chorus. Smiles now break out on the faces of the children, who had been bored at school before her arrival. Their angelic voices reverberate across the wilderness, warmly basking the residents’ hearts. One day, Abe, a policeman with a troubled soul, arrives on the island. Haru, who harbors her own secret pain, is increasingly moved by the long shadow cast over Abe’s heart. But one summer’s day, Haru’s husband dies in an accident on a picnic with her students. The terrible wound in Haru’s heart causes her to abandon her worried father and flee the island. Although she has escaped the island, she remains concerned for her students...

Ginko’s younger brother Tetsuro, a failed comedian, is the oddball of the family. Embarrassing, loud and plain inappropriate at times causes Ginko to disown him. The two reunite when she discovers Tetsuro is terminally ill. Tetsuro’s impending death marks the beginning of love and toleration.

Kohei Miyazaki (Naoto Takenaka), a former railroad worker, has become obsessed with discovering the ancient country of Yamataikoku. His obsession sprouted from a day when he discovered ancient ceramics while repairing railroad tracks. Now completely blind, Kohei relies on his wife (Sayuri Yoshinaga) to guide him through the country and read the maps in their pursuit of Yamataikoku.

In 1868, after the fall of the Shogun-dominated Japan, the new government orders people from Awaji, near Kobe, to re-locate to the northern part of Hokkaido. These people once supported the now displaced Samurais of the older days. After two years, over 500 of them settled in their new land under the leadership of Hideaki, husband of Shino. However, as crops fail he is to go to Sapporo to learn new techniques of farming, leaving his wife and daughter for 5 years. All this time, the new community is constantly watched by the government which choose to again uproot them from their new homes.

Based on the ancient Japanese Tale of Genji. This film is set in 900AD and tells the story of a famous female writer of the time, Murasaki Shikibu. Her story begins from the death of her husband, a Japanese noble, then moves on to her recruitment to train the Prince's young 'wives in waiting'. It is dotted throughout and actually composed mainly of one of the fictional stories she wrote, the tale of Genji. Genji is a rich playboy who falls in love and has a son to his stepmother. He falls in love often and has many wives whom are all completely subservient to him. Genji is played by a woman actress from the all-female Takarazuka theatre. The two interrelating stories are also interrupted occasionally by fantasimical musical clips from a past Japanese teen-idol, Seiko Matsuda.

Screen icon Sayuri Yoshinaga stars in this historical melodrama about geishas in the southern city of Nagasaki set during the 1920s. Though she was sold to a geisha house at a young age, Aihara (Yoshinaga) has since become a master samisen player and woman of great elegance. Though not especially rich, she doles out money to street kids, in particular, a pretty young flower vendor named Oyuki, who becomes Aihara's godchild of sorts. Yet when a geisha (Reiko Takashima) from a rival red-light district insults Aihara and her brethren, she fights back. Soon an all-out geisha war looms. Dapper businessman and amateur scholar Tojiro Koga (Tetsuya Watari) appears on the scene and defuses tempers -- suggesting that difference be settled through a competition of artistic abilities. Smitten with her talent and mature beauty, Koga invites Aihara to record Nagasaki folk songs before they disappear forever

Takanosuke Ushio and Tae Horikawa are unable to forget each other, even though they met and fell in love 20 years ago. They had promised each other that they would build a retreat in Shiguretei, but Ushio was hospitalized after a stroke a few days later, and when his wife, Takako, rushed to the hospital, she discovered their love affair, which in reality had not gone beyond kissing. Now, 20 years later, against the advice of her ikebana mentor, Tae rushes to meet Ushio at Shiguretei, only to see him clutching his chest in pain. Eventually, the design and plans for the dream retreat are seen by Tae, but she has to visit Kyoto alone... or maybe she's heading for somewhere else.

A story of friendship between two women, Yae and Kiyoko. Their friendship is tested when artist Yae, who suffers from fatal illness, develops special feelings towards her best friend Kiyoko’s boyfriend Kosuke.

A middle-aged journalist looking to make her big break. After working the same beat on the "women's page", Yumiko gets promoted to editorials.

Famed onnagata (a man who plays women's parts in Kabuki) Tamasaburo Bando follows up on the success of his directorial debut, Gekashitsu, with this soft-focused romance about love and obligation, based on a novel by Kafu Nagai. Set during the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kaede (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is the former mistress of a wealthy merchant. When he dies, she is forced out on the street and forced to give up her young daughter to the merchant's family. The film opens with her working in a high-class brothel abutting Tokyo Bay. Though she has passionate affection for a drug wholesaler, whom she loves as well, Kaede is swamped with not only debts to the bordello and family obligations -- she is expected to support her parents and her sister -- but also guilt over losing her child. This pain is only increased when Kaede learns that her daughter is being abused. She does the only thing she can: She buys back her child by signing on at the brothel for a longer stint.

Elite lawyer Ryoko enlists the help of a foreign mafia in rescuing her son from a criminal who holds grudge against her.

Melodrama about a woman refusing surgery.

Based on the folk tales "Repayment from a crane". One snowy night a beautiful woman named Tsuru (Crane) visits poor peasant Taiju and says she will become his wife...

Set in the Taisho era, which might be regarded as Japan's Hippie Phase, Hana no ran is a story about fashionable people without impulse control. Much of the action centers on a popular woman writer, the real-life poet Akiko Yosano, and her experiences among the literati of early 20th century Japan. Because of her independent, anti-war and often erotic poetry, she was a lightning rod for revolutionaries and other extremists, many of whom were destined to glamorous, yet ultimately pointless, deaths. The closest parallels might be the Byron/Shelley group or the people drawn to the Beat Generation.

Story of famed Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, with an emphasis on her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi.

A young woman's life is turned upside down when her husband suddenly disappears, leaving behind numerous debts and his illegitimate child. Desperate to track down her missing husband, she travels to Kyushu in hopes of finding clues to his whereabouts and in the process discovers disturbing secrets about the man she loves.

Yumechiyo, a geisha house madam recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, yearns to do something constructive with the little time she has left. Through her responsibility lies in taking care of her girls, she finds purpose in providing a man innocent of a false murder charge and in the process discovers love for the first time in his arms.

A story of a shopkeeper and his ex-wife, lives full of tragedy.

From a true incident that happened in 1960s Japan. This drama is contemporary in setting but medieval in its characters and emotions as it focuses on a tangled web of murder and deceit encountered by a beautiful woman, Kayo (Sayuri Yoshinaga) after her abusive husband is murdered.

This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.

After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this project Akutsu becomes involved with Tae Makimura leading to his estrangement from his wife.

When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miyagi, tries to honor his dying wish to rescue his sister. Upon finding Kaoru at a party working as a geisha and later rescuing her from committing suicide, Col. Miyagi allows her to move in with him. Over time, the two grow close, but in spite of Kaoru's growing feelings for him, Col. Miyagi is unable to bring himself to return her love. On the night of his deployment to war, Col. Miyagi finally admits his feelings for Kaoru, but will they ever be able to enjoy a peaceful life together now that a very violent and bloody military revolt is under way...

The 24th NHK Asadora. Starring Senri Yamazaki as a woman who makes her life at a fishing port.

Patterned after Japanese art and silk screens, Taro, The Dragon Boy is an animated feature about Japanese mythology and cultures, focusing on Taro, a young boy who has to make a voyage to a distant lake to save his mother, who has been turned into a dragon.

A man whose son has been murdered pushes to create laws to financially protect victims' families.

Taking the Chilean coup as an example, a group of young officers plan to overthrow the Japanese government on V-J Day. They aim to abolish the post-war constitution, restore the national army and revive the traditional spirit of Japan. As the conspiracy is exposed, the coup squadrons are wiped out one by one. The remaining squadron takes over a night train bound for Tokyo.

First film produced by Nikkatsu Children's Films.

Mainly the story of Shinsuke and his stepmother, ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of the life of the characters. Shinsuke's father dies while bravely using dynamite to rescue a group of trapped Korean miners. Several older men attempt to help he and his mother cope, including a kind Korean and a Harley-riding yakuza.

After Torajiro's latest attempt to find a bride goes awry, he starts traveling again and runs into Utako (last seen in Tora-san's Dear Old Home), now a widow.

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.

While Sakura and Hiroshi struggle to save funds to build a house, Torajiro befriends three young women on vacation during his travels.

The story of Ryoma Sakamoto, considered to be the architect behind the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was considered an outlaw by his own clan, hunted by his government, and was despised by supporters of the Shogun as well as the Loyalists for desiring the opening of Japan to the West in order to learn its technology, in the hopes of one day defeating the West with a modern army and navy.

Depicting Date clan’s internal strife that occurred during a peaceful Edo period governed by the 4th Tokugawa shogun.

A real all-star cast turns out for this modern yakuza yarn.

In a high school, two men are fighting over a beautiful female teacher who has been assigned as an English teacher.

Romance about student-nurse interns.

In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the fiery breaths of war hadn't yet reached Okinawa Normal School for women. Nothing seemed the least bit out of the ordinary, as Kazuko and her friends enjoyed a day of sports. A year later the war takes a devastating turn, as US forces plan an amphibious attack known as "Operation Iceberg" on the Ryukyu island.

Japanese drama film.

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 girl is in love with two men.

Young Mariko is torn between two admirers, Natsukawa and Rikizo.

Yukio, a young man who works hard at a printing factory in Hiroshima ends up dating Kazue, who works at a record store. However their happiness is short-lived. At the age of four, Yukio was hit by a flash of the atomic bomb and his A-bomb disease symptoms recur. He has to be hospitalized. Resisting the lack of understanding from those around her, Kazue does her best to devote herself to Yukio, but...

One morning, Kazue is nearly knocked over by a motorbike in front of an instrument store, breaking all the records that she was carrying. The two connect instantly and begin seeing each other every day. However, Iwai, Yukio’s foster parent, is concerned - Yukio had been exposed to the atomic bomb when he was four years old and had been showing symptoms of atomic radiation, hospitalizing him in the Genbaku Atomic Bomb Survivor’s Hospital. Unfortunately, nobody knows when the symptoms may return. When Yukio passes out from anemia during work, he decides to part with Kazue. A couple of days later, Yukio tells her of his destiny at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, but Kazue passionately encourages him.

Japanese drama film.

A father gives his four daughters his substantial retirement allowance on the stipulation that they leave him alone, as he wants some freedom. Each of the daughters has a romantic interest and it's noticeable that the father, too, has someone in mind.

Hiroko, who has a weekly magazine reporter as her lover is assigned as a public health nurse in a remote village. However, there is widespread poverty and ignorance beyond her imagination.

Heartwarming story of an ambitious girl who becomes a concert pianist with the help of her musician father.

A young girl in an industrial town is saving her money to enter college. But her drunken father loses his job, her mother cannot make ends meet, and then the boy she likes loses everything when his factory fails. She takes all her savings out of the bank and offers them to him to make a new start. He refuses at first but eventually agrees and so she goes back to school to tell her teacher that she has decided not to continue college, that she is young and strong, and can make her own way in life.

On a small island, inhabited by only fourteen hundred people, a young fisherman's son, Shinji falls in love with Hatsue, the daughter of the richest and most difficult man on the island. Despite their differences in class, they begin to meet and rumors spread of them having an illicit affair. Soon after, Shinji jumps into a stormy sea to help a ship in distress. The vessel turns out to be owned by Hatsue's arrogant father, who now becomes an understanding and sympathetic parent and allows the two lovers to marry.

It is 1922 and Fumiko is a high school student. Her family is poor but she loves to study literature. Her father, a peddler, does not return home and Fumiko finds herself in financial trouble, not being able to pay for her schooling and her school excursion trip. Still, she gets a temporary job at a factory and tries to make ends meet. A film about bright side of youth adapted from the television serial of the same name.

A young girl knows that she is going to die and in this she is supported by the devotion of the boy who loves her. They originally met at the hospital. There it transpired that the only way to save her life was to sacrifice an eye and part of her face. The operation seems a success. Later, however, her other eye becomes affected. She feels she must let the boy go, and yet she depends so much upon his devotion.

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.

Two friends, both members of a Japanese cargo boat, return to Japan after a three-month voyage and have just 24 hours shore leave. In those hectic hours, they vie for the affections of a hotel owner's daughter but wind up with separate girl friends and attempt to bring together the parents of a baby who have separated.

Ayako (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is a free-willed college girl who shares a room with Takako and Kimie. They each have a clear vision of what they want from their career and love life. Soon, their room share takes a turn, when ideals begin to clash with reality.

Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was against school regulations, Shinko was the first to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit. Expelled from her former school, she finds herself in an all-girls school in Jokamachi, where rumors fly. One day, Shinko delivers an anonymous love letter addressed to her English teacher, Ms. Shimazaki. Convinced that the students are playing a prank, Ms. Shimazaki is adamant about getting to the bottom of this "problem”.

On the day of college graduation, Mieko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) stood on stage as the valedictorian for the Department of English. During her university years she made sure that she would always come out on top, and she did. With a victorious graduation behind her, she plans out the next chapter of her life: become a successful novelist and go out with a classmate she's been secretly eyeing for the past couple of years.

During his idle journey on the Izu Peninsula, a university student, Kawasaki, encounters a group of traveling entertainers – including Kaoru (Sayuri Yoshinaga), one of the “odoriko”. Kawasaki is taken and cannot take his eyes off her. When he is invited to stay at the same lodgings, the two grow closer. In time, the two come to learn the pain of love.

Jiro, a young yakuza, and Mami, a diplomat’s daughter, are two young lovers from different worlds. Having met by accident, they soon discover a new life together. But their love is ill-fated. Mami's family will not accept her choice, while leading an honest life seems like an unattainable goal for Jiro. Can there be anything else but a tragic ending? Shinji FUJIWARA's novel delivered the classic plot for this box office hit, which for the first time brought together Sayuri YOSHINAGA and Mitsuo HAMADA as one of the iconic couples of Japanese cinema.

Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.

A touching story of a girl who sails away from her love to keep her family together.

Japanese action film.

Kawanishi Kyu and Tomoda Ryoji, two waifs, are inmates of a Reform School. One night, the boys succeed in a mass escape and split up. Kyu and Ryoji hear the sirens shrieking behind them and panic. Kyu pretends he has been hit by a small truck and Ryoji demands that they be taken to a hospital, little dreaming that Nagai, the driver, is the official guardian of juveniles. The next morning the two boys hear a light knock, and Nagai's daughter, Noriko enters, but surprise is changed to fear as they see her father approaching with Kume, the Juvenile Officer. Their one thought is escape but Kyu discovers his leg is stiff and it pains him to move. In the excitement, he had not realized he had really been hit by the truck. He sends Ryoji away while he waits alone for Officer Kume. Nagai takes Kyu under his wing, while Ryoji finds himself again in the hard-boiled world.

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.

One day, a lone horseman rides into town with a wounded man strapped behind him. Joe, the Ace, had captured one of the bandits who had held up the armored payroll car headed for the dam construction site, takes the wounded man to the police and claims the reward offered. He is told to wait until the driver of the armored car returns to identify the bandit and goes over to the Blue Star where he is introduced to Mishima, the owner of the cabaret, who is highly respected in the town. Joe then meets Saburo, while fishing, and his lovely sister, who seem to sense the real man beneath the rough appearance and take him into their home. Word reaches Joe that the bandit he'd captured had been shot and he hurries over to the hospital.

A yakuza frames another yakuza who goes to jail for 5 years. When he is released he goes to seek revenge only to fall in love with the daughter of the man who framed him.

A marine security officer stranded on the ocean in a small boat is rescued by a crew of buccaneers.

One of Sayuri Yoshinaga's first leading roles.

A 1961 crime film.

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.

After getting out of prison, a young yakuza tries to find out who killed his girlfriend, attempts not to get drawn back into crime, and to find his missing sister.

A sailor is stuck in harbor due to an engine failure in his boat, and he learns that a friend of his has died, reportedly from suicide. He begins to investigate the matter himself, and finds there may be more to the story...

Jirô wanders the streets with friends committing petty crimes that gradually escalate.

Sawako (Sayuri Yoshinaga) worked as an emergency physician at a university hospital. Due to to a situation, she returns to her father Tatsuro's (Min Tanaka) home in Ishikawa Prefecture. She then begins to work at the local Mahoroba Clinic. She works with the clinic director Toru (Toshiyuki Nishida), Nurse Mayo (Suzu Hirose) and staff Seiji (Tori Matsuzaka). Seiji, who worked with Sawako at the university hospital, followed her and works with her again. Mahoroba Clinic provides home healthcare to patients. Sawako visits the patients' homes and provides treatment there. At first, she has a hard time due to the different system. She becomes acclimated to the different system and finds a way to deal with the patients, their lives, and their families. --asianwiki