Yukiko Todoroki

Yojiro Ishizaka's original work was made into a drama co-starring Masahiko Tsugawa and Chieko Matsubara. Centered around Misako Inoue, who runs a dressmaking school with her mother together, and Kentaro Kamijima, a high school physical chemistry teacher. The drama depicts the love between the two, their youth, and their growth.

A dangerous mobster threatens the life of a businessman's mother in this thriller. As Ryuji oversees the building of a bridge in Japan, a powerful gangster plans to stop the project. By any means necessary.

7.2/10

In 1936 under the war clouds over the Manchurian border, 60-year-old Oshima Shozaburo is concerned about the future of his only son, Ryuji, who has refused to follow in the footsteps of his gambler father and decided to become a doctor. Ryuji leaves home to work at a clinic at a dam construction site where he finds the treatment of the laborers intolerable. But when he challenges the boss, who thinks nothing of murder, he discovers to his astonishment that he is safe because of his father's reputation. Torn between filial piety and his ideals Ryuji is told of the murder of his father by men of a rival gang. He experiences another shock when informed that the woman behind the rival gang is his true mother who was forced to leave his father due to an unwritten code among gamblers.

7.4/10

A violent story of loyalty and revenge among the many "yakuza" or gambling groups in Japan.

Ryuji Oshima, a gambler, kills Saiga in self-defense, and considering himself unfit to lead men, secludes himself in a temple to atone for his misdeeds. At home, when his mother, the boss of a construction gang, bids for and gets the job of building the Town Hall, other gangs set out to disrupt her business and try to kill her.

Tells the story of Shintaro, a lawyer who quits his job to work at a camera factory, and his love adventures.

The action takes place in a city where you can live on only 100 yen a day. The "General", who indulged in gambling with his henchmen all day, he was running his business and hitting him with a taxi turned out to be a trifle for him. A unique work, filled with tears and laughter, praising the beautiful human love that blooms at the bottom of life, focused on the genius “General” who lives in the troubled city of Kamagasaki.

Story of a young love.

7.1/10

Set in an old merchant house in Kyoto, the film traces the passing of an era through the story of a parent and child.

1959 adaptation of Junichiro Tanizaki's novel.

Comedy about three soldiers, two female reporters, six prostitutes, and the wife of an officer, all stranded on a South Seas island at the end of World War II.

Half a Loaf... Avarice / Yoku

Shortly after arriving in Kobe, "Jiro the Lefty", a killer with a natural talent, witnesses a man die in a crane accident which turns out to be a cover-up for a murder. Jiro soon finds himself on the run, tailed by a determined cop.

7/10

The young Takako Kuramoto has come to Tokyo to study and starts working for the rich Tashiro family as tutor of the daughter, Kumiko, while she receives attention from her two older brothers, Yukichi and Shinji. Meanwhile, the exact parentage of Shinji comes to light.

7.3/10

Shokichi, a shop owner and middle-aged widower, could never forget your first love. The second floor of the shop is an art gallery where his avant-garde daughter and other young people gather. One of these becomes a successful painter, and one day Akiko appears in the gallery with the painting titled Woman. Shokichi surprised to find that the "woman" is actually his first love, and Akiko is like the image writing it.

7.3/10

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".

A jobless young couple, Yoshigi and Tsutue, wind up at the outskirts of the Suzaki red-light district in Tokyo. Tsutue talks her way into a job pouring sake for male customers at a small bar run by a sympathetic older woman, while Yoshigi is shunted off into a nearby noodle shop, where he gets a job delivering noodles. Tsutue charms and runs off with one of her clients. Yoshigi, ignoring the attentions of a sweet co-worker, pursues Tsutue.

7.4/10

A continuation of Hungry Soul, from the same year. Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a beautiful widow. Reiko meets her husband’s business rival, a young, capable businessman, and falls for him. Meanwhile, Mayumi enters into a relationship with Shimotsuma, a friend of her late husband.

7/10

Chief editor Shirou Kanzaka (Hisaya Morishige) of Sankei Publishing Inc. is being tried for embezzlement and the staging of Chiyo Umehara's suicide. The victim is a woman who's said to have had sexual relations with the defendant. Four intertwined witnesses; a critic, Shirou's employee, a singer, and his wife, are all called to the stand. His destiny now lies in their hands.

6.1/10

Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a beautiful widow. Reiko meets her husband’s business rival, a young, capable businessman, and falls for him. Meanwhile, Mayumi enters into a relationship with Shimotsuma, a friend of her late husband.

6.7/10

The female members of the family of the Minister of Health and Welfare, who has just proposed a program of birth control, become pregnant one after the other. - Nikkatsu

6.7/10

At Shizumoto, a geisha shop not far from Ginza, a group of geisha are going about their day, putting up a modest resistance to the tragedies of life. The proprietress, Ikuyo, is a ridiculously good-natured woman who gives money to a poor but brilliant young man, Eisaku Yanoguchi, to attend college on the condition that he will take care of her in the future.

Sixth film of the Bannai Tarao series starring Chiezo Kataoka.

Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.

7.3/10

The tale of a feudal swordsman who cynically takes no responsibility for anything, relegating it to others, and then taking the credit.

A pickpocket falls in with a group of prostitutes who have one strict rule: none of them may ever sleep with a man without taking his money — falling in love is forbidden.

1946 Toho film directed by Kiyoshi Saeki

Based on the comic by Yutaka Asou

First film of the Bannai Tarao series starring Chiezo Kataoka

In this government-suggested sequel, Sugata again grows as a judo master, and demonstrates his (and by extension, all Japanese) superiority to the foreign warrior.

6.1/10

Hisshoka is a 1945 Drama film directed by four Japanese directors.

5.5/10

Hanakosan (1943, TOHO, MAKINO Masahiro), a thoroughly light and joyful musical comedy, influenced by Busby Berkeley films, against the national policy under the wartime, was made into a film from comic serials by SUGIURA Yukio published in a magazine.

6.5/10

The story of Sanshiro, a strong stubborn youth, who travels into the city in order to learn Jujutsu. However, upon his arrival he discovers a new form of self-defence: Judo. The main character is based on Shiro Saigo, a legendary judoka.

6.8/10
6%

The premature death of a young mother serves as inspiration for her husband and son.

6.2/10

An actor, hit on the head, dreams that he has become legendary one-eyed gangster Mori no Ishimatsu.

7.3/10

"Around the time he made such remarkably ambivalent war films as Mud and Soldiers and Five Scouts, Tasaka directed this 'home front' comedy-drama which is too bizarre to be serious propaganda. [The plot revolves around a public contribution campaign to buy airplanes.] The mayor's aviator son promises to fly over the village in salute, and much of the narrative concerns the preparations for this great event. Tasaka throws in a few songs, some village humor and satire, and tremendous camera mobility, finally wringing every possible effect from his climax." John Gillett, British Film Institute

One of Uchida’s early sound films, Unending Advance is based on a curious story by Yasujiro Ozu, in which an examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into an idyllic dream of an implausible future. The surviving print, although incomplete, offers an essential glimpse into Uchida’s prewar period, when he was associated more with realist dramas than with the period films that dominated his work after the war.

7.5/10