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Birthday:
06-22-1923
Deathday:
07-04-1981 (58 years)
Birthplace:
Senda, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isao Kimura (木村 功 Kimura Isao), also known as Kō Kimura, was a Japanese actor. He appeared in several films directed by Akira Kurosawa. The first was Stray Dog (1949) as Yusa the criminal. Perhaps his most notable collaboration with Kurosawa was in Seven Samurai as the youngest of the samurai, Katsushiro. During his career he also appeared in several films directed by Mikio Naruse as well as appearing in the famous Lone Wolf and Cub film series. In addition to a film career spanning almost thirty years, Kimura founded and directed an acting company which ultimately went bankrupt. He died of esophageal cancer at 57 years old.
Isao Kimura (木村 功 Kimura Isao), also known as Kō Kimura, was a Japanese actor. He appeared in several films directed by Akira Kurosawa. The first was Stray Dog (1949) as Yusa the criminal. Perhaps his most notable collaboration with Kurosawa was in Seven Samurai as the youngest of the samurai, Katsushiro. During his career he also appeared in several films directed by Mikio Naruse as well as appearing in the famous Lone Wolf and Cub film series. In addition to a film career spanning almost thirty years, Kimura founded and directed an acting company which ultimately went bankrupt. He died of esophageal cancer at 57 years old.
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Their works
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Ikiru
Act like Intern
event1952 star_border 8.3
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Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
Cases of Umon:A Woman with An Umbrella
Act like Tomokichi
event1963
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Ryutaro Otomo as the Edo magistrate Umon Kondo is out to solve a crime that centers around the murder of a jail guard & the escape of a criminal who is later himself killed. His dying words in Umon's arms were, "I didn't kill the guard." The murdered criminal had been a safe-cracker & only his girlfriend knows where he hid a fortune. She is kidnapped, so the plot gets thicker & thicker.
Young Lord Yakuza
event1961 star_border 7.5
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Young Lord Taihei goes to Edo to find the lost family treasure, a plover incense burner, under the disguise of a ronin.
High and Low
Act like Detective Arai
event1963 star_border 8.3
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In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake.
The Stragglers
event1960
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The last Japanese soldier in 16 years who survived
Black Lizard
Act like Kogoro Akechi / Matsukichi
event1968 star_border 6.7
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A detective tries to outwit a jewel thief who has kidnapped the daughter of a jeweler to get to an exquisite diamond.
Pleasure Resort Troubadour's Song
event1970
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The story depicts the sorrows and joys of women in Shinjuku, centering on a daughter who became a hostess burdened with a large compensation payment after her father was imprisoned for causing a traffic accident while driving under the influence.
Sazen Tange and The Secret of the Urn
Act like Yagyu Genzaburo
event1966 star_border 6.6
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Loyal samurai Samanosuke is attacked, mutilated, and left for dead while carrying out a mission for his clan. He recovers but has lost an eye and an arm. Taking a new identity as Tange Sazen, he searches for a stolen urn which has hidden significance to his clan. But Tange Sazen has his own reasons for seeking the urn.
Assassination
Act like Tadasaburo Sasaki
event1964 star_border 7.1
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Assassination begins with the events of 1853 when "four black ships" anchored at Edo Bay, sparking civil unrest and the major political manoeuvring that saw the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. At a time when assassination had become a disturbing political tool, Shinoda's film follows Hachiro Kiyokawa, an ambitious, masterless samurai whose allegiances drift dangerously between the Shogunate and the Emperor.
Pastoral: To Die in the Country
Act like Film Critic
event1974 star_border 7.5
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A director faces creative block while working on his latest film – a reimagination of his adolescence growing up in a mountain village in rural Japan.
Affair in the Snow
Act like Kazuo Imai
event1968 star_border 7
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In an isolated mountain resort, a woman gets involved in a love triangle between herself, her volatile lover and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she had platonic feelings.
Miyamoto Musashi: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights
Act like Hon'iden Matahachi
event1962 star_border 7.4
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The remake of Yoshikawa's novel continues with the second installment in which Takezo, soon to be Miyamoto Musashi, emerges from the Himeji Castle after three years of intense contemplation and philosophical study and starting on his epic quest to complete his skill in the Way.
Miyamoto Musashi: Birth of Two Sword Style
Act like Hon'iden Matahachi
event1963 star_border 7
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In the third installment of Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, things continue from the 2nd film at the end of battle, where Miyamoto continues on a mission of learning; with the introduction of his arch-rival Sasaki Kojiro; and lastly the large cast of characters rendezvouses for a fateful finale.
Miyamoto Musashi: The Duel at Ichijo Temple
Act like Hon'iden Matahachi
event1964 star_border 7
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In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent.
Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro
Act like Hon'iden Matahachi
event1965 star_border 7.3
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The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi. With all the familiar characters making appearances: Otsu (Musashi's great love), Akemi, Matahachi (his former fellow soldier), old lady Osugi (still doggedly trying to defeat Musashi), and even the return of Priest Takuan (the man responsible for his journey towards enlightenment). But most of all, the boastful, long-haired and long-sworded Sasaki Kojiro.
Miyamoto Musashi
Act like Hon'iden Matahachi
event1961 star_border 7.3
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In this first episode, we are introduced to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he became the man of legend. His beginning are not exactly auspicious. He sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of the historic battle. He and his friend Matahachi manage to escape the slaughter although the latter is wounded in his leg. They stumble across the young Akemi who makes her living with her mother Oko by robbing corpses of their armor and anything else they can sell. Oko takes it into her head to seduce Matahachi, which she does first by skillfully sucking the gangrene from his blood, and then just by sucking.
Summer Clouds
Act like Okawa
event1958 star_border 7.5
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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.
Beautiful Days
event1955 star_border 6.7
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Masaki Kobayashi directs this romantic drama concerning a family of florists.
Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall
event1964 star_border 6.8
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A headstrong young man seeks to join the Shinsengumi, but while his determination impresses his superiors, questions begin to arise as to his true identity and intentions.
A Billionaire
Act like Koroku Tate
event1954 star_border 5.7
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An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.
Conquest
Act like Inspector Enya
event1965 star_border 5
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Provincial 14th century governor Moronao, attracted to the wife of a court magistrate, tries to seduce her and when she rejects his advances plots to send her husband into battle.
Showdown in Blood
event1957
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Hayata and his best friend Ushijima came to Tokyo to become champions. Hayata repeatedly sought to join Tamura's boxing club, but Tamura fell in love with Ushijima's punch. Then Hayata decides to become Ushijima's manager and make good money on his friend's talent. Ushijima himself is a peaceful, kind guy who doesn't really like boxing, but under the wise guidance of Hayata, he starts to defeat one opponent after another...
Our Marriage
Act like Yutaka Matsumoto
event1962 star_border 6.7
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When two sisters fall in love with the same man, one must decide to look elsewhere.
Ofukuro
event1955
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Shizuka, Eiichiro, and Mineko, their father and son, live modestly in a certain suburb, leading a dreary but happy life. Eiichiro is troubled by Shizuka's desire to live together in familiar Tokyo. Mineko is the exact opposite of Eiichiro. A literary masterpiece depicting the fateful sorrow and humor of a mother and child
Little Peach
Act like Ryokichi Urushiyama, the husband
event1958 star_border 5.8
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Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.
Vacuum Zone
Act like Kitani
event1952 star_border 7
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Just before the end of the war, Japanese soldier Kitani is released from prison, having served his term for theft. Told in flashback, viewers learn about Kitani's past and reasons behind his prison sentence.
Impasse
Act like Shingo, Ibuki
event1967 star_border 6.4
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Shingo and Ritsuko have a baby: Takashi. They happen to be a happy couple, but soon Ritsuko wants to know who is the true father of Takashi, born by artificial insemination.
女と海賊
Act like 幸七
event1959
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In the early Edo period, among the pirate ships that roamed the seas near Ryukyu and Korea, there was a ship called the Sueyoshi, led by a man known as Misaki Shogoro, who was infamous for his devilish cruelty. Shogoro had a rule: he would kill all the men from the ships he raided, while the women would be distributed among the crew for their pleasure. However, he himself never touched any woman. Aboard the ship was a young girl named Kogane, who had been raised on the ship since she was a child and dressed as a boy. Unbeknownst to others, she had grown to secretly adore Shogoro.
Where did Sharaku go?
event1968
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Writer Jippensha Ikku hears Tsutaya Juzaburo, a wholesaler of picture books, mutter on his deathbed, "Where has Sharaku gone?" He begins to figure out the true identity of Sharaku, who disappeared after about 150 portraits of actors he created came out.
A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
event1953
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Onna Hitori Daichi wo Yuku (A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land, Kinuta Production, 1953) was the second feature film directed by Kamei Fumio, who is known as a master of documentary films, and followed his “Haha Nareba Onna Nareba(Become a Mother, Become a Woman)” (1952).
Sky Scraper!
event1969
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A film about the construction of the Kasumigaseki Building, the first high-rise building in Japan.
Hahakogusa
Act like Yoshihiko Takayama
event1959
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Based on the Nobu Koito story
Hokkaido, My Love
event1962
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A college graduate falls in love with a woman during a business trip in Hokkaido
Stray Dog
Act like Yusa
event1949 star_border 7.5
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A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Throne of Blood
Act like Phantom samurai
event1957 star_border 7.9
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Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
Confessions Among Actresses
Act like Director Nose
event1971 star_border 6.1
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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.
Hero of the Red Light District
event1960 star_border 8.6
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A successful textile industrialist from the provinces, who is beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until an indentured peasant prostitute, Tamarazu, takes the unsavoury assignment and treats him with brash tenderness.
The Affair
Act like Mitsuhuru
event1967 star_border 6.6
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As a young woman, Oriko condemned her widowed mother for openly pursuing relationships with younger men. After her mother passes away, she finds herself in an unhappy, loveless marriage and begins to understand her mother’s actions.
Still I Live On
Act like Mizuno
event1951 star_border 5.7
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About the struggles of day labourers to achieve dignity and a standard of living above the starvation level. Utilising the Zenshinza theatrical troupe.
Cape Ashizuri
event1954
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1950s Japanese drama.
The Angry Street
event1950 star_border 6.5
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The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of the University of Tokyo, and the high life of jazzy dance halls. Sudo (Hara Yasumi) and Mori (Uno Jukichi) are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, Sudo becomes involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister, Masako (Wakayama Setsuko). In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.
The Shape of Night
Act like Saitô
event1964 star_border 6.6
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Yoshie Nogami, a factory worker by day, works as a bar hostess at night. She begins a passionate affair with one of her regulars, but his changing demeanor and constant demands for money lead Yoshie down a dark path.
Mr. Pu
event1953 star_border 6.5
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A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.
Beyond Love and Hate
event1951
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A young man, convicted of a crime and imprisoned in the penitentiary, comes to believe that his wife is being unfaithful to him. He contrives his escape from the prison in order to seek her out and learn the truth, but the police give chase and he must flee into the mountains.
Snow Country
Act like Shimamura
event1965 star_border 4
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This movie is based on an immortal literary work "The Snow Country," a story about a life of geisha Komako who lives in a region with heavy snowfalls.
Dancing Girl
Act like Nozu
event1951 star_border 6.3
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The troubled relationship between a writer and his ballet teacher wife, who has for years loved another man, finally leads to the breakup of the family.
Rice
event1957 star_border 6.4
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A touching story depicting the harsh lives of farmers in Kasumigaura. An attempt to start a fishery business to revive an ailing farming community creates friction amongst the proud residents.
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell
Act like Tsuchigumo Hyoei
event1974 star_border 7.1
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In the sixth and final film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, the final conflict between Ogami Itto and the Yagyu clan is carried out.
Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai
Act like Hirotaro Iguchi
event1963 star_border 7
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After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.
Four Sisters
Act like Shoji Ohtsu
event1962 star_border 6
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A story about the lives of four sisters and their manipulative mother who must come to terms with each of their decisions in life.
Secret Information
Act like Goro Izawa
event1968
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A gangster named Sagara killed a broker at the request of a friend named Oba, was arrested and spent eight years in prison. Now released, he wants to find out who squealed on him.
Beyond the Seasonal Wind
event1958
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Japanese drama film.
The End of a Day
event1954
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Military doctor Leutenant Hanada deserts during the war in the Philippines with a local girl. The officer in command orders Lieutenant Uji to shoot Hanada. Uji takes a sharpshooter called Takagi and tracks him. At first Uji cannot forgive Hanada but as Uji is isolated from the main force he too starts to think of desertion.
Tokyo Detective Girl
event1959
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Woman private eye Emiko goes undercover to reveal the truth of a murder case.
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Stray Dog'
Act like Self
event2002
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Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Stray Dog" (1949).
Tengoku wa doko da
event1956
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Japanese drama.
The Temple of Wild Geese
Act like Atsumichi Uda
event1962 star_border 6.3
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Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.
The Thinking Leaf
event1962
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Based on the novel of the same name by Seichō Matsumoto.
The Prickly-Mouthed Geisha Goes to Sado
event1961
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Japanese comedy film.
Price of Beauty
Act like Kazuhiko Uematsu
event1957
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Melodrama about a young factory girl who "chooses riches over chastity".
Akutoku
Act like Iwase Shichiro
event1958
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A movie adaptation of Funayama Kaoru's novel of the same name, which depicts the story of a modern youth who is attracted to the evil path. Saburi Shin, a well-known actor who also demonstrated his skill as a director in a bold social work, embodies a person with a complicated dilemma in a shadowy manner, and is a dramatic work that plays a part in the lead role.
The Story of Pure Love
Act like Segawa Hospital doctor
event1957 star_border 6.8
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Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances. The film depicts their lives as thieves, menial laborers who can get little pay, society outcasts, and of course, lovers. Junai Monogatari depicts, mostly, their struggles within the Japanese reformatory system and Mitsuko's worsening sickness.
Weeping Doll
Act like Nomine
event1951
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A Hibari Misora musical about an impoverished girl and her brother in Postwar Japan.
Nippon no obaachan
event1962
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Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast about their loving sons but in reality, one had just escaped a retirement home and the other was looking for an escape from her son and daughter-in-law. With nowhere to go, the two wander around, befriending a cosmetics salesman and a kind waitress who give them beer. This biting social satire starring two memorable grandmothers, scripted by Yôko Mizuki, picked up on Japan’s aging population problem far ahead of its time.
Invitation from the Beach
Act like Toshihiko Kurahashi
event1978
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A wealthy Japanese sugar factory manager in Hawaii finds his wife sinking into depression and madness.
The Yamabiko School
event1952
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A story of a passionate teacher and his great effort for the children in a poor village.
The Love of the Actress Sumako
event1947 star_border 6.8
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The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent.
Seven Samurai
Act like Katsushiro Okamoto
event1954 star_border 8.5
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A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
Yakuza of Seki
Act like Morisuke of Hakoda
event1963 star_border 8.5
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A young yakuza, Yatappe, wanders around the country in search of his long-lost little sister, Oito. While traveling, he rescues a young girl, Osayo, whose father entrusts her to him with his dying wish. To honor his promise to Osayo's deceased father, Yatappe brings her to safety, and from a distance keeps a watchful eye on her well being.
Fill the Cup with Blood
event1969
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Second delivery in the "Yakuza Hijoshi" series. The protagonist, played by Ando Noboru, is torn between the organization and his old friends.
Elegy
event1951
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Wataru Naohiko who has the prosecutor general as his father became a young composer and its symphony "saint" invoked the world echoed. But his disciple Uchiyama and his best friend prosecutor Daisuke Toki accused his music as a sesame of pause-only technique, not a truly heart-hungry art.
At the End of the Clouds
event1953
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A movie that depicts the tragic fate of many Yokaren flight-academy pilots.
The Valley Between Love and Death
Act like Kanji Sakata
event1954
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A great ambition to portray with sharp satire and humor the course of modern anxiety and love that is about to be driven to despair.
White Cliffs
event1960
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1960 Toei film.
Seishi Yokomizo Series II Masquerada
(1 ep.)
event1978
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Kindaichi becomes involved in the case of an actress whose husbands keep dying mysteriously — and her new fiancé has just received a threatening letter.
Ayu no uta
Act like 木島先生 (158 ep.)
event1979
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The 24th NHK Asadora. Starring Senri Yamazaki as a woman who makes her life at a fishing port.
Nukata no Ōkimi
(2 ep.)
event1980
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A historical romance about the life of Princess Nukata, a Manyo poetess who was loved by two brothers, Emperor Tenji and Emperor Tenmu, and the formation of an ancient nation.
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