Chieko Naniwa

In mediaeval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him... (imdb)

A ruthlessly ambitious lord, egged on by his wife, works to fulfill a prophesy that he would become Emperor. (imdb)

In the post-war Gion district of Kyoto, the geisha Miyoharu agrees to apprentice the 16 year-old Eiko... (imdb)

In 17th century Kyoto, Osan is married to Ishun, a wealthy miserly scroll-maker. When Osan is falsely accused of having an affair with the best worker... (imdb)

Ozu creates a picture about an entire family, enriching the several strands of his story with many anecdotes. The film is unusually rich in character vignettes: at the same time it is one of the director's bleakest films.

A business man is often approached by friends for advice and help regarding marriage as well as family and romantic relationships. He is always very calmly and objectively able to give great insight and assistance to these particular situations. However, when it comes time for him to be objective regarding his oldest daughter, he finds it very difficult... (imdb)

After an attempted suicide attempt, Yukiko (Kuga) spends some time recovering at Kyoto with her mother, Hatsuko (Tanaka). However, their familial home is in fact a geisha house, and Hatsuko is the strong-willed Madame of this institute. Through this mother-daughter relationship, and the romantic entanglements that arise when both find themselves in love with Dr. Matoba (Otani), Mizoguchi explores generational conflicts and social mores whilst paying an effective tribute to the resilience of femininity in contemporary Japan.

Schoolteacher Hisako Oishi struggles to imbue her students with a positive view of the world and their place in it, despite the fact that she knows full well that most of them will die in the war. (imdb)

It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. (imdb)

With his friend Matahachi, Takezo has joined an army on its way to battle. After their side loses, they seek shelter in the isolated home of a widow, Oko, and her daughter, Akemi. Oko seduces Matahachi, who forgets his betrothal to the virtuous Otsu. Takezo returns to the village. Matahachi's family rejects Takezo's report and has him arrested for treason. A monk rescues him from death and sentences him to the study of the samurai code..(IMDB) (imdb)

Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka (1959) places Chikamatsu, the author of the original play, as a character in the drama. Relatively classical at first, the film grows increasingly self-conscious as it proceeds. Chikamatsu, initially an observer taking inspiration for his writing from the events he views, begins eventually to intervene in events, saving the heroine from suicide, substituting a gentler ending for the tragedy which seems likely. (Sense of Cinema)

The wife (Ayako Wakao) and mother (Hideko Takamine) of a nineteenth-century physician battle for his love in this extraordinary drama from the perennially underrated Yasuzo Masumura.

An expose of conditions in an upper-class, feudalistic girls' boarding school in Kyoto. Sharply drawn characters: the spinster teacher who once had a baby; the girl forced to go to school by her father so she would be kept away from her boyfriend; the rich girl with extremely left-wing ideas. When one of the girls commits suicide because she is thought to be one of the teachers' spies, the girls break out into open rebellion.

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat. (Hulu+)

In the second film in the series Takezo embarks on a quest after three years of solitary contemplation.

The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting - he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New National Theatre Company, he wants nothing more than to choreograph the swordfights for the modern plays put on by the company. (heroic-cinema.com)

The movie opens with Musashi visiting the Yagyu clan to seek instruction from the Great Lord Sekishusai, a renowned master strategist and swordsman. It turns out that Sekishusai is mighty difficult to get an audience with, denying all requests for matches. By one of the many astounding coincidences to be found in the Eiji Yoshikawa tale, Otsu has ended up working as Sekishusai's personal assistant. (lardbiscuit.com)

Musashi has defeated and shamed the leader of the Yoshioka fencing school, and now their only chance and redeeming their tattered reputation is to kill Musashi. So they move heaven and earth to take revenge. As the vendetta mounts, Musashi takes up residence with a kind merchant named Honami. Seijuro's brother Denshichiro challenges Musashi to a duel on an evening when Musashi has already agreed (reluctantly) to accompany Honami on a visit to the local pleasure quarters. (lardbiscuit.com)

Early on we find Musashi in a private moment with Otsu by riverside. In contrast with his tender emotions before the big fight, he now tells Otsu she cannot find happiness with a man who's done all the killing he's done. They embrace, then he pulls away and leaves her, apologizing for what he's done. (...) Wandering alone, Musashi comes across a boy named Iori whose father has just died, leaving him an orphan. (...) Musashi decides to stay and help Iori with his farming for a while (...) (lardbiscuit.com)

A shipyard worker gets an offer of free lodging in the company seaside rest house. Upon arriving there, he finds out that he also has to take care of a flock of undisciplined youngsters. (imdb)

A satirical comedy about a store clerk who falls in love with his boss's daughter. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo. (The Movie Database)

Akumyo is a well-made and seminal Daiei Yakuza Series. It's a story of a wandering tough guy (Katsu) and his relations with a prostitute and the local yakuza (The Movie Database)

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own. (The Movie Database)

Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon... (KG)

Japanese drama film.

The sixth film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin.

The eleventh film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin.

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series was shot in TohoScope.

Masuo and Sazae are enjoying their newlywed life in their new house, even though they are in company housing. Masuo's colleague is invited to thank him for the newlyweds, but Masuo has been told by Managing Director Hanamura to go on a business trip to Kansai. Before long, Masuo contacted Sazae to come to Osaka.

A woman loses her son through an evil conspiracy and commits suicide. Shortly afterwards a ghost cat begins haunting the conspirators. This is Takako Irie's first bakeneko (ghost cat) movie; it started a Daiei cycle which was very popular at the time in Japan.

A man’s wife dies in a swamp. Her ghost returns to haunt him.

The Lord of Okazaki is killed by his brother-in-law. Although the Lord's widow bears a child, she is also killed. Then, a ghost cat begins stalking in the castle.

During the ultra-violent era of the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, one man rose above the rest with his ideas of how to overthrow the corrupt government and end the bloodshed between the Choshu and Satsuma clans which would ultimately lead to the alliance of these 2 clans, and restoration of the emperor to full power. Based on the play that made Sawada Shojiro famous, this is the story of Tsukigata Hanpeita, a forward-looking samurai from Choshu, who along with ...