Kazuo Hasegawa

While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier (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)

In 1159, during an attempted coup, one of the court's ladies in waiting disguises herself as the lord's wife, and a loyal samurai conveys her from the city. This diversion allows the royal family to escape... (imdb)

Japan's timeless tale of honor and revenge, the Loyal 47 Ronin is the true story of group of samurai who became ronin (masterless samurai) after their Lord was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official, Kira Yoshinaka, who had insulted him... (AnimEigo.com)

As the titular, exceedingly popular performing duo (respectively a samisen player and a Shinnai singer) they enact a tragicomic tale of unrequited love that--save for a deeply affecting, pathos-ridden final scene--is far removed from director Mikio Naruse's usual cinema obsessions. (slantmagazine)

Another period piece, with legendary characters and vaguely martial overtones. The script has some wit, and the screenwriter makes a small effort to give the characters dimension, but there's really not much that Naruse can do with this material, other that create beautiful deep-space compositions for the exterior shots. (Dan Sallitt)

Set in the Osaka theater world, the story is dominated by a self-righteous troupe leader (Roppa Furukawa) who bravely risks his popularity by selecting only plays that support the Japanese military cause, and who decides to break up the love affair between his star actor (Kazuo Hasegawa) and a shamisen player (Isuzu Yamada) in order to purify the actor's commitment to his craft. (Dan Sallitt)

Wartime propaganda filmed by the Japanese in occupied China, Shirley Yamaguchi portrays an orphan rescued from the streets by a kindly Japanese merchant marine officer. (imdb)

It's near the end of the Tokugawa era. Choshu Clan's Lord has apparently been seeking a Choshu-Satsuma alliance against the desparate Tokugawa regime. But Choshu vassals are divided as to their opinons of this move, as not all are devoted to the idea of the Emperor's restoration. A color remake of the same directors 1925 original Tsukigata Hanpeita and the first version in color. (weirdwildrealm.com)

Based on the classic novel by Murasaki Shikibu, written over 1000 years ago. Genji, the son of the emperor, has gained renown among the nobility of Kyoto for his charm and good looks, yet he cannot stop himself from pursuing the one object of desire he must never obtain: his father's young and beautiful bride. Following the tragic onsequences of his obsession, Genji wanders from one affair to another, always seeking some sort of resolution to his life. (KG)

A demon-faced monster seeking revenge appears in the forms of a gigantic ox and a huge spider! The young Genji warrior protects the Fujiwara Clan and the beautiful lady in tragic love! A grand visual epic told with mesmerizing extravagance! (Karagarga)

During the reign of Shogun Hidetada, both Hirate Musashi and Okamoto Musashi strive to become the finest swordsman in the land by defeating the Yagyu clan's top instructors and then taking on Sasaki Kojiro! Three of Daiei's top sword stars combine to create this exciting alternative version of the Musashi legend. (imdb)

Another light-hearted parody of family life and at least nominally a sequel to Gosho's 1933 success, The Bride Talks in Her Sleep. This picture, too, was released for the New Year. Here, a young groom and his bride move into his family's crowded home. His nocturnal mutterings set off a round of schemes to silence him. (David Owens)

A love story starring a young Shintarô Katsu

During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government supporters and is persecuted. Can Nichiren persevere before the Mogol fleet reaches Japanese shores? (The Movie Database)

An all-star cast from Daiei Film Company has made "the ultimate Jirocho movie" about the legendary yakuza Shimizu no Jirocho, the biggest Boss in the Tokaido area. Telling the story of Jirocho and his 28 henchmen, some of the greatest actors in movie history play these valiant warriors as they travel the unruly path from a 'Fire Festival' in Akiba to the decisive battle by the Fujigawa River. (The Movie Database)

The exciting story of Jirocho and his yakuza gang that controlled the area of the Tokaido during the latter days of the samurai era. Awesome fighting from Katsu Shintaro as One-Eyed Ishimatsu highlights this great tale taken from Japanese history! (The Movie Database)

Daiei Film Company's three biggest stars shine in this exciting story about Vice-Shogun Mito Komon's journey to the land of the Ainu. As the shogun's uncle, Lord Mito traveled about the nation seeking to make sure that corruption and injustice did not go unpunished. Traveling together with his two faithful bodyguards Kaku and Suke, they board ship for a voyage to the far northern island of Ezo (modern day Hokkaido) where the indigenous people called "Ainu" live... (The Movie Database)

The story of Yoshinaka and the three women who love him. (The Movie Database)

This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. (The Movie Database)

The film was produced during Second Sino-Japanese War, before the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941. The film mainly concerns the training of newly-recruited pilots and their daily life, then their subsequent fighting experiences in China. Army supported the production, providing all the authentic airplanes, training and actual actions. They even provided the older biplanes disguised as Chinese fighter planes.

From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from the islands of Awaji and Honshu. On Tokushima the mad lord dreams of conquest and forges a bloody revolt against the Tokugawa shogunate. A mysterious swordsman named Noriyuki Gennojo has crossed Naruto's waters to uncover the Awa clan's secrets. He puts his life on the line after finding a testament of Awa's secrets, written in blood by a dying man... (themoviedb)

In one of Japan's most frequently-told ghost stories, a murdered wife returns in an act of vengeance. (themoviedb)

Fuunjoshi (aka Castle of Wind and Clouds or History of the Fuun Castle, 1928) has a familiar jidaigeki plot, with a young samurai (the inimitable Kazuo Hasegawa) who returns from Edo to discover that his fiancée is now the local daimyo's concubine. And then the warrior's life goes from bad to worse, when he is charged with the attempted murder of the daimyo and banished from the clan. (tokyofilmgoer.com)

This is the first part of the story that is based on the serial novel by Tsunoda Kikuo.

This is the second part of the story that is based on the serial novel by Tsunoda Kikuo.

Two cowardly palanquin carriers know the culprit of a murder but are too scared to report it to the police. In the mean time, an innocent man is arrested as the murderer and chaos ensues. Pre-war jidaigeki film.

A bizarre murder at a hot springs resort threatens to disrupt an Edo detective’s (Hasegawa) vacation. When his hot-blooded wife (Yamada) starts snooping around, however, he finds himself reluctantly drawn into the case.

A Japanese army engineer (Hasegawa) on the mainland must put his personal feelings for a beautiful Chinese woman (Ri) aside if he is to succeed at building a highway through the “bandit”- (aka anti-Japanese militia-) infested hinterlands.

This epic depicts the battle between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The focus of the story is the struggle by the unit leader in charge of the main supply wagons and the supply troops to transport materiel to the Uesugi army. To this are added episodes involving an itinerant woman.

Kazuo Hasegawa is a leading kabuki performer, specializing in women's roles, and living that life in furtherance of the art. She is, however, going blind. When Roppa Furukawa cures his blindness, he is grateful, but Furukawa is not interested in money. Hasegawa pledges to come whenever Furukawa calls. When Furukawa tells Sadao Maruyama he can have Hasegawa come and dance, the daimyo does not believe him.

An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents’ deaths.

Jyuta, an honest owner of a taxi company, has a younger half-brother who is involved in the yakuza world and doesn’t get along well with his mother. Jyuta tries to correct him…

Song of the White Orchid was a co-production of Toho and Mantetsu, the railway that served the colonial region of Manchuria, and the first film in the Kazuo Hasegawa/Shirley Yamaguchi “Continental Trilogy.” Handsome Hasegawa runs up against an impertinent Yamaguchi; not surprisingly, in the course of the film the woman comes around and realizes the benevolent intentions of the Japanese. In Song of the White Orchid Yamaguchi leaves Hasegawa, who plays an expatriate working for the railway.

A talented sculptor is hired to erect a giant Buddha statue when the capital is moved to Nara, in 745 AD. Those opposed to the statue try to use the artist's girlfriend to get him to stop it from being completed.