Shûji Sano

A young Japanese mother must prostitute herself while her husband is away. When he returnns, her shocking secret changes both of their lives for ever.

This film involves a wife and her professor husband and niece. The niece is a liberal woman who rebel against her. There is a clash between the wife and her niece on women's value and how women should be behave.

Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects. (imdb)

The greatest shock of Sudden Rain comes when Ryotaro Namiki (Shuji Sano) declares to his wife Fumiko (Setsuko Hara) that she has no dreams. For those familiar with Hara's typically incandescent screen presence this is less of an insult than pure blasphemy, though it's all to director Mikio Naruse's subversive point. (Slant Magazine)

Yuki is a young, single mother supporting herself and her son, Haru, with a job as a bar hostess. Haru's group of friends (which includes the always good Tomio Aoki) are told by their parents to avoid playing with Haru because of his mother's shady job. Meanwhile, at the bar, Yuki asks for increased pay but her bosses' refusal makes her morale lower. In addition, Yuki discovers that Haru is skipping school. She is understandably angry but her son's reasons are logical: no one will play with him. (cinematalk)

Hiroshi Shimizu's government-pressured, militarism-era film A Star Athlete is a breezy, refreshingly lighthearted, and subtly subversive slice-of-life comedy that centers on an all-day student march in formation and armed combat drills through the rural countryside for military training exercises.... (Strictly Film School)

Shuji Kamura is out of work and as a result, he and his wife are forced to separate. Their reasons are completely financial, as both still carry romantic feelings for the other. Shuji becomes an employee at some sort of extravagant clothing store. There he becomes acquainted with his co-workers and friends to be, Shin Miki (Shin Saburi) and Ken Taniyama. (Ken Uehara)

This is the story about a young female golpher and her transformation from young promising teenager, into a media sensation. Think Michelle Wie. During her rise she falls in love with her trainer, gets her own TV show, attracts a female stalker, and has to deal with the pressures that come with being in the spotlight. Funny, dark, and slightly erotically charged, a must for fans of Suzuki! (karagara)

The story of a troubled romance between a mechanic and a young, blind, upper class lady.

A girl who had left her small Japanese village for the excitement and adventure of the big city--in this case, Tokyo--returns home years later for a visit. (imdb)

Kitagawa is an engineer charged with construction of a gigantic tunnel through the Japan Alps for the transportation of equipment in the building of the massive Kurobe Dam... (imdb)

An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life. Notable for its exquisite framing and cinematography, An Inn at Osaka allows its complicated plotlines to disappear behind the minutiae of penury and humiliation that Mito and others suffer during the post-war economic and social reconstruction. (mubi.com)

Keisuke Kinoshita's wartime film, Army is anything but the rousing call to arms and reinforcement of patriotism that the authorities had envisioned the film would be. Known for his Ofuna-flavored shomin-geki "women's pictures", Kinoshita subverts the official themes of duty, allegiance to the emperor, and national glory. (Strictly Film School)

A father living in Nara has three daughters who become involved in complicated marriage arrangements. One couple communicate by cabling love poems to each other (bfi.org.uk)

Shigeo is an aspiring writer living with his girl friend Minako and hoping for success and a better tomorrow every day. Both live on what Minako earns from working in a café. Shigeo is not happy with the situation and neither is his family who do not approve of Minako. Especially his uncle tries to convince him to leave Minako, even using his influence behind the scenes. (imdb)

Two hostile clans had reached an artificial reconciliation which involves the marriage of a person from each family. The boy's father is away to serve the emperor, and his highly despotic mother has the absolute power. Typical of the atmosphere are the boy's words to her: "If mother was not my mother I would hate her." "If father was not my father I would hate him." The boy eventually finds a poor peasant girl and has a beautiful love affair. (imdb)

The story of HANAKAGO NO UTA revolves around a pork-cutlet diner along a cluttered back street of Ginza, Tokyo. Keizo (Reikichi Kawamura), the owner and the master of the diner, and his daughter Yoko (Kinuyo Tanaka) are running a small but successful business. The Chinese chef, Mr. Lee (Shin Tokudaiji), cooks the best pork-cutlet, as they say. Two of the most frequent customers are Ono (Shuji Sano) and Hotta (Chishu Ryu), a pair of rather lazy collage students. (vermillion and one nights)

The eldest daughter of a noble family is in love with an aviator while being courted by a fellow aristocrat she thinks is a dullard. (letterboxd)

Yoko is a high school student whose older brother Daisuke has an attractive and sexy girlfriend. The flaunting girlfriend catches the eye of a pilot at the airport when she, her boyfriend and Yoko are there to pick up an older sibling. Angry at the pilot's pass, Yoko who believes in true love and its ideals, visits the pilot's apartment to berate the man, but instead ends up falling in love herself.

An all star cast.

A 1944 drama starring Chishû Ryû & Kinuyo Tanaka.

A hostile Chinese nurse (Yamaguchi) who works in an orphanage is won over by the care and commitment of the Japanese doctor (Sano) who treats her wards. Disease outbreaks and family obligations, however, threaten to torpedo their budding romance. (themoviedb)

The story follows Oshino, a geisha who is trying to start a new life with a lover who is a painter. However, her past filled with debts and pimps catches up to her. (imdb)

In the movies of those times, you can see young boys in the company scene often. Those boys were called kyuji (給仕), which means “waiter” literally. They are doing odd jobs in the company including serving tea, ushering visitors, buying tobacco, etc. Ordering lunch for the individual requests was also an important job. Those boys were hired often as soon as they graduated from elementary school.