Takako Irie

A crafty samurai helps a young man and his fellow clansmen save his uncle, who has been framed and imprisoned by a corrupt superintendent. (imdb)

A documentary film on the life and works of director Kenji Mizoguchi.

The stories of several young women who work in a 'precision optical instruments' factory during the second World War. Despite illness, injury, and tremendous personal hardship, the women persevere in their tasks, devoted to their work and their country's cause. (imdb)

Although incomplete in its current form, 'Tokyo March' stands as a fragment of Kenji Mizoguchi's early work. Mizoguchi's story of love, revelation, and the sometimes-cruel hand of fate gives us an early glimpse at themes that will be returned to in his later works.

Taki no Shiraito is a very independent young woman with a famous water juggling act in a travelling carnival troupe. She falls in love with an orphaned carriage driver Kinya Murakoshi, and pledges to put him through law school in Tokyo. She always encloses money in her letters to him, until one hard winter there is no work to be found. (imdb)

A high school girl discovers that she suddenly has the ability to travel in time. (imdb)

This 2-part film romance (clocking in at just a bit under three hours) was based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan (who also founded Japan's one of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, named after fellow author Akutagawa). It is a surprising blend of real and unreal. Everyone in the film seems to come from marvelously rich families -- and lives in very large houses and apartments. And yet the human interactions are generally realistically (and credibly) depicted. (imdb comment)

This 2-part film romance (clocking in at just a bit under three hours) was based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan (who also founded Japan's one of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, named after fellow author Akutagawa). It is a surprising blend of real and unreal. Everyone in the film seems to come from marvelously rich families -- and lives in very large houses and apartments. And yet the human interactions are generally realistically (and credibly) depicted. (imdb)

This skeptical attitude to the conventional nuclear family was extended into open hostility in A Woman's Sorrows, where the repressive nature of traditional family structures is laid bare... (sensesofcinema)

The language of modernity in Sincerity consists of a discourse of class and cosmopolitanism that contradicts the quiet harmony of village life. (KG)

Mother Never Dies offers a neat ideological harmonization of family, capitalism, and country in which the patriarchy is consolidated around the national spirit through the memory of a self-sacrificing mother. (Catherine Russell)

The Morning Sun Shines is a fiction-documentary film (1929) by master director Kenji Mizoguchi and Seiichi Ina. Sadly, only 25 minutes of it survived.

The Great White Tiger Platoon was part of the Aizu clan's last ditch efforts to stop the advance of Imperial troops after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Their story is one of the great tragedies of the Boshin War (1868-1869). (imdb)

When a onna-kabuki actress is murdered by poison her pet cat laps its mistress's blood and becomes the demonic cat possessed of the vengeful murder victim. The story takes place in the women's kabuki (onna kabuki), banned by a decree from the Shogun in 1629, so we can assume that the time of action is the early 17th century. (Japanesesamuraidvd.com)

A remake of Kaidan Saga yashiki (1953). (The Movie Database)

The rise and fall of a singer Yoshio Fujimura. Fujimura entertains the lower class passengers on the ship home from Europe, and is traveling with Ayako, a maid who had fallen in love with him. On their arrival in Japan, a society woman, Natsue Omura, who is meeting a famous tenor from the first class, is attracted to Fujimura. Natsue introduces Fujimura to an agent and, under his guidance, sings the song "Furusato" which becomes a hit. (imdb)

1930s Japanese film based upon the novel series Daibosatsu toge by Kaizan Nakazato.

The sequel to the 1935 film Great Bodhisattva Pass

One month has passed since Japan plunged into the Pacific War, but it has not yet touched the suburban life. The state of the suburbs where you can see from the train window is relaxing. It is not much different from now. Ms. Takamine, a female student, goes hiking with some of her colleagues in the suburbs.

Two boys lose their fathers in a plane crash. Yukichi was the son of the pilot, Takashi the son of the engineer/co-pilot. After clashing, the two become friends, and Yukichi's mother takes in the orphaned Takashi, leading the two to grow up as brothers. Years later in 1942, the two are now grown men, with Yukichi a decorated ace fighter pilot in the midst of WWII, and Takashi a pilot in the private sector testing out new fighter planes.

A legendary actress thought to be dead is discovered living in an isolated mansion. A screenwriter is tasked with writing her comeback film, which leads the two to live under the same roof.

Okoyo, the mistress of Lord Arima, fears that she is being replaced by a younger woman named Otaki. In a fit of jealousy, she kills the younger girl. The dead woman's cat licks her blood and becomes a demon, seeking revenge on Okoyo.

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.

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.