Takeshi Sakamoto

After moving to the suburbs of Tokyo two brothers struggle to fit in at their new school. Their father, who made the move to have more in common with his boss, tries to help them become self assured while encountering similar problems at work.

A kabuki actor's mistress hatches a jealous plot to bring down her lover's son.

In post-war Japan, a man brings a lost boy to his tenement. No one wants to take the child for even one night; finally, a sour widow, Tané, does. The next day, complaining, she takes the boy to his neighborhood and finds his father has gone to Tokyo; it seems the boy has been abandoned. Tané wants to leave him there, but he follows her home... (imdb)

After the death of his wife, a man struggles to raise his son in nearly overwhelming poverty. When the father meets a beautiful young woman, the son becomes jealous of his father's attentions, and conflict arises between them. (imdb)

Emi (Kinuyo Tanaka) inadvertently loses her ornamental hairpin in the spring waters and is "found" by a soldier in recuperation from a war injury (Chishu Ryu) who cuts his foot on the object. Attempting to downplay the incident, the soldier calls the episode as almost "poetic", a sentiment that the professor (Tatsuo Saito) then misconstrues as the soldier's implicit romanticism for the owner of the hairpin. (Strictly Film School)

It tells the story of an unemployed and homeless single father (Takeshi Sakamoto) with two sons looking for work in depression-era Tokyo, whose lives intersects with those of a single mother of a little daughter likewise forlornly seeking a way (and a place) to live. (imdb)

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)

Kenji is a small thief who likes drinking and fighting. When he falls in love with sweet and simple Yazue, and she finds out what kind of guy he really is, she leaves him 'until he becomes an honest person'. But it is not easy to get rid of one's past... (imdb)

A follow-up to Children in the Wind, Four Seasons of Children is also based on a Tsubota Joji novel. The film is divided into two chapters, following the young protagonists' minor adventures and real-world awakenings over spring and summer, then autumn and winter.

Takeshi Sakamoto and Tatsuo Saito are two bumbling child kidnappers (Sakamoto carries a butterfly net if that gives you an idea of his skill level) who abduct a boy (Tomio Aoki, Japan's Dennis the Menace) who turns out to be more than they bargained for. Pieces of this slapstick crime caper based on O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" are missing throughout, but it still plays coherently and has its share of hilarious moments. (imdb)

In this film, Sumiko Kurishima plays a woman whose husband had deserted her, following the birth of her child. For lack of any better option, she has been forced to support her son and herself as working as a hostess at a waterfront bar. When her ne'er-do-well husband (Tatsuo Saito) returns, her first impulse is to reject him, but her neighbors prevail on her to give him a second chance... (imdb)

Anma to Onna revolves around a pair of traveling blind masseurs who stop at an inn. One of the masseurs, Tokuichi (Saburi Shin), takes an interest in a woman (Takamine Meiko) from Tokyo who seems be hiding a mysterious past. The film peeks in and out of the lives and stories of the characters in unexpected ways that defy narrative conventions. (KG)

This film from the great Naruse has her stretching her acting muscles, playing Oshima, a woman who goes through situations in which men treat her wrong. Somehow, in a sometimes fun way, she emerges intact and stronger. (imdb)

Character study revolving around four characters: a sock salesman, his wife and their two young lodgers.

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)

Family drama. A middle-aged father has just married off his third daughter, but still has his nine year old son to raise whom he resents as he was unwanted. (British Film Institute)

A young woman fends off a series of agressive marriage proposals from a man who comitted atrocities during World War II (Hulu)

A farmer's boy, obsessed with his balsa-and-paper flying models and with dreams of real aircraft, develops a friendship with the daughter of the local squire, who introduces the lad to her pilot brother and his flying officer friends; through hard work, and despite the handicap of a lowly class status, he eventually succeeds in qualifying as a pilot and joining the air force.

The story deals with Fuji, nicknamed Waka-danna (Young Master), the star athlete on his university's rugby team. The son of a wealthy soy sauce manufacturer, Fuji basks in the glory of his athletic celebrity. Attracting the attention of admiring young women, Fuji resists family pressure to settle down and marry after college. Instead, he spends much of his time drinking and womanizing, behavior which eventually leads the college officials to expel him from the team.

Based on a Tanizaki Junichiro tale of male devotion passing into love and masochism. Okoto is blind, but her family can afford to pamper her. She takes up the koto and the family's young servant Sasuke faithfully escorts her to her music lessons. She often treats him disdainfully, but she insists on his company, and so gossip grows up around them. Sasuke's loyalty is tested when Okoto is wooed by a vacuous but persistent suitor.

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)

A naive stripper falls for an artist engaged to the daughter of a controversial female politician. (imdb)

The sweet but naive denizens of a charming port town are hoodwinked by a couple of con men who prey on them at the outset of the war. But the hustlers' plan backfires when they come down with severe cases of conscience. Kinoshita's directorial debut is a breezy, warmhearted, and often very funny crowd-pleaser that's a testament to the filmmaker's faith in people. (imdb)

Two childhood friends go their own ways but meet again some years later after they have both married. They get re-acquainted, meet each others' families, and all is well. Then the disagreements start... (KG)

Okada and Kato, students at 'W' [i.e. Waseda] University, in Tokyo, live in the same lodgings. One morning, Kato receives a tailor's bill. Okada has seen the letter arrive, so Kato tells ... (imdb)

The Kamiya family struggles to keep the town fishing association from going bankrupt as they deal with a dishonest captain and his degenerate crew. (imdb)

An all star cast.

A 1944 drama starring Chishû Ryû & Kinuyo Tanaka.

A 1937 Japanese film.

A musical film made for the inauguration of Shochiku's Ofuna Studio, with an all-star cast of the era. (themoviedb)

A gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him. The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress ... (imdb)

The story is about love and friendship of young girls who are naive and delicate.

Kotobuki-za is a story of the Naniwa-bushi singer Baichuken Tsurumaru.

The story of a boy who befriends a lonely middle-aged man.

Two men who feel oppressed by their wives, yet still manage to wind their way through brothels, end up at odds with each other after a mishap at the local shops. Things are resolved most unexpectedly to humorous effect.

A devoted and single woman and her daughter. The mother's nickname is 'Bokuseki' (wooden head) because of his supposed stubbornness.

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…

Heinosuke Gosho evokes in this film the family conflicts engendered by the eternal problem of a father who projects his professional desires on the life of his son. The sister Machiko is the essential link that will allow everyone to apologize to each other and achieve reconciliation.

The adventures of a modern day descendant of a famed Edo era thief are the basis for this short supernatural comedy romp.

Born to a prestigious family, Natsuko is not impressed by any one of her suitors. Determined to spend her life serving god, she sets off to a convent in Hokkaido and meets a young bear-hunter with whom she begins an adventure.