Takeshi Sakamoto

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

Two young brothers become the leaders of a gang of kids in their neighborhood. Ozu's charming film is a social satire that draws from the antics of childhood as well as the tragedy of maturity.

An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all.

An errant salaryman's son gets lost until a man from the Tokyo tenements brings him to vendor Tane, who's reluctant to let the kid board.

Kihachi, an unemployed worker, wanders around the industrial flatlands of Tokyo's Koto district with his two young sons, Zenko and Masako. He is unable to find a job and has to rely on his sons catching stray dogs to earn reward money for their meals. As days go by, Kihachi and the boys no longer have enough money to stay at an inn for the night. Luckily for him, he encounters an old friend, Otsune, who finds him a job and allows them to stay at her eatery house.

A professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokio, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Despite being a minor, Setsuko is a liberated woman who does whatever she wants, including smoking. She even convinces Koyima to take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada, one of his students, to take her home. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home.

A rural village elder plans an event on the return of a farmer's daughter from the city, unaware that she has become a Westernized burlesque artist.

A matchmaker looks to unite a young woman from a wealthy Tokyo family with the humble owner of an auto garage.

Tokiko is a mother patiently waiting for her husband's return from the war when her 4-year old son becomes ill. She takes him to the doctor for treatment but has no way of paying. She resorts to prostitution. One month later her husband returns from WWII to find his desperate wife, who tells him the truth. Together they must deal with the consequences.

In Depression-era Tokyo, the life of a single mother and her young son are disrupted by the return of her ex-husband, who fathered the child and walked out on her years earlier.

In Depression-era Tokyo, a young man struggles to provide for his family after he is fired from his job.

When a family has to relocate due to the war, they are ostracized by their new community.

A soldier is forced to prolong his stay at a rural spa when he accidentally cuts his foot on an object, and soon enough, he tracks down its lovely owner and finds himself smitten.

In Depression-era Tokyo, a struggling middle-aged single father with a young son comes across a homeless young lady and convinces a bar owner to take her in.

A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.

On vacation's eve, a boy is sent to the countryside to live with his uncle after his father is imprisoned and accused of embezzlement.

Otoku asks her brother Bunkichi to speak with her son Seiichi, a young man for whom sacrificed everything but who now seems to be headed for a wastrel life. Bunkichi admonishes the boy to study harder, but it seems his uncle's advice may already be too late.

A young widow, made world weary by her abusive, neglectful husband, finds herself in a minor scandal when she's seen with her intense, no-nonsense childhood sweetheart.

A 1937 Japanese film.

A kidnapped boy proves to be more than his abductor can handle.

Tetsuo Nomoto, a young graduated student tries to find a decent job by himself. Later on, he will marry his girlfriend, Machiko, whom he hides the fact that he has no job. Hardships come quickly, which forces Machiko to find a job in a bar.

Hard Times

Students Watanabe and Yamamoto unknowingly compete for the same girl.

A man who works late hours at a deadening job lives together with his wife and his younger sister. The younger sister's a modern girl who's starting to receive romantic attention from one of her co-workers.

The sweet but naive denizens of a charming port town are hoodwinked by a couple of con men at the outset of World War II. But the hustlers’ plan backfires when they come down with severe cases of conscience. Keisuke 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.

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.

A period piece about the love of a wealthy blind woman, a teacher of koto and shamisen, and her devoted manservant. Based on a novella by Tanizaki Junichiro.

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. Things start to change when Shigeo's sister pays the young couple a visit, being the first member of Shigeo's family to actually get to know Minako in person.

Mikio Naruse’s final silent film is a gloriously rich portrait of a waitress, Sugiko, whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a suffocatingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.

Kenji is a small-time 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." Kenji soon finds it's not easy to get rid of one's past.

Gosho’s most celebrated film both in Japan and the West, Where Chimneys Are Seen is perhaps the most compelling example of his concern for, and insights into, the everyday lives of lower-middle-class people. Based on Rinzo Shiina’s novel of the absurd, the film depicts the lives of two couples against the backdrop of Tokyo’s growing industrialization during the 1950s.

This pair of gentle yet witty and inventive comedies from the director of The Neighbour's Wife and Mine typify both the formal experimentation of early Japanese sound cinema and the social milieux that Shochiku tended to depict. 'Virtually plotless, and feeling more like comic sketches than fully developed stories,' writes Arthur Nolletti, Jr, 'these light comedies, or farces, take a wholly trivial matter (often a socially embarrassing situation) and use it as a springboard for a succession of gags.' Much of the films' distinction comes from the wit of Gosho's direction, the imaginative use of the new sound technology and the charm of the acting, particularly of the heroines (Kinuyo Tanaka in Bride; Hiroko Kawasaki in Groom). Yet in both films, Gosho finds room for some shrewd observation of character and environment, subtly exploring the values and assumptions of the suburban petit bourgeoisie.

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 playwright moves to a rural neighborhood to avoid the distractions of the city, but he discovers there are plenty of ways to get sidetracked in his new home, too.

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" tells of the story between a young male student who is touring the Izu Peninsula and a family of traveling dancers he meets there, including their youngest girl. The student finds the naïve girl attractive even though he eventually has to part with the family after spending memorable time together.

Graduate Okajima finds his old-fashioned beard makes life difficult in a comedy exploring the tension between tradition and modernity.

When a young man inherits his father's lucrative business, he cheats the system to set up three of his college friends with jobs.

A carpenter, Shigetsugu, learns a lesson of love and humanity from five orphaned children and an affectionate woman named Oritsu. It's a winning combination of drama and humor. The warm friendship that grows between the carpenter, the woman and the children making this into a true masterpiece.

Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money.

Japanese mystery film marking Yuka Mizuhara's film debut.

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...

A melodrama about a businessman's relations with the three women in his life.

A geisha helps a runaway who looks just like her.

Live-action adaptation of Yoshiro Kato’s manga.

Hisshoka is a 1945 Drama film directed by four Japanese directors.

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…

Popular geisha Koharu suspects that Yusaku, a handsome stranger she falls in love with, is involved in a robbery of precious diamond.

A Japanese screwball comedy about the battle between the sexes: two timid men, egged on by their wives, end up in a bitter duel over an expensive lace handkerchief.

Kinuyo is a daughter of doctor of Chinese medicine, and Yasuo is a son of surgeon. Their families always fight like cat and dog. This relationship is ancestral. Although Kinuyo and Yasuo love each other, they have different thoughts toward treatments.

A follow-up to Children in the Wind, Four Seasons of Children(a.k.a. Kodomo no Shiki) 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.

Movie about a devoted and single woman and her daughter. The mother's nickname is "Bokuseki" (wooden head) because of his supposed stubbornness. No.10 in the list of "The 10 best films of 1940" by Kinema Junpo.

Movie about a devoted and single woman and her daughter. The mother's nickname is "Bokuseki" (wooden head) because of his supposed stubbornness. No.10 in the list of "The 10 best films of 1940" by Kinema Junpo.

Seisen aiba fu: Akatsuki ni inoru

A Japanese film

Strip dancer Carmen falls in love with Hajime, who is engaged to the daughter of a right-wing politician.

Nami (波 Nami) is a Japanese film directed by Noboru Nakamura. It was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

Three young women make a suicide pact, but they grow to have a better understanding of themselves.

Japanese comedy film.

A young couple is harrased by an uncle.

A wealthy family will not allow the military to grow crops on their fields due to their superstitious beliefs about their son's illness.

A boy falls in love with a girl. Neither of them know that she's to be sold to a brothel.

A President of the confectionery company announced his retirement, and his sixteen year old granddaughter, Madoka was ordered to be a new head. But Madoka wants to be a stage dancer, so she won't concentrate her office job. Madoka meets Akiyama, a stage director. Akiyama introduce her to his neighbors. In among poor but open minded people, Madoka has changed. Her new ambition is her company provide nice sweets for children. She decide to focus on the office job. But she doesn't know that company executives has conspiracy against her...

A silent 3-reel comedy short that uses the 1933 film King Kong as a backdrop to the story. It was produced by Shochiku Studios (who released the original 1933 film in Japan on behalf of RKO). It is now considered to be a lost film.

A salaryman finds some money in the street and gets a reward for returning it to its rightful owner. However his colleagues immediately start borrowing money and selling him things he doesn't need, much to his wife's annoyance. Considered to be a lost film.

A student comes up with various schemes to avoid paying a tailor the money he owes him. Considered to be a lost film.

When Tsukamoto is made redundant he cannot bring himself to tell his wife. Instead he investigates other employment opportunities. Considered to be a lost film.

In a back alley of the Shitamachi district of Tokyo, Kihachi bears witness to a series of romantic complications involving the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Considered to be a lost film.

A married man falls for a dancer and his wife's uncle hires a private detective to spy on him. Considered to be a lost film.

Comedy about a young man juggling several girlfriends. Considered to be a lost film.

Melodrama about a talented singer who finally makes her debut

A reformatory in the remote countryside houses 200 delinquents and problem children. The teachers and caretakers face much trouble. The school is often short on water, and one day, the well runs dry.

The Beauty Expert

Alongside Tokyo's Sumida River is a ragpickers' settlement known as Ant Village. One night, a young Catholic girl, Satoko Kitahara, who has been baptized under the name of Maria, comes to offer her services. However, Ant Village is not just an ordinary vagrants' community but a fine autonomous organization, and as the municipal authorities have long been demanding that the people of Ant Village leave the site, Satoko is utilized to publicize the Village and win public sympathy. While being utilized in this manner, Satoko is nevertheless glad to be able to help the people of Ant Village, especially the children, and when the summer vacation comes she decides to take the children on an excursion to Hakone. To raise funds for this purpose she becomes a rag-picker herself.

The Spy Has Not Died Yet

The Man Who Has Returned

Part two of Shimizu's major silent Seven Seas, a family drama of the intertwining fates of the rich, decadent Yagibashis and the far less prosperous Sone family.

After the death of her husband, an elderly woman and her youngest, unmarried daughter are forced to sell their house to cover his debts and decide to move in with one of the former's children, each of whom is scarcely happy to accommodate.

A young doctor, Kozo Tsumura, falls for young nurse Katsue Takaishi. But she's got a secret: she's a widow with a son. Kozo and Katsue decide to run away to Kyoto, but her child suddenly became sick and she just missed the train and Kozo. She makes it to Kyoto finally, but is unable to meet him. Plus she isn't accepted into Kyoto society. She goes back to her hometown and tries to forget him. She quits the hospital to concentrate on her singing. She makes her professional debut with the hit "Aizen Katsura". Kozo is in the audience.

Aiko, a bar hostess, falls for the son of a company president who also keeps a mistress, and whose family disapproves of his relationship with the bar hostess.

A melodrama about an orphan and her mother who are separated and lose contact, but are later reunited.

A woman marries, gives birth to a stillborn child, and divorces, falls in love with a hotel-keeper, only to find herself subordinated to his drive for success, takes up with a tailor who cannot console himself with her strong personality.

Izu no musumetachi

Adaptation of Kishida Kunio's novel. Set against the backdrop of a power struggle within a hospital, depicts the love lives of the director's daughter, the administrative director, a doctor, and a nurse.

A pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew—The Masseurs and a Woman is made up of crisscrossing miniature studies of love and family at a remote resort in the mountains. With delicate and surprising humor, Hiroshi Shimizu paints a timeless portrait of loneliness and the human need to connect.

A fishing union depends on two brothers to make up the losses caused by the dishonest captains they replaced.

Lost silent film

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

A hen-pecked man works as his artist wife's model and a house-husband. When her patron flirts with her and humiliates him, he decides to get revenge by trying his own hand as a painter. Considered to be a lost film.

In a Tokyo boarding house a group of students and recent graduates struggle to complete their studies and find jobs. Considered a lost film.

Poor social conditions badly affect the relationship between a married couple, when the husband, who is desperately searching for work, fails to notice the terrible sacrifices made by his wife when she accepts a job at a local inn.

Michiko gets pregnant after a rape. She marries a boring business partner of her father to avoid the shame. Later she meets the rapist again who is now a union leader in opposition of her husband.

The film features the first scene with kissing in a Japanese film. Kiss scenes were encouraged by the American occupiers of Japan following World War II as it encouraged westernization and contrasted with the traditional bow prevalent in that country.

Rikitaro and Osayo are popular entertainers who throw knives. They are sweethearts. At one day They help Ocho, who is a beautiful pickpocket when she is attacked by Ronin. in Asakusa, However, they come to be surrounded by doubtful Ronin after that. Moreover, Rikitaro is called to stop by Kajima of Edo-Karo of Nihonmatsu-Han. He calls him a young lord and treats Rikitaro as one, because his young lord, Tetsunojo is missing. Kuni-Garo makes a plan to carry out. Kikumaru, the younger brother of the mother difference in him instead of Tetsunojo, Since Rikitaro is just like Tetsunojo, then, they are convinced that it is Tetsunojo of Rikitaro. Rikitaro and Osayo decide to help Kajima and Tetsunojo. Finally they success to crush Kikumarsu's group.

A young couple flee their disapproving parents, get lost of Mt. Akagi and find a cache of gold protected by the ghost of a gangster.

Hell's Kitchen

The Princess and the Bearded Lord

The Blacksmith of the Forest

It chronicles the experiences of a neighbourhood doctor, whose taste for tonkatsu (a popular Japanese dish, similar to a pork schnitzel) earns him the nickname ‘the pork cutlet prince’ (‘Tonkatsu Taisho’, the film’s Japanese title) from the affectionate residents of the tenement in which he lives. When a local hospital, run by a female doctor, plans to expand, the future of the tenement is called into question.

A nurse's tale of self-sacrifice during wartime. The title is borrowed from a patriotic song made popular by singer Hamako Watanabe during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Inochi uruwashi

Television production of I Want to Be a Shellfish. On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation by GHQ, Toyomatsu "attemped to kill a US prisoner", which was nothing but an order by his superior and failed after all with hurting the prisoner by weak Toyomatsu. Also, Toyomatsu was driven to corner at the trial by the fact that he fed the US prisoner some burdock roots to nourish him. Toyomatsu believes nothing but being not guilty, but he is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to the execution, Toyomatsu writes a long farewell letter to his family, the wife and the only son: "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."

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

Kiro Ni Tachite

Dawn Chorus

A story of an orphan boy who wanted the love of parents so badly, another orphan sincerely pitied him to the point he gives his secret birthright as an illegitimate son to a Shogun as a "gift of hope" to the sad boy. As the orphan boy grew up, his loving heart became bitter and he saw the opportunity to take advantage of this birthright with the help of a man who wanted to use this orphan's desire to be loved, for seizing power in the shogunate by using the imposter. Many obstacles to hurdle along the way of deception, however, will they succeed or will he be exposed?

That Night's Woman

A film about the rivalry between Captain Gondo and the harpooner Yosuke Yamagami, working on the best whaling ship Hayabusa Maru. One day they will have to face a giant, monstrous whale.

Approaching their graduation ceremony, Saegusa, Sanae, and their classmates go on an overnight trip to Hakone with their teacher Ms. Kawahara, who will soon leave school. They thank her doing so and go on their respective paths, ending soon their student life.

A young yakuza, Yatappe, wanders around the country in search of his long-lost little sister, Oito. While traveling, he rescues a young girl, Osayo, whose father entrusts her to him with his dying wish. To honor his promise to Osayo's deceased father, Yatappe brings her to safety, and from a distance keeps a watchful eye on her well being.

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

Kare to Tokyo

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

Riku no ôja

The Life of Workers in the Big City

Domestic comedy involving a strong wife and a "henpecked" husband taking place in a family-run judo school.

The narrative is about a woman who faces hard times, when her husband is arrested for a crime committed by his boss. The woman also has a child to look after, and they end up meeting several colorful personalities.

An older sister and brother (Mieko Takamine and Masayoshi Otsuka) come to visit their grandfather (Takeshi Sakamoto) who lives deep in the mountains. As for their parents, father was serving in the South Seas and mother died of illness on her way home. So, the brother, who is still young, will live alone with his grandfather whilst the sister goes away to study to become a teacher.

This was 1942, so it was a national policy film, no matter what you call it. But when the war was still on the winning side, there wasn't even a little bit of sadness in the film (as the war was getting worse and worse, the burdens on our backs were increasing day by day, and we had to keep forming a line for tomorrow with nowhere to go (Akira Kurosawa's "The Most Beautiful", Admiral Nomura's "Enemy Air Raid", etc.) (Song of Annihilation, directed by Sasaki Yasushi). The film closes with the hope of the blue cloud that is bubbling up in the air. Or it may be the last time that a Japanese film talks about war and looks at the end of the war with an unconcerned eye.

While under sedation in a dentist's office, a young art student has sex fantasies about naked women, vampires and a beautiful patient he saw in the office.

A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family.

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 Hakodate, Hokkaido, and meets along the way a young bear-hunter with whom she begins an adventure.

Follows six male friends from elementary school whose career paths diverge—newspaper reporter, engineer, boxer, sushi restaurant owner—but whose romantic lives intersect. (MoMA)

Inoue was something of a rarity in the sense, that he was a Shochiku house director who seems to have worked mostly in period films, often with big stars like Hasegawa or Bando. "Sumidagawa", named after the river that runs through Tokyo, is also a period film, but thematically a modern one. All the themes that you associate with the normal Shochiku women's films set in the present day are in this film, just in a different context: love, the planning of a marriage, career, family relations and societal melancholy. There is no action or swordplay.

Pretty Oshige is deceived by her first love. After this, she lives a hard lifestyle, working at a number of jobs. Her only pleasure is her nephew, who eventually becomes a merchant marine. When Oshige meets her old love ten years later, she is able to forgive him and even thank him for the path her life has taken.

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

Mother is Strong

Okashina yatsu

The southern tip of Shikoku. This village, surrounded by a bay, where, according to legend, the former warriors of the Heike clan settled, is famous for its bullfights. Today there is also a bull market in the village, and there are extremely many people here. The black bull "Great Tengu", which Gonzo from Misaki offered, cost 50,000, but was forcibly taken away by a Bakuro soldier, who possessed extraordinary strength and physique, for less than half the price. However, the violent soldier was in love with Tsunayo, the hostess of the inn and the organizer of the bullfight. One day, a young man from the city, an Ihara police officer, arrives in the village. And soon the real problems will begin…

1939 Japanese movie

A film adaptation of the original novel by Kazuo Dan. This exciting film, set in Asia on the eve of violent changes, tells the story of a young man Rinnosuke Date, who, following his dream, love and passion, breaks through the blood- and dust-drenched land of Manchuria with a pistol in a piercing wind.

Utsukushiki Rinjin

Shinpachi Morimura, who was born in a fusuma craftsman's house, wants to join the Japanese navy. However, his father wants him to continue in the family business and refuses to accept it.

On the outskirts of Tokyo, a family of Mitsu Nakahara lives in one of the small huts surrounded by barracks and tin pens. Mitsu's husband died in the war, and she was left alone with four children and works as a day laborer. The eldest daughter Haruko, who is already nineteen years old, works in a clothing store, the second daughter Natsuko works in a restaurant, a schoolboy Akio is studying carpentry, and even the youngest Fuyuko helps her mother by working as a nanny in a neighboring house. Nearby lives a widowed electrician Tokuji Yamada with two boys - Norio and Tatsuo. He has a widowed daughter, Sakiko, who, along with a small child, ran away from home, as she is going through hard times. At Haruko's suggestion, Mitsu and Tokuji get married, and it would seem that happiness smiles on their new family, but it turned out to be short-lived…

A young, talented singer (Misora) is orphaned, not once but twice, and has to turn to a rather unlikely, and unwilling, parental figure, while avoiding her wealthy, absentee father, his hired goons, and the neighborhood fortune teller (Enoken) who's after the reward money.

1962 Japanese movie

In the heart of the Japanese Alps, in Kamikochi, Nagano Prefecture, botany professor Kazuhiko Onuma spends time with Tsuruko, his lover. One night, Kazuhiko's wife Kazuyo comes to see them and confronts the professor about his extramarital affair, and Tsuruko, an inevitable witness to the confrontation, leaves the professor the following morning. Over the next decade, whenever he visits the mountain cabin every autumn equinox, the memory of Tsuruko will forever haunt Kazuhiko...

Third film in the "Ekimae" series set in Hamamatsu. A widow named Keiko and her brother Jiro run the bento shop, "Goraku." One day, Keiko asks for advice from her childhood friends Kintaro, a textile manufacturer, and Magosaku, an entrepreneur, about a big-shot from Osaka who wants to invest in her shop. However, Kintaro and Magosaku suspect that things are not what they seem...

A Boy and Three Mothers

Directed by Mikio Naruse. It is presumed to be lost.

1945 Japanese movie