
Naniwa Chieko (real name: Nanko Kikuno, November 19, 1907 – December 22 , 1973) was a Japanese actress. Due to poverty, she was unable to receive an elementary school education and struggled with being illiterate. Later, through her own efforts, she learned to read and write, and overcame illiteracy. She appeared in works such as A Geisha, Throne of Blood, Equinox Flower, and Twenty-Four Eyes. She appeared in films by many of the great directors of her time. She died of gastrointestinal bleeding on December 22, 1973, at the age of 66. After her death, she was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure , Fourth Class .

Based on the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (February 2, 1537 – September 18, 1598) a Sengoku period daimyo who unified Japan....

In the year 1786, Shogun Ieharu Tokugawa selected beautiful Ochisa to be his concubine. It causes other concubines to become very jealous and mean. When the Shogun passes away, his concubines are forced to become nuns, which they are not happy to be. The subject is life inside a shogun's harem, and the treatment is again more restrained than in most of the historical pinku eiga films being produced by independents at the time, but the tone of this middle installment in the trilogy is decidedly m...

Based on the novel by Toyoko Yamazaki....

1962 Japanese movie...

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 from his youth....

Wataru Hirayama's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares that she is in love with a coworker and is adamant to live life her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat....

When the wife of a 17th century Kyoto scroll-maker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves falling for one another....

Natsuko’s daughter Saori is born blind in 1941, just before her father is drafted. Despite an attempted surgery and years of struggle, her condition proves permanent. Growing up, she faces stigma and danger but eventually finds hope and love with a fellow blind student....

Sazae finally gets married, but right after that, Masuo is transferred to Osaka. A heartbroken Sazae sends her parents on a silver wedding trip, and eventually heads for Nikko, a travel destination. Sazae is once again overwhelmed by the sight of the newlyweds bustling with sunlight, but......

Masuo and Sazae are enjoying their newlywed life in their new house, even though they are in company housing. Masuo's colleague is invited to thank him for the newlyweds, but Masuo has been told by Managing Director Hanamura to go on a business trip to Kansai. Before long, Masuo contacted Sazae to come to Osaka....

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-San comic strip. The first entry in the series shot in TohoScope....

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An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip...

After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much....

A biographical movie about Shinran...

During the latter part of the 16th Century, Japan's Warring States era was coming to a close. After crushing almost all of his enemies, Date Masamune aka the "Hawk of the North" sets his eyes on Hatakeyama's lands. The young warlord is about to face his greatest challenge....

During the ultra-violent era of the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate one man rose above the rest with his ideas of how to overthrow the corrupt government and end the bloodshed between the Choshu and Satsuma clans which would ultimately lead to the alliance of these 2 clans and restoration of the emperor to full power. Based on the play that made Sawada Shojiro famous, this is the story of Tsukigata Hanpeita, a forward looking samurai from Choshu, who along with Katsura Kogoro and Sakamoto Ryo...

Taka, the daughter of Naniwa-ya, a longtime Osaka store owner, married Kichisaburo Kawashima-ya, the son of a kimono wholesaler. Her husband just tried to play with her like a sweet candy, but Taka fell in love with him. One day, the father-in-law suddenly dies, and the Kawashima-ya family fortune is rapidly changing. However, the depravity of Kichisaburo does not subside......

The film takes place in a dark area of the giant city of Osaka and tells about a group of people who find themselves at the bottom of society, and about the courage of a man who defies the city of violence in search of his beloved sister....

1962 Japanese movie...

A tale of three Yakuza gamblers who traveled Japan during the samurai era living by their wits and sword skills. Told in 3 separate vignettes, each part tells the story of a different drifter’s life. Part 1: A man is on the run after killing two Hasshu Officials to avenge his Boss. He must make a life or death decision as he is asked to protect a gang from attack. Part 2: A pair of gamblers chased out of a crooked game must fight not only their pursuers, but the ghosts of their pasts as well. ...

In this first episode, we are introduced to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he became the man of legend. His beginning are not exactly auspicious. He sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of the historic battle. He and his friend Matahachi manage to escape the slaughter although the latter is wounded in his leg. They stumble across the young Akemi who makes her living with her mother Oko by robbing corpses of their armor and anything else ...

The movie depicts the strength and resilience of a woman who spent her entire life as a merchant in Semba, Osaka....

The sexual experiences of the passionate Sakiko, from her fling with her boss in her first job to her ending up as a prostitute....

1962 Japanese movie...

Bunkichi disguises himself as a yakuza to solve a mysterious death....

Ayako Wakao won the Blue Ribbon and the Kinema Jumpo for this film....

A student at a woman's university takes a controversial action against the school's old-fashioned doctrines....

Experienced shipyard worker Shimazaki gets an offer of free lodging from his employer in the company seaside rest house if he agrees to see to its running. After moving in, Shimazaki finds out that this will also mean taking care of a flock of youngsters, and he soon becomes their none-too-successful warden. At work the boys are disciplined, as soon as they return to their dormitory however they turn into an unmanageable mob....

The phantom thief, known as the "Actor Kid", who was creating a stir in the Daimyo's mansion, especially in the inner chambers, was called Inaba Goutaro. He was the adopted son of a samurai, Inaba Buemon. An incident occurred where his foster father collided with the palanquin of the lord's concubine. In the subsequent altercation, Goutaro killed one of the attendants. Taking responsibility for the act, his foster father committed seppuku, and Goutaro was hunted down. Facing death, his foster fa...

During the Genroku era, Azusa Gennosuke, renowned in Nara as a top swordsman and a scholar, crossed swords with the Magistrate Kurobane Yatayu, who tried to force himself on Gennosuke's beloved foster-sister, Kikuno. As a result, Gennosuke's younger brother, Shichisaburo, was killed. Separated from his mother, Gennosuke found himself on the run from the officials....

On March 11 in the seventh year of Tenpo (1836), a monk named Bennō, who fell in love with a geisha named Oshima, was publicly exposed at Nihonbashi for committing an illicit act with a woman. While this was happening, an extravagant procession led by another monk named Nikkei passed over the bridge. Nikkei, the head of the Kanouin temple, in collusion with Nakano Harima-no-Kami, had schemed to make his younger sister, Miyoshi, the Shogun's mistress and aimed to transform Kanouin into the Shogun...

A foot soldier from Tottori domain named Shirai Gonpachi showcased exceptional swordsmanship that even surpassed the domain's champion Honjo Sukehichi during a ceremonial match. Though Gonpachi was promised a promotion to samurai status due to his skills, Sukehichi's father Sukezaemon's intervention out of jealousy prevented this. In anger, Gonpachi killed Sukezaemon and, without realizing it, also mistakenly killed Tomoe, his lover's brother Tsushimo Uemon. Following this, he fled to Kyoto, see...

Hatamoto Ooka Gentaro was deeply committed to a future with a beautiful girl named Omachi, a relationship facilitated by his love of the shamisen. Omachi was stalked by a ronin named Akiyama Kanosuke, and at one point, Gentaro and Akiyama dueled at Matanuiyama, but the confrontation was left unresolved when Omachi, sensing urgency, called the authorities. Meanwhile, Gentaro's uncle, Kii-no-kami, concerned about Gentaro's whereabouts, ordered him to investigate a conspiracy by Tachibana Tadama, a...

Two lone wolf yakuza (Hideki Takahashi and Kunie Tanaka) rob a gambling den, then split up when pursued by the angry gang. They eventually meet again at Tanaka's mother's rural farmhouse. By then, one-eyed Kobayashi has wrangled his way into the scenario, intending to get a split of the proceeds (since he had helped them get away). Although there is some dissension amongst the three, they eventually close ranks to fend off their stubborn, relentless pursuers. Unhappily, Tanaka’s mother (Chieko N...

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Kunisada Chuji is a common folk hero who looks out for poor people in the country who are at the mercy of corrupt officials. Intent on fulfilling a dying wish from one of his henchmen, Asataro, to find a decent home for his young nephew, Chuji descends from his hide-out in the mountain, and heads to the city in spite of numerous dangers that await him there....

1962 Japanese movie...

Shimizu Jirocho, the president, manages two businesses: Izumo Kanko-sha and the group inn "Daikokuya." There is a system where customers from Izumo Kanko-sha are directly sent to Daikokuya. President Jirocho learns that the geishas he is fond of, including Mari Chiyotachi, are going to Izumo to participate in the Ankai-bushi Concours......

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Jidaigeki by Tai Kato...

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films....

In medieval Japan, a woman and her children journey to find the family's patriarch, who was exiled years earlier....

The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi. With all the familiar characters making appearances: Otsu (Musashi's great love), Akemi, Matahachi (his former fellow soldier), old lady Osugi (still doggedly trying to defeat Musashi), and even the return of Priest Takuan (the man responsible for his journey towards enlightenment). But most of all, the boastful, long-haired and long-sworded Sasaki Kojiro....

In the third installment of Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, things continue from the 2nd film at the end of battle, where Miyamoto continues on a mission of learning; with the introduction of his arch-rival Sasaki Kojiro; and lastly the large cast of characters rendezvouses for a fateful finale....

The remake of Yoshikawa's novel continues with the second installment in which Takezo, soon to be Miyamoto Musashi, emerges from the Himeji Castle after three years of intense contemplation and philosophical study and starting on his epic quest to complete his skill in the Way....

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent....

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....

A wandering vagrant, Hantaro, risks his life to save a beautiful blind girl and her father from con artists....

Fourth sequel to "Story of Second Class Private"....

Fifth sequel to "Story of Second Class Private"....

Japanese comedy film....

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, the drama, set in the brothels of Shimabara in post-war Kyoto, is a moving look at the lives of women of tenacity and resilience....

Chubei, the adopted son of an Osaka courier, falls desperately in love with the courtesan Umegawa. To prevent a wealthy client from purchasing her, he steals money from his employer to buy her freedom himself. Now hunted criminals, the lovers flee toward Yamato, pursued by the law....

A frenzy of goodwill, tears, laughter, and a lot of fun, caused by thirteen children under the guise of a good-natured fruit vendor and his wife....

The Fencing Master tells the story of a man trying to survive as the only world he knows is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Danpei Ichikawa lives for swordfighting – he was once a renowned kabuki swordfight choreographer, and as the Chairman of the New National Theatre Company, he wants nothing more than to choreograph the swordfights for the modern plays put on by the company....

Modern sex and thrill film about tattooed prostitute....

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat....

This movie is based on an immortal literary work "The Snow Country," a story about a life of geisha Komako who lives in a region with heavy snowfalls....

A man’s wife dies in a swamp. Her ghost returns to haunt him....

A comedy of a high-spirited geisha, Koharu, who is at risk of being trapped in a conspiracy to take over a lucrative diamond mine business....

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

A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo....

It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and ...

Sixth film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin....

Eleventh film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin....

A young son of a master of the Kuwana clan gets disowned for his rebellious behavior. After he goes from the mountains to the ocean defeating the evil, he becomes a fine man....

When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence....

Period piece about a young man who, because of his hard life alone in the world, has become a yakuza. When he hears that his mother may be living in Edo (Tokyo), he travels there, intent on finding her and leaving the swordsman's life behind. But a team of rival gangsters is hot on his heels....

Japanese comedy film....

Japanese comedy film....

A young, feisty woman named Osome searches for her true love in the midst of a family crisis....

Period romantic drama....

Naomasa, the former lord of Okayama Castle and the head of the Iseda family, takes a strange boy, Kirihito, under his wing. However, Naomasa is sent to Europe for his rather too liberal lifestyle…...

A group of men living a low life in Edo help each other to make the best out of their lives....

Japanese drama film....

Aya successfully stages a fashion show in Osaka and in the train on her way home to Tokyo accidentally treads on a man's foot. The man whose name is Rentaro is not amused. Just afterwards she notices that he is reading a magazine which carries her picture which he crushes and throws under his seat. One of her customers in Tokyo is a pretty girl named Kana for whom she had designed a dress which at first seems quite satisfactory. But a few days later Kana brings it back. It seems her brother thin...

Melodrama about a young factory girl who "chooses riches over chastity"....

A ruffian joins the ranks of the emperor’s guards....

Based on a novel by Kôen Hasegawa...

A classic battle between good and evil pits an unscrupulous fortuneteller who has been preying on the good citizens of Edo against a master-less samurai who founded a school for underprivileged children in a poor neighborhood. Into the mix comes a young woman running away from a forced marriage disguised as a teenage boy and becomes a student of the beloved Sensei, while he staves off the advances of a skilled pickpocket and prepares for a bloody showdown against a direct retainer of the shogun!...

Kind hearted yakuza Hanjiro of Asama risks his life in saving his henchman Genjiro and his family....

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....

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An Ishiro Honda film....

Hikaru and Ichiro are close friends in high school. Hikaru's elder brother Tadashi fell in love with Ichiro's elder sister, Mikako at first sight. Although she gave the cold shoulder to Tadashi, she gradually became fond of Tadashi....

From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances....

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 woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her....

A story about a wealthy family and the greed and selfishness of three daughters and relatives, after the passing of their old father....

In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life....

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people....

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On Wings of Love is a 1957 Japanese romantic musical film directed by Toshio Sugie. It was Toho's highest-grossing film of the year and the first film released in Tohoscope....

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......

Comedy about three soldiers, two female reporters, six prostitutes, and the wife of an officer, all stranded on a South Seas island at the end of World War II....

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The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined to win his love that they volunteer as subjects for his experiments...

The story of a couple, a spoiled son and a down-to-earth girl, in Osaka in the early Showa era. The film won the prestigious Blue Ribbon awards for best director, best actor (Morishige) and best actress (Awashima), and the Mainichi Concours award for best actor and best screenplay (Yasumi Toshio). It ranked second (after Naruse Mikio’s Ukigumo) on the Kinema Junpō top ten films for the year....

In this Japanese drama, a dry goods merchant's daughter is surprised to discover that she has a twin sister. In rural Japan it was thought that twins bring bad luck, so the sister was abandoned at birth. Later her parents tell her that her sister was kidnapped. The woman doesn't believe this and when she eventually meets her twin, both women are involved in love affairs. The merchant's daughter is seeing an educated fellow. Trouble ensues when she begins suspecting that he may be more interested...

Based on the novel by Shofu Muramatsu, the film is dedicated to the actors of the renowned Japanese Kabuki theatre. Set in Japan in 1885, the story follows Kikunosuke Onoe, the adopted son of a famous Kabuki actor. Kikunosuke’s father teaches him professional acting skills, preparing him to become his successor and continue the acting dynasty. However, Kikunosuke leaves his family, much to his father’s dismay, to hone his craft outside of Tokyo and moves to Osaka....

A young man steals money for a cabaret singer....

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Kita Ippei (Atsumi Kiyoshi) became a security officer in the Metropolitan Police Department's Security Division after catching a thug who attacked a writer living in the area while working at a police box. His dream is to become a bodyguard (BG) for the Prime Minister, just like his senior, Detective Inspector Takagi (Ryu Chishu). Kita Ippei is very successful in both work and love, getting attacked while guarding a female minister, getting some perks as a BG for a foreign princess, and becoming...

1961 Japanese movie...

1961 Japanese movie...

1961 Japanese movie...

A parody based on Kabuki plays about thieves led by the famous Soshun Kochiyama....

1963 Japanese movie...

1955 Japanese movie...

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Two high school girls, Ruri and Yumi, go to Kyoto on a school trip, here they get acquainted with Hinagiku, there are many adventures ahead of the three of them. A musical starring 3 Japanese pop music and TV stars....

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1961 Japanese movie...

A home drama about a mother and her three daughters, based on the novel by Fumiko Hayashi....

A revenge comedy directed by Torajiro Saito (Oedo's most Popular Man) from a script by Chao Fushimi (The Millionaire of a Night) and shot by Hiro Imai (Akado Suzunosuke (1957)). Starring Achako Hanabishi (Segedei Momoshiki Goten), Tamao Nakamura (Akado Suzunosuke (1957)), Seinen Hayashi (Nijunin no Kenka-jou) and Sumire Harukaze (Harukaze Sumire). Also Rumiko Komachi, Shunji Sakai, Yoshio Tabata and Mieko Suzuki....

1964 Japanese movie...

At an Osaka electronics company, power struggles, corporate schemes, and personal agendas collide when the boss is away. As tensions rise around a meddling heiress and a collapsing business deal, one quiet employee steps up to set things right....

A struggling salesman at World Electric finds his major deal blocked by internal politics and pressure from all sides. During a company trip to Beppu, personal entanglements and old company secrets surface, forcing difficult choices and quiet compromises....

1959 Japanese movie...

World Electric's top ad model disappears, throwing the company into disarray. A fortune-teller’s influence spreads through upper management, sending staff on a misguided search. Misinformation, internal friction, and unexpected revelations push the company to its limits....

Amid management shakeups and arranged marriage plans at Sekai Electric, an executive couple tries to support a young woman’s relationship with an academic over a business heir....

Iwato Construction secures a major project in Hokkaido and promotes a key employee, but chaos follows—personal conflicts, missed deals, and a lost hotel contract. Redemption comes when they restore a fire-damaged department store, earning overdue payment and a morale boost....

1960 Japanese movie...

The story follows Keiko, a dancer in the "Maiko Odori" theater in Kyoto, who tries to climb the social ladder in a world driven by money and self-interest. She becomes involved with wealthy men to pursue her ambitions but faces betrayal, exploitation, and is even accused of embezzlement. As she struggles to survive, her close friend dies from a heart condition, and her plan to marry a rich man fails. In the end, Keiko realizes the harshness of reality and decides to keep dancing despite the sorr...

A Film By Shiro Toyoda...

1960 Japanese movie...

A university graduate determined to become a fishmonger defies his mother's wishes, tangles with bar hostesses and a beer company heiress, and—after misunderstandings, brawls, and a second chance—discovers that maybe the salaryman life isn’t so bad after all....

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A beer salesman with a passion for fishmongering stumbles through mishaps, rivalries, and gangster trouble while chasing a big contract, winning the deal through quick thinking—then turns down a promotion to keep working his own way....

Eiichiro, a talented young salesman, grows disillusioned with office politics and returns to his family’s traditional tofu business, applying skill and rational planning to modernize it. Alongside his siblings, he transforms the shop into a thriving company, while his sister Atsuko overcomes social obstacles to marry....

After a transfer to a rural factory, salesman Hideyoshi faces blunders, schemers, and rivalries but proves his integrity, winning respect and a return to headquarters....

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Optimistic student Hideyoshi struggles to land a job at Japan Motors, facing setbacks and rivalry but winning his way in through persistence—and a mix of charm, luck, and chaos in both work and love....

About schoolgirls in a rural town, and a love letter which has the entire community in an uproar....

At Kaikō Girls’ School, a fake love letter sparks a heated PTA debate. Teacher Shimazaki wins the vote, while students and staff navigate misunderstandings and mischief. Amid the chaos, romance blooms: Numata proposes to Yukiko, and Rokunosuke declares his love to Shinko, ending with a joyful countryside outing....