Kinuyo Tanaka
Birthday: Born in 1909-11-28 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan
Deathday: 1977-03-21
Kinuyo Tanaka (田中 絹代 Tanaka Kinuyo, 29 November 1909 – 21 March 1977) was a Japanese actress and director. Tanaka was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She became a leading actress at seventeen years old, appearing in Heinosuke Gosho's An Embarrassing Dream in 1927. She proceeded to take leading parts in, among others, Yasujirō Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929, Gosho's Aiyoku no ki in 1930, and in 1931, Japan's first talkie, The Neighbor's Wife and Mine, directed by Gosho. She had a close working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi, having parts in 15 of his films, including leading roles in The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). Their working relationship ended when Mizoguchi countered a recommendation from the Directors Guild of Japan for the Nikkatsu studio to hire her as a director. Despite this, the production of her second film as director went ahead, but Tanaka never forgave Mizoguchi, and the reasons for his behaviour are unclear. She also played Noboru Yasumoto's mother in Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard (1965). For her portrayal in Kei Kumai's Sandakan N° 8 she won the Best Actress Award at the 25th Berlin International Film Festival in 1975. Her last screen appearance was in 1976 in Kei Kumai's Kita No Misaki. Tanaka was the second Japanese woman who worked as a film director, after Sakane Tazuko (1904‐1975). Her first directing job was on the film Love Letter in 1953, and she made five further films in that role.
TV Credits
樅ノ木は残った
Character: Tsuta
Depicting Date clan’s internal strife that occurred during a peaceful Edo period governed by the 4th Tokugawa shogun....
Movie Credits
Cape of the North
Character: Old Nun
A Swiss nun falls in love with a Japanese engineer....
Sansho the Bailiff
Character: Tamaki
In medieval Japan, a woman and her children journey to find the family's patriarch, who was exiled years earlier....
Sandakan No. 8
Character: Old Osaki
A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8....
Equinox Flower
Character: Kiyoko Hirayama
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....
Kaisen no Zenya
Character:
Kempeitai fights American spies in Japan...
Mother
Character: Masako Fukuhara
A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family....
The Life of Oharu
Character: Oharu
In 17th century Edo Period Japan, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall....
The Woman in the Rumor
Character: Hatsuko Mabuchi
After living a traumatic experience in Tokyo, Yukiko returns to Kyoto, where Hatsuko, her mother, runs a brothel, which upsets Yukiko very much....
The Love of the Actress Sumako
Character: Sumako Matsui
The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent....
Miss Oyu
Character: Oyû Kayukawa
Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu convinces Shinnosuke and Shizu to marry so that she can remain close to Shinnosuke....
Flowing
Character: Rika Yamanaka / Oharu
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mother's trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers....
Kono sora no aru kagiri
Character:
...
The Munekata Sisters
Character: Setsuko Munekata
Setsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them failed to propose when Hiroshi left for France a few years ago. Now he is back and Mariko tries to reunite them. She too is secretly in love with Hiroshi....
Zoku aizen katsura
Character:
1939 Japanese movie...
Alone Across the Pacific
Character: Youth's Mother
Kenichi Horie is determined to challenge his family, the law and the nature crossing the Pacific to America in a small sailboat. Despite his careful planning, many unforeseen events will test his determination....
Women of the Night
Character: Fusako Owada
In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law, descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons....
Miyamoto Musashi
Character: Shinobu Nonomiya
The first of five Musashi series, Shinobu and her brother Genichiro plead with the famous swordsman Musashi Miyamoto to teach them swordsmanship to avenge their father's death. The killers of their father see the sister and brother practicing with Miyamoto, and so enlist the help of another powerful swordsman, Kojiro Sasaki, which gives Sasaki an excuse to battle Miyamoto....
Utamaro and His Five Women
Character: Okita
Utamaro, a great artist, lives to create portraits of beautiful women, and the brothels of Tokyo provide his models. A world of passion swirls around him, as the women in his life vie for lovers. And, occasionally, his art gets him into trouble....
Her Brother
Character: Mother
Set in 1926 when Japanese tradition was much stronger, this drama looks at the inner workings of a small family, especially the relationship between a sister and brother....
Flame of My Love
Character: Eiko Hirayama
A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by the government....
Woman of Tokyo
Character: Harue
Ryoichi and Chikako, brother and sister, live together. Chikako toils during the day and, at night, prostitutes herself to fund his college tuition....
Phoenix
Character: Sayoko Aihara
A Japanese war widow recalls her love affair with her deceased husband....
Bright Sea
Character: Nobuko Yazaki
On the day of college graduation, Mieko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) stood on stage as the valedictorian for the Department of English. During her university years she made sure that she would always come out on top, and she did. With a victorious graduation behind her, she plans out the next chapter of her life: become a successful novelist and go out with a classmate she's been secretly eyeing for the past couple of years....
Ornamental Hairpin
Character: Emi
A Japanese mountain inn patron's foot is cut by an ornamental hairpin accidentally left behind by a former patron, leading to much curiosity among the other patrons regarding her identity....
Sincere Heart
Character: Kuniko
A young student falls for an invalid girl whom he can only see from afar....
King of the Land
Character: Namiko
Japanese silent film from 1928, ranked as Kinema Junpo's second-best Japanese movie of the year....
A Tale of Archery at the Sanjusangendo
Character: Okinu
Young, timid bowmaster Kazuma seeks to beat the archery record set by Hoshino Kanzaemon, a mysterious figure who, it is rumoured, drove the previous champion—Kazuma’s father—to suicide. Possessed of much raw talent, Kazuma is very much a coward, holing up in an inn and generally avoiding confrontation. Despite his best attempts to remain clandestine, the locals know of Kazuma’s purpose and an attempt is made on his life. He's saved by Karatsu Kanbei, a samurai who offers to help Kazuma hone his ...
The Ballad of Narayama
Character: Orin
In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a f...
A Wanderer's Notebook
Character: Kishi, Fumiko's Mother
Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th-century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture....
The Neighbour's Wife and Mine
Character: Wife of the Playwright
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
Character: Kaoru, a dancer
"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....
A Legend or Was It?
Character: Shizuko Sonobe
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....
Burden of Life
Character: Itsuko Kuriyama
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....
Army
Character: Waka
Though plagued by ill health all his life, a young Japanese man is obligated to fulfill his family's longstanding military tradition....
Youth, Why Do You Cry?
Character: Kozue Uesugi
A modern girl suddenly intrudes into a widower's family home....
The Three Treasures
Character: Princess Yamato
The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. But Ouso prevails in the mission and returns to his father's castle under a new name, Prince Yamato Takeru. Otomo plots to have the Prince sent into even greater danger, but Otomo is unaware that the gods have favored the Prince and the...
The Eternal Rainbow
Character: Fumi
Two men at an ironworks encounter roadblocks: the first does not have the grades to get a job, while the other finds himself falling for a co-worker....
Banchō sarayashiki
Character:
short film about Banchō Sarayashiki....
Wedding Ring
Character: Noriko Kuki
A jewelry store president begins to fall for the doctor treating her husband's illness....
Yotsuya Ghost Story Part 2
Character: Oiwa / Osode
Part 2 starts where the first film ended, with Iemon disposing of the bodies of his wife and Kohei, marrying upward, and being blackmailed by the evil Naosuke....
A Man's Recompense: Part 2
Character:
Sabu Toshinobu is an archaeologist who has taken a liking to Kinuyo Tanaka, the daughter of an archaeologist at an inn in Izu, where he is visiting to conduct an excavation. Sabun gets along well with his childhood friend Michiko Kuwano, but his mother (Fumiko Okamura) is against her, so he gives up easily and ends up being married to Kinuyo Tanaka....
Yotsuya Ghost Story Part 1
Character: Oiwa / Osode
Iemon Tamiya is an impoverished masterless samurai who craves a better life, which he cannot have because of his marriage to Oiwa, who is completely devoted to her husband....
A Man's Recompense: Part 1
Character:
Sabu Toshinobu is an archaeologist who has taken a liking to Kinuyo Tanaka, the daughter of an archaeologist at an inn in Izu, where he is visiting to conduct an excavation. Sabun gets along well with his childhood friend Michiko Kuwano, but his mother (Fumiko Okamura) is against her, so he gives up easily and ends up being married to Kinuyo Tanaka....
Flower
Character:
Most of the students studying Ikebana with Kozoe Iemoto are daughters of rich Tokyo families. Kozoe meets and grows close to a doctor who proposes marriage but whose mother harbours ill feeling towards her because of an incident in the mountains where a child got into difficulties. Kozoe rejects the proposal but falls ill and when she recovers, decides to devote herself entirely to the world of flower arranging....
A Certain Woman
Character:
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 Travels of Kinuyo Tanaka
Character: Self (archive footage)
Compilation of film footage documenting Japanese film star Kinuyo Tanaka's goodwill tour of the U.S. in 1949....
Forever a Woman
Character: Neighbor's Wife
Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In the last stage of her life, she meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her life....
The Moon Has Risen
Character: Yoneya
Mokichi is the widowed father of three daughters, with whom he lives on the premises of a temple since the war. All three daughters become involved in some sort of complicated relationships....
Record of a Woman Doctor
Character:
A group of female doctors travel to a remote village during their summer holiday to offer free medical care to villagers. There they must battle prejudice and superstition as much as disease....
Okoto and Sasuke
Character: Okoto
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....
An Heir's Place
Character: Hisa Hosho
This film stars Tanaka Kinuyo as the mother of the heir to the Hosho name, a famous lineage of Noh actors. The heir, Hosho Yagoro, is played by Hasegawa Kuzuo who went on to become familiar among Ichikawa Kon fans as Yukinojo in An Actor's Revenge, which was also co-written by Ito, adding to the relatedness of An Heir's Place....
Victory of Women
Character: Hiroko Hosokawa
Representing a destitute mother in an infanticide trial, a female lawyer attempts to convince a conservative prosecutor of the benefits of Japan's democratized post-war legal system....
Five Sisters
Character:
The story of five sisters....
Yellow Crow
Character: Yukiko Matsumoto
Ichiro Yoshida, the father of the boy Kiyoshi, who has been repatriated from China, returns home after a ten-year separation. The father, who has been estranged from his son for many years, pays no attention to the boy, often punishes him unfairly, and gives all his tenderness to his little daughter, who was born after his return. The boy sees all the injustice of his father and, offended, leaves home. The father realized that he was wrong, that he was guilty before his son. The mother finds the...
I Graduated, But...
Character: Machiko Nomoto
Tetsuo Nomoto, a young college graduate 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....
The Scent of Incense
Character: Tsuna
After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble....
The New Road: Akemi
Character:
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. This part is told from the perspective of Akemi....
Eternity of Love
Character: Michi's Mother
A Hiromichi Horikawa movie...
Hahakogusa
Character: Shige Ozawa
Based on the Nobu Koito story...
The Storm
Character:
A widowed high-school teacher tries to raise his four children alone....
Where Chimneys Are Seen
Character: Hiroko Ogata
Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo....
Kinuyo Tanaka, a Woman We Talk About
Character: Self (archive footage)
This documentary composed of numerous testimonies and archives, filmed in Japan highlights the extraordinary career of the actress-director Kinuyo Tanaka and her singular ambition to impose a female point of view on cinema, reflecting her own vision of the world....
The Man Who Has Returned
Character:
...
Marching On
Character: Toshiko Yamamoto
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....
I Flunked, But...
Character: Cafe's Waitress
This bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a group of college roommates attempting to cheat their way through their exams. As the title goes, things don't work out for our roguish main character, but his classmates soon find themselves in a similarly sorry state......
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?
Character: Oshige
When a young man inherits his father's lucrative business, he cheats the system to set up three of his college friends with jobs....
Dragnet Girl
Character: Tokiko
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....
Okayo's Preparedness
Character: Okayo
A young student of traditional dance falls in love with a handsome young man who visits the dance school in order to take photographs....
Red Beard
Character: Madame Yasumoto
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel....
Mama, I Need You!
Character:
After finishing the course of junior high school, Kazuo comes up to Tokyo, leaving his mother alone in the unproductive northern district. He finds a job in a small laundry in downtown Tokyo and works hard till late at night. At a nearby restaurant a brother and sister are working, and Kazuo becomes friendly with the girl, Yoneko. Love blossoms between the two. However, Yoneko's brother objects to his sister marrying Kazuo....
House of Many Pleasures
Character: Oshige
Yoshida Denkichi does loses sight of his wife Chiyoko and daughter Toyoko during the war, and is taken in by a familiar woman, Oshige, and becomes the owner of "Fujimura" in the town of Hato. Eiko is a timid woman who hates Terada, a watchmaker who is obsessed with her; Tamie is a hard worker who asks for money from customers to support her mother and daughter Teruko; Tane, who dreams of the day they can be together, gives money to her lover Takeda; Machiko, an apres girl, is selective about her...
Osayo Koi Sugata
Character: Osayo
The poor novelist Yamamoto is writing his novel, determined and with a headband around his head. With him, the novelist who is always in trouble paying his bills, is the girl Saya who becomes the model for his novel. Saya however is in love with a young driver. When he is forced to move into a spa town as the result of the jealousy of another man Saya is terribly sad. But with the help of Yamamoto the driver's rival can be revealed and Saya can finally be with her beloved....
The Bride Talks in Her Sleep
Character: Haruko, bride
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 g...
Lullaby of the Earth
Character:
The story of an orphan girl, brought up in naive, rustic innocence by an elderly relative, who is suddenly exposed to the brutality, greed and deceptiveness of the outside world when her grandmother dies....
The Loyal 47 Ronin
Character: Yae
This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), ...
Ginza Cosmetics
Character: Yukiko Tsuji
A few days in the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a smart young boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza. A woman devoted to others' needs, she'll end by taking part herself in one of the many disguises of Ginza....
The Inner Palace Conspiracy
Character: Onaka
A period mystery in which an unconventional priest exposes the truth behind the bizarre death of a maid in the shogun's harem. Kinuyo Tanaka stylishly plays a constantly intoxicated geisha in this all-star entertainment film....
The Tree of Love
Character: Katsue Takaishi
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 "Aiz...
Tsukiyo no kasa
Character:
Housewives from four neighboring households casually gather at an old well at Kaneko's house in a residential area on the outskirts of Tokyo. If two people come together, they will talk about selling kimonos, if three people come together, they will discuss food shopping, and when four people come together, there will be laughter. Focusing on four housewives who gather at the edge of the well, it depicts the daily life of each household....
The Lady of Musashino
Character: Michiko Akiyama
Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands....
Marriage
Character: Fumie Matsukawa
In postwar Japan a young woman is unable to marry her sweetheart because her family's in difficult circumstances and needs her income to keep afloat....
Geisha in the Old City
Character: Oei
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....
Love Letter
Character: Landlady
A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people....
The Ataka Family
Character: Kuniko Ataka
Soichi Ataka is the eldest son of Ataka family. Although mentally challenged, he's a person with a gentle heart. Soichi's wife, Kuniko is devoted to her husband and together the couple runs the family farm. Their happy family life comes to an abrupt halt when Soichi's half-brother, Joji returns with his wife Masako after failing in a business....
The Fencing Master
Character: Oharu
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....
The Genealogy of Women
Character: Otsuta
A melodrama by noted auteur and father of director Yoshitaro Nomura, Hotei Nomura. This is apparently the first adaptation of Izumi Kyoka's The Romance of Yushima....
Chikamatsu's Love in Osaka
Character: Myokan
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....
Victory Song
Character: Woman who sings lullaby
Hisshoka is a 1945 Drama film directed by four Japanese directors....
My Elder Brother
Character: Sumako
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…...
On This Earth
Character: Omitsu, Heiichiro's mother
Ichiro’s family used to be a large landowner, but now he is living in poverty with his mother. His mother works hard to get her son through school. Under such circumstances, Ichiro meets Wakako, the daughter of a wealthy man, and they fall in love with each other, but they are opposed by those around them because of their different social status....
Lady Doctor Kinuyo
Character: Kinuyo Yamaoka
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....
Song of the Flower Basket
Character: Yoko
Three men fall in love with the same young girl who works in a tonkatsu restaurant in the Shitamachi district of Tokyo....
Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
Character: Self
In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi....
Men vs. Women
Character:
A musical film made for the inauguration of Shochiku's Ofuna Studio, with an all-star cast of the era....
Sisters of Nishijin
Character:
A family of Kyoto textile workers struggles after tragedy....
Sanbaba
Character:
A story about being scared of getting old....
Stepbrothers
Character: Rie
In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers. A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted Japan between 1921 and 1946....
An Innocent Maid
Character: Oshige
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....
Young Lady
Character: Kinuko
Lost film. Two reporters find that they are repeatedly beaten to the scoop by a new female journalist, 'young miss'. They decide to team up with her to investigate a secret club for wealthy voyeurs. Considered to be a lost film....
A Hen in the Wind
Character: Tokiko Amamiya
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....
Women in Prison
Character: Prison Warden
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....
Ugetsu
Character: Miyagi
In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama....
Double Wedding
Character:
...
Sorrow Is Only for Women
Character:
The beauty of the Japanese family system is portrayed through the women who greet a woman who went to America thirty years ago to visit her grave....
Tora-san's Dream-Come-True
Character: The Old Family Mistress
When Tora-san returns to visit his family, he is surprised to find an arrogant professor occupying his room. The professor and Tora-san become rivals for the affection of Chiyo....
Air Raid of the Enemy Plane
Character: Kiyo
Japanese war movie....
Spring Thunder
Character:
Eiko is an innocent young lady born into a wealthy family with nothing to offer. She was good at singing, and lived her life playing around with her cronies, organizing music concerts and so on. However, things change when her father's business fails and she was suddenly thrown out into the world without any foundation. Eiko has no one to support her after she loses her social status, and her only tutor, Shinnosuke (Natsukawa Daijiro) was the only one who was sincere. Eiko is a stickler for usin...
Confession
Character:
...
The New Road: Ryota
Character:
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. Told from the perspective of Ryota. In this second part, we learn that Akemi is pregnant......
The Blacksmith of the Forest
Character: Omitsu
A blacksmith is chased out of the village by the sinister village chief and forced to move to the forest with his wife and two sons. The blacksmith's younger son is disabled, and the other children in the village tease him. The older son aspires to become a doctor in order to fix his brother's leg. The film depicts the bond between a father and his sons. Only 18 minutes survive....
Let's Go in Good Spirits
Character:
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....
Let's Go, Grandma!
Character: Kiku Sasaki
Let's Go, Grandma! plays like an exuberant, goofy update to Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. Kinuyo Tanaka plays the titular Grandma, who, after selling her Hokkaido property, is apparently flush with cash but newly homeless. Her grown children take turns hosting her, making extravagant performances of filial devotion with an eye to potential profit. Making use of a catalog of wacky visual effects, bracketed by gratuitous ham-fisted fight scenes, and costarring pop singer Hideki Saijo, the film is ba...
Mother and Child
Character: Chieko
The movie follows a young woman (Kinuyo Tanaka), a daughter of a high-ranking businessman and his neglected mistress, as she struggles to ease her mother's loneliness, while also having an affair with her father's subordinate....
Kinuyo's First Love
Character:
Kinuyo is a daughter of rice cracker shop in downtown. She fell in love with her sister's boyfriend. It is a story whose theme is warm human relationships in a town of customs and manners....
Osaka Woman
Character:
When Ochika, from a rich family, marries Danpei, a poor shamisen player, she devotes herself completely to him and takes over her business, to the point of sowing dissensions within the Jōruri troupe in which her husband plays. Considered a lost film....
Weeds with flowers
Character:
Weed with Flowers...
Okinu and Banto
Character:
A story of a store that makes Tabi socks....
Story of Lightning
Character:
Gensaburo Funaki and Oyuki were childhood friends, but Gensaburo misunderstood that Oyuki was hesitant to get married because he had to feed his father and younger brother. I left the town....
Shōnen shikeishū
Character:
...
Village Pasture
Character: Oharu
Japanese film from 1924....
Fallen Samurai
Character: Omaki
A period drama about samurai who survived a loss in battle. An early jidaegeki by Hiroshi Shimizu....
Young Master
Character: Tamako (Geisha in training)
Japanese silent film from 1926. (Obo-chan meaning "Young Master.") Written by Ayame Mizushima, the first female screenwriter in Japan....
Chronicles of a Sea Country
Character: Oaki (Sister)
Japanese silent film from 1928, co-starring Chojiro Hayashi and up-and-coming actress Kinuyo Tanaka....
The Eternal Heart
Character:
The logger Yamato has been raising his daughter alone since his wife died in childbirth. The baron who owns the forests where he works convinces him to let him adopt the child, despite his reluctance. Fifteen years of age pass without Yamato seeing his daughter again....
The Glory of the Shōwa Era
Character: Yayoi Sakurai (Shōwa Chapter)
Japanese silent film from 1928....
Mother, Don't Tarnish Your Name
Character:
Because of her husband’s suicide, a young widow finds herself suddenly cast into a life of solitude, with only her beloved child in her arms. At first, her pure devotion is directed toward the memory of her late husband, but before long it transforms into a fierce, consuming love for her child. That very love, however, drives her onto a perilous path, leading inexorably toward the tragic fate of a doomed flower. Ah, Mother! For what sin must you endure the scourge of the world? This work is offe...
Where Do Women Go?
Character: Omitsu
Japanese silent film from 1930 with an acclaimed performance by Sumiko Kurishima....
The Tale of Kinuyo
Character: Kinuyo
Japanese silent film from 1930. Directed by Heinosuke Gosho, the film marked a new stage in the artistry of Kinuyo Tanaka, earning acclaim strong enough to greatly expand her following as a leading actress....
Record of Love and Desire
Character:
Record of Love and Desire a.k.a. Desire of Night (愛慾の記[b], Aiyoku no ki; lit. "Memories of Love and Desire") is a 1930 Japanese silent film directed by Heinosuke Gosho, starring Kinuyo Tanaka and Ichirō Yuki....
Love, Be with Humanity: Part 1
Character: Mayumi
The three-hour Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are / Love, Be with Humanity (1931) starts as a satire of alienation in the world of money, develops into a lumberland epic with a forest fire on Sakhalin Island, turns into a tragedy of King Lear dimensions, and manages to amaze the blasé audience with a happy end in the Wild West....
Love, Be with Humanity: Part 2
Character: Mayumi
The three-hour Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are / Love, Be with Humanity (1931) starts as a satire of alienation in the world of money, develops into a lumberland epic with a forest fire on Sakhalin Island, turns into a tragedy of King Lear dimensions, and manages to amaze the blasé audience with a happy end in the Wild West....
ABC Lifeline: Fujieda Chapter
Character:
First chapter of Tasujiro Shimazu's ABC Lifeline, released two months before ABC Lifeline: Part 1 and ABC Lifeline: Part 2....
ABC Lifeline
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Japanese silent film directed by Yasujirô Shimazu, originally released as a two-part movie on December 11, 1931....
Victory or Defeat
Character:
Japanese film from 1932, adapted from the novel by Kan Kikuchi. The first sound film from director Yasujiro Shimazu....
Studio Romance: A Guide to Love
Character:
Japanese film from 1932....
Shine, Japanese Women
Character: Shigeko
Shigeko and Midori, star swimmers at the renowned Kirishima Girls’ School, are training relentlessly with their sights set on the Los Angeles Olympics. But for the past week, Shigeko has been absent from practice. Her father has fallen ill, and to support her family’s struggling finances, she has secretly taken a job at a trading company. When Masao discovers this, he asks Midori to convince her to return, but soon the school learns of her secret. The students rally to raise funds, though the p...
Before the Wedding
Character: Yukiko Takada
Japanese home drama starring Kinuyo Tanaka....
Daphne
Character: Tamayō (Geisha)
Japanese film from 1933, adapted from Masao Kume's serialized newspaper novel....