Takashi Shimura
Birthday: Born in 1905-03-12 in Ikuno, Hyogo, Japan
Deathday: 1982-02-11
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Takashi Shimura (志村 喬, Shimura Takashi, March 12, 1905 – February 11, 1982) was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1934 and 1981. He appeared in 21 of Akira Kurosawa's 30 films (more than any other actor), including as a lead actor in Drunken Angel (1948), Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952) and Seven Samurai (1954).[3] He played Professor Kyohei Yamane in Ishirō Honda's original Godzilla (1954) and its first sequel, Godzilla Raids Again (1955). For his contributions to the arts, the Japanese government decorated Shimura with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1974 and the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette in 1980. Shimura died on February 11, 1982, in Tokyo, Japan, from emphysema at the age of 76. His effects were presented to the Film Centre of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Description above from the Wikipedia article Takashi Shimura, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
花神
Character: Chikuin
Centered around Masujiro Omura, who became a commander for the Choshu clan, and founded the modern Japanese millitary system....
三姉妹
Character: Misawa Heizaemon [Kingoro's father]
The Story is about three daughters of a "Hatamoto" during the end of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration....
天と地と
Character: Nagao Fusakage
The story chronicles the life of Nagao Kagetora....
赤穂浪士
Character: Onodera Juunai
"Ako Roshi" is a group of 47 former retainers of Lord Asano. Lord Asano was forced to commit suicide after attempting to kill Lord Kira. Once the retainers hear about their Lord's death, they sacrifice their lives to regain the honor of their former master....
男たちの旅路
Character: Motoki
The series depicts the employees of a security company from different generations and backgrounds facing many difficult questions. It features a guard who survived a suicide mission during the war and his conflicts, rebellion, empathy and reconciliation with the younger generation born after the war....
あ・うん
Character:
Senkichi Mizuta, a pharmaceutical company employee, and Shuzo Kadokura, a war profiteer, are diametrically opposed in appearance and personality, but are best friends. Kadokura secretly loves Mizuta's wife, Tami, and both Mizuta and Tami are aware of it. The drama depicts the subtle relationship between the two men and the people around them against the backdrop of the times and customs of the early Showa period, in which both are aware of each other's love, but no one speaks of it....
Movie Credits
The Hidden Fortress
Character: General Izumi Nagakura
In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains....
Rashomon
Character: Woodcutter
Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife....
Godzilla Raids Again
Character: Kyohei Yamane-hakase
Two fishing scout pilots make a horrifying discovery when they encounter a second Godzilla alongside a new monster named Anguirus. Without the weapon that killed the original, authorities attempt to lure Godzilla away from the mainland. But Anguirus soon arrives and the two monsters make their way towards Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy....
Godzilla
Character: Kyohei Yamane
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well....
Frankenstein Conquers the World
Character: Hiroshima Army Hospital doctor
During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart....
Ikiru
Character: Kanji Watanabe
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life....
Throne of Blood
Character: Noriyasu Odagura
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....
Red Beard
Character: Tokubei Izumiya
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....
Escape Zone
Character:
Shiro Yabe, a young gangster who boarded the second class on the Tokaido Line after finishing a dangerous smuggling transaction in Kobe, is next to a beautiful woman with a sad face....
Spring Snow
Character:
The Yoshikawa family is a typical small town family. With only the father's and daughter's salaries to support the family's six members, life is not easy....
Jiruba no Tetsu
Character:
...
Fifth Movement
Character:
When a broadcasting company takes away its financial support from a symphony orchestra, some of the members refuse to admit defeat. The first violinist returns to his home and manages to get the orchestra back together for a grandiose performance, saved at the last minute by their original conductor -- and boding well for the future of the die-hard musicians....
Stray Dog
Character: Det. Sato
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side....
Kwaidan
Character: Head Priest (segment "Hoichi the Earless")
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup....
Underworld series - Pardon My Violent Ways
Character:
Toru Sagara, a lone wolf assassin, is imprisoned for betraying his employer, Hanawa. After completing his sentence, he immediately takes revenge on Hanawa, but as he leaves, he is unaware that a boy is watching him. Toru's new employer asks him to kill a competitor in drug sales, but......
I Live in Fear
Character: Domestic Court Counselor Dr. Harada
Kiichi Nakajima, an elderly foundry owner, is convinced that Japan will be affected by an imminent nuclear war, and resolves to move his family to safety in Brazil. His family decides to have him ruled incompetent and Dr. Harada, a Domestic Court counselor, attempts to arbitrate....
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island
Character: Court official
A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers a...
Kanto Woman Infamy
Character:
...
Sanjuro
Character: Kurofuji
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear....
The Bad Sleep Well
Character: Administrative Officer Moriyama
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death....
Kagemusha
Character: Taguchi Gyobu
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord....
The Idiot
Character: Ono, Ayako's father
Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues....
Yojimbo
Character: Tokuemon, sake brewer
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men....
Drunken Angel
Character: Sanada
Doctor Sanada treats gangster Matsunaga after he is wounded in a gunfight, and discovers that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Sanada tries to convince Matsunaga to stay for treatment, which would drastically change his lifestyle. They form an uneasy friendship until Matsunaga's old boss Okada returns from prison....
Scandal
Character: Attorney Hiruta
A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer....
High and Low
Character: Chief of Investigation Section
In the midst of an attempt to take over his company, a powerhouse executive is hit with a huge ransom demand when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake....
A Geisha on Horseback
Character: Kotaro Yamabe
Based on the original work of Akutagawa Prize-winning writer Ashihei Hino, the film depicts the love of the proud geisha Nobukichi Hakata in the early Taisho era....
Sanshiro Sugata
Character: Hansuke Murai, Sayo's father
The story of Sanshiro, a strong stubborn youth, who travels into the city in order to learn Jujutsu. However, upon his arrival he discovers a new form of self-defence: Judo. The main character is based on Shiro Saigo, a legendary judoka....
To Love and Swear
Character: Murai's father, principle
After facing hard times, an orphan Korean boy gets adopted to Japanese society. He meets several Japanese people who are kind to him, and grows up wanting to repay his debt to Japan, by becoming a kamikaze pilot....
Sazae-san's Marriage
Character:
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......
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
Character: Kataoka
Yoshitsune Minamoto, disguised with his retinue as monks, must make do with a comical porter as their guide through hostile territory en route to safety....
Long Way to Okinawa
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
The Mysterians
Character: Dr. Tanjiro Adachi
In Japan, scientifically advanced invaders from the war-destroyed planet Mysteroid cause an entire village to vanish, then send a giant robot out to storm the city by night, after which they request a small patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women, claiming to be pacifists. Mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist....
No Regrets for Our Youth
Character: Police Commissioner 'Poison Strawberry' Dokuichigo
Over more than a decade, the daughter of a Kyoto Imperial University professor comes of age as she witnesses her father fired for opposing the rise of fascism in Japan and becomes involved with two of his students....
The Quiet Duel
Character: Dr. Konosuke Fujisaki
A young idealistic doctor works at his father's clinic in a small and seedy district. During the war, he contracts syphilis from the blood of a patient when he cuts himself during an operation. Treating himself in secret and tormented by his conscience, he rejects his heartbroken fiancée without explanation....
Osaka Elegy
Character: Inspector
Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss so she can pay her father's debt and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement....
Stolen Love
Character: Sotaro Munekata
Romantic melodrama...
Chûshingura
Character: Hyobu Chishaka
After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor....
続サラリーマン清水港
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
The Crimson Sky
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
Afraid to Die
Character: Gohei Hirayama
On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position of his recently deceased father, boss of the Asahina clan. But their exit proves more difficult than planned when their rival clan steps in to exact revenge....
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
Character: Dr. Tsukamoto
After a meteorite unleashes a three-headed beast upon Tokyo, Mothra tries to unite with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the extraterrestrial threat....
Sanshiro of Ginza
Character: Daizo Matsubara
An early film by Kon Ichikawa...
Eight Views of Samurai
Character:
Bright samurai movie innovatively adapted from a classic story. A traveling masterless samurai is asked by a daughter of an established samurai family to pretend they are a married couple, and gets involved in the troubles of the samurai clan....
These Foolish Times
Character:
...
Tokkan ekichô
Character:
Based on the comic by Ichio Matsushita...
The Lord Takes a Bride
Character:
Young Lord Gentaro (Otomo Ryutaro) takes a journey to Edo in search of his future wife. Easier said than done, evil forces lurk in Edo and Gentaro must use his phenomenal sword skills to overcome the evil and find the love of his life. Another must have for fans of the great Otomo Ryutaro. And don't let the "silly" English title fool you, this is a great movie!...
Japan's Longest Day
Character: Information Bureau Director Hiroshi Shimomura
Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen. Emperor Hirohito, however, joins with his ministers in asking the unthinkable, the peaceful surrender of Japan. When the military plots a coup to overthrow the Emperor's civilian government, Anam...
The Most Beautiful
Character: Chief Goro Ishida
The stories of several young women who work in a 'precision optical instruments' factory during the second World War. Despite illness, injury, and tremendous personal hardship, the women persevere in their tasks, devoted to their work and their country's cause....
Mothra
Character: News Editor
Shipwreck survivors found on the presumably uninhabited Infant Island leads to a scientific expedition that discovers a surviving native population along with the Shobijin, tiny twin fairy priestesses of the island's mythical deity called Mothra. After the fairies are kidnapped by an exploitative businessman named Clark Nelson, Mothra sets out to rescue them....
Shunjû ittôryû
Character:
After being expelled from the Chiba Dojo , Hirate Zoshu , along with his acquaintances Tadaki Ganryu and Tamon Jubei, were hired as bodyguards by Sasagawa Shigezo, and became embroiled in a gamblers' feud known as the "Tenpo Suikoden....
The Soundless Cry
Character:
Shinichi is not only poor, he is also deaf, and leads a joyless life with his sick mother. His one happiness is his friendship with a girl who works in a bar nearby. Then, one day, his mother dies after drinking the medicine that Shinichi himself gave her. It is discovered that the pills contained poison. He is apprehended on suspicion of murder and taken away for interrogation, unable to defend himself - being deaf and dumb - or even to proclaim his innocence....
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
Character: Dr. Yamane
During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself....
Attack Squadron
Character: Admiral
Lt. Col. Senda resists the idea of sending Japanese fighter pilots on suicide missions. He believes that what is really necessary for Japan to regain momentum in the war is for the air force to gather its most brilliant pilots into an elite squadron and use the unit to pinpoint attacks on the Americans. Disrespected by the kamikaze pilots who think the "non-suicidal" pilots are afraid, the unit redeems itself by stunning victories. But success leads the military leaders to expect too much of the...
Zatoichi and the Fugitives
Character: Dr. Junan
Zatoichi runs afoul of some evil fugitives, working for a corrupt law official....
Zatoichi's Conspiracy
Character: Sakubei
Zatoichi, the famed blind swordsman, returns to his home village for the first time in many years. He is befriended by Omiyo, who had the same wet-nurse as Zatoichi. He also encounters a boyhood friend, Shinbei, who now is wealthy and appears not to remember Zatoichi. Shinbei seems to be interested in repaying the villagers' debts, but is in reality manipulating the ownership of a now-valuable rock quarry. Zatoichi learns of the subterfuge and confronts his old friend, who has a score of yakuza ...
Tokyo Crime Map
Character:
An exciting film about thugs, in which murders and drugs, justice and resentment explode in the dark city of Tokyo with the help of guns and violence....
Samurai Assassin
Character: Narihisa Ichijō
Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune....
The Sun is Calling You
Character:
A man with a dark past comes from Tokyo to the fishing port of Izu, and tries to begin a new life as a fisherman....
Vendetta of a Samurai
Character:
The famous showdown at Kagiya corner has been told many times, but never before with the realism and intensity of this version scripted by Kurosawa Akira and starring Mifune Toshiro as the famed swordsman who must face his best friend as they are forced to take opposite sides in a vendetta caused by the murder of a family member. Told mostly in flashback as the avengers await the arrival of their quarry, this film displays true heroism in the face of fear as most of the combatants, while of the ...
Godzilla, the Monster of the Pacific Ocean
Character: Dr. Yamane
Obscure French version of the original Godzilla. The film combines elements of the original Toho version and the American King of the Monsters! in a unique assemblage exclusive to the Francophone market. Released by Les Films du Verseau....
Snow Trail
Character: Nojiri
Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman and her father, as well as Honda, a mountaineer. The inn folk do not realize their guests are wanted criminals and the visitors are treated with great kindness. Honda volunteers to lead them over the mountains, but Eijima's paranoia endangers all of them as they make the perilous trip....
Akanishi Kakita
Character: Taranoshin Tsunomata
A samurai is ordered by his lord to go to Edo and investigate the truth behind the rumor of a rebellion against him....
あの空の果てに星はまたたく
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
Different Sons
Character: Hisamitsu Ando
In the middle of the period of high economic growth in Japan, a family is thrown into disarray over work, money, and romance. Their father's sudden unemployment later in life causes friction among the siblings of the Akagi family. Kensuke, a salaryman at a top company, refuses to support his parents while his brother, Shoji, determines to care for them despite only working as a taxi driver. The concern over money affects Noriko's own love life as she courts a wealthy salaryman to the chagrin of ...
Master Fencer Sees the World
Character:
A historical drama that depicts the touching beauty of world obsession and human love in the style of light comedy, in the center of which is a young man who has a master license menkyo kaiden in the art of swordsmanship, but weak against lies and women. A remake of Bungaku no Issue, shot by Sadao Yamanaka in 1933....
The Sands of Kurobe
Character: Ashimura
Kitagawa is an engineer charged with construction of a gigantic tunnel through the Japan Alps for the transportation of equipment in the building of the massive Kurobe Dam. The tunnel crosses an earthquake fault and Kitagawa is beleaguered not only by cave-ins and flooding, but by strife between management and the workers's union. Adding to Kitagawa's stress is the knowledge that as his attention is pulled inexorably toward the tunnel construction, his youngest daughter is dying from leukemia....
Brutal Tales of Chivalry 5: Man With The Karajishi Tattoo
Character:
Hidejuro is sent to prison after killing the boss of a rival family. After being released, he discovers that his family has scattered and he is taken in by a company of quarry workers, whose boss has a strict code of non-violence. When the rival family tries to take over the company and kills their boss, Hidejuro must choose between his promise of non-violence and his yakuza code of revenge......
Casebooks of Dandy Sashichi: Blind Wolf
Character:
In this movie, Sashichi tries to catch a serial killer who kills his victims with shurikens....
Yaji And Kita's Traveling Diary
Character:
A captivating operetta by Masahiro Makino based on Juppensha Ikku's humorous novel "Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige" starring Chiezo Kataoka and Kyoji Sugi....
The Three Treasures
Character: Elder Kumaso
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 Militarists
Character: Takeda
...
A Whistle in My Heart
Character:
The story is about the social problems faced by Japan's indigenous Ainu, mostly centered on the reactions of the characters to their oppressed state....
A Bullet Hole Underground
Character: Yuuzou Fujimoto
...
Kurama Tengu
Character:
This is Kanjûrô Arashi's first film with Nikkatsu after his independent production company went bankrupt (many of these independent companies went bankrupt shortly after the transition to sound). As he is mostly famous for his portrait of Kurama tengu (and on the other hand, he's the definitive actor for Kurama Tengu as well), Nikkatsu made another version of Kurama tengu, co-directed by Masahiro Makino & Sadatsugu Matsuda who are both sons of Shozo Makino. Scripted by Yoshitake Hisa, a jidaigek...
Taiko's Rising in the World
Character:
Taikoki is a legendary biography of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who rose to the office of taikō. And the story of this film is about the rise to power of Toyotomi Hideyoshi from a farmer's son....
Tora-san's Love Call
Character: Hiroshi's father
Taking a message from Hiroshi's father to heart, Torajiro attempts to give up his wandering ways....
Yoru no keisha
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
Spring Awakens
Character: Kenzô Ogura
Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl....
Love and Faith
Character: Sen Rikyu
Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin's father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord's plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse....
Samurai Pirate
Character: King Raksha
An adventurous and daring sailor sets sail to the castle of an ailing king to stop an evil premier, hungry for power and wealth, from succeeding the throne and marrying the king's beautiful daughter. Along the way, with the help of some courageous rebels and a lustful wizard, he must overcome the powers of a bewitching witch, a band of ruthless pirates, and the castle's Imperial guards. He must also free those kidnapped into slavery and restore the king's reputation....
A Modern Yakuza: The Code of The Lawless
Character:
Just released on parole, one young man hurtles towards a face-off with the gangsters controlling Shinjuku and its lucrative prostitutes....
Shogun's Holiday
Character:
During the reign of Hidetada, the second shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, the advisor Okubo Hikozaemon (Ganjiro Nakamura) entrusts the young Takechiyo (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) to the fishmonger Isshin Tasuke (Kazuo Hasegawa) to help him understand the world. Tasuke, who does not know that Takechiyo is the shogun's heir, trains him harshly. Tasuke's wife Naka (Michiko Ai) is concerned about his harsh teaching style, but Takechiyo gains strength day by day and adapts to his new life. Soon, Takechiyo beg...
A Dangerous Hero
Character:
A film by Hideo Suzuki....
The Masterless 47
Character: Honzo Kadokawa
Part one of The Masterless 47....
Navy
Character: Takao Mutaguchi
Japanese war film....
The Harbor of No Return
Character: Detective Egusa
A jazz pianist named Shiro Tsuda returns from an overseas tour unwittingly carrying drugs that have been sewn into his jacket. When he stops by to see his girlfriend Kyoko, he walks in to find an unknown man attacking her. While struggling with the man, who is armed, Shiro accidentally shoots and kills her. The intruder knocks Shiro down and takes the drugs from Shiro's jacket. Shiro realizes that he was being used as a drag smuggler. He is sent to prison for three years for killing his girlfrii...
Escape from Prison
Character:
...
The Traveling Ruffian
Character:
Adventures of Mori no Ishimatsu, a famous member of Jirocho gang. Ishimatsu is strong in righteousness weak to mercy, who falls in love at first sight to a woman just as fiery as he is. Great all-star cast brings to life the story of a true yakuza....
Gambler Tales of Hasshu: A Man's Pledge
Character:
This is one of the many films based on the legend of Chuji Kunisada, a wandering gambler and a defender of the weak in the Edo period. In other words, he was the Japanese Robin Hood. In this film Kunisada (Chiezo Kataoka) arrives to a small town terrorized by an evil gang. He insists that he is not Kunisada, as the word is Kunisada has been executed, but of course the audience know better. Sonny Chiba plays an unusual supporting role as a helpless young man unable to defend himself from the gang...
Dorei kōjō
Character:
After the death of a colleague, the workers at a factory form a labor union....
Sanshiro Sugata
Character: Mishima
Remake of Kurosawa's films Sanshiro Sugata and Sanshiro Sugata part 2. A young man, Sanshiro Sugata, troubled by personal problems, takes up judo. His teacher, Shogoro Yano, is a devout man who has aroused the enmity of the local practitioners of jujitsu, the older and more accepted of the two sports. Sugata uses his newly learned prowess to gain a measure of respect from others; however, Shogoro insists that the sport has a spiritual side, a lesson Sugata has yet to learn. Eventually, in hand-t...
Wicked Priest 5: Breaking The Commandments
Character:
As the Killer Priest Shinkai travels around Japan during the Meiji era, he comes to the aid of a village headman fighting corruption from up above. Before he can do anything for the townspeople, he must first face his nemesis, Whipmaster, the blind Priest, a master killer thirsting for revenge....
浅草の夜
Character: Komazo
A young scriptwriter with a yakuza upbringing, an iron-fire dancer, a young painter, and a pure-hearted downtown girl fall in love in Asakusa in this entertaining tale of love and action....
The Gambler's Code
Character: Hacchônawate Tokubei
One of Japan's most popular stories is the tale of Kutsukake Tokijiro, a traveling gambler who finds that he must take care of the wife and child of a yakuza he had been forced by the code of the gamblers to fight man to man. In a brilliant performance from super-star Ichikawa Raizo, with strong support from two of the greats from Toho, Shimura Takashi (7 Samurai) and Aratama Michiyo (Sword of Doom) the heartfelt story reaches new heights. Tokijiro, having learned the true nature of the boss to...
Fūryū onsen bantō nikki
Character:
1962 Japanese movie...
Hadaka no Machi
Character:
...
Akagaki Genzo
Character: Jozaemon Sakaya
Forty-seven Ronin of the Ako clan are waiting for the right moment to avenge the insult and death of their master. The film tells the story of one of them named Akagaki Genzo....
Echo of Love
Character:
A man is brutally murdered and his famed shamisen (a three-stringed musical instrument) called the "Yamabiko" stolen. Prince Kogenta swears to avenge his father-in-law's death and retrieve the family heirloom....
Talk of the Town Tora-san
Character: Hiroshi's Father
After a chance encounter with Hiroshi's father on a bus, Tora decides to get serious and reflect on the mortality of man. His plans are derailed when a beautiful lady starts working at Toraya....
Godzilla
Character: Dr. Yamane
A re-edited Italian-language dubbed version of the original Godzilla, using as a basis the U.S. version, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956), plus WWII newsreel footage and clips from other science fiction films. The re-edited film was then colorized via a process called "Spectrorama 70" consisting of applying various colored gels to the black and white footage. The film's opening and ending also features new music composed by musicians Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio, and Vince Tempera (under t...
Gorath
Character: Kensuke Sonoda
In 1976, a drifting star named Gorath is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. Although it is smaller than Earth, its enormous mass is enough to destroy the planet totally. A mission sent to observe Gorath is destroyed after the ship is drawn into the star, with a later mission barely escaping the same fate. However, Astronaut Tatsuma Kanai is left in a catatonic state due to his near death experience. Unable to destroy the invading star, Earth's scientists undertake a desperate pla...
It's Tough Being a Man
Character: Hyôichirô Suwa
Tora-san, an itinerant peddler who is thrown out of his father's house twenty years before but reconnects with his aunt, uncle and sister Sakura. Tora wreaks some havoc in their lives, like getting drunk and silly at a marriage meeting and ruining Sakura's chance to marry someone, as well as just being a real pain to those around him. There is a sentimental side to him also, and the best way to describe him is that he grows on you....
Kigeki: koko kara hajimaru monogatari
Character:
...
The Whale God
Character: Village elder
A fishing village is terrorized by a giant whale, and the fishermen are determined to kill it....
Seven from Edo
Character: Sagamiya
When Katsukawa, a low ranking vassal, learns that his greedy superior, Tatewaki, has hatched a plan to expand his territory, he and his comrades decide to take matters into their own hands. Lots of action in this all-star production from Toei Films, the foremost studio during that era. As with so many of their films, this is highly entertaining, with lots of plot twists and exciting swordplay...
Fuun Senryobune
Character:
1952 Japanese movie...
The Storm of the Pacific
Character: Tosaku
Lt. Koji Kitami is a navigator-bombardier in Japan's Naval Air Force. He participates in the Japanese raid on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and is welcomed with pride in his hometown on his return. As Japan racks up victory after victory in the Pacific War, Kitami is caught up in the emotion of the time and fights courageously for the standard of Japanese honor. But his assuredness of his government's righteousness is shaken after the Japanese navy is defeated in the debacle of Mid...
The Eagle of the Pacific
Character: Colonel A, staff officer of the army
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan's navy into war with the United States. He opposes the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, overruled, he leads his forces to the best of his ability....
Three Yakuza
Character:
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. ...
Human Torpedoes
Character:
Story of loyal sailors giving their lives for their country as human torpedoes towards the end of the War....
Mother's First Love
Character:
A melodrama based on the novel by Yasunari Kawabata, telling about the tragic fate of a mother and daughter who are attracted to the same man....
The Revolt
Character:
When a young soldier is killed while trying to prevent his younger sister, Kaoru, from being sold into a life of prostitution, his commander, Col. Miyagi, tries to honor his dying wish to rescue his sister. Upon finding Kaoru at a party working as a geisha and later rescuing her from committing suicide, Col. Miyagi allows her to move in with him. Over time, the two grow close, but in spite of Kaoru's growing feelings for him, Col. Miyagi is unable to bring himself to return her love. On the nigh...
The Way of Drama
Character:
The Way of Drama unfolds in the world of kabuki in Osaka, but also addresses the politics of popular culture and the rivalry between theatrical styles like those used by amateur actors to dramatise contemporary events....
Life of Hishakaku 3
Character:
Third part in Tadashi Sawashima's Theater of Life trilogy....
The Angry Street
Character:
The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of the University of Tokyo, and the high life of jazzy dance halls. Sudo (Hara Yasumi) and Mori (Uno Jukichi) are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, S...
Daredevil in the Castle
Character: Katagiri
During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyotomi to overcome the seat of power, Osaka Castle. Mohei's daredevil skills will be put to severe tests....
The End of the Night
Character:
Walking home late one night, a down-on-his-luck sewage worker runs into a drunk businessman with a briefcase full of cash. His impulsive decision will lead to a long, dark night of the soul, while his lady love, a bar hostess, tries to cope with her sudden change of fortune....
Saga of the Vagabonds
Character: Saemon Toki
Lord Taro must deliver a money chest but is robbed by brigands led by Jibu. One of Jibu's men, Rokuro, steals the money from Jibu, but after meeting and befriending Taro, Rokuro decides to return the money to Taro. But Taro's unscrupulous brother Jiro falsely accuse Taro of the theft, and Taro reactively joins the outlaw band and encourages them to steal from the nobles and give to the poor....
Singing Lovebirds
Character: Kyosai Shimura
An umbrella maker with a shopping addiction finds himself in dire straits when his debts force him to consider selling his attractive, desirable daughter to a suitor she doesn't love....
Points and Lines
Character: Kasai
Based on Matsumoto Seicho's classic mystery novel of the same name, the story centers around a group of detectives who are determined to find the truth behind an apparent double suicide....
Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion
Character: Yasaburô
During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of moral crisis and prepare to fight Mongol invaders by creating a new form of Buddhism. He runs afoul of the existing Buddhist sects and their government supporters and is persecuted. Can Nichiren persevere before the Mogol fleet reaches Japanese shores?...
The Lovelorn Geisha
Character:
A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself 'already dead'....
The Eleventh Hour
Character: Banno
Based on a 1956 television feature on Japan’s national network, NHK, this is one of Uchida’s rarest films. A socially conscious drama with a contemporary backdrop, Dotanba focuses on the attempts to rescue a group of trapped miners. The title is a figure of speech — (essentially “last minute” or “eleventh hour”) — that refers to a situation of peril. The film boasts a script co-written by Uchida and Akira Kurosawa’s frequent screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto, and stars Kurosawa’s frequent star Tak...
The Loyal 47 Ronin
Character: Jûbei Ôtake
Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official, who will become the target of a merciless revenge....
The Elephant Who Waited
Character:
The story of Kanesuke and Entaro who are master elephant trainers in charge of two elephants, Taro and Hanako at the Metropolitan Zoo....
The Life of a Horse Trader
Character: Rokutaro Kosaka
The tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka "The Shark," a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, despite being a father and a husband he is frequently drawn to taverns....
New Prison Walls of Abashiri
Character:
Former soldier, Suehiro Katsuji, fights violent gangs and powerful Chinese merchants during the post-war period in Japan....
Street of Violence
Character: Sagawa
An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses....
Patience Has An End
Character:
Young coal miner Takeda leaves Kyushu in search of a better job in Tokyo, only to fall into the lucrative yet dangerous life of a yakuza....
Colonel Kato's Falcon Squadron
Character:
A 1944 propaganda film that depicts the fictionalised career of IJAAF pilot Tateo Kato, who led the 64th Sentai during the early months of the Pacific War. The film has scenes featuring Ki-43 fighters escorting Ki-21 bombers to attack Rangoon, where they are attacked by P-40 Warhawk and Brewster Buffalo fighters....
Nichijô no tatakai
Character:
...
Three Women Around Yoshinaka
Character:
The story of Yoshinaka during the tumultuous period of warring related to us in the Heike Monogatari. Close in setting to Kinugasa’s famous Gate of Hell (1953)....
Beauty and the Thief
Character: Yoshimichi
The picture belongs to the jidai gekki (historic) genre. It is a powerful story of violence and eroticism, picturing a world at once sordid and poetic, with two central themes which intermingle to compound an admirable panel of a critical period in Japanese history: the great famine in the mid 19th Century....
No Time for Tears
Character: "Sparrows" Coach Shimamura
Coach Shimamura of the hapless Sparrows baseball team is pleased to obtain a hot new pitcher named Onishi. But when Onishi begins a romantic relationship with the coach's daughter Michiko, Shimamura becomes angry with the young man, lashing out at him when he disobeys instructions during a game. In turn, Michiko becomes angry with her father, who becomes increasingly depressed. When a tragedy strikes the family, Coach Shimamura begins losing control of his life, just when his family and his team...
Beyond Love and Hate
Character:
A young man, convicted of a crime and imprisoned in the penitentiary, comes to believe that his wife is being unfaithful to him. He contrives his escape from the prison in order to seek her out and learn the truth, but the police give chase and he must flee into the mountains....
Foghorn
Character:
A Japanese woman, the mistress of an American, falls in love with her servant....
The Bride In Uguisu Castle
Character:
The life of three beautiful princesses in feudal Japan....
Three Women of the North
Character:
The story of an airport and its air traffic control crew in a remote and northern Japanese town. Three of the air traffic controllers are female with one of them working with her dead fiancé's sister. The engaged man had gone to war and never returned....
The Last Embrace
Character: Watanabe (Nabesan)
Yukiko Nogami is rescued during a mountain blizzard by handsome forester Shinkichi, and the two subsequently fall in love. But when Shinkichi dies in an avalanche, Yukiko leaves the mountains in despair and takes a job in a bar where she becomes deeply involved in the personal lives of several of the patrons. One day she thinks she sees Shinkichi alive, but it turns out to be a gangster named Hayakawa, a man on the run who bears an astonishing resemblance to Yukiko's lost love. Against her bette...
Man Against Man
Character: Chotaro Masue
Kikumori runs a cabaret on the docks, while his friend Kaji operates transport boats. When a gang of drug dealers tries to force the pair to cooperate in a smuggling scheme, conflict arises between the two friends. Falsely blamed for murder, Kikumori is blackmailed into an attempt to sabotage Kaji's boats and kill him. But the friendship between the two men proves an obstacle to the gangleader's plans....
Life of a Country Doctor
Character:
A skilled country doctor's talents are such that he can even perform operations as difficult and novel as removing a patient's kidney for the first time in Japan. Unfortunately for him, however, his wife's addiction to gambling is of such a magnitude that he is down to selling his underwear to make money. The image sticks and he becomes known as the 'underwear doctor.' On the other hand, his successful surgery's patient is so grateful he himself wants to become a physician....
The Revenge and the Death
Character:
A gritty, noirish gangster saga....
Brand of Evil
Character:
A Japanese detective, Kikuchi, is framed for a murder and sent to prison. When he is paroled, he joins a private detective agency to investigate his case and investigates Mitsue Takazawa, the wife of a local trading firm whom is really a crime lord responsible for Kikuchi's imprisonment and now sets sights on Setsuko, a woman Kikuchi becomes romantically involved with....
The Underworld
Character: Furuya
Yakuza boss Furuya leans more and more on his protege Takao Shoji, though Shoji has become romantically involved with Furuya's mistress, Natsue. Furuya himself has fallen in love, with a nurse after his recent hospital stay. As the gang grows more jealous of the favoritism Furuya shows Shoji, they decide to reveal Shoji's relationship with Natsue. But Furuya's affection for Shoji cannot be easily destroyed, even in the gang war that erupts....
The Chivalrous Life
Character: Sakamoto
Ryoma is a former military man who gets to know the leader of a yakuza group and begins to work with them, helping them defend themselves against other yakuza gangs....
New Prison Walls of Abashiri 2
Character:
Suehiro Katsuji, a prisoner of Abashiri, is sent to Shikoku to work at a dock where a fierce turf battle takes place between a local gang and the dock operator....
Human Revolution II
Character:
Dramatic story of one man trying to make a difference....
The Protector
Character:
Mine, the only daughter of Kiyagen, is faced with running the family's timber business when her father falls ill. Under a great deal of pressure to continue the five generation long run of the business, Mine is put to the ultimate test when a former gangster sets his sights on closing her down....
The Retreat from Kiska
Character: Military Command president
In 1943, the Aleutian island of Kiska was fortified by a small contingent of Japanese soldiers. When word arrived of an impending attack by an overwhelming force of Americans, the Japanese Navy attempted one of the most daring and unlikely evacuations in military history. This is that story....
Hoodlum Match
Character:
A good set-in-per-WW2 ninkyô type film with outstanding performances....
No Greater Love
Character:
In 1943, Japan is amidst the Pacific War. Sobei Sonoda is one of the wealthiest landowners of the San'in region. His land spread for miles, as far as the eye can see. People treated him with respect. But even the richest must think about the future. One day, he decides to arrange a marriage between his only son, Junkichi and the daughter of an even more powerful family. Sobei, hoping to benefit from this union, soon discovers that his son was in love with a lower class girl....
Last of the Wild Ones
Character:
A legendary gangster raises himself out of a small town and gathers followers on his rise to power....
Sword for Hire
Character:
Soldiers Hayate and Yaheiji secretly escape from their besieged castle. Hayate has left behind his lover, Kano. On his way, Hayate is wounded and cared for by O’Ryo, who falls in love with him. But when Hayate accidentally kills her caretaker, he flees, with O’Ryo in pursuit. Subsequently, Hayate's comrade Yaheiji falls in love with Oryo. Kano, the lover left behind by Hayate, believes him dead, and becomes involved with another soldier, Jurota. When Jurota defects to the opposing army, he takes...
The Magoichi Saga
Character: Magoichi's father
Lord Oda Nobunaga gains control of nearly all of Japan and tries to enlist the aid of Magoichi and his 3.000 gunners....
Snow in the South Seas
Character:
Japanese soldiers stranded in Manokwari, New Guinea, improvise a theater play to keep their spirits up and endure the extremely difficult conditions....
Blood and Diamonds
Character:
A group of criminals whose diamond heist goes wrong retreat to a WWII era bunker where tensions begin to rise....
The Bullet Train
Character: JNR President
A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb....
Vanquished Foes
Character:
A skilled assassin's services are called upon to put an end to the ugly turf battle between two yakuza families, Mitsuwa and Aikawa. Forced by the code of the yakuza to put one's life on the line for a Boss who offered a meal and lodging, each side manages to get hold of powerful swordsmen who will stop at nothing to pay their obligations....
The Bride from Hades
Character: Fortune Teller
On the night of the summer Obon festival, Hagiwara Shinzaburo meets a beautiful courtesan named Otsuyu. Not knowing she's a ghost, he becomes infatuated by her....
King of the Gang
Character:
The 11th and final film in the Gang series. Most of the films had different directors and cast, and were only connected by the title and Toei's marketing department. Unlike the early entries, which were jazzy capers, this final entry is a prototype jitsuroku yakuza film. Just back from the war, Noboru Ando leads a gang of war vets turned gangster in the US occupied streets of Tokyo. They get into a conflict with a Chinese gang as well as the military police. Tetsuro Tamba appears as a police chi...
The Woman Champion
Character:
Fifth film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin....
Woman Gambler and the Nun
Character:
Eighth film in the long-running series Daiei Studio's Woman Gambler with Kyoko Enami starring where she plays the woman gambler Ogin....
Those Who Make Tomorrow
Character: Theatre manager (uncredited)
Two sisters, one a dancer and the other a script supervisor at a big movie studio, become embroiled in union activities when a strike is called in sympathy with striking railroad workers, one of whom boards with the sisters and their parents. The girls' father argues with them about their strike but finds his views changing when he loses his job....
Stop the Old Fox
Character: Ryoan
Historical and political detective. The main characters are drawn into court intrigues, and the investigation of corruption in the administration of the shogun Ienari Tokugawa comes to the fore in the plot. Based on the novel of the same name by Matsumoto Seicho....
The Maizuru Showdown between The Yakuza Brothers
Character:
With a Kansai syndicate vying for Tokyo, one man reunites with his roguish half-brother in the midst of negotiations, when all hell breaks loose....
Industrial Spy
Character: Taizo Matsui
Kogure, an industrial spy, is tasked by Sawada, head of the research department of the Nisshin Corporation, to learn the secrets of the design of a new engine invented by a rival company. Kogure manages to obtain the secrets, but Sawada's goal was not the secrets themselves, but to use them to obtain the position of president of the company. Angered by Sawada's dirty tricks, Kigure begins to take revenge... Spy action film directed by Eiichi Kudo and starring Tatsuo Umemiya as a lone industrial...
Snake Princess: Oshima and Sentaro
Character:
Young Sentaro struggles to avenge the murder of his younger sister Osuga and their father....
Greatest Boss of the Showa Era
Character:
Somewhat unique as it appears to be one of the very rare appearances of master thespian Itô in a yakuza role....
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Ikiru'
Character: Self
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Ikiru" (1952)....
The Drifting Avenger
Character: Ken's Father
Ken, son of a former samurai settles with his family in the west from Japan. Soon his family is killed in front of him by stagecoach robbers, making him aim to get revenge. Marvin an experienced gunman befriends Ken and becomes his mentor....
Love Never Fails
Character: Nobuo's father
Two youths - the serious son of a Buddhist abbot and his rakish pal - quarrel over a restaurant keeper's daughter. When one of the youths die the other boy and the girl find they cannot forget him....
The Blue Pearl
Character: Fujiki
The Blue Pearl depicts the interplay between a young man from Tokyo and two ama (pearl divers; literally “women of the sea”) in a superstitious coastal town. Though raised within the same tradition-bound crucible, the two women – Noe and Riu – are portrayed as diametric opposites; the former meek but affectionate, the latter strong-willed but jaded by a tryst with metropolitan life....
Man of Thirteen Eyes
Character:
Japanese mystery film....
Structure of Hate
Character:
Drama about two college friends, now working for the same banking firm, torn apart by jealousy over their inequitable positions and love lives....
Untamed Woman
Character: Owner of the rice mill
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....
A Circus Girl
Character:
Japanese drama film....
The Skin of the South
Character:
When a group of young geologists declares a mountainside marked for residential development unstable, they are met with scorn on two fronts. On one end, they must contend with the local villagers who balk at the prospect of relocation; on the other, they face the ambitions of the headstrong lumber baron, whose actions will only further destabilize the land. Their pleas for reason ignored, the scientists can do little but observe as nature runs its inevitable course....
The Happy Family
Character:
Japanese family drama....
The Image of Mother
Character: Kahei
A resolute young man searching for his mother, whom he was separated from as a child, defies a family who mistreat the poor and homeless....
House of Gamblers
Character:
Ken Takakura stars as Ryoji one of the Aramasa family's loyal lieutenants whao takes the burden of his family being insulted by the Tanuma's family goons, by retaliating on his own. After injuring the head of Tanuma's family, and slaying others along the way, he then surrenders to the law and serves time. Before his last year to serve, the head of the Aramasa family falls ill and decides to retire, Ryoji miss chance to be successor, his old friend is reluctant but accepts. Now this gives the Ta...
Challenge to Live
Character:
An employee at an oil cartel (Mihashi) is haunted by an act years before when he euthanized a fellow soldier when the two were adrift at sea during the Pacific War. Matters are complicated further when he falls in love with the soldier's younger sister (Tsukasa)....
A Yakuza Has His Way
Character:
The eighth installment in the popular film series starring Tomisaburo Wakayama. Embarrassed by the chairman of the Seiyu-kai for not having a family crest, Seikichi Shimamura sets out with his henchmen on a journey to acquire the crest of a local bankrupt family. The local Iwahashi clan and the fishermen fought over the construction of the industrial complex, but when Seikichi learned that the Seiyu-kai was behind the Iwahashi clan, he sided with the fishermen......
Japan's Violent Gangs: The Boss and the Killers
Character:
An honorable yakuza syndicate deeply rooted in Kyoto fights for survival when a new breed of gangsters threaten their very existence....
Blood Spilled at Takadanobaba
Character: Takusan
The tale of Nakayama Yasubei’s duel is famous, even if he in reality probably did not cut down 18 opponents. The story has been related in film, rakugo, kodan and on stage many times, in part because Nakayama later joined the famous 47 Ronin (Chushingura) as Horibe Yasubei. But Makino and Inagaki’s version gives no hint of this more serious future, playing up the thrills and the comedy with Bando’s bravura performance. The multiple pans of Yasubei running to the duel are an exemplar of the exper...
Red Peony of Night
Character:
A romantic melodrama about the shifting relationship between Ryosuke and Miki as their precarious employment and social circumstances shift around them....
To Love and Forgive
Character:
...
The Den of Beasts
Character:
...
Gigantis, the Fire Monster
Character: Doctor Yamane
A prehistoric monster called Gigantis emerges alongside another creature named Angurus....
Samurai Banners
Character: Obu Toramasa
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's s...
Chushingura
Character:
The vassals of the Asano clan, who surrendered the castle & became wanderers, deceive the enemy and the public, wait for an opportunity to avenge their master and his family....
Young Tree
Character: Hanako's Father
A young girl moves to Tokyo and endures the rivalries between other high school girls of varying cultural and economic backgrounds....
The Bitch
Character: Wataru Horie
The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer....
Princess Sen in Edo
Character: Sadonokami Honda
A gorgeous tragic love picture scroll depicting a beautiful woman who weeps over her strange fate and falters in her search for true love!...
Hadashi no seishun
Character:
Youth movie....
The Masterless 47 – Part II
Character:
...
The Man Who Came to Port
Character: Okabe
An Ishiro Honda film....
Good Luck to These Two
Character:
A young man and woman are determined to marry despite opposition from her parents....
The Story of Iron Arm Inao
Character: Kyusaku Inao
An Ishiro Honda film....
I Saw the Killer
Character: Nagasawa
...
An Ocean to Cross
Character: Ryuuson
Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin....
Virtue in Spades
Character:
Adaptation of the novel by Kan Shimozawa....
Prophecies of Nostradamus
Character: Pediatrician
Professor Nishiyama, after studying and interpreting the prophecies of Nostradamus, realizes that the end of the world is at hand. Unfortunately, nobody listens to him until it is too late. As the effects of mankind's tampering of the earth - radioactive smog clouds, hideously mutated animals, destruction of the ozone layer - rage out of control, the world leaders hurtle blindly toward the final confrontation. The film sparked controversy in Japan and was subsequently pulled out of circulation, ...
Seven Samurai
Character: Kambei Shimada
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food....
Ishimatsu of the Forest
Character:
The tale of a feudal swordsman who cynically takes no responsibility for anything, relegating it to others, and then taking the credit....
Devil's Gold
Character:
1950 Toho film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi...
Actress
Character: Genshirō Kuramoto
Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu,a scholar who brought some of European realism to the Japan's stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society. This is another version of Kenji Mizoguchi's film "The Love of Sumako the Actress" ("Joyû Sumako no koi"), from the same year. Both tells the story of the famous actress Sumako Mitsui (1886-1919), considered the first great modern theater actress in Japan. Mizoguchi him...
Scoundrel
Character:
...
Eleven High School Girls
Character:
With his simple appearance, eyes shining with love and a sense of justice, and voice burning with youthful passion, the eleven students felt unexpectedly in each other's hearts that "this teacher will surely be our confidant," and looked at each other and nodded their heads. This was the beginning of their collective affection for the new Ms. Shiono. The school for girls is a sacred place where the hearts of hundreds of innocent girls should ferment beautifully and freely for the day when they w...
Lady From Hell
Character:
Three and a half years after Japan was bombed, the tax authorities organized the T-Men. Nango is in love with a girl called Mibu, and the two are against the T-Men organization. Mibu whats to kill all of the T-Men one-by-one....
Theater of Life
Character:
1958 Theater of Life adaptation....
君死に給うことなかれ
Character:
Set at the end of World War II and after Japan's defeat, it is a melodrama about a man and a woman at the mercy of war. Wataru is entrusted by his best friend who has gone off to war with his sister Reiko to marry her, but he is not ready to abandon his love for Kumiko, a nurse at his mother's hospital....
No Response from Car 33
Character:
Film directed by Senkichi Taniguchi...
Ticket to Hell
Character: Insepctor Kasai
...
A Second Life
Character:
1948 Japanese drama film....
Restoration Fire
Character: Yahei
Megastar Kataoka Chiezo is Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi in this realistic tale of Japan’s inner battles that led to the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Excellent performances and extremely good swordplay highlight this glimpse into the heart and soul of Japanese history. Although known as “Razor Blade” Hijikata, the vice-commander is a man of deep conviction with a little-known sense of humanity. Starting after the famed Ikedaya Incident, in which they saved Kyoto from ...
Code of Ruffians
Character:
Because of trickery, the Jinya Group has only seven days to complete a mountain road project or it will forfeit a major dam construction job to the scheming Ojika Group....
Otome no iru kichi
Character:
Japanese war movie....
Sagohei the Three-footer
Character: Yasukichi Ito
...
Lion Festival of Echigo
Character:
...
The Tattooed Hitman
Character: Bukichi Oura
The most dangerous hired gun in Kyushu's underworld has managed to trigger a vicious gang war, and now, there's a contract on his life. Though nobody is more skilled in the arts of dealing death, can the tattooed hitman fend off the entire Japanese mafia as he searches for the man who wants him dead?...
Crazy Uproar
Character:
Also known as Crazy Uproar....
The Black Hooded Man 5
Character:
...
Elegy
Character:
Wataru Naohiko who has the prosecutor general as his father became a young composer and its symphony "saint" invoked the world echoed. But his disciple Uchiyama and his best friend prosecutor Daisuke Toki accused his music as a sesame of pause-only technique, not a truly heart-hungry art....
Lord for a Night
Character:
Lord for a Night is a 1946 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa....
Last Days of Edo
Character: Enomoto
It is a historical drama that follows Katsu Kaishu's efforts to surrender Edo Castle bloodlessly in the first year of the Meiji period....
An Enemy of the People
Character:
Tadashi Imai 1946 movie...
Devoted Servant Naosuke
Character: Tsuda Echizennokami-Sukehiro
Naosuke, a servant of Okajima Yasoemon, devoted himself to his master. One day, his master Okajima Yasoemon, lost his face in front of people. It was a revenge by Oono, a karo (minister) who lost his chance to earn money by selling a fake antique to the lord. Okajima told the lord it was fake. Okajima endured Oono's humiliation. But, his servant Naosuke, could not. But what could he do? Oono is superior of his master. Naosuke would not hesitate to lay down his life for his master. But kil...
Goblin Courier
Character:
Jida-geki by Santaro Marune....
A Woman's Life
Character:
...
Fearless Opposition
Character:
This action film depicts the conflict between two brothers, one a detective and the other a yakuza....
Oniisan to oneesan
Character:
A 1961 film directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda....
Mother
Character: Ijûin
...
Miyamoto musashi Ichijōji kettō
Character:
1942 Japanese movie...
The Earth is Born Again
Character: Gondo
A dramatic film that recorded the history of Japan in the period of high economic growth. This work deals with Kashima Rinkai industrial zone development. The men who dream of making the overlooking wasteland as a big industrial area draw the courage to realize the ideal purely with the fishy desire swirling back to the coastal industrial area of Kashima Nada in Ibaraki prefecture....
晴小袖
Character:
1961 Japanese movie...