Akira Tani

Akira Tani

Born: September 28, 1885
Died: August 11, 1966
in Fukuoka, Japan

Movies for Akira Tani...

Title: Ultra Q
Character: Villager
Released: January 2, 1966
Type: TV
As supernatural events and monster attacks rock Japan, the military and government look to be overwhelmed. Three intrepid young investigators—two pilots and a reporter—take it upon themselves to study these unexplained phenomena in order to inform and protect the public. With allies and science aiding them on their journey, the trio must separate myth from history as they explore the greater mysteries of these occurrences: are they unrelated, or is this barrage somehow a portent of even worse things to come?
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True Osaka Grit
Title: True Osaka Grit
Released: October 24, 1965
Type: Movie
Based on a novel by Kôen Hasegawa
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Beast Alley
Title: Beast Alley
Released: September 5, 1965
Type: Movie
"When human beings venture too far along a trail made by wild beasts, it is said, they quite often discover themselves on a road of no return." Based on the novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto.
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Kwaidan
Title: Kwaidan
Character: Huntsman #2 (segment "Hoichi the Earless") (uncredited)
Released: January 6, 1965
Type: Movie
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.
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The Scarlet Camellia
Title: The Scarlet Camellia
Released: November 21, 1964
Type: Movie
A young woman begins murdering all those responsible for her ailing father's condition. Because the girl is so outwardly sweet and innocent, the detective looking into the deaths does not suspect her.
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Whirlwind
Title: Whirlwind
Released: July 26, 1964
Type: Movie
Set at the end of the Siege of Osaka this film follows the exploits of several members of the defeated Toyotomi clan as they cope with the post battle chaos and the persecution of the Shogun's army. Five samurai decide on different fates when it becomes clear that their side is being destroyed. One wants to attack the enemy head on in a final honorable death. Another decides to commit hari-kiri but wants to find a glorious view to do it. His close friend, the "coward", just wants to run and give up the life of a samurai. The final two set their own castle on fire to garner favors from the enemy and therefore avert their own death during the massacre of all defeated soldiers as
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The Irresponsible Fool
Title: The Irresponsible Fool
Released: April 29, 1964
Type: Movie
Picked up and raised on an island in the Seto Inland Sea, Yasukichi's only trait is his innate mischievousness. However, because his love for his hometown is exceptionally stronger than anybody's, he is trying everything he can to somehow help the inhabitants of the island which are going through a recession. He saddles himself with a debt to bring a cheap band onto the island and tries to market the underwater sightseeing ship on the island without regards for the Marine Act.
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Mothra vs. Godzilla
Title: Mothra vs. Godzilla
Character: Village Leader
Released: April 29, 1964
Type: Movie
Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra's fairies arrive and are aided by the journalists in a plea for its return. As their requests are denied, Godzilla arises near Nagoya and the people of Infant Island must decide if they are willing to answer Japan's own pleas for help.
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Blind Wolf
Title: Blind Wolf
Released: September 29, 1963
Type: Movie
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My Hobo
Title: My Hobo
Released: November 23, 1962
Type: Movie
Story of a resourceful hobo (Kobayashi), a con woman (Takamine) who pretends to be a victim of the Nagasaki A-bomb, and two orphaned children who become a most atypical Japanese family.
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The King
Title: The King
Released: November 23, 1962
Type: Movie
The film takes place at the junction of the two eras of Meiji and Taisho. Sakata Sankichi, an uneducated zori sandal maker, becomes a professional shogi player through his genius shogi skills and lives a fanatically devoted shogi game supported by the love of his family. This is the 3rd adaptation of Hideji Hojo's famous play.
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47 Ronin
Title: 47 Ronin
Released: November 3, 1962
Type: Movie
After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.
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Our Failures
Title: Our Failures
Released: September 1, 1962
Type: Movie
Tells the story of Shintaro, a lawyer who quits his job to work at a camera factory, and his love adventures.
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Ōwarai Jiro chō ikka: Sanshita nitei kenjū
Title: Ōwarai Jiro chō ikka: Sanshita nitei kenjū
Released: May 15, 1962
Type: Movie
Comedy movie
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Doburoku no Tatsu
Title: Doburoku no Tatsu
Character: Shopowner
Released: April 29, 1962
Type: Movie
1962 Japanese movie
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The Wiser Age
Title: The Wiser Age
Released: January 14, 1962
Type: Movie
Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.
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Yojimbo
Title: Yojimbo
Character: Kame
Released: April 25, 1961
Type: Movie
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.
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Daredevil in the Castle
Title: Daredevil in the Castle
Character: Rice-Shop Owner
Released: January 3, 1961
Type: Movie
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.
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社長野郎ども
Title: 社長野郎ども
Released: November 5, 1960
Type: Movie
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Life of a Country Doctor
Title: Life of a Country Doctor
Released: August 14, 1960
Type: Movie
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.
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When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Title: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Character: Real Estate Agent
Released: January 15, 1960
Type: Movie
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.
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Hanayome-san wa sekai-ichi
Title: Hanayome-san wa sekai-ichi
Character: Yoshida
Released: November 22, 1959
Type: Movie
A young Japanese-American comes from California looking for a bride, going on blind dates with three candidates from Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya.
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The Three Treasures
Title: The Three Treasures
Released: November 1, 1959
Type: Movie
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 outcome is far from what any of them expected.
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Desperado Outpost
Title: Desperado Outpost
Released: October 6, 1959
Type: Movie
When Sergeant Okubo's brother is murdered at a Japanese outpost in Northern China during the Second World War, Okubo poses as a war correspondent and seeks out his brother's killer.
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Saga of the Vagabonds
Title: Saga of the Vagabonds
Released: August 9, 1959
Type: Movie
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.
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The Beast Shall Die
Title: The Beast Shall Die
Character: Apartment superintendent
Released: June 9, 1959
Type: Movie
A promising post-graduate literature student is transformed into a psychotic killer following the suicide of his father and a sleazy affair by his mother with a younger man.
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Samurai Saga
Title: Samurai Saga
Character: (uncredited)
Released: April 28, 1959
Type: Movie
Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a lady. But she sees him only as a friend, so he helps another man to woo her by giving him the poetry of his own heart.
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The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
Title: The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
Character: (uncredited)
Released: January 15, 1959
Type: Movie
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
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The Hidden Fortress
Title: The Hidden Fortress
Character: Soldier (uncredited)
Released: December 28, 1958
Type: Movie
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.
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Yajikita dōchū sugoroku
Title: Yajikita dōchū sugoroku
Released: December 7, 1958
Type: Movie
1958 Japanese movie
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Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman
Title: Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman
Released: December 1, 1958
Type: Movie
An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote tribe as a god, and how it was discovered by modern man after it raided a ski-ers' shelter following an avalanche, killing all inside. This is an adaptation of the Japanese film Ju Jin Yuki Otoko with added American-made footage, narration and music track.
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The Hotelman's Holiday
Title: The Hotelman's Holiday
Released: July 12, 1958
Type: Movie
A longtime hotel employee (Morishige) struggles to bring his old-fashioned ryokan in line with postwar Japanese business practices.
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Zokuzoku Ôban: Dotô hen
Title: Zokuzoku Ôban: Dotô hen
Character: Ushiji
Released: December 17, 1957
Type: Movie
Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer. Part three (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi’s novel, Oban.
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The Living Koheiji
Title: The Living Koheiji
Character: Innkeeper
Released: August 4, 1957
Type: Movie
The actor Koheiji is terribly in love with the wife of his best friend, the playwright Takuro; to get her, he would even kill Takuro.
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Zoku Ôban: Fûun hen
Title: Zoku Ôban: Fûun hen
Released: July 19, 1957
Type: Movie
Ushinosuke returns broke to his hometown, where everyone believes he's rich and successful. Part two (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi's novel, Oban.
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Untamed Woman
Title: Untamed Woman
Character: Sakutaro
Released: May 28, 1957
Type: Movie
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.
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Snow Country
Title: Snow Country
Released: April 30, 1957
Type: Movie
It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He connects with Komako, a geisha he met on a previous trip, and it seems like love. She's the foster daughter of a local family, almost engaged to the family's son Yukio, now dying of consumption. He's tended by his sister Yuko who's angry at Komako for abandoning her brother. Shimamura returns to Tokyo but promises he will be back soon. In anticipation of his return, Komako breaks with her patron and her family loses their home. Complications arise when Shimamura doesn't come back as promised. Then Komako discovers that he and Yuko knew each other in Tokyo. Can Komako escape destiny?
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Yagyu Secret Scrolls
Title: Yagyu Secret Scrolls
Released: April 14, 1957
Type: Movie
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess Yuhime steals the scrolls, Tasaburo, a samurai with magical powers, and his brother Senshiro are sent to retrieve them.
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Ôban
Title: Ôban
Character: Ushikichi, Ushinosule's father
Released: March 5, 1957
Type: Movie
A young country boy leaves his village for Tokyo, where he begins to work as a stock trader. First part (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi's novel, Oban.
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Throne of Blood
Title: Throne of Blood
Character: Washizu soldier
Released: January 15, 1957
Type: Movie
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.
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The Storm
Title: The Storm
Released: October 24, 1956
Type: Movie
A widowed high-school teacher tries to raise his four children alone.
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Shozo, a Cat and Two Women
Title: Shozo, a Cat and Two Women
Released: October 9, 1956
Type: Movie
Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat.
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The Legend of the White Serpent
Title: The Legend of the White Serpent
Character: Oil salesman
Released: June 22, 1956
Type: Movie
Lavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.
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I Live in Fear
Title: I Live in Fear
Character: Chunky Jailbird
Released: November 22, 1955
Type: Movie
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.
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Marital Relations
Title: Marital Relations
Released: September 13, 1955
Type: Movie
The story of a couple, a spoiled son and a down-to-earth girl, in Osaka in the early Showa era. The film won the prestigious Blue Ribbon awards for best director, best actor (Morishige) and best actress (Awashima), and the Mainichi Concours award for best actor and best screenplay (Yasumi Toshio). It ranked second (after Naruse Mikio’s Ukigumo) on the Kinema Junpō top ten films for the year.
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The Lone Journey
Title: The Lone Journey
Released: August 31, 1955
Type: Movie
Forced on the road by yakuza obligations, a man sets out on a reckless journey to Tsumagoi. Movie posters for local cinemas were often displayed at sento (public baths) too. The handwritten text on the bottom here announces the film will play at Hassen for 3 days.
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Half Human
Title: Half Human
Character: Chubby Thug
Released: August 14, 1955
Type: Movie
Three competing parties all race against time to track down an elusive creature known only as the Snowman.
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A Gang of Five
Title: A Gang of Five
Character: Kyusuke
Released: January 15, 1955
Type: Movie
A group of five law enforcers search Edo for a missing sword.
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Floating Clouds
Title: Floating Clouds
Released: January 15, 1955
Type: Movie
A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.
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Lovetide
Title: Lovetide
Character: Rokuzo
Released: January 9, 1955
Type: Movie
An Ishiro Honda film.
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Late Chrysanthemums
Title: Late Chrysanthemums
Released: June 15, 1954
Type: Movie
With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geishas contemplating their troubles with men and money.
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Seven Samurai
Title: Seven Samurai
Character: Bandit
Released: April 26, 1954
Type: Movie
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.
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Farewell Rabaul
Title: Farewell Rabaul
Released: February 10, 1954
Type: Movie
A squadron of Japanese fighter pilots realise that they are never going to win the war when they understand that Japanese military tactics have little regard for life. Seeking the companionship of any woman who will have them, they spend their days indulging in every fantasy in order to escape the overwhelming fear of death looming just over the horizon.
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Jirocho's New Year
Title: Jirocho's New Year
Released: January 3, 1954
Type: Movie
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Red-Light Bases
Title: Red-Light Bases
Released: December 8, 1953
Type: Movie
Story about a poor Japanese woman living near an American army base who resorts to prostitution.
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Omatsuri hanjiro
Title: Omatsuri hanjiro
Released: November 23, 1953
Type: Movie
Every year, at the festival, familiar merchants such as Toraemon, a magic trick, Tokubei, a blowgun, Kaji, acrobatics, and Unsaibo, a ritual, gather toward the port town.
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Youth of Heiji Senigata
Title: Youth of Heiji Senigata
Released: August 19, 1953
Type: Movie
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Traveling with Breeze
Title: Traveling with Breeze
Released: May 7, 1953
Type: Movie
1953 Hiroshi Inagaki movie.
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Wife
Title: Wife
Character: Kito
Released: April 29, 1953
Type: Movie
Ten years into a marriage, the wife is disappointed by the husband's lack of financial success, meaning she has to work and can't treat herself and the husband finds the wife slovenly and mean-spirited: she neither cooks not cleans particularly well and is generally disagreeable. In turn, he alternately ignores her and treats her as a servant. Neither is particularly happy, not helped by their unsatisfactory lodgers. The husband is easily seduced by an ex-colleague, a widow with a small child who needs some security, and considers leaving his wife.
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Mr. Pu
Title: Mr. Pu
Released: April 15, 1953
Type: Movie
A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.
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Yasugorō shusse
Title: Yasugorō shusse
Released: April 15, 1953
Type: Movie
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Husband and Wife
Title: Husband and Wife
Released: January 22, 1953
Type: Movie
A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.
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The Man Who Came to Port
Title: The Man Who Came to Port
Character: (uncredited)
Released: November 27, 1952
Type: Movie
An Ishiro Honda film.
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Ikiru
Title: Ikiru
Character: Bar Owner
Released: October 9, 1952
Type: Movie
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.
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Story of Lightning
Title: Story of Lightning
Released: December 30, 1951
Type: Movie
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.
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Pirates
Title: Pirates
Released: July 13, 1951
Type: Movie
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Jakoman and Tetsu
Title: Jakoman and Tetsu
Released: July 11, 1949
Type: Movie
In a village subsisting on it herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one of the fish companies by the name of Tetsu, decides to overthrow Jakoman and his cohorts.
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Drunken Angel
Title: Drunken Angel
Character: Yakuza Follower
Released: April 27, 1948
Type: Movie
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.