Tanie Kitabayashi

Tanie Kitabayashi

Born: May 21, 1911
Died: April 27, 2010
in Tokyo, Japan
Tanie Kitabayashi (北林谷栄, Kitabayashi Tanie, May 21, 1911 – April 27, 2010) was a Japanese actress and voice actress. Born Reiko Ando in Tokyo, she began as a stage actress. Early in her career, she became well known for portraying older women. Kitabayashi was a founding member of the famed Mingei Theatre, founded in 1950. In 1960, she won best actress awards at the 10th Blue Ribbon Awards and at the Mainichi Film Awards for Kiku to Isamu. She also won the Japan Academy Prize for best actress in Rainbow Kids (1991), a film that also earned her honors from the Mainichi Film Awards and from Kinema Junpo. She died on April 27, 2010, of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital. She was 98.

Movies for Tanie Kitabayashi...

Resurrection
Title: Resurrection
Character: Saki Naito
Released: January 18, 2003
Type: Movie
When dead people starts returning to the small Japanese town of Aso, government official Kawada is dispatched to uncover the “truth”.
bee
Letter from the Mountain
Title: Letter from the Mountain
Character: Oume
Released: October 5, 2002
Type: Movie
Husband and wife Michiko and Takao move from their urban existence in Tokyo to the isolated, rural farming village where Takao grew up.
bee
Rainbow Kids
Title: Rainbow Kids
Character: Mrs. Toshiko 'Toji' Yanagawa
Released: January 15, 1991
Type: Movie
A wealthy matriarch is kidnapped by a gang of three. She is insulted by the amount of money they propose to demand as ransom, and a strange interchange of roles takes place.
bee
Rikyu
Title: Rikyu
Character: Mother
Released: September 15, 1989
Type: Movie
Late in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan’s most powerful warlord, unifying the country.
bee
My Neighbor Totoro
Title: My Neighbor Totoro
Character: Granny (voice)
Released: April 16, 1988
Type: Movie
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
bee
Twilight of the Cockroaches
Title: Twilight of the Cockroaches
Character: Torah (voice)
Released: November 21, 1987
Type: Movie
The cockroaches of Saito's apartment live in peace with their human host, who gives them lots of space to breed and plenty of leftovers to munch on. In the midst of these high living times, Naomi and Ichiro plan to get married and start a family. But when a hard-bitten stranger roach named Hans appears with news of war with the humans across the lawn, it foretells disruption-not only of Naomi and Ichiro's relationship, but of the hive's entire way of life.
bee
The Burmese Harp
Title: The Burmese Harp
Character: Old Woman
Released: July 20, 1985
Type: Movie
In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
bee
Love: Starting on a Journey
Title: Love: Starting on a Journey
Released: January 26, 1985
Type: Movie
A girl suffering from an incurable disease get in a coma, while her boyfriend visit her to the hospital, she visits the beyond.
bee
Haze of Love
Title: Haze of Love
Released: January 3, 1985
Type: Movie
Rumiko Arai, a 20-year-old girl working in a sawmill, meets a driver, Sekiguchi, and they begin a relationship with the promise of marriage. But Rumiko's grandmother tells her that they are both cursed by an ancient evil.
bee
White Snake Enchantment
Title: White Snake Enchantment
Character: Tane
Released: November 12, 1983
Type: Movie
Uta married a priest who saved her when she tried to commit suicide at a waterfall. The love triangle between a lustful priest, his second wife and his son Masao.
bee
Our Teacher
Title: Our Teacher
Released: August 24, 1983
Type: Movie
Japanese film.
bee
Tora-san's Song of Love
Title: Tora-san's Song of Love
Released: August 6, 1983
Type: Movie
Tora-san returns to his family home to learn that his brother-in-law cannot go to Mitsuo's (Tora-san's nephew) athletic event. Tora-san volunteers to take his place, but gets into an argument with his brother-in-law's boss and returns to the road. He meets a young woman in Niigata who, unbeknownst to him, is a popular enka singer.
bee
Amagi Pass
Title: Amagi Pass
Character: Tea house's old woman
Released: February 19, 1983
Type: Movie
Japan in the 1940s. A high school boy went into a magic encounter with Ozuka Hana, a geisha (pub-girl) when he traveled through Amagi Pass. A mysterious murder took place afterwards, an Ozuka was held responsible. 40 years later, the boy, who became a printing shop owner, was visited by a retired policeman who came from Amagi Pass. The truth then started to reveal itself.
bee
Suspicion
Title: Suspicion
Character: Harue Shirakawa
Released: September 11, 1982
Type: Movie
A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving unhurt is his second wife, Kumako. It soon comes to light that Kumako’s husband was insured for 300 million yen and she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband for the insurance money. The newspapers denounce her as an evil woman, while the public is in no doubt about Kumako’s crime. Ritsuko Sahara is chosen as her defence attorney but the pair clash over almost everything...
bee
Station
Title: Station
Character: Masayo Mikami
Released: November 7, 1981
Type: Movie
A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.
bee
Call from Darkness
Title: Call from Darkness
Character: Sukeno
Released: September 26, 1981
Type: Movie
Keiko Inagawa (Asami Kobayashi) pays a visit to neurologist Aizawa about her fiancé Tatsuo Tamura (Kaoru Kobayashi). A mysterious case involving the disappearance of Tatsuo’s three brothers, one after the other, is yet to be resolved and now Tatsuo, seized with the idea that he too may disappear, has had a nervous breakdown. Aizawa suggests that Tatsuo recount his dreams as a means of solving the mystery, since human beings have an instinct that foretells the near future in the form of a dream. Keiko and Tatsuo eventually discover that the three disappearances have a strange connection…
bee
Writhing Tongue
Title: Writhing Tongue
Character: Akira's mother
Released: November 22, 1980
Type: Movie
Masako, a five-year-old girl living, gets a scratch on her finger. After that, she suffered horrible spasms. The doctor checks on her and arrives at the conclusion that she has tetanus. Her parents have to to bear the sufferings of their child. The once peaceful family has changed completely.
bee
Gassan
Title: Gassan
Released: October 20, 1979
Type: Movie
Akira leaves for the Mt. Gassan foothills before winter's onset, visiting the local temple and interacting with the residents all while falling for fair Fumiko.
bee
The Three Undelivered Letters
Title: The Three Undelivered Letters
Released: October 6, 1979
Type: Movie
A young Japanese-American man arrives at his grandmother's old hometown in Yamaguchi, begins to stay at her family's elite but dysfunctional household, and gets entangled in a sinister plot of murder.
bee
Nomugi Pass
Title: Nomugi Pass
Released: June 30, 1979
Type: Movie
The story of the silk industry and the young girls who worked as silk spinners in the early 1900s in Japan. The silk mills were located in Okaya which lies just beyond the Nomugi Pass. The women and girls worked in a hot, humid atmosphere without rest, and endured those conditions and sexual harassment to earn money for their poor families. Across the ocean, it was the great depression in America.
bee
Never Give Up
Title: Never Give Up
Character: Kiyo Matsushita
Released: October 7, 1978
Type: Movie
Special forces officer Ajisawa leaves his paramilitary group to take care of his newly-adopted daughter, Yoriko: the sole survival of a bloodbath for which he is responsible. Years later, Ajisawa is forced to return to the scene of the tragedy for his new job as a claims adjuster where he is subsequently arrested for his suspected involvement. But the threat of jail time is the least of his worries as his former organization comes gunning for him.
bee
Proof of the Man
Title: Proof of the Man
Released: October 8, 1977
Type: Movie
When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.
bee
The Wild Daisy
Title: The Wild Daisy
Character: Tamiko's Grandmother
Released: July 9, 1977
Type: Movie
Teenage cousins Masao and Tamiko fall in love when she comes to his riverside brewery house to take care of his sickly mother. Family objections ensue as Tamiko is older than Masao, and the two cannot marry in peace.
bee
The Possessed
Title: The Possessed
Released: October 16, 1976
Type: Movie
Oshima, a rich girl married Shinzo, and her cousin girl Sawa has been jealous of Oshima deeply. Sawa cursed Oshima so Shinzo could not hold her and do anything at all. Shinzo hated Oshima, and he made love with Sawa.
bee
The Sea of Eden
Title: The Sea of Eden
Released: April 24, 1976
Type: Movie
Nanjo, a new teacher at a girls' high school, unwittingly becomes the object of gossip when he buys underwear for Shimizu and spends his vacation with a female teacher. It turns out that Nanjo and Shimizu have fallen in love.
bee
Kobayashi Takiji
Title: Kobayashi Takiji
Released: February 20, 1974
Type: Movie
A tribute to proletarian author Takiji Kobayashi (1903-1933)
bee
Musume-tachi wa kaze ni mukatte
Title: Musume-tachi wa kaze ni mukatte
Character: Moko's mother
Released: June 12, 1972
Type: Movie
bee
The Golden Bat Shows Up
Title: The Golden Bat Shows Up
Released: May 13, 1972
Type: Movie
A comedy featuring The Golden Bat
bee
My Voiceless Friends
Title: My Voiceless Friends
Released: April 29, 1972
Type: Movie
A man who survived the war carries the will of his comrades in arms, walking across the country visiting the bereaved families.
bee
Price of Life
Title: Price of Life
Character: Tome
Released: July 24, 1971
Type: Movie
Comedy of a phony doctor.
bee
Mysterious Thirteen Nights: Chapter 3 - The Mysterious Haunted Mansion
Title: Mysterious Thirteen Nights: Chapter 3 - The Mysterious Haunted Mansion
Released: July 18, 1971
Type: Movie
Third film of "Mysterious Thirteen Nights" series.
bee
Patience Has An End
Title: Patience Has An End
Released: June 25, 1971
Type: Movie
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.
bee
A Woman Called En
Title: A Woman Called En
Released: May 29, 1971
Type: Movie
Set at the end of the feudal period. A woman spends most of her early life in prison, incarcerated by political opponents of her father. When she is released at the age of 44, the power struggles of her clan continue to disturb her life and the man whom she loves.
bee
Title: Mayuko hitori
Character: 加野のぶ
Released: April 5, 1971
Type: TV
Kano is known as a "cocoon child" whose father is an agriculturist. Her mother disappeared when she was little and since then Kano has been wondering why her mother left her thus changing the shape of her life.
bee
Pure Land, Poisoned Sea
Title: Pure Land, Poisoned Sea
Character: Goze / Narrator (voice)
Released: November 14, 1970
Type: Movie
In this program based on the book of the same name by Ishimure Michiko, Kitabayashi Tanie plays “Goze,” a blind wandering performer who drifts around the stricken region of Minamata in the wake of methylmercury contamination.
bee
Title: おくさまは18歳
Character: Asuka's grandmother
Released: September 29, 1970
Type: TV
bee
The Little Hero
Title: The Little Hero
Released: September 23, 1970
Type: Movie
A five year old boy leaves his mother and grandparents to see his father who has gone to work in Osaka.
bee
Oh, My Comrade!
Title: Oh, My Comrade!
Character: Harumi
Released: September 19, 1970
Type: Movie
Fukuzo, Kato and Matsuko, Kato's wife, are operating the "Kurenai Sightseeing Service" in Tokyo. Fukuzo and Kato were comrades during the war. One day Fukuzo guides Harumi, an old woman, to the Yasukuni Shrine where the souls of fallen soldiers are enshrined. Finding she has no place to go, Fukuzo carries her to his shack by the sea.
bee
Terror in the Streets
Title: Terror in the Streets
Character: Shino
Released: July 4, 1970
Type: Movie
Horror story about a girl who is shadowed by an invisible man.
bee
River Without a Bridge Part 2
Title: River Without a Bridge Part 2
Released: April 25, 1970
Type: Movie
Second part to "River Without a Bridge" (1969)
bee
Apart from Life
Title: Apart from Life
Character: Matsuko Fukuji
Released: January 30, 1970
Type: Movie
A film set in Nagasaki examining prejudice against atom bomb victims.
bee
Heat Wave Island
Title: Heat Wave Island
Released: October 29, 1969
Type: Movie
Otowa is a former Seto Inland Sea island farmer who has moved to the mainland in order to find work, but instead ends up dead. The film begins with the discovery of her corpse, which leads to an investigation that uncovers the narcotics, prostitution, and murder in which many poor farmers had found themselves trapped after World War II.
bee
Thousand Cranes
Title: Thousand Cranes
Character: Toyo
Released: April 19, 1969
Type: Movie
The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasunari.
bee
River Without a Bridge
Title: River Without a Bridge
Released: February 1, 1969
Type: Movie
bee
The Human Bullet
Title: The Human Bullet
Released: October 22, 1968
Type: Movie
A soldier has been in the Japanese military for the entirety of WWII, and in that time, his dedication to the army has never faltered. However, as the war draws to a close, his commanding officers become increasingly desperate and push their men to ever more absurd extremes. The ridiculousness of the orders from above peak when the hero of the story is assigned to drive a one-man submarine straight into the hull of an enemy battleship.
bee
The Final Winner?
Title: The Final Winner?
Released: August 28, 1968
Type: Movie
In a high school, two men are fighting over a beautiful female teacher who has been assigned as an English teacher.
bee
The Sands of Kurobe
Title: The Sands of Kurobe
Released: March 1, 1968
Type: Movie
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.
bee
Dorei kōjō
Title: Dorei kōjō
Released: January 25, 1968
Type: Movie
After the death of a colleague, the workers at a factory form a labor union.
bee
Greatest Challenge of All
Title: Greatest Challenge of All
Released: August 5, 1967
Type: Movie
After an argument with his father a son leaves his home and comes back only, as an adult, many years later just to cause them problem after problem.
bee
Song of Love
Title: Song of Love
Character: Orin
Released: July 1, 1967
Type: Movie
The life in a small village in Shikoku and the love story between two young people.
bee
Journey to the North
Title: Journey to the North
Character: Hana Kanai
Released: January 3, 1967
Type: Movie
Winter holidays at the university. Eikichi visits a city in the north of the country, the hometown of Yuko, a classmate for whom he has feelings. However, Yuko, having returned home, has just become engaged to a local young man, and the sudden appearance of Eikichi makes others worry that their good relationship will be spoiled. An epic about pure love, which tells the story of a man who leaves his beloved woman, praying for her happiness. Adapted from the novel "Kiri no Naka no Shojo" Yojiro Ishizaka.
bee
Wrath of Daimajin
Title: Wrath of Daimajin
Character: Old Woman Kane
Released: December 10, 1966
Type: Movie
In a mountainous region of Japan, Lord Arakawa kidnaps the men of nearby villages to use as slave labor, producing gunpowder from his sulfur pits. A band of young boys decide to rescue their enslaved fathers on their own.
bee
A Windmill, Tulips and Love
Title: A Windmill, Tulips and Love
Released: June 25, 1966
Type: Movie
Young Mariko is torn between two admirers, Natsukawa and Rikizo.
bee
Blood and Sea
Title: Blood and Sea
Released: October 1, 1965
Type: Movie
The Nami family lives in a quiet fishing village at the tip of the Shima Peninsula overlooking Ago Bay. The family of four consists of her grandmother, Tom, who is in her sixties, her mother, Kura, and older sister, Saki, all women. Toma, despite her advanced age, is still the best diver in the village, Nami has grown up to be an excellent diver too. However, her older sister Saki was born with a mental disorder and no one in the village wants to do business with her. Nami, on the other hand, is very popular among the boys of the village, she is healthy and beautiful. The fisherman Shosaku is crazy about Nami, and day and night he asks her on dates. However, Nami has a crush on her cousin Yuji, who works for the fishermen's union, and casually rejects Shosaku's advances.
bee
A Chain of Islands
Title: A Chain of Islands
Character: Kikuko Sasaki
Released: May 26, 1965
Type: Movie
When a US army sergeant is found drowned in Tokyo Bay, an investigation is launched to determine how and why he lost his life. The investigation uncovers a black market scheme involving counterfeit money, murder, and conspiracy.
bee
Tale of Japanese Burglars
Title: Tale of Japanese Burglars
Character: Hayashida's mother
Released: May 1, 1965
Type: Movie
Gisuke Hayashida is an illegal dentist during the day and a burglar by night. One night during a burglary he witnesses a train derailment. Some communists are found guilty of causing the incident, but he knows it wasn't them. He can save innocent people but for that he must confess his own crime.
bee
The Start of Life
Title: The Start of Life
Character: Tomi Ishiguro
Released: April 29, 1965
Type: Movie
A young girl in an industrial town is saving her money to enter college. But her drunken father loses his job, her mother cannot make ends meet, and then the boy she likes loses everything when his factory fails. She takes all her savings out of the bank and offers them to him to make a new start. He refuses at first but eventually agrees and so she goes back to school to tell her teacher that she has decided not to continue college, that she is young and strong, and can make her own way in life.
bee
Gazing at Love and Death
Title: Gazing at Love and Death
Released: September 19, 1964
Type: Movie
A young girl knows that she is going to die and in this she is supported by the devotion of the boy who loves her. They originally met at the hospital. There it transpired that the only way to save her life was to sacrifice an eye and part of her face. The operation seems a success. Later, however, her other eye becomes affected. She feels she must let the boy go, and yet she depends so much upon his devotion.
bee
Intentions of Murder
Title: Intentions of Murder
Character: Kinu Takahashi
Released: June 28, 1964
Type: Movie
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.
bee
A Story from Echigo
Title: A Story from Echigo
Released: May 9, 1964
Type: Movie
A sake factory worker on holiday returns to his home town, where he rapes the wife of one of his co-workers in the forest. The other man returns home to find his wife changed and suspects that she has been unfaithful.
bee
The Long Death
Title: The Long Death
Released: April 12, 1964
Type: Movie
On January 26, 1948, a robbery of the Teigin bank took place in Tokyo - the criminal poisoned the bank employees and fled the scene with a large amount of money. In parallel with the investigation conducted by the Japanese police, journalists are also trying to find the culprit. Based on a true incident.
bee
Only on Mondays
Title: Only on Mondays
Character: Yuka's mother
Released: March 4, 1964
Type: Movie
Yuka is a “good-time girl” from Yokohama who is persuaded by her papa to sleep with a foreign business executive so that he can close an important deal. Nakahira presents a shrewdly observed portrait of a modern, sexually assertive woman—an unsettling character for a changing but still patriarchal society.
bee
Welcome, My Baby
Title: Welcome, My Baby
Character: Yuki Nishizaka
Released: February 23, 1964
Type: Movie
Two friends, both members of a Japanese cargo boat, return to Japan after a three-month voyage and have just 24 hours shore leave. In those hectic hours, they vie for the affections of a hotel owner's daughter but wind up with separate girl friends and attempt to bring together the parents of a baby who have separated.
bee
The Insect Woman
Title: The Insect Woman
Character: Madam
Released: November 16, 1963
Type: Movie
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.
bee
The Third Will
Title: The Third Will
Character: Kimie
Released: March 31, 1963
Type: Movie
A story about a wealthy family and the greed and selfishness of three daughters and relatives, after the passing of their old father
bee
Bad Girl
Title: Bad Girl
Released: March 16, 1963
Type: Movie
Wakae is a 15 year old girl who lived under the same roof with her alcoholic father and stepmom. Her mother had died years ago. She spends her nights at a rundown bar, sharing drinks and cigarettes with the lowlife drunks. She has nowhere to turn and no one to talk to, until she is reunited with her childhood friend, Saburo, who brings warmth to her heart.
bee
All My Children
Title: All My Children
Character: Fusakichi's mother
Released: February 1, 1963
Type: Movie
School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.
bee
Beyond the Green Hills
Title: Beyond the Green Hills
Character: Shiraki, Teacher
Released: January 3, 1963
Type: Movie
Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was against school regulations, Shinko was the first to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit. Expelled from her former school, she finds herself in an all-girls school in Jokamachi, where rumors fly. One day, Shinko delivers an anonymous love letter addressed to her English teacher, Ms. Shimazaki. Convinced that the students are playing a prank, Ms. Shimazaki is adamant about getting to the bottom of this "problem”.
bee
Children of Izu
Title: Children of Izu
Released: November 21, 1962
Type: Movie
bee
Ashita au hito
Title: Ashita au hito
Released: September 16, 1962
Type: Movie
1962 Japanese movie
bee
The Young and Bad
Title: The Young and Bad
Released: September 9, 1962
Type: Movie
Not too long ago, Soichiro was considered one of the most powerful men in business. But his business had failed, his granddaughter had committed suicide. There was nothing in his life anymore that he could look forward to. Sochiro was ready to put an to it end to all. As he drives down the Usui Pass, headed toward his summer house in Karuizawa, a girl in red heels, wearing nothing else but a coat jumps in front of the car.
bee
Asu no hanayome
Title: Asu no hanayome
Released: September 9, 1962
Type: Movie
1962 Japanese movie
bee
Red Bud and White Flower
Title: Red Bud and White Flower
Released: June 10, 1962
Type: Movie
A high school boy and girl in the midst of their youth try to get their parents to remarry.
bee
Cupola, Where the Furnaces Glow
Title: Cupola, Where the Furnaces Glow
Character: Ume
Released: April 8, 1962
Type: Movie
Set in Kawaguchi in the early 60s, this simple story chronicles the lives of foundry families and one girl's dreams of higher education.
bee
Dolls floating down the river
Title: Dolls floating down the river
Character: Fuku
Released: March 3, 1962
Type: Movie
A touching story of pure love and tears between a boy and a girl, drawn by the innocent duo of Chieko Baisho and Shinichiro Mikami, based on "Nagashi bina", which absorbed the customs of the Tottori region.
bee
Ningen Gari
Title: Ningen Gari
Released: January 23, 1962
Type: Movie
A detective sets out on a manhunt to catch a murderer before the crime's statue of limitations runs out.
bee
Nippon no obaachan
Title: Nippon no obaachan
Character: Kumi
Released: January 3, 1962
Type: Movie
Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast about their loving sons but in reality, one had just escaped a retirement home and the other was looking for an escape from her son and daughter-in-law. With nowhere to go, the two wander around, befriending a cosmetics salesman and a kind waitress who give them beer. This biting social satire starring two memorable grandmothers, scripted by Yôko Mizuki, picked up on Japan’s aging population problem far ahead of its time.
bee
Buddha
Title: Buddha
Character: Sumi
Released: October 31, 1961
Type: Movie
An Indian prince leaves his world of comfort and riches behind to wander and meditate for six years in search of spiritual enlightenment. Siddartha (Cojoin Hong) turns his back on the old religion when people are starving needlessly and holy rituals include human sacrifices. During his meditations, he is tempted by erotic dancing women, demons, and the evil machinations of his criminal cousin. Devastate to attain the spiritual perfection and become the Buddha. He travels to convert followers by his kindness and wisdom, gaining a multitude of believers when he stops an elephant from crushing a local priest. Buddha of course goes on to become one of the great religious leaders of the world.
bee
A Good Man, A Good Day
Title: A Good Man, A Good Day
Released: August 13, 1961
Type: Movie
The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.
bee
Enraptured
Title: Enraptured
Released: April 18, 1961
Type: Movie
A promising dancer asks her professor to write a libretto for a Nō play. He then introduces her to a student of classical literature, but also a classical theatre student in the hope that the latter will marry Senya..
bee
Blind Devotion
Title: Blind Devotion
Character: Saoko
Released: March 8, 1961
Type: Movie
Late romance by acclaimed filmmaker Kinugasa Teinosuke.
bee
Marriageable Age
Title: Marriageable Age
Released: January 14, 1961
Type: Movie
Story of a well-to-do family.
bee
The Sun's Burial
Title: The Sun's Burial
Character: Chika, Batasuke's wife
Released: August 9, 1960
Type: Movie
In Osaka's slum, youths without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of blood. Alliances constantly shift. Tatsu and Takeshi, friends since boyhood, reluctantly join Shin's gang. Shin's an upstart and moves his gang often to avoid the local kingpin. Hanoko is a young woman with ambitions: first she's in the blood business with her father, then she joins forces with Shin. She soon breaks off that partnership, even though she's taken the sensitive Takeshi under her wing. Double crosses multiply. Those with the closest bonds become each others' murderers.
bee
Bonchi
Title: Bonchi
Released: April 14, 1960
Type: Movie
Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give them an heiress for the family business, he stands by helplessly as his wife is thrown out of the house for producing a son. Driven to a life of dissipation - his mistresses also fail to produce daughters - in the end he is just too tired to care.
bee
The Human Wall
Title: The Human Wall
Released: October 18, 1959
Type: Movie
Drama which shows the struggle of Fumiko, a female teacher, at work and at home.
bee
Odd Obsession
Title: Odd Obsession
Character: Hana
Released: June 23, 1959
Type: Movie
A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introduction of his daughter's lover to his wife.
bee
Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan
Title: Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan
Character: Grandma Shigeko
Released: March 29, 1959
Type: Movie
Kiku and her brother Isamu are social outcasts, children of a prostitute mother and black GI father, in postwar Japan.
bee
Musume no boken
Title: Musume no boken
Released: November 1, 1958
Type: Movie
bee
Conflagration
Title: Conflagration
Character: Aki, Goichi's mother
Released: September 22, 1958
Type: Movie
Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.
bee
Stakeout
Title: Stakeout
Released: January 15, 1958
Type: Movie
Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.
bee
Chance Meeting
Title: Chance Meeting
Character: Tetsu Koyanagi
Released: January 15, 1958
Type: Movie
Aya successfully stages a fashion show in Osaka and in the train on her way home to Tokyo accidentally treads on a man's foot. The man whose name is Rentaro is not amused. Just afterwards she notices that he is reading a magazine which carries her picture which he crushes and throws under his seat. One of her customers in Tokyo is a pretty girl named Kana for whom she had designed a dress which at first seems quite satisfactory. But a few days later Kana brings it back. It seems her brother thinks it terrible. But when Kana brings the dress back she meets Aya's brother, Takeshi, with whom she becomes friendly and Takeshi gives her a new dress which he smuggles out of his sister's office. When Aya finds Kana's discarded dress and misses one belonging to another customer she goes to see Kana's brother, and to her surprise finds him to be the fellow whose foot she'd stepped upon in the train...
bee
The Flesh Is Weak
Title: The Flesh Is Weak
Character: Doctor
Released: October 29, 1957
Type: Movie
A woman who grew up in a prestigious household, begins to have an affair outside the marriage.
bee
Hole in One
Title: Hole in One
Character: Suga Akabane
Released: September 15, 1957
Type: Movie
A female reporter is fired for writing about police corruption; to make money while hiding from the press, she posts a bounty upon herself.
bee
Actress
Title: Actress
Released: November 27, 1956
Type: Movie
Based on Kakuko Mori's autobiography, about her life and retirement from acting due to her increasing blindness.
bee
Saigo no sentō-ki
Title: Saigo no sentō-ki
Released: October 17, 1956
Type: Movie
The first postwar war movie depicting the tragedy of a special force that shook the world at the end of the Pacific War, with thrill and speed
bee
Summer Storm
Title: Summer Storm
Character: Mitsu Asai
Released: October 1, 1956
Type: Movie
A woman falls in love with her sister's fiancé.
bee
The Shadow of Fear
Title: The Shadow of Fear
Released: September 11, 1956
Type: Movie
In the backstreets of Ginza, the boss of a hairdressing salon is found dead, killed by strangulation. The detective on the case soon hears rumors about the murder.
bee
How Sorrowful
Title: How Sorrowful
Released: September 7, 1956
Type: Movie
The story of a novelist whose wife is confined in a mental hospital. His love for her drives him to write about her, though he runs into trouble when her parents accuse him of cashing in on her misfortune.
bee
Our Town
Title: Our Town
Character: Otaka
Released: August 28, 1956
Type: Movie
In 1906, after finishing a tough migrant job in the Philippines, Takichi has returned to Japan. He starts to work as a rickshaw driver, but his lover had died of an illness, leaving a baby girl, Hatsue. Hatsue grows up beautifully and falls in love with Shintaro. But Takichi objects to their relationship...
bee
Shiawase wa doko ni
Title: Shiawase wa doko ni
Character: Kane
Released: July 19, 1956
Type: Movie
bee
Darkness at Noon
Title: Darkness at Noon
Character: Satoe Miyazaki
Released: March 26, 1956
Type: Movie
Police beat a murder confession out of four innocent men who are then sentenced to death. Based on a true story.
bee
Jigoku no hatoba
Title: Jigoku no hatoba
Released: March 4, 1956
Type: Movie
A battle for a large sum of money unfolds on the docks near a steel mill in a foggy atmosphere. Manzo, an engineer on the verge of retirement, witnesses two men shooting each other and collapsing on the quay while his assistant Shinsuke is away.
bee
Love is Lost
Title: Love is Lost
Character: Nobuyo
Released: February 5, 1956
Type: Movie
Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.
bee
The Burmese Harp
Title: The Burmese Harp
Released: January 21, 1956
Type: Movie
In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a POW.
bee
The Motherless
Title: The Motherless
Released: December 4, 1955
Type: Movie
Japanese drama film.
bee
Policeman's Diary, Part 2
Title: Policeman's Diary, Part 2
Released: November 16, 1955
Type: Movie
From runaway brides to a typhoon, the continued adventures of Ushikata police station.
bee
A Hole of My Own Making
Title: A Hole of My Own Making
Released: September 28, 1955
Type: Movie
Nobuko is a widow who lives with her daughter-in-law Tamiko and her brother Junjiro. The family's gatekeeper, Komatsu, is attracted to Tamiko, but she is encouraged to marry a doctor and he is afraid to tell her his feelings.
bee
The Dawn of Judo
Title: The Dawn of Judo
Released: September 28, 1955
Type: Movie
bee
The Heart
Title: The Heart
Character: Hioki's mother
Released: August 31, 1955
Type: Movie
In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past.
bee
The Maid's Kid
Title: The Maid's Kid
Released: June 28, 1955
Type: Movie
In order to pay back Mrs. Kajiki for her good deed in the past, Hatsu moves from her village in Akita to Tokyo to start working as a maid for her family. She grows close to their youngest son Katsumi, experiencing things that will change her view on life.
bee
A Billionaire
Title: A Billionaire
Released: November 22, 1954
Type: Movie
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.
bee
The Street Without Sun
Title: The Street Without Sun
Character: Aunt of Matsutaro
Released: June 24, 1954
Type: Movie
bee
Tomoshibi
Title: Tomoshibi
Released: June 22, 1954
Type: Movie
Students in a small rural school love their poor but unconventional teacher Mr Matsukuma although he is misunderstood by most of the villagers and is forced to leave. After his departure there is great depression but there is a chance to rekindle the lantern of the title and the values Matsukuma represented ...
bee
Jūdai no yūwaku
Title: Jūdai no yūwaku
Released: December 29, 1953
Type: Movie
Film directed by Seiji Hisamatsu and starring Wakao Ayako
bee
Before Dawn
Title: Before Dawn
Character: Ofuki
Released: October 13, 1953
Type: Movie
bee
A Japanese Tragedy
Title: A Japanese Tragedy
Character: Ichizo's wife
Released: June 17, 1953
Type: Movie
At the close of the war in Japan, a widowed mother makes every possible sacrifice to bring up her ungrateful son and daughter who are unimpressed with their poor standard of living at home. They gradually reject her in search of the material comforts that working as a maid cannot provide. The mother's despair becomes interminable.
bee
Yokubo
Title: Yokubo
Released: May 13, 1953
Type: Movie
bee
Miniature
Title: Miniature
Released: April 1, 1953
Type: Movie
Ginko, a poor cobbler's daughter, becomes a geisha to support her family. She passes from one geisha house to the next, trying to find love and hope in the process. No matter how hard she tries, she just can't escape her sad fate.
bee
A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
Title: A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land
Character: Ohana
Released: February 20, 1953
Type: Movie
Onna Hitori Daichi wo Yuku (A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land, Kinuta Production, 1953) was the second feature film directed by Kamei Fumio, who is known as a master of documentary films, and followed his “Haha Nareba Onna Nareba(Become a Mother, Become a Woman)” (1952).
bee
Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu
Title: Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu
Released: November 6, 1952
Type: Movie
Part one of Shin Saburi's Theater of Life adaptation.
bee
Haha no nai ko to ko no nai haha to
Title: Haha no nai ko to ko no nai haha to
Character: Aunt Otora
Released: November 4, 1952
Type: Movie
Japanese film.
bee
Muntinlupa no yo wa fukete
Title: Muntinlupa no yo wa fukete
Character: Fusako Kawai
Released: October 9, 1952
Type: Movie
bee
Beauty and the Thief
Title: Beauty and the Thief
Character: Mrs. Inokuma
Released: September 22, 1952
Type: Movie
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.
bee
Children of Hiroshima
Title: Children of Hiroshima
Character: Otoyo
Released: August 6, 1952
Type: Movie
Shows the devastation caused by the atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath.
bee
Farewell to Spring
Title: Farewell to Spring
Character: Old woman
Released: March 28, 1952
Type: Movie
Bittersweet shomin-geki drama by Keigo Kimura
bee
Become a Mother, Become a Woman
Title: Become a Mother, Become a Woman
Character: Hide
Released: January 17, 1952
Type: Movie
bee
The Bitch
Title: The Bitch
Character: Tami
Released: August 10, 1951
Type: Movie
The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer.
bee
限りなき情熱
Title: 限りなき情熱
Released: June 1, 1951
Type: Movie
Is it the sin of a woman's heart that casts ripples unexpectedly among peaceful people? In the bustling streets of dazzling colors, where revelry abounds, a tale of love and chivalry blossoms into a beautiful flower of emotion.
bee
男の哀愁
Title: 男の哀愁
Released: April 13, 1951
Type: Movie
bee
Koibito
Title: Koibito
Character: Mrs. Saeki
Released: March 10, 1951
Type: Movie
bee
Les Miserables II: Banner of Love and Freedom
Title: Les Miserables II: Banner of Love and Freedom
Released: November 14, 1950
Type: Movie
bee
Les Miserables I: God and the Devil
Title: Les Miserables I: God and the Devil
Released: November 3, 1950
Type: Movie
bee
White Beast
Title: White Beast
Released: June 3, 1950
Type: Movie
The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its cat fights, hysterical tantrums, film noir lighting, and dramatic music, White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) initiated a cycle of women's prison movies in the United States that may or may not have been shown in Japan, but the stylistics of White Beast draw on the same paranoid woman's films and film noir conventions that preceded the American cycle.
bee
Scandal
Title: Scandal
Character: Yasu Hiruta
Released: April 26, 1950
Type: Movie
A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.
bee
Learn from Experience, Part Two
Title: Learn from Experience, Part Two
Released: December 18, 1937
Type: Movie
Part 2 of a 2-part romance (fist part - Kafuku zempen) based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan. In the second half, we discover that Toyomi is pregnant -- and while Shintaro and Yurie are on their extended honeymoon, she bears his child, a girl named Kiyoko. She is supported in adversity by Michiko -- and gets considerable moral support from not only her own mother but also from Shintaro's mother and siblings. Even more surprisingly, Yurie strikes up a friendship of sorts with her. When Yurie learns that the child is Shintaro's, she convinces Toyomi that it would be best to let Shintaro (and her) raise Kiyoko, so Toyomi can get on with making a proper life for herself. Tearfully, Toyomi agrees. Sometime later, Michiko goes to visit Toyomi -- and sees her at work, as a kindergarten teacher.