Keiko Awaji
1933 - 2014Keiko Awaji (1933) is a Japanese film actress.
Notable highlights of her career were an appearance in Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog, and a role as Kimiko in The Bridges at Toko-Ri, where she appeared alongside William Holden and Mickey Rooney.
Her first husband was Filipino musician and actor Rodrigo "Bimbo" Danao; they had two children together. Their eldest is actor Etsuo Shima.
Her second husband was Japanese actor Yorozuya Kinnosuke, but they divorced in 1987. Their eldest son Akihiro died in a car crash in 1990. In 2004, their youngest son Kichinosuke Yorozuya (Satoshi Ida) was arrested for breaking into her home and served six months in prison. On June 16, 2010, Kichinosuke committed suicide by jumping off his apartment in Shinjuku.
The actress is apparently a big fan of the Dragon Quest games, even going so far as to say it is her dream to play one last game before she dies.
She died of esophageal cancer in Tokyo on 11 January 2014, aged 80
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喜劇 駅前大学
Kôzô Saeki
Frankie Sakai, Hisaya Morishige
#13 in the Ekimae series of films. Set at Todai University, Professor Sakai (played by Frankie Sakai) mentors a group of university hopefuls. Cut to 25 years later, the students have each settled into their careers and cross paths with Professor Sakai's son, a P.E. teacher (also played by Sakai).
A Comedy: The University Around the Corner
七変化狸御殿
Tatsuo Ôsone
Hibari Misora, Chikako Miyagi
This is a paradise of dream and illusion, a country of Raccoon Dogs. The Bat Tribe lives in a neighboring country took a young prince of Raccoon Dogs as a hostage, and try to take a Buddhist saint from the temple by force.
Quick Change Tanuki Palace
The Maid Story
Shiro Toyoda
Hisaya Morishige, Reiko Dan
Nine maids serve the household of a writer and his wife. The couple treat their maids like daughters and marry them off to eligible men. So, they are forever looking for new maids. As the years go by maid servants become hired help and more bossy and independent, so Chikura and his wife find themselves adjusting their lives to keep up with changing times.
The Maid Story
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Mikio Naruse
Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori
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. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Stray Dog
Akira Kurosawa
Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura
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.
Stray Dog
47 Ronin
Hiroshi Inagaki
Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura
The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder.
47 Ronin
Kirare Yosaburô
Daisuke Itō
Raizō Ichikawa, Tamao Nakamura
The film depicts the scarring of Yosaburo at the hands of yakuza thugs who catch him with mistress of the gang boss. Despite the physical and emotional scars he now carries with him, Yosaburo falls for a young noblewoman. The rest of the film follows the two as they fend off attacks from gangs and the police.
Scarred Yosaburo
Daughters, Wives and a Mother
Mikio Naruse
Setsuko Hara, Hideko Takamine
Sanae is left a widow after her prestigious husband dies, but holds the proceeds of a million yen insurance policy. Being childless, her former in-laws have no objection to her return to her own family.
Daughters, Wives and a Mother
