Taizō Fukami
2021東海美女伝
Tamizo Ishida
Setsuko Hara, Taizō Fukami
A man attacks the shogun, but does not succeed in his assassination attempt. He flees to the mountains and hides in a shed. There he finds an old man and a girl. The latter is the daughter of Shogun's former wife and also has revenge on her mind. The former is also connected to the castle. Separately a girl lives at the shogun's castle and believes in god.
The Woman Aiming for the Shogun
Chitei no uta
Haruyasu Noguchi
Yûjirô Ishihara, Hiroshi Nawa
A conflict between two yakuza families in Tokyo, the Izus and the Yoshidas, has recently broken out. When an Izu underling starts a fight with a Yoshida man, Fuyu, the Izu family sends Tsuruta, a senior member of the clan, to make a personal apology to Fuyu. Tsuruta discovers that the woman he is in love with is Fuyu's sister, Tatsuko. Tsuruta ends up gambling with a swindler, who is in fact Tatsuko's husband. (The general plot of the film was re-used for Seijun Suzuki's Kanto Wanderer).
Song of the Underworld
Hometown
Mansaku Itami
Bandō Mitsugorō VIII, Fusako Fujima
Set in a rural area of Shinshu, a drama in which a woman who graduated from a women's college in Tokyo with her brother's efforts opens up a new life in her hometown where she is tired of the city. The original is a stage play by Yobun Kaneko. Directed and written by Mansaku Itami.
Hometown
指導物語
Hisatora Kumagai
Sadao Maruyama, Susumu Fujita
In this semi-documentary, an older locomotive driver is tasked with training younger ones and is currently training two in particular. The old man is finding the task overwhelming as it is hard work with practical lessons and classroom components. His wife has died, but he has three daughters with the oldest taking care of her younger siblings.
Story of Leadership
真昼の罠
Mitsuo Yagi
Isao Sasaki, Shima Iwashita
On his way to Tokyo one night, a truck driver picks up a country girl and has his way with her amidst a forest. A few days later he loses his job after a run-in with some punks, but is offered a job by a gangster impressed by his fighting skills. He tries to make amends with the girl he ravished, but becomes caught up in the ways of the underworld...
Mahiru no wana
Sisters of the Gion
Kenji Mizoguchi
Isuzu Yamada, Yōko Umemura
Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting her time and money on a loser. She thinks that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. Omocha therefore tries various schemes to get rid of Furusawa, and set themselves up with better patrons.
Sisters of the Gion
武蔵野夫人
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kinuyo Tanaka, Yukiko Todoroki
Set in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.
The Lady of Musashino
銀嶺の果て
Senkichi Taniguchi
Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura
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.
Snow Trail
No Regrets for Our Youth
Akira Kurosawa
Setsuko Hara, Susumu Fujita
Yukie, the well-bred daughter of a university professor, is shocked when her father is relieved of his post for his political teachings during a purge of anti-militarism in pre-war Kyoto. Years go by as she is courted by two of her father's former students; one a fiery leftist, the other more moderate and equable.
No Regrets for Our Youth
