Yatsuko Tan'ami

結婚式・結婚式

Noboru Nakamura

Mariko Okada, Shima Iwashita

絵島生島

Hideo Oba

Chikage Awashima, Ichikawa Danjūrō XI

This period film is inspired by one of the most notorious scandals to have taken place in Edo-period Japan. The heroine, Ejima, was a lady of the Ooku, the harem of Edo Castle in which the Shogun’s mother, wife and concubines resided, forbidden from contact with any other man except in the presence of the Shogun. The institution played a key role in the Byzantine world of Japanese court politics during the Edo era. In 1714, Lady Ejima was sent to pay her respects at a Buddhist temple in the city, and chose to pay an unauthorised visit to the kabuki theatre – a violation of protocol that was to have tragic consequences.

生きる

Akira Kurosawa

Takashi Shimura, Haruo Tanaka

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.

太陽は狂ってる

Toshio Masuda

Mitsuo Hamada, Sayuri Yoshinaga

山の音

Mikio Naruse

Setsuko Hara, Sō Yamamura

An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.

The Other Woman

Mikio Naruse

Hideko Takamine, Chikage Awashima

In "The Other Woman" the children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to regard as their racy and slightly disreputable Ginza aunt is really their mother.

The Wiser Age

Mikio Naruse

Hideko Takamine, Yôko Tsukasa

Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.

あらくれ

Mikio Naruse

Hideko Takamine, Ken Uehara

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.

The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka

Yasuzō Masumura

Raizō Ichikawa, Ayako Wakao

The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined to win his love that they volunteer as subjects for his experiments

にごりえ

Tadashi Imai

Yatsuko Tan'ami, Yoshiko Kuga

Three short tales from stories by Ichiyo Higuchi. In one, a young woman is degraded by her family after an arranged marriage. Another deals with the troubles heaped upon a young servant by her family and the wealthy people who employ her. The final story tells of a prostitute and her hopes of finding a new, respectable life.

爛

Yasuzō Masumura

Ayako Wakao, Jirō Tamiya

Based on the original novel by Tokuda Shusei, adapted by frequent Masumura scribe (and renowned director in his own right) Kaneto Shindo, this downbeat melodrama features a battle of women for the affections and commitment of the same man, a handsome car salesman. Masuko (Ayako Wakao) is the number one hostess at a cabaret, living with her lover, ... but finds out that he has a wife. When Masuko’s niece arrives the competition further ratchets up. (Also occasionally known in English as “Inflamation”)

東京のえくぼ

Shûe Matsubayashi

Ken Uehara, Keiju Kobayashi

Buntaro, the president of a food trading company got tired of the day-to-day routine of life. The new secretary, Nobuko, suggested her "shacho-san" (the president) run away from the job. Nobuko took Buntaro to her home and introduced him to her own family as friend, "Sachio-san"...

植村直己物語

Jun'ya Satô

Toshiyuki Nishida, Chieko Baisho

The life and travels of adventurer Naomi Uemura, who disappeared in Alaska in 1984. A member of the first Japanese expedition to reach the summit of Mt Everest in 1970, Uemura also accomplished several "firsts". He was the first man to reach the North Pole solo, climb Denali solo, and float down the Amazon river solo. In the film, Uemura returns to Tokyo after a stint in Siorapaluk in Northern Greenland. In Tokyo, he reconnects with an old friend and, over coffee, shares his life story - from his days as a college dropout to his successful expedition to the top of Everest.

妻

Mikio Naruse

Mieko Takamine, Ken Uehara

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.

青べか物語

Yūzō Kawashima

Hisaya Morishige, Eijirō Tōno

五番町夕霧楼

Tomotaka Tasaka

Yoshiko Sakuma, Chōichirō Kawarasaki

With her family suffering from extreme poverty, Yuko, as the eldest daughter, is sold to a successful brothel in Kyoto. There she is assigned to serve Takamatsu, one of the brothel’s top customers. But while Takamatsu falls madly in love with Yuko, she finds herself attracted to a young priest named Kunugida. Torn by jealousy, Takamatsu hatches an evil plan to tear them apart.