Ganjirō Nakamura II
1902 - 1983
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
Kwaidan
Masaki Kobayashi
Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe
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.
Kwaidan
悪名 縄張荒らし
Yasuzō Masumura
Shintarō Katsu, Hiroko Isayama
About small-time gangster Asakichi's chaotic life in the 1930s. His gambling addiction means that he must not continue working in the family business. Instead he supports himself by arranging cockfights. He becomes ex-geisha Okinu's patron and lover, and falls directly into disfavor with the yakuza.
Akumyo: Notorious Dragon
鰯雲
Mikio Naruse
Chikage Awashima, Yôko Tsukasa
A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his wife. Her older brother tries to marry off his children and hang on to/ extend his farm through an advantageous marriage in the face of threatened land confiscation and the desire of his children to get comfortable urban jobs instead of the backbreaking work in the paddy fields under parental control.
Summer Clouds
An Actor's Revenge
Kon Ichikawa
Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto
While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, firstly by seducing the daughter of one of them, secondly by ruining them.
An Actor's Revenge
湖の琴
Tomotaka Tasaka
Yoshiko Sakuma, Katsuo Nakamura
A touching story following young shamisen string maker, Saku. Beautiful Saku moves to Lake Yogo, known for its production of quality shamisen strings, only to find her peaceful life turned upside down when a master musician takes personal interest in her.
Koto—The Lake of Tears
どん底
Akira Kurosawa
Toshirō Mifune, Isuzu Yamada
Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
The Lower Depths
ある映画監督の生涯 溝口健二の記録
Kaneto Shindō
Takako Irie, Daisuke Itō
In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi.
Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
