Yūko Mochizuki

悲しみはいつも母に

Nobuo Nakagawa

Yūko Mochizuki, Mayumi Ôzora

The last film produced by Shintoho.

終りなき生命を

Kenji Yoshida

Masako Izumi, Ken Yamauchi

つづり方兄妹

Seiji Hisamatsu

Takao Zushi, Masao Oda

Трогательная история о маленьком Футяне и его сестрёнке Матико. Родители ребят очень бедны, но дети не унывают — они вместе бегают в школу и находят много интересного в жизни. Дети любят литературу и хорошо пишут сочинения. Услышав, что объявлен всемирный конкурс на лучшее сочинение, они решают принять в нём участие и пишут сочинение о том, что их школу хотят снести, а на её месте хотят построить военный завод, о том, как трудно живётся их родителям, как они бедны, но никогда не теряют бодрости духа и надежды. Сочинение ушло в Москву, и ребята с нетерпением ожидают решения. Но Футян не дождался ответа, он простудился и тяжело заболел. А так как на его лечение не было денег, маленький Футян умер, а вскоре пришёл и ответ — сочинению брата и сестры присуждена первая премия.

熱砂の白蘭

Keigo Kimura

Michiyo Kogure, Bokuzen Hidari

A Japanese adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story Boule de Suif, directed by Kimura Keigo

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.

楢山節考

Keisuke Kinoshita

Kinuyo Tanaka, Teiji Takahashi

In Kabuki style, the film tells the story of a remote mountain village where the scarcity of food leads to a voluntary but socially-enforced policy in which relatives carry 70-year-old family members up Narayama mountain to die. Granny Orin is approaching 70, content to embrace her fate. Her widowed son Tatsuhei cannot bear losing his mother, even as she arranges his marriage to a widow his age. Her grandson Kesa, who's girlfriend is pregnant, is selfishly happy to see Orin die. Around them, a family of thieves are dealt with severely, and an old man, past 70, whose son has cast him out, scrounges for food. Will Orin's loving and accepting spirit teach and ennoble her family?

The End of Summer

Yasujirō Ozu

Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

お茶漬けの味

Yasujirō Ozu

Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure

Takeo, a capricious wife from Tokyo high society, is bored by her dull husband, a quiet and reliable company executive raised in the country. After a crisis, she understands better his true value. A parallel sub-plot shows her niece rebelling against the tradition of arranged marriages.

美女と盗賊

Keigo Kimura

Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori

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.

「粘土のお面」より かあちゃん

Nobuo Nakagawa

Yūnosuke Itō, Yūko Mochizuki

Home drama about tin craftsmen and their families in downtown Tokyo. Though poor, they do not lose their cheerfulness or give in to oppression.

晩菊

Mikio Naruse

Haruko Sugimura, Sadako Sawamura

What is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? Kin has saved her money, and has become a wealthy money-lender, spending her days cold-heartedly collecting debts. Even her best friends, Tomi, Nobu, and Tamae, who were her fellow Geisha, are now indebted to her. For all of them, the glamor of their young lives has passed; Tomi and Tamae have children, but their children have disappointed them. Kin has two former lovers who still pursue her; one she wants to see, and the other she doesn't. But even the one she remembers fondly, when he shows up, proves to be a disappointment.

日本の悲劇

Keisuke Kinoshita

Keiji Sada, Teiji Takahashi

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.

本日休診

Minoru Shibuya

Eijirō Yanagi, Rentaro Mikuni

Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off. However, it is not to be: on this hectic day a man just back from the war front visits the doctor with a medical emergency, followed by a woman who claims to have been molested. Then a yakuza arrives to ask the doctor to cut his finger off...

現代人

Minoru Shibuya

Ryō Ikebe, Isuzu Yamada

A section chief at the Bureau of Construction is in a shady relationship with a construction company. Then a new, young and honest subordinate is assigned to work under the section chief. Once he learns about the shady relationship, however, the new subordinate skillfully conceals the corruption and joins the corrupt, shady relationship.

荷車の歌

Satsuo Yamamoto

Yūko Mochizuki, Rentaro Mikuni

A lifetime story of a woman who stubbornly lives in a poor mountain village in post-war Japan.

夕やけ雲

Keisuke Kinoshita

Shinji Tanaka, Yūko Mochizuki

A coming-of-age story portrayed as the loss of all youthful illusions. Sixteen-year-old Yoichi dreams of becoming a sailor. His parents are fishmongers, and Yoichi lives together with them and his four siblings in cramped living conditions. His beloved younger sister is given to a wealthy, childless uncle; his best friend moves away; the girl he fell in love with from afar is with someone else: little by little, Yoichi loses all the people that are important to him.