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愛国の花 (1942)
Character: N/A
A nurse's tale of self-sacrifice during wartime. The title is borrowed from a patriotic song made popular by singer Hamako Watanabe during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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弁天小僧 (1928)
Character: Hamamatsuya Kobe
First film adaptation of the kabuki play Benten Kozo, about a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor...
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篝火 (1928)
Character: N/A
A young vassal is betrayed by his corrupt lord.
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挑戦 (1930)
Character: N/A
A film by Eiichi Koichi depicting peasant uprisings.
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忠臣蔵 (1932)
Character: Koyama
This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), such as the internationally celebrated Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and although he is now most famous as the maker of the avant-garde silent films A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeji, 1926) and Crossroads (Jujiro, 1928), Chushingura is in fact more typical of his output than those experimental works. The film ranked third in that year’s Kinema Junpo critics’ poll, and Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie noted that 'not only the sound but the quick cutting was admired by many critics.
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The Vermilion Pencil (1922)
Character: Pai Wang
The Vermilion Pencil is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by Norman Dawn, and produced and distributed by Robertson–Cole. It is based on the eponymous 1908 novel by Homer Lea. The film stars Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa in multiple roles, and white actors Ann May, Bessie Love, and Sidney Franklin, all in Asian roles. It is now a lost film.
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鳥辺山心中 (1928)
Character: Nakama, Gihei
The doomed love story between a young courtesan and a samurai, in Kyoto.
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海国記 (1928)
Character: Shirōemon Funaya
Japanese silent film from 1928, co-starring Chojiro Hayashi and up-and-coming actress Kinuyo Tanaka.
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Five Days to Live (1922)
Character: Li
Tai Leung, a young man who dreams of love and carves ivory images, falls in love with the pretty Kao Ai. Her cruel foster father owns a restaurant where she works, and he overworks and mistreats her. She blossoms when she meets Tai Leung, who is determined to rescue her from her hard life. Her foster father agrees to let her go, but only if Tai pays him a large sum of money. Desperate for money, Tai learns of a condemned pirate, "The Wolf," who has been sentenced to hang and will pay a lot of money for a substitute, and Tai agrees to take The Wolf's place on the gallows to ensure Ko Ai's happiness. However, things don't work out quite the way Tai planned.
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Her American Husband (1918)
Character: Yoshisada
The son of a wealthy imported goods dealer, Herbert Franklyn refuses to curb his appetite for gaiety and women after his engagement, with the result that his fiancee, Miriam Faversham, breaks off their relationship. On the firm's annual trip to Japan, Herbert meets Cherry Blossom, whose father Tokimasa wishes her to marry a Westerner.
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四谷怪談 (1925)
Character: N/A
This is a classic Japanese Ghost Story.
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妖魔綺譚 (1929)
Character: N/A
Japanese horror movie from 1929.
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The Outside Woman (1921)
Character: Togo
Thinking it is a worthless trinket, Dorothy trades her husband’s prized Aztec idol to a street peddler in exchange for a beautiful silk shawl. She soon discovers the idol is actually an extremely valuable artifact. Desperate to retrieve it before her husband notices, she learns that it has already been purchased by their neighbor, an artist named Cambridge. Dorothy enters Cambridge’s apartment to recover the idol secretly. Her efforts lead to a series of comedic misunderstandings and frantic situations as she tries to protect her marriage and her husband's property.
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二つ燈籠 (1933)
Character: N/A
A mournful masterpiece by Kinugasa Teinosuke
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野狐三次 (1930)
Character: Akitaya Kubei
A 1930 silent film from director Eichi Koishi, following the adventures of Edo firefighter Sanji.
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Mystic Faces (1918)
Character: Goro
Yano is a small delivery boy for his uncle, who keeps a curio shop in Chinatown. His loves are Tama, his sweetheart, and Bengi, his dog. Bengi is seized by dog catchers, but is rescued by Letty Stanford, for which Yano promises his fealty. Later Letty is kidnapped by Germans because of her war activities, and it is Yano who goes to her rescue and gets her free in spite of his diminutive size. The Little Japanese has paid his debt.
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斬人斬馬剣 (1929)
Character: Osuga
In medieval Japan, a brutal and corrupt magistrate is planning to kill the child who is about to become the heir to the estate and position of the local lord and substitute his own "heir", an orphan, in order to get control of the late lord's estate and rule as the impostor's "regent". However, a mysterious stranger appears and sets out to thwart the magistrate's plans and free the people from his oppressive rule.
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狂った一頁 (1926)
Character: Doctor
A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.
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雄呂血 (1925)
Character: Hyozan Matsusumi
This is the story of a samurai who falls on hard times due to misunderstandings and follows the plots of his enemies.
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十字路 (1928)
Character: Old Man Renting Second Floor
After falling in love with a courtesan, Rikiya is blinded by ash during a fight in a brothel. Believing the blindness permanent and his opponent dead, Rikiya goes back home to his sister. Okiku, desperate to protect her brother who thinks himself a murderer, wants to sacrifice herself for him and become a prostitute to pay for Rikiya's treatment.
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Where Lights Are Low (1921)
Character: Chung Wo Ho Kee
The Chinese prince T'Su Wong Shih loves Quan Yin, the daughter of a gardener, but his uncle wants him to marry a girl of his own class. Leaving to study in the United States, the young man promises his beloved that they two will be together soon. Having finished university, one day T'Su Wong Shih visits the market of San Francisco, and at an auction of slaves, he finds Quan Yin auctioned. To save her, he agrees to pay a price of five thousand dollars but, not possessing the full amount, he makes a deal with the auctioneer for a three-year extension in which he must work to raise the money needed to rescue the girl. T'Su Wong Shih has no great success until he manages to win a large sum in a lottery. However, Quan Yin is now in danger because a Chinese gangster wants to have it and, to do that, goes to threaten the auctioneer who is forced to comply. T'Su Wong Shih is then engaged in a struggle to liberate his beloved: he defeats the gangster, rescues Quan Yin and claims her as his...
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赤西蠣太 (1936)
Character: Sabaemon of Irifuneya
A samurai is ordered by his lord to go to Edo and investigate the truth behind the rumor of a rebellion against him.
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The Breath of the Gods (1920)
Character: Yuki's Father
While attending college in Washington, D.C., Yuki Onda, the daughter of a Japanese samurai, meets and falls in love with Pierre Le Beau, a diplomatic attaché. At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Pierre is sent to Japan as attaché to the Australian ambassador. When Yuki's father discovers his daughter's romance with a foreigner, he becomes enraged and betroths her to Prince Hagane for political reasons.
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雪之丞変化 (1935)
Character: old man Tsuchibu
An onnagata (female impersonator) of a Kabuki troupe avenges his parents' deaths. Remade in 1963 as Yukinojô Henge.
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