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おれの行く道 (1975)
Character: N/A
Let's Go, Grandma! plays like an exuberant, goofy update to Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. Kinuyo Tanaka plays the titular Grandma, who, after selling her Hokkaido property, is apparently flush with cash but newly homeless. Her grown children take turns hosting her, making extravagant performances of filial devotion with an eye to potential profit. Making use of a catalog of wacky visual effects, bracketed by gratuitous ham-fisted fight scenes, and costarring pop singer Hideki Saijo, the film is balanced by Tanaka's nuanced performance, which delivers a denunciation of hypocrisy and greed.
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生きとし生けるもの (1955)
Character: N/A
Yasuichiro Isa, who works in the labor section of Sone Mining Tokyo Headquarters, paid a monthly fee for his younger brother, Reiji, who was in trouble because he had a bonus of 10,000 yen more.
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芸者秀駒 (1954)
Character: N/A
As a bid to win contacts, ship building companies wine and dine political leaders, inviting the geisha Hidekoma and Hidechiyo to entertain the politicians.
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衝動殺人 息子よ (1979)
Character: N/A
A man whose son has been murdered pushes to create laws to financially protect victims' families.
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眠れる美女 (1968)
Character: Eguchi's mother
About an establishment where old men pay to sleep besides young girls that had been narcotized and happen to be naked, the sleeping beauties. The old men are expected to take sleeping pills and share the bed for a whole night with a girl without attempting anything of bad taste like putting a finger inside their mouths.
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青幻記 遠い日の母は美しく (1973)
Character: N/A
Minoru visits his home on Okinoerabu island for the first time in thirty years. Seeing the old man who used to be in love with his mother, Minoru recalls the old days spent on the island with his young, beautiful mother.
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花と娘と白い道 (1961)
Character: Lady at the flower shop
One of Sayuri Yoshinaga's first leading roles.
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太陽のない街 (1954)
Character: N/A
Based on the novel by proletarian writer Sunao Tokunaga. The story is about a long strike by workers at a large printing house and the strikers' steadfastness, which neither hunger nor violence could break. The heroine of this story actively participates in her colleagues' struggle against layoffs, oppression, and police brutality.
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愛すればこそ (1955)
Character: Tamiko's mother (segment 1)
The film consists of three short stories. Tomiko, the heroine of the first story, "The Flower Girl" (dir. Kozaburo Yoshimura), is a little girl who bears the unbearable burden of caring for her family. Tomiko's father has been unable to find work for a long time, and her older sister is terminally ill—it is unlikely that she will ever recover. To feed her family, Tomiko runs around the city from morning until late at night selling flowers... The second novella (dir. Tadashi Imai) also depicts the lives of the poor. An unfamiliar girl brings young Kavano a letter from his mother. It turns out that the girl's name is Kuniko, she is very hardworking, but her family is dying of hunger. Therefore, her mother decided to send Kuniko to her son so that he would marry her. The short story is called "The Unexpected Bride." The third short story, which gave the film its title, is particularly interesting: "When You Love" (dir. Satsuo Yamamoto). It shows the family of a young peace activist.
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こころの山脈 (1966)
Character: N/A
A film dealing with the trials and tribulations of a primary school before and after the Pacific War, set in Fukashima Prefecture.
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人生とんぼ返り (1946)
Character: N/A
After learning that he has accidentally killed a man in a fight, Unokichi must look after the man's pregnant widow.
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河の上の太陽 (1934)
Character: Oyuki
Father, son Kentaro and daughter Ochiyo, who live on the banks of the Sumida River, regain their love for each other after family discord and separation. The film is considered lost.
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一粒の麦 (1958)
Character: N/A
The film depicts a group of boys and girls who graduate from a local junior high school and head to Tokyo to find employment, and the teachers who watch over them. Co-written by newcomer Shigeki Chiba and Kaneto Shindo, the film was directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura.
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悪魔の住む館 (1979)
Character: N/A
A female college student who started a part-time job taking care of a bedridden elderly person notices an eerie cry from the basement.
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硝子のジョニー 野獣のように見えて (1962)
Character: Mifuné's mother
Joe Shishido is an ambitious bike racetrack tout who becomes inadvertently involved in a triangle with a vulnerable prostitute (Izumi Ashikawa) and her brutal yakuza pimp (George Ai).
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牛乳屋フランキー (1956)
Character: N/A
Roppeita is big in size, clumsy and full of energy. When his grandfather orders him to move out to Tokyo to save a sinking milk delivery business a distant relative of his runs, he encounters the most strangest of clientele.
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絶唱 (1958)
Character: Seki
The story of the tender love between Junki, the son of a wealthy landowner, and Kayuki, the daughter of a forester, who decided to unite their destinies against their parents' wishes. Neither war nor years of separation could kill this love. It was only cut short by Kayuki's tragic death.
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青葉学園物語 (1981)
Character: N/A
1981 Japanese film based on the novel by Naoshiro Yoshimoto.
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ふたりのイーダ (1976)
Character: Ice shop woman
Based on a children's book. Two children encounter a wooden chair that moves and speaks. The chair awaits their return, unaware the sister died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
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俺もお前も (1946)
Character: Ooki's wife
A comedy about two salarymen who routinely degrade themselves for their boss.
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地獄の曲り角 (1959)
Character: Michie's mother Toyo
Maki, a porter at the Sakura Hotel, finds a body in Room No. 2 and picks up a piece of paper on which is written "one-third of the key", also the part of a key. From a newspaper he learns that the dead man is an official who has been detained as a suspect in a bribery case involving 150,000,000 yen and that another suspect named Matsunaga is still in custody. Maki realizes that if he can obtain the other two-thirds of the key, he will be a multi-millionaire.
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さようならの季節 (1962)
Character: N/A
A touching story of a girl who sails away from her love to keep her family together.
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愉しき哉人生 (1944)
Character: N/A
A small community in wartime Japan learn how to make do with less.
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天保水滸伝 大原幽学 (1976)
Character: N/A
A great famine struck all of Japan: the so-called Great Tenpō famine. It was a time when there were frequent uprisings in rural areas due to farmers losing their land as a result of strict tax collection. The Tonegawa area of Boso was a lawless area for a generation, as two major forces fought against each other: Sukegoro of Iioka, who wields power with his industrial capital behind him, and Shigezo of Sasakawa, a rising yakuza. Furthermore, the successive floods of the Tone River, which could be called fate, forced the farmers into even more poverty and despair. Meanwhile, farmers in Nabe Village continue to live a lethargic life, but agricultural reform is about to begin under the hands of Yugaku Ohara, a ronin who has settled in the village.
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浮草日記 (1955)
Character: N/A
A travelling theater troupe, led by Umagoro Ichikawa, comes to play in a mining town, and manages to sell every seat. Before the play begins, however, a miners' strike is announced, creating an uproar. In addition, the players find they have been cheated out of their profits by a crooked impresario.
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口笛が流れる港町 (1960)
Character: N/A
Rambler Shinji arrives in town armed with nothing but a guitar. With assistance from an old gun-for-hire friend, he sets about to stop the mob from turning an honest ranch into a gambling resort.
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わかれ雲 (1951)
Character: N/A
Five women classmates from a college in Tokyo are on the first stretch of a walking tour when one of them, Masako, falls ill at a railway station. Osen, a middle-aged maid from a nearby inn, takes her in and nurses her, assisted by Dr. Minami, a young physician who diagnoses her illness as a mild case of pneumonia. With Masako in good hands and needing a few days to recuperate, her classmates continue their tour. Masako’s recovery, however, is hampered by her spoiled and immature nature and her determination to punish the world for the loss of her mother.
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北上夜曲 (1961)
Character: Keisuke's mother
Keisuke and Shizuko grew up by the Kitakami river and came to fall in love before they knew it. Eighteen years ago, Shizuko was left an orphan and was taken in by Keisuke's parents, who had raised her as their own child. At the riverside when the cherry blossoms are falling, Keisuke, now enrolled in university, promises Shizuko that he will tell his parents about them at the start of the summer vacation. He then sets off for Tokyo...
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ひめゆりの塔 (1953)
Character: N/A
A group of Okinawan high school girls are drafted as nurses during the American invasion of the island. As the enemy army advances further, the situation for the girls becomes increasingly desperate as food and shelter run out and the number of injured climbs, leading to the film's tragic finale.
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雁來紅 (1934)
Character: Ohana
A Japanese version of the musical comedy "Yes, Mr. Brown"
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戦争と人間 第三部 (1973)
Character: Toma's mother
Final part of epic drama about war and its effects upon human beings, follows the fortunes of the Godai family through the Sino-Japanese War through the Soviet Union's sudden attack upon Japanese troops at the end of the war.
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春の目ざめ (1947)
Character: Taki Tai
Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl.
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風船 (1956)
Character: Shôta's Wife
Haruki Murakami is a successful family man and the head of a camera company. Unbeknownst to Murakami, his arrogant son oscillates between a mistress and a new lover who sings at a nightclub. When Murakami’s daughter befriends the mistress, the affair throws the family into turmoil.
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バージンブルース (1974)
Character: Mami's grandmother
Teenagers are rebels without a cause. Let it be for stress relief or just a way to kill time, Mami (Kumiko Akiyoshi) and Chiaki were always up to no good – but their luck runs out when they shoplift with some other girls at a local supermarket. They flee from the scene and head back home, only to find detectives at their front door.
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津軽じょんがら節 (1973)
Character: N/A
A young girl is being asked about a man with whom she was keeping company, as her grandmother plays a lament on a shamisen. Then the focus changes to a couple arriving from Tokyo - the woman returning to her home, the man an escapee from the yakuza. The man doesn't seem to mind when the woman sells her favours to tourists at the local bar, just as she seems to take his attentions to Yuki, a blind girl, with equanimity.
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踏みはずした春 (1958)
Character: N/A
Nobuo is a hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past.
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五番町夕霧楼 (1980)
Character: N/A
A tragic love story between a prostitute and a young trainee monk.
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はなれ瞽女おりん (1977)
Character: N/A
A blind traveling musician is abused and oppressed wherever she goes, even as the modern world imposes change around her.
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混血児リカ (1972)
Character: Grandmother
First film of a trilogy following the dramatic life of Rika, a half-Japanese/half-American woman who becomes the tough-as-nails leader of an all-girl crime gang.
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夜叉ヶ池 (1979)
Character: Old Woman
When a lone traveler stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants, including lovers Akira and Yuri, in their hands.
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愛の世界 山猫とみの話 (1943)
Character: N/A
A sixteen-year-old who had been living on her own since her mother died, frequently gets in trouble with the police. She gets sent to an "institute" for young girls in the countryside. There the residents grow their own food, cook and clean for themselves, and are taught language, music, and sewing. While there the young girl slowly begins to form friendships and come out of her shell.
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動脈列島 (1975)
Character: N/A
Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.
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戦争と平和 (1947)
Character: N/A
A woman remarries after receiving official notification that her husband has died, but he returns.
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女囚さそり 第41雑居房 (1972)
Character: The Old Woman
After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.
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女優 (1947)
Character: Playing the shamisen
Sumako, a country girl, becomes a great actress with the help of Hogetsu,a scholar who brought some of European realism to the Japan's stage. The relationship leads to the end of his marriage and the breakup of his Arts Society. This is another version of Kenji Mizoguchi's film "The Love of Sumako the Actress" ("Joyû Sumako no koi"), from the same year. Both tells the story of the famous actress Sumako Mitsui (1886-1919), considered the first great modern theater actress in Japan. Mizoguchi himself is said to have preferred Kinugasa's version.
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愛と死の谷間 (1954)
Character: N/A
A great ambition to portray with sharp satire and humor the course of modern anxiety and love that is about to be driven to despair.
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書を捨てよ町へ出よう (1971)
Character: Grandmother
An experimental, psychedelic odyssey through Japanese subculture experienced via the eyes of a disillusioned young man, who must contend with intense familial dysfunction, psychosexual alienation, and existentialist malaise.
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水で書かれた物語 (1965)
Character: Old Woman
Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.
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足摺岬 (1954)
Character: N/A
Among Yoshimura’s complex and political works, this episodic film, set in the early 1930s, follows the life of a young left-wing student activist disenchanted by the increasingly hawkish state of Japanese society.
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ミイラ の 恋 (1973)
Character: N/A
In post-war Japan, a publisher goes to visit her former teacher for help on a modern translation of a legend about a mummified Buddhist monk who was revived and who, centuries later, turned into a sex demon who terrorized a village in pre-modern Japan.
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陽のあたる坂道 (1958)
Character: Hanako
The young Takako Kuramoto has come to Tokyo to study and starts working for the rich Tashiro family as tutor of the daughter, Kumiko, while she receives attention from her two older brothers, Yukichi and Shinji. Meanwhile, the exact parentage of Shinji comes to light.
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竜馬暗殺 (1974)
Character: Old woman
Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), the imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).
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実録三億円事件 時効成立 (1975)
Character: N/A
In this retelling of an infamous unsolved heist, a couple tries to outlast the statute of limitations after successfully stealing 300 million yen.
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洲崎パラダイス 赤信号 (1956)
Character: Prostitute of a Certain Age
A jobless young couple, Yoshigi and Tsutue, wind up at the outskirts of the Suzaki red-light district in Tokyo. Tsutue talks her way into a job pouring sake for male customers at a small bar run by a sympathetic older woman, while Yoshigi is shunted off into a nearby noodle shop, where he gets a job delivering noodles. Tsutue charms and runs off with one of her clients. Yoshigi, ignoring the attentions of a sweet co-worker, pursues Tsutue.
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恐山の女 (1965)
Character: N/A
Ayako, a young woman from a rural fishing village, is sold by her family into a brothel when her father takes ill. There, she is quickly stripped of her innocence and illusions.
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その壁を砕け (1959)
Character: N/A
A man is wrongfully accused of murder.
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サムライの子 (1963)
Character: Zunda no Kamisan
Tajima Yumi, in grade school, is overjoyed when her father says they are moving to an apartment in a big city. But the beautiful home she had imagined is in a slum area called Samurai Village, a little settlement, where people live from hand to mouth. To make things worse, a group of vagrants descends on the already crowded ragpickers' village. The sight depresses and saddens little Yumi, but when her father gives up drinking, it makes up for everything in her eyes, and when he runs past liquor shops to avoid temptation, Yumi's laughter rings out merrily again. A unique social drama depicting the growth of a new generation that confronts the world of adults full of vanity in the image of a girl living in poverty.
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鬼婆 (1964)
Character: Old Woman
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
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東京の暴れん坊 (1960)
Character: Chiyo Shimizu
Mega star Akira Kobayashi stars as Jiro in the rambunctious tale of a chef who opens a restaurant in the busy Ginza district. His culinary skills and dashing good looks bring in the women as well as unwanted trouble, while an explosive political scandal builds around his girlfriend’s business...
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「廓」より 無法一代 (1957)
Character: N/A
The movie is about a man who started a brothel to make money out of his poor circumstances in the late Meiji period.
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愛怨峡 (1937)
Character: N/A
A story of a servant girl whose life is upturned by her doomed love for a spineless young man.
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