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次郎長三国志 第八部 海道一の暴れん坊 (1954)
Character: N/A
A legendary gangster raises himself out of a small town and gathers followers on his rise to power.
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夜来香 (1951)
Character: N/A
Japanese "kayo" film based on the song "Ieraishan" by Yoshiko Yamaguchi.
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なみだ川 (1967)
Character: Tea shop old woman
In the 19th century Edo period, sisters Oshizu and Otaka have sacrificed their personal happiness to work and care for their ailing father. Otaka falls in love, but can’t accept a marriage proposal since her older sister needs to marry first. When Oshizu learns of this decision, she takes matters in her own hands.
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月給泥棒 (1962)
Character: N/A
A "hustler's hustler" (Takarada), works his way up the corporate ladder at a camera company. His biggest scheme involves winning the business of a foreign visitor by setting him up with a beautiful "model" (Tsukasa), actually a bar hostess, but the plan backfires when the would-be executive falls for the woman himself.
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花の中の娘たち (1953)
Character: N/A
Girls in the Orchard (1953) is about tension between the life of a family in a rural area with all the traditions (continuing family business, taking care of the land)-- and the modernity and lure of a life in the city.
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安宅家の人々 (1952)
Character: Otoku
Soichi Ataka is the eldest son of Ataka family. Although mentally challenged, he's a person with a gentle heart. Soichi's wife, Kuniko is devoted to her husband and together the couple runs the family farm. Their happy family life comes to an abrupt halt when Soichi's half-brother, Joji returns with his wife Masako after failing in a business.
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ふんどし医者 (1960)
Character: N/A
A skilled country doctor's talents are such that he can even perform operations as difficult and novel as removing a patient's kidney for the first time in Japan. Unfortunately for him, however, his wife's addiction to gambling is of such a magnitude that he is down to selling his underwear to make money. The image sticks and he becomes known as the 'underwear doctor.' On the other hand, his successful surgery's patient is so grateful he himself wants to become a physician.
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続思春期 (1953)
Character: (uncredited)
A story of unhappy youths and the perils of lack of sex education.
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わが胸に虹は消えず: 第一部 (1957)
Character: N/A
An Ishiro Honda film. The first part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the second film.
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「動物園物語」より 象 (1957)
Character: Tetsu (Zen's wife)
The fifth film in the Toho Diamond series, following "The Hateful Thing." Based on the true story of "Zoo Story" by author Fukuda Saburo. During the Tokyo air raids of World War II, Zen-san, an elephant keeper at Ueno Zoo, is faced with the heartbreaking task of euthanizing Tonki, a beloved elephant, due to food shortages and wartime pressures. Unable to carry out the order, Zen-san secretly feeds Tonki, but the elephant is ultimately shot by the military police. The film poignantly captures Zen-san’s despair and the devastation of war, as he reflects on his powerlessness amid the chaos.
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続々大番 怒濤篇 (1957)
Character: Hostess
Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer.
Part three (of four) of the film adaptation of Bunroku Shishi’s novel, Oban.
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狐と狸 (1959)
Character: Sada
A group of hustling peddlers swindle rural towns with fake goods, facing betrayals, close calls, and constant setbacks as they chase survival and dream of a better future.
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夜の終り (1953)
Character: N/A
Walking home late one night, a down-on-his-luck sewage worker runs into a drunk businessman with a briefcase full of cash. His impulsive decision will lead to a long, dark night of the soul, while his lady love, a bar hostess, tries to cope with her sudden change of fortune.
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暴力の街 (1950)
Character: Sanpei's mother
An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses.
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旅路 (1955)
Character: N/A
Forced on the road by yakuza obligations, a man sets out on a reckless journey to Tsumagoi. Movie posters for local cinemas were often displayed at sento (public baths) too. The handwritten text on the bottom here announces the film will play at Hassen for 3 days.
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こゝから始まる (1965)
Character: Kitamura’s Mother
Teacher Miyako Hanai, disillusioned by her sisters’ unhappy marriages, rejects love until family conflicts and her mother’s unexpected remarriage lead her to rethink happiness and relationships.
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ある日わたしは (1959)
Character: N/A
A modern love story involving different affairs.
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青い芽 (1956)
Character: Fusae (Kazuko’s mother)
Outspoken student Noriko stands up to bullies and befriends pitcher Mitsuo. As their bond deepens, she impulsively declares she wants to marry him—then reconsiders, realizing both still have growing to do before love can truly begin.
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おかあさん (1952)
Character: Mino Hirai
A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.
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Varan the Unbelievable (1962)
Character: Ken's Mom
In an effort to find an economic means of purifying salt water, a joint U.S.-Japanese military command is set up on an isolated Japanese island where an unusual salt water lake is situated. However, their purifying experiments arouse the prehistoric monster Obaki from hibernation at the lake's bottom, and it proceeds to attack Japan. Although made by a U.S. independent film company, this film was based on a Japanese Toho monster film of 1958, "Daikaiju Varan", from which all of the monster effects scenes and a few incidental dramatic shots were edited into it.
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日本海大海戦 (1969)
Character: N/A
Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japanese fleet and army to take Port Arthur fails, and a Russian fleet bears down on the Sea of Japan. Admiral Heihachiro Togo sends his fleet to confront the Russians, with results which stun both nations. Meanwhile, Major Genjiro Akashi makes secret negotiations with the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia, negotiations that have repercussions far beyond the conflict at hand.
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用心棒 (1961)
Character: Farmer's Ex-wife
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
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太平洋戦争と姫ゆり部隊 (1962)
Character: N/A
The last fight put up by remaining forces and a special volunteer nursing corps in 1944-5.
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潮騒 (1954)
Character: Old Woman of O-Haru
Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo.
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鰯雲 (1958)
Character: N/A
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.
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どぶ (1954)
Character: N/A
Postwar Tokyo. Pin and Toku live in the squatter area of Kappanuma. Pin and Toku are avid gamblers. They take in Tsuru, a slightly demented woman who has run away from a geisha house.
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野良犬 (1949)
Character: Wooden Tub Shop woman
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
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大怪獣バラン (1958)
Character: Ken's Mom
When a rare species of butterfly is found in a mysterious valley in Japan, a pair of entomologists go to investigate and find more. They discover Varan, a giant monster, who decides to leave the valley and head straight for Tokyo.
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戦国自衛隊 (1979)
Character: Old Woman
A squadron of Japanese Self-Defense Force soldiers find themselves transported through time to their country's warring states era, when rival samurai clans were battling to become the supreme Shogun.
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妻 (1953)
Character: N/A
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.
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八月の狂詩曲 (1991)
Character: Mourner
An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.
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夫婦善哉 (1955)
Character: N/A
Ryukichi, the pampered heir to a cosmetics wholesaler, abandons his wife and child to pursue a scandalous affair with a famous geisha named Choko. This betrayal leads his father to disown him, leaving the unskilled Ryukichi with no way to earn a living. To keep them afloat, Choko is forced to continue working as a geisha while secretly scraping together a nest egg to start their own business. However, Ryukichi remains trapped in his hedonistic lifestyle, eventually squandering Choko’s hard-earned savings on his own self-indulgence.
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結婚のすべて (1958)
Character: Mariko's Mother
Ultra-perky model likes single freedom but feels ryosai kenbo ("good wife, wise mother") pressure, exemplified by her bored-to-tears sister.
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あらくれ (1957)
Character: Otora, the foster mother
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.
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夢 (1990)
Character: N/A
Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.
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煙突の見える場所 (1953)
Character: N/A
Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo.
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暗黒街の顔役 (1959)
Character: N/A
Ryuta and Mineo Komatsu are brothers, both yakuza (gangsters). Mineo, although complicit in crime, even murder, wants out of the gangster life, hoping to become a successful singer instead. Ryuta loves his brother, but Mineo's possible defection presents problems for the gang, and Ryuta realizes he must kill his brother if he wants to survive.
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綴方教室 (1938)
Character: Aunt
Masako, the daughter of an impoverished itinerant tinsmith, wins a grammar school composition contest with an essay about her neighborhood. The much publicized essay ends up causing the family problems and their chronic money troubles threaten Masako's further education.
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赤ひげ (1965)
Character: Resident
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
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生きものの記録 (1955)
Character: Worker family member
An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.
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はたらく一家 (1939)
Character: Ishimura's wife
A large family scrapes by on the meager salaries of the father and three eldest sons, who left school in order to work and support the family. The fourth eldest is soon to graduate and follow in their footsteps, though he'd rather continue schooling. The eldest finally decides to break free and set out on his own against his parents' wishes, with the support and sympathy of his siblings.
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青い眞珠 (1951)
Character: Riu's mother
The Blue Pearl depicts the interplay between a young man from Tokyo and two ama (pearl divers; literally “women of the sea”) in a superstitious coastal town. Though raised within the same tradition-bound crucible, the two women – Noe and Riu – are portrayed as diametric opposites; the former meek but affectionate, the latter strong-willed but jaded by a tryst with metropolitan life.
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ああ爆弾 (1964)
Character: Matsuko - Shiitake's wife
During the mayoral election, two ex-prisoners decide to replace the lucky pen of an annoying candidate with a mini-bomb.
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まあだだよ (1993)
Character: Old Lady Holding a Cat
In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.
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わが胸に虹は消えず: 第二部 (1957)
Character: Nanny
An Ishiro Honda film. The second part of A Rainbow Plays in My Heart released the same day as the first film.
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七人の侍 (1954)
Character: Woman Farmer
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
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宮本武蔵完結編 決闘巌流島 (1956)
Character: (uncredited)
A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.
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生きる (1952)
Character: Housewife
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.
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羅生門 (1950)
Character: Medium
Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
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女が階段を上る時 (1960)
Character: Mineko
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.
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夫婦 (1953)
Character: N/A
A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.
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ゴジラ・エビラ・モスラ 南海の大決闘 (1966)
Character: Itako
Searching for his brother, Ryota stows away on a boat belonging to a criminal alongside two other teenagers. The group shipwrecks on Letchi island and discover the Infant Island natives have been enslaved by a terrorist organization controlling a crustacean monster. Finding a sleeping Godzilla, they decide to awaken him to defeat the terrorists and liberate the natives.
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妻の心 (1956)
Character: N/A
A young woman tries to raise money to open her own coffee shop. She arranges a loan when her rigid family won't help and then her husband becomes jealous of the loan officer.
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あにいもうと (1953)
Character: N/A
The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a college student Kobata, which causes a scandal that will threaten the marriage prospects of the younger sister San, in her cash-strapped family. The ill-tempered eldest brother Inokichi decides to take on the role of disciplinarian, with harrowing results.
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