Yaeko Mizutani

The chronicles of Sakamoto Ryoma, a pre-revolutionary who helped shape the face of modern Japan. In order to study swordsmanship, Ryoma heads for Edo where he meets many people who influence his thinking. He becomes close friends with men like Katsu Kaishu and Saigo Takamori and later establishes a naval training school in Kobe. Ryoma's controversial political views make him a target for shogunate assassins but his fervent belief in a classless society helps forge the Choshu-Satsuma alliance which ultimately brings about the Meiji Restoration.

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After receiving a phone call from a woman whose child has contracted polio, government official Masayoshi Sakata decides to do everything he can to eradicate the disease.

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Two residents of Edo city Yaji and Kita make a journey to the temple of Ise, as part of a religious pilgrimage, but actually to get away from their wives for a little while. As they travel, they are constantly beset by complications involving women, mistaken identity, and misunderstood events. Another film adaptation of the famous novel Ikku Jippensha Footing It Along the Tokaido (Tokaidochu Hizakurige)

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A movie adaptation of Funayama Kaoru's novel of the same name, which depicts the story of a modern youth who is attracted to the evil path. Saburi Shin, a well-known actor who also demonstrated his skill as a director in a bold social work, embodies a person with a complicated dilemma in a shadowy manner, and is a dramatic work that plays a part in the lead role.

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Chushingura has been made into a movie several times before, but this time it will be presented in a widescreen version with all natural colors and a new look. Written by Masato Ide and directed by Tatsuo Osone. This is a magnificent scroll of images that depicts on a grand scale the triumph of the Genroku era that shook the citizens of Edo, the peaceful capital of Japan. The top stars of the film, shinpa, shingeki, and kabuki worlds at the time of production were lavishly cast, and a huge budget was invested to create a large set for this highly acclaimed and moving epic.

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An Ishiro Honda film.

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An elderly woman devoted to her foster-daughter searches for a good husband for her.

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1953 Japanese movie

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Melodrama about two sisters with different mothers.

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Returning from wartime China, Keiichi reunites with his mother Inako and adopted sister Tomi. He becomes drawn to Tomi’s beauty, and his mother appears supportive. But Keiichi soon meets Tsuneko, a former wartime nurse who has borne his child. Faced with a summons to stand trial for wartime atrocities, he entrusts Tomi and his son to Inako, then voluntarily turns himself in—believing he must answer not just to Japan, but to the world’s conscience.

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Asako works in a hostel for troubled young women. When a beautiful young girl is brought in one day after committing theft, Asako finds out from the older widow she works with that the new girl is undoubtedly her half-sister. When the younger sister suddenly flees on account of a misunderstanding, Asako makes up her mind to find the mother who deserted them both.

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A 1950 film by director 原研吉.

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In postwar Japan, a new teacher, Miyamoto Yasuko, is discovered by her estranged daughter, Fukuoka Shōko, at a high school. As Yasuko confronts her past, she navigates themes of forgiveness, identity, and motherhood, addressing social taboos of the time.

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Depicting the lives and spirit of geisha during and after the war.

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A 1946 Japanese film directed by Keigo Kimura.

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A tale of love and tears that blossomed in the shadow of the Seinan War.

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Uta’s mother died when she was six years old; her father she never met. She was forced to adopt a traveller’s life when her grandmother died, and now she is a dancer and part of a family of actors who travel from town to town, setting up street performances. A way of escape from this marginal existence arises when she gets the chance to move to tea merchant Hiramatsu’s place, where she is asked to teach his daughter to dance.

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An early Japanese sound film, notable for being the only Japanese film ever to use the Western Electric Sound System. Contrary to most Western sources that give sole directing credit to Eizo Tanaka, it was actually co-directed by six different directors, Tanaka, Kazue Kimura, Kazuo Takimura, Ryoji Mikami and Hidekuni Ouchi.

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The story of a sailor who begins a love affair with a woman he saves from suicide.

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The first talkie released in Japan by Mina Talkie

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An early Japanese film

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Rinzou tries to pressure Gosuke into marrying his daughter, Osumi, to him to make up for his debts. In a chance encounter the father and daughter become acquainted with Asahiko, the Count's heir, and his fiancée, Kimiko, which results in Osumi moving into the Count's villa as a live-in maid. After a night of drinking, celebrating the Doll's Festival/Hinamatsuri, Asahiko jokingly gives a ring to Osumi, who interprets the act as an engagement. The next day she goes to tell her father the news and give him the ring; soon after a drunken Rinzou shows up wanting repayment so Gosuke shows him the ring. Doing so sends Rinzou into a fury and, equipped with a sickle, he heads to the villa! Outline by 畑中蓼坡

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