Chieko Baishô

  • Yôji Yamada – Otoko wa tsurai yo 50: Okaeri Tora-san AKA Tora-san, Wish You Were Here (2019)

    2011-2020AsianDramaJapanYôji Yamada

    From japantimes.co.jp

    With 48 feature installments from 1969 to 1995, the “Tora-san” series not only set a Guinness World Record, but kept its Shochiku production studio afloat for decades. While it was drawing fans as reliably as the sunrise, the series was derided by some critics as formulaic: In every episode the titlular peddler hero, played by Kiyoshi Atsumi, returns from his wanderings to his home in Shibamata, a neighborhood in Tokyo’s shitamachi (old downtown), where he reunites with his half-sister Sakura (Chieko Baisho) and other familiar faces. Also, in every episode a new woman comes into his life and, since Tora-san is a bumbler at love, soon leaves it.Read More »

  • Yôji Yamada – Kigeki ippatsu dai hisshou AKA Vagabond Schemer (1969)

    1961-1970ComedyJapanYôji Yamada

    Before Yoji Yamada started work on the gargantuan Tora-san (男はつらいよ) franchise, he did a couple of comedies with a comedian called Hajime Hana. Most notably are the “Baka” and “Ippatsu” trilogies. “Vagabond Schemer” is the third entry of the latter, which was the last movie Yamada did before the very first Tora-san in the same year. It’s also the third Yamada movie I’ve worked on, and I think it’s my favorite. Where “The Lovable Tramp” was essentially a proto Tora-san, this couldn’t be more removed from that concept. It’s a very black comedy about a boorish man (Hana) who comes back from Borneo one day to find his best friend’s been hurriedly cremated by his fellow tenement dwellers, so he basically starts pestering them and maybe taking things a bit too far in the end. Chieko Baisho who would play Tora-san’s sister Sakura continues to be Yamada’s muse of choice, but she’s not quite as typecast yet in these earlier movies of his, so that’s always nice to see.Read More »

  • Yôji Yamada – Otoko wa tsurai yo: Shiretoko bojo aka Tora-san 38: Goes North (1987)

    1981-1990AsianComedyJapanYôji Yamada

    Quote:
    Tora-san, the näive and romantic peddler, returns once more to his home in Hokkaido where, as usual, he falls in love with a lovely young lady. The girl this time is Rinko Ueno, who has come home in an attempt to repair her relationship with her gruff veterinarian father, Junkichi ‘Jun’ Ueno. Tora-san gets caught up in the entanglements not only between Rinko and her father but between Dr. Ueno and Etsuko, a restauranteur with amorous plans for the ornery veterinarianRead More »

  • Morimi Murano – Unico: Maho no shima e aka Unico in the Island of Magic (1983)

    1981-1990AnimationFantasyJapanMorimi Murano

    Quote:
    Imagine this: You hear a knock on your door. A thin man wearing an overly large cape glides in. He creates dolls out of wood, and flowers out of people’s heads. Suddenly, he tells you to be quiet, and with an eerie hollow piano stroke, his large haired head slides into frame, typical anime style. Then, a large bubble man appears and turns you into wood. And you are wood.Read More »

  • Yôji Yamada – Otoko wa tsurai yo: Tabi to onna to Torajiro aka Tora-san 31: Song Of Love (1983)

    1981-1990AsianComedyJapanYôji Yamada

    Quote:
    On a ship en route to the Sado Islands, Tora-san enjoys the company of a beautiful woman (Miyako Harumi), unaware that she’s a famous enka singer traveling incognito. In this variation on Roman Holiday (1953), the enka star enjoys Tora-san’s company when her boyfriend left her. Eventually, she returns to her glamorous life, but not before surprising everyone in Shibamata by showing up to give Tora-san a ticket to her latest concert. Tora-san thought that this could be a good start, but she finally tells him that… her boyfriend is back.Read More »

  • Yôji Yamada – Kiri no hata AKA Flag in the Mist (1965)

    Drama1961-1970AsianJapanYôji Yamada

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko (Chieko Baisho) travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan’s top lawyer to defend her brother. Unfortunately her naive idealism is shattered when the lawyer refuses to take the case based on her insufficient funds. What follows is a long determined revenge plot that sees the heroine become a Tokyo bar hostess and worse to punish the lawyer. The plot thickens with another murder mystery and a sleuthing reporter. Read More »

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