Kinuyo Tanaka

An ambitious potter (Masayuki Mori) and his devoted spouse (Kinuyo Tanaka) as well as a kindred couple (Eitaro Ozawa, Mitsuko Mito) are torn apart by the civil-war chaos of 16th-century Japan. Both men realize their material dreams but at a tragic cost to their respective mates. In particular, Mori’s shallow success is reflected in his delirious romance with a ghostly noblewoman (Machiko Kyo), an affair that will drive him to the brink of madness. One of the most poignant evocations of the illusory nature of worldly desires and missed opportunities and one of the most haunting depictions of the supernatural ever committed to celluloid. Winner of the 1953 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion Award.Read More »

Synopsis:
The children of the maid in the house of an army officer (fathered by him) are forced to live unacknowledged life and develop great anger against their half-brother…

Japanese family relationship melodrama starring Rentaro Mikuni, Kinuyo Tanaka, Choko Iida, Tomo’o Nagai, and Katsuo Nakamura.Read More »

In the late 1950’s prostitution was banned in Japan and if a woman was found exercising this profession they were sent to a reformatory. This is a story of one of these brave women Kuniko who is released from the reformatory and tries to build a new life.Read More »

Pu Zhe, the younger brother of the Emperor of Manchukuo, Pu Wen, marries Ryuko the daughter of a long-established aristocratic family – all in the interest of the Japanese rulers, which legitimizes the relationship between Japan and its Chinese puppet state. To the surprise of all , a deep love between Pu Zhe and Ryuko develops. It is put to the test when Japan loses the war, Manchukuo is dissolved and the imperial court must flee. The lovers now have to separate: Pu Zhe tries to escape to Japan with his brother, while Ryuko flees with her daughter Eisei over the country. A film on the relationship between Pujie (1907-94), brother of the “last emperor” Puyi and his second wife, Marquise Hiro Saga (1914-87).Read More »

Kinuyo is a daughter of rice cracker shop in downtown. She fell in love with her sister’s boyfriend. It is a story whose theme is warm human relationships in a town of customs and manners.Read More »

A man returns from World War II to find his desperate wife had resorted to one night of prostitution to pay for their son’s hospital bills.Read More »

Synopsis:
Based on a girl’s prize-winning school essay on the subject of “My Mother”. Mizuki Yoko fashioned one of her most moving scripts. Upon the death of her husband the mother (Tanaka Kinuyo) runs the family laundry by herself. She is helped by her first daughter (Kagawa Kyoko) bust must send her second daughter to live with relatives because she cannot afford to keep her. A real shomingeki with lots of heart
— Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film.Read More »

Five friends make a pact to stick together through school, agreeing to graduate at the same time and to marry at the same time…Read More »

Quote:
Based on Saikaku Ihara’s novel, The Life Of Oharu charts the tragic demise of Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka) in 17th century Japan. An attendant at the imperial court in Kyoto, she is exiled to the countryside with her parents for the crime of falling in love with Katsunosuke (Toshirô Mifune), who suggests she should marry out of romantic feelings, not duty. Forced by her father into being a concubine for Lord Matsudaira (Toshiaki Konoe), she bears him a son, is then sold to brothel, before finally ending up as a street prostitute.Read More »