Direction: Mikio Naruse
The best movies, series, and documentaries directed by Mikio Naruse. Explore exceptional titles that showcase a unique filmmaking vision.
Whistle in My Heart (Whistling in Kotan)
1959 · Movie · 126 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Ken Yamauchi · Yoshiko Kôda · Masayuki Mori · Akira Takarada
Plot Hashimoto Shinobu wrote the script based on Ishimori Nobuo’s original story, which won prizes including the first Mimei Literature Award. Depicts an Ainu girl and her younger brother living in...
7.2
32 votes
7.2
32 votes
Summer Clouds
1958 · Movie · 128 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Chikage Awashima · Michiyo Aratama · Yôko Tsukasa · Daisuke Kato
Plot 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...
7.2
82 votes
7.2
82 votes
Little Peach
1958 · Movie · 110 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Sô Yamamura · Kyôko Kagawa · Isao Kimura · Keiju Kobayashi
7.2
77 votes
7.2
77 votes
A Wife's Heart
1956 · Movie · 101 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Hideko Takamine · Toshirô Mifune · Keiju Kobayashi · Akemi Negishi
Plot A young married woman wants to raise enough money to open her own cafe. She gets a loan to fulfill her dream. The arrival of her husband's brother will disrupt...
7.2
89 votes
7.2
89 votes
Dancing Girl
1951 · Movie · 85 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Sô Yamamura · Mieko Takamine · Mariko Okada · Akihiko Katayama
Plot Dancing Girl is an important transitional film, as Naruse deploys some of the flamboyant melodramatic devices that he used in the 1930s in the context of a story that is...
7.2
42 votes
7.2
42 votes
Late Chrysanthemums
1954 · Movie · 101 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Haruko Sugimura · Sadako Sawamura · Chikako Hosokawa · Yûko Mochizuki
7.2
124 votes
7.2
124 votes
Wife
1953 · Movie · 96 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Mieko Takamine · Ken Uehara · Rentarô Mikuni · Michiyo Aratama
Plot Tsuma concerns the struggles of a woman who finds out that her husband is cheating on her; to avoid the stigma of a broken marriage, she decides she'll do whatever...
7.1
42 votes
7.1
42 votes
Wife! Be Like a Rose!
1935 · Movie · 74 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Sachiko Chiba · Sadao Maruyama · Yuriko Hanabusa · Tomoko Ito
7.1
77 votes
7.1
77 votes
Untamed Woman
1957 · Movie · 121 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Hideko Takamine · Ken Uehara · Masayuki Mori · Daisuke Kato
7.1
49 votes
7.1
49 votes
Husband and Wife
1953 · Movie · 87 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Ken Uehara · Yôko Sugi · Rentarô Mikuni · Keiju Kobayashi
Plot Husband and Wife centers on the problems of young married life that, exacerbated by economic circumstances, can erupt into a full-scale breakup. Ken Uehara and Yoko Sugi star as the...
7.1
44 votes
7.1
44 votes
Street Without End
1934 · Movie · 87 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Setsuko Shinobu · Akio Isono · Hikaru Yamanouchi · Nobuko Wakaba
Plot Mikio Naruse’s final silent film is a gloriously rich portrait of a waitress, Sugiko, whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends...
7.1
76 votes
7.1
76 votes
Evening Stream
1960 · Movie · 111 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse · Yûzô Kawashima
Cast Yôko Tsukasa · Isuzu Yamada · Akira Takarada · Tatsuya Mihashi
7.0
24 votes
7.0
24 votes
Ginza Cosmetics
1951 · Movie · 87 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Ranko Hanai · Yuji Hori · Kyôko Kagawa
Plot This is a gentle, affectionate take on a middle aged bar hostess, struggling to bring up a child alone and facing financial, sexual and end of career issues, as well...
6.9
51 votes
6.9
51 votes
After Our Separation
1933 · Movie · 61 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Mitsuko Yoshikawa · Akio Isono · Sumiko Mizukubo · Reikichi Kawamura
Plot In this gently devastating drama, a critical breakthrough for Naruse, he contrasts the life of an aging geisha, whose angry teenage son is ashamed of her profession, with that of...
6.9
84 votes
6.9
84 votes
Sudden Rain
1956 · Movie · 91 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Setsuko Hara · Keiju Kobayashi · Shûji Sano · Akemi Negishi
Plot Sudden Rain dwells on how the negative aspects of married life can become overwhelming and quite stressful. Setsuko Hara plays a woman whose entire existence seems to boil down to...
6.9
51 votes
6.9
51 votes
White Beast
1950 · Movie · 97 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Sô Yamamura · Kimiko Kaino · Mitsuko Miura · Tanie Kitabayashi
Plot he critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its catfights, hysterical tantrums,...
6.8
42 votes
6.8
42 votes
No Blood Relation
1932 · Movie · 79 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Yoshiko Okada · Shinyo Nara · Yukiko Tsukuba · Toshiko Kojima
6.7
50 votes
6.7
50 votes
The Girl in the Rumour
1935 · Movie · 54 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Sachiko Chiba · Kamatari Fujiwara · Tomoko Ito · Ko Mihashi
6.7
43 votes
6.7
43 votes
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
1935 · Movie · 75 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Chikako Hosokawa · Masako Tsutsumi · Ryuko Umezono · Chitose Hayashi
Plot Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts, writer-director Mikio Naruse's first sound film, tells the story of three very different siblings forced to work as samisen street musicians to make ends meet....
6.7
63 votes
6.7
63 votes
Okuni and Gohei
1952 · Movie · 91 min. · Japan
Direction Mikio Naruse
Cast Michiyo Kogure · Tomoemon Otani · Sô Yamamura · Jun Tazaki
Plot Based on a kabuki play in which a woman (Okuni) and one of the retainers of her late husband (Gohei) seek revenge upon the man, Tomonojo, who killed her husband...
6.6
22 votes
6.6
22 votes