Direction: Kenji Mizoguchi

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Yoshiaki Hanayaki · Kyôko Kagawa · Eitarô Shindô

Synopsis 'Sansho Dayu' reaches back to a Japanese folk tale of the 12th century to depict the barbarism of a dark age, when people didn't know how to be human. When a provincial governor's attempts to protect the rights of regional...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Machiko Kyô · Mitsuko Mito · Kinuyo Tanaka · Masayuki Mori

Synopsis In the civil wars of 16th century Japan, two ambitious peasants want to make their fortunes. The potter Genjuro intends to sell his wares for vast profits in the local city, while his brother-in-law Tobei wishes to become a samurai.

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kazuo Hasegawa · Kyôko Kagawa · Yôko Minamida · Eitarô Shindô

Synopsis Set in 17th century Kyoto, Osan is married to Ishun, a wealthy miserly scroll-maker. When Osan is falsely accused of having an affair with the Ishun’s most trusted servant, Mohei, the two flee away. While on the run, Osan and...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Tsukie Matsuura · Ichiro Sugai · Toshirô Mifune

Synopsis It tells the story of Oharu, a 50-year-old woman who suffers the strict conventions of 17th century Feudal Japan. She becomes the lover of a man, but when they are discovered, Oharu and her family are obliged to live in...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Shotaro Hanayagi · Kakuko Mori · Kôkichi Takada · Yôko Umemura

Synopsis Tokyo, 1885. Kikunosuke, son of the famous actor Kikugoro, is openly praised for his performance on the stage. His success is actually due to his name; only Otoku, the wet-nurse of his brother, is sincere enough to tell him the...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Machiko Kyô · Aiko Mimasu · Ayako Wakao · Michiyo Kogure

Synopsis Five prostitutes work at Dreamland, in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district. As the Diet considers a ban on prostitution, the women's daily dramas play out. Each has dreams and motivations. Hanae is married, her husband unemployed; they have a young child. Yumeko,...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Michiyo Kogure · Ayako Wakao · Seizaburô Kawazu · Saburo Date

Synopsis In the post-war Gion district of Kyoto, the geisha Miyoharu agrees to apprentice the 16 year-old Eiko, whose mother was a former geisha who had just died. After a year of training they have to find a large sum of...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Nobuko Otowa · Yuji Hori · Kiyoko Hirai

Synopsis Shinnosuke is introduced to Shizu as a prospective marriage partner, but he falls in love with her widowed sister Oyu. Convention forbids Oyu to marry because she has to raise her son as the head of her husband's family. Oyu...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Machiko Kyô · Masayuki Mori · Sô Yamamura · Eitarô Shindô

Synopsis In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Michiyo Kogure · Yoshiko Kuga · Ken Uehara · Yuriko Hamada

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Tomoemon Otani · Yoshiko Kuga · Eitarô Shindô

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Sanae Takasugi · Tomie Tsunoda · Mitsuo Nagata

Synopsis Fusako Owada, a young woman in postwar Japan, is the mistress of a notorious drug dealer. Fusako's tenuous grasp on meaningful life is shaken when she learns that her lover is having an affair with her sister.

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Isuzu Yamada · Yôko Umemura · Benkei Shiganoya · Eitarô Shindô

Synopsis Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Narutoshi Hayashi · Raizô Ichikawa · Tatsuya Ishiguro · Akitake Kôno

Synopsis Set in 12th Century Japan against a rich social and political background, TALES OF THE TAIRA CLAN is an epic tale of power struggles, family drama, and human frailty. Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Yoshizaburo Arashi · Utaemon Ichikawa · Chojuro Kawarasaki · Tokusaburo Arashi

Synopsis Lord Asano resists a bribery attempt by a member of the Shogun's court. His honesty, however, is useless against the corruption of the administration, and he is forced to commit harakiri. His samurai retinue are dispersed as masterless ronin. The...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Takako Irie · Tokihiko Okada · Nobuo Kosaka · Bontarô Miake

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Michiko Kuwano · Mitsuko Miura · Shin Tokudaiji

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Isuzu Yamada · Seiichi Takegawa · Chiyoko Okura · Shinpachiro Asaka

Synopsis Ayako becomes the mistress of her boss, Mr. Asai, so she can pay her father's debt, and prevent him from going to prison for embezzlement. She also sends money to her brother Hiroshi to pay his university tuition, but her...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Yukiko Todoroki · Masayuki Mori · Akihiko Katayama

Synopsis Near the end of the War, Michiko, a middle-aged woman of samurai blood, flees Tokyo for her ancestral home in Musashino, accompanied by her husband Akiyama, a university professor of peasant stock. After her mother and father die in rapid...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Isuzu Yamada · Daijirô Natsukawa · Mitsusaburô Ramon · Genichi Fuji

Synopsis Sokichi Hata moves to Tokyo hoping to get into medical school, but he doesn't have the means to survive. There, he meets Osen, the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in Sokichi. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and...