Soundtrack: Ichiro Saitô

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 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 Mikio Naruse

Cast Hideko Takamine · Yûzô Kayama · Mitsuko Kusabue · Yumi Shirakawa

Synopsis 19 year old girl loses husband in war. Bombing destroys his family's shop and the widow stays to rebuild it as the rest of the family flee and runs it for 18 years out of love for her dead husband...

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Hideko Takamine · Akira Takarada · Tsutomu Yamazaki · Keiko Awaji

Synopsis Nobuko is a woman who suffered her husband's death and had to raise her son by herself. She also has to face disappointment when her son decides to marry a girl against her wishes.

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Hideko Takamine · Chikage Awashima · Masayuki Mori · Yuriko Hoshi

Direction Yasujirō Ozu

Cast Hideko Takamine · Chishu Ryu · Tatsuo Saito · Sanae Takasugi

Synopsis Setsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a bad drinking habit. She had always been in love with Hiroshi but both of them failed to propose when Hiroshi left for France a few years ago....

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Hideko Takamine · Masayuki Mori · Mariko Okada · Chieko Nakakita

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Setsuko Hara · Yôko Sugi · Ken Uehara · Sô Yamamura

Direction Hiroshi Shimizu

Cast Kyôko Kagawa · Yukiko Shimazaki · Kenzo Kawarazaki · Jûkichi Uno

Synopsis A university professor and his wife have two sons with infantile paralysis. Through trial and error, they struggle to open a school for disabled children at their own expense. Based on a true story, it features natural child performances under...

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 Mikio Naruse

Cast Keiko Enonami · Kyôko Kagawa · Akihiko Katayama · Daisuke Kato

Synopsis A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.

Direction Yasujirō Ozu

Cast Choko Iida · Hohi Aoki · Eitarô Ozawa · Mitsuko Yoshikawa

Synopsis In post-war Japan, a man brings a lost boy to his tenement. No one wants to take the child for even one night; finally, a sour widow, Tané, does. The next day, complaining, she takes the boy to his neighborhood...

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Nobuko Otowa · Jun Fujimaki · Kamatari Fujiwara · Yosuke Natsuki

Direction Kinuyo Tanaka

Cast Masayuki Mori · Yoshiko Kuga · Jûkichi Uno · Kyôko Kagawa

Synopsis A sad and troubled man, Reikichi Mayumi (Masayuki Mori), finds a new job five years after the end of WWII. He will write love letters for other people.. His ideas about love and his personal principles will be tested when...

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Isuzu Yamada · Hideko Takamine · Mariko Okada

Synopsis The narrative, as adapted from a book by Kodo Aya, concerns Rika (Kinuyo Tanaka), a widow whose dire financial circumstances force her to take a housemaid assignment in a failing Tokyo geisha house.

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Setsuko Hara · Hideko Takamine · Akira Takarada · Hiroshi Koizumi

Synopsis It concerns an aging mother who lives in Tokyo, her five grown children, and several of their spouses, nearly all of whom have money troubles. When one of the daughters (Setsuko Hara) is widowed, she returns to the family nest...

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Machiko Kyô · Masayuki Mori · Yoshiko Kuga · Yuji Hori

Synopsis In a village not far from Tokyo, Akaza and his wife Riki worry about their childrens' future. The eldest, Inokichi, is a gambler and a womaniser. The elder of the two sisters, Mon, has gone to Tokyo, and the parents...

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Hideko Takamine · Yôko Tsukasa · Akemi Kita · Reiko Dan

Direction Mikio Naruse

Cast Hideko Takamine · Mitsuko Miura · Kyôko Kagawa · Chieko Murata

Direction Heinosuke Gosho

Cast Hiroko Kawasaki · Yasuko Miyazaki · Keiko Sawamura · Yoichi Numata