Direction: Kenji Mizoguchi

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi · Takashi Igawa · Tadaaki Hôrai · Ryuichi Kitahata

Cast Yutaka Matsushige · Tomoki Uekusa · Atsushi Kashiwagi · Tetsuharu Konno

Synopsis A solitary businessman travels across Japan, eating at its various establishments and experiencing the various delicacies of Japanese cuisine.

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 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 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 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 · Yoshiaki Hanayaki · Kyôko Kagawa · Eitarô Shindô

Synopsis In Sansho the Bailiff (1954), a compassionate governor is exiled, leaving his family—wife Tamaki, son Zushio, and daughter Anju—to fend for themselves. Separated by slavers, the children are sold to the ruthless Sansho, who forces them into brutal servitude. Years...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

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

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 Machiko Kyô · Mitsuko Mito · Kinuyo Tanaka · Masayuki Mori

Synopsis Tales of Ugetsu (1953) is a hauntingly beautiful Japanese film set during the chaos of civil war. It follows two ambitious men—a potter seeking wealth and a farmer dreaming of becoming a samurai—whose desires lead them away from their families...

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 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 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 Michiyo Kogure · Yoshiko Kuga · Ken Uehara · Yuriko Hamada

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Kinuyo Tanaka · Mitsuko Mito · Kuniko Miyake · Ichiro Sugai

Synopsis A woman's struggle for equality in Japan in the 1880s. Eiko Hirayama leaves Okayama for Tokyo, where she helps the fledgling Liberal Party and falls in love with its leader Kentaro Omoi, just as the party is being disbanded by...

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 Kinuyo Tanaka · Sô Yamamura · Sugisaku Aoyama · Kyoko Asagiri

Synopsis The stage director Shimamura, who is bringing western theatre to Japan, falls in love with the outspoken actress Sumako Matsui, and leaves his family to be with her, while trying to keep his Art Theatre solvent.

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

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

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Minosuke Bando · Kinuyo Tanaka · Toshiko Iizuka · Hiroko Kawasaki

Synopsis Utamaro, a great artist, lives to create portraits of beautiful women, and the brothels of Tokyo provide his models. A world of passion swirls around him, as the women in his life vie for lovers. And, occasionally, his art gets...

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi

Cast Shotaro Hanayagi · Kan Ishii · Eijirô Yanagi · Ichijirô Oya

Synopsis Kiyone Sakurai, an apprentice swordmaker makes a sword for his guardian, Kozaemon Onoda. Onoda breaks the sword while defending his lord which eventually leads to his death at the hands of Naito, when Naito demands to marry his daughter Sasae....

Direction Kenji Mizoguchi · Masahiro Makino · Hiroshi Shimizu · Tomotaka Tasaka

Cast Reikichi Kawamura · Isamu Kosugi · Koji Mitsui · Hiroyuki Nagato