Hajime Takaiwa — Playwright (41)
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Blood End (1969) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
天狗党
director: Satsuo Yamamoto actor: Tatsuya Nakadai / Ayako Wakao …
other title: Tengu-tô / 天狗党
Sentaro is been severely beaten for his defiance of the government and the high taxes during a time of famine. He is befriended by Kada Gentaro, a leader in the Mito Tengu group, which plans to overthrow the shogunate.
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Glorious Fights (1966) [Movie] IMDb WikiData TMDB
地獄の掟に明日はない
director: Yasuo Furuhata actor: Ken Takakura / Rentaro Mikuni …
other title: Il n'y a pas de lendemain dans les lois de l'enfer / 地獄の掟に明日はない
A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He fiercely battles violent elements in southern Japan like there is no tomorrow.
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The Kuroda Affair (1956) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
黒田騒動
director: Tomu Uchida actor: Chiezo Kataoka / Ryutaro Otomo …
other title: 黒田騒動
This adaptation of a Hideji Hojo novel, about the historical uprising of the Kuroda clan in 1633, is told through the eyes of retainer, Daizen. As his clan’s new leader, Tadayuki, becomes increasingly militant in his opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate, Daizen is forced to reconcile his loyalty to the clan with his loyalty to Tadayuki, who seems dead set on entangling the clan in destructive conflict. The Kuroda Affair’s mise-en-scène is said to have influenced future Toei director Eiichi Kudo. The film also features two of the greatest stars of Japanese period cinema, Chiezo Kataoka and Ryutaro Otomo.
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Rebellion from Below (1956) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
逆襲獄門砦
director: Tomu Uchida actor: Chiezo Kataoka / Harue Akagi …
other title: 逆襲獄門砦
A master hunter is driven to defiance after a tyrannical magistrate's cruelty pushes his community to its breaking point. His expert skill with a bow becomes the rallying point for a group of oppressed peasants and prisoners seeking justice. Together, they stage a fierce, collective uprising to storm the local stronghold and overthrow their corrupt rulers.
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Love and Greed (1964) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
「女の小箱」より夫が見た
director: Yasuzō Masumura actor: Jirō Tamiya / Ayako Wakao …
other title: 「女の小箱」より夫が見た / Otto ga mita 'Onna no kobako' yori …
Namiko is married, but has an infatuation with Ishizuka who runs a nightclub. The businessman is also planning on wrecking the company of Namiko's husband. As personal lives and professional careers intertwine and cross one another including a love triangle dangerously, the affair is taken up a notch following a murder.
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The Life of a Chivalrous Man in Suruga: Broken Swords (1964) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
駿河遊侠傳 破れ鉄火
director: Tokuzō Tanaka actor: Shintarō Katsu / Yukiko Fuji …
other title: 駿河遊侠傳 破れ鉄火
The second film in the "Suruga yukyoden" series, in which Shintaro Katsu plays Jirocho Shimizu. The film features Omasa, Komasa, Ocho, who will become Jirocho's wife, as well as other members of his future family. There is a particularly great swordfight near the end where Katsu and cronies attack the rival villainous yakuza clan to rescue their ailing, elderly boss. The action choreography, cinematography and editing of this sequence is quite brilliant, treading a difficult tightrope act between genuinely goofy antics and exhilirating, bloody violence.
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Tale of Japanese Burglars (1965) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
にっぽん泥棒物語
director: Satsuo Yamamoto actor: Rentaro Mikuni / Yūnosuke Itō …
other title: Les Contes du voleur japonais / にっぽん泥棒物語
Gisuke Hayashida is an illegal dentist during the day and a burglar by night. One night during a burglary he witnesses a train derailment. Some communists are found guilty of causing the incident, but he knows it wasn't them. He can save innocent people but for that he must confess his own crime.
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Mid-August Commotion (1962) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
八月十五日の動乱
director: Tsuneo Kobayashi actor: Koji Tsuruta / Shinjirō Ehara …
other title: 八月十五日の動乱
A suspense work based on the "Miyagi Incident," an attempted coup d'etat led by some officers working for the Ministry of the Defense and the General Staff of the Konoe Division on the eve of the end of the Pacific War.
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Story of a Prostitute (1965) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
春婦伝
director: Seijun Suzuki actor: Tamio Kawachi / Yumiko Nogawa …
other title: Storia di una prostituta / Nackt und verdammt …
Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story of a Prostitute is a tragic love story as well as a rule-bending take on a popular Taijiro Tamura novel, challenging military and fraternal codes of honor, as seen through Harumi's eyes.