Hajime Takaiwa — Playwright (41)
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Movie

Blood End (1969)
天狗党 IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

Glorious Fights (1966)
地獄の掟に明日はない WikiData IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

The Kuroda Affair (1956)
黒田騒動 IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

Rebellion from Below (1956)
逆襲獄門砦 IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

Love and Greed (1964)
「女の小箱」より夫が見た WikiData IMDb TMDB NeoDB
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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Movie

The Life of a Chivalrous Man in Suruga: Broken Swords (1964)
駿河遊侠傳 破れ鉄火 IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

Tale of Japanese Burglars (1965)
にっぽん泥棒物語 WikiData IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

Mid-August Commotion (1962)
八月十五日の動乱 IMDb TMDB
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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Movie

Story of a Prostitute (1965)
春婦伝
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.