Yoshikata Yoda — Playwright (36)
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Movie

Stepbrothers (1957)
異母兄弟 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Miyoji Ieki actor: Kinuyo Tanaka / Rentaro Mikuni …
other title: 異母兄弟 / Les Demi-frères …
In a military family, an illegitimate son is brutalized by his brothers. A patriarchal, feudalistic household where dissent is forbidden is used to reveal the whole imperialist system that afflicted Japan between 1921 and 1946.
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Movie

An Osaka Story (1957)
大阪物語 IMDb TMDB
Kōzaburō Yoshimura actor: Raizō Ichikawa / Shintarō Katsu …
other title: Uma história sobre Osaka / Une histoire d'Osaka …
A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo.
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Movie

The Sisters and I (1967)
古都憂愁　姉いもうと IMDb TMDB
Kenji Misumi actor: Shiho Fujimura / Kiku Wakayagi …
other title: 古都憂愁　姉いもうと
Two sisters, Kyoko and Hisako, run a restaurant in Kyoto. But an incident with the latter's fiancé puts their relationship, and the future of their cuisine in jeopardy...
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Movie

The Homely Sister (1967)
なみだ川 WikiData IMDb TMDB
Kenji Misumi actor: Shiho Fujimura / Rokkō Toura …
other title: なみだ川 / La Rivière des larmes
In the 19th century Edo period, sisters Oshizu and Otaka have sacrificed their personal happiness to work and care for their ailing father. Otaka falls in love, but can’t accept a marriage proposal since her older sister needs to marry first. When Oshizu learns of this decision, she takes matters in her own hands.
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Movie

Love and Faith (1978)
お吟さま IMDb TMDB
Kei Kumai actor: Ryoko Nakano / Takashi Shimura …
other title: Mademoiselle Ogin / お吟さま
Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin's father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord's plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse.
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Movie

An Ocean to Cross (1980)
天平の甍 WikiData IMDb TMDB NeoDB
Kei Kumai actor: Katsuo Nakamura / Masaaki Daimon …
other title: Un océan à traverser / 天平の甍 …
Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin.
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Movie

The Horse Boy (1957)
暴れん坊街道 IMDb TMDB
Tomu Uchida actor: Shūji Sano / Isuzu Yamada …
other title: 暴れん坊街道
A humble page fathers a child by the daughter of a clan official and is banished. Years later, the child, now a stable boy, is reunited with his father, but feudal codes threaten their happiness. Uchida’s poignant masterpiece condemns the inflexible class system and launches an indictment of values that favor symbolic objects over human life. The film’s focus is on character rather than swordplay, and charged performances - especially child actor Motoharu Ueki - add to the emotional power.
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Movie

Hero of the Red Light District (1960)
妖刀物語 花の吉原百人斬り WikiData IMDb TMDB
Tomu Uchida actor: Chiezo Kataoka / Yoshie Mizutani …
other title: Meurtre à Yoshiwara / 妖刀物語 花の吉原百人斬り …
A successful textile industrialist from the provinces, who is beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until an indentured peasant prostitute, Tamarazu, takes the unsavoury assignment and treats him with brash tenderness.
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Movie

Flame of My Love (1949)
わが恋は燃えぬ WikiData IMDb TMDB NeoDB
Kenji Mizoguchi actor: Kinuyo Tanaka / Mitsuko Mito …
other title: Il mio amore brucia / Flamme de mon amour …
In 1880s Japan, women's struggle for equality rages on. 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 the government.
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Movie

The Lady of Musashino (1951)
武蔵野夫人
Kenji Mizoguchi actor: Kinuyo Tanaka / Yukiko Todoroki …
other title: La signora Musashino / La Dame de Musashino …
In post-war Japan, Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage, confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close, but decide not to consummate their affair. He instead becomes involved with the flirtatious Tomiko, who is also conducting an affair with Michiko's husband. When Michiko finds that her husband has abandoned her, she decides to take her fate into her own hands.
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Movie

Princess Yang Kwei-fei (1955)
楊貴妃 WikiData IMDb TMDB NeoDB
Kenji Mizoguchi actor: Machiko Kyō / Masayuki Mori …
other title: L'imperatrice Yang-Kwei-Fei / A Imperatriz Yang Kwei Fei …
In 8th-century China, the Emperor grieves the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their court influence. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen, whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets.
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Movie

23 Steps to Bed (1962)
ある大阪の女 IMDb TMDB
Eizō Sugawa actor: Reiko Dan / Keizō Kawasaki …
other title: ある大阪の女
An ambitious young woman uses her sex appeal to solve financial problems in her family, including a brother in debt to the yakuza, and a father who stole money from his firm to repay his son's debt.
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Movie

Akumyo: Notorious Dragon (1974)
悪名 縄張荒らし IMDb TMDB Douban NeoDB
Yasuzō Masumura actor: Shintarō Katsu / Kinya Kitaoji …
other title: 悪名 縄張荒らし / Bad Reputation: Notorious Dragon …
About small-time gangster Asakichi's chaotic life in the 1930s. His gambling addiction means that he must not continue working in the family business. Instead he supports himself by arranging cockfights. He becomes ex-geisha Okinu's patron and lover, and falls directly into disfavor with the yakuza.