Mikio Naruse — Director (60)
The Song Lantern (1943) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
歌行燈
other title: Das Lied der Laterne / La Chanson de la lanterne
A self-absorbed young actor humiliates an elderly Noh performer, who then commits suicide. His act of cruelty compels his father to disown him, leading the once promising actor to a life on the streets. But his desire to win back the respect of his father and the affection of the dead actor's daughter pushes him toward a more noble existence. Naruse employed a delicately structured mise-en-scene in this family melodrama, which evokes the work of Josef von Sternberg.
Ginza Cosmetics (1951) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
銀座化粧
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Kinuyo Tanaka / Ranko Hanai
other title: Le Fard de Ginza / Camareras de Ginza
A few days in the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a smart young boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza. A woman devoted to others' needs, she'll end by taking part herself in one of the many disguises of Ginza.
Okuni and Gohei (1952) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
お國と五平
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Michiyo Kogure / Tomiemon Otomo
other title: Okuni et Gohei / Okuni y Gohei
A high-born woman named Okuni travels around the country with Gohei, a samurai retainer who is in service to her. They are in search of Tomonojo, who has killed the man who was Okuni’s husband and Gohei’s master, and they cannot return to their lord’s home until they have fulfilled their duty of hunting down and killing Tomonojo.
Moment of Terror (1966) [Movie] IMDb TMDB WikiData
ひき逃げ
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Hideko Takamine / Yōko Tsukasa
other title: Délit de fuite / Delito de fuga
When the only son of a working class woman is fatally struck by a car driven by the adulterous wife of a company president in a hit-and-run, the victim's mother changes her identity and infiltrates the couple's home to work as their maid, plotting to murder their similarly-aged son.
Five Men in a Circus (1935) [Movie] TMDB WikiData IMDb
サーカス五人組
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Heihachirō Ōkawa / Hiroshi Uruki
other title: Cinq types au cirque / サーカス五人組
The main focus is on the 5 member band of a small circus as it runs into problems while touring rural Japan. It also pays lots of attention to the two daughters of the aging and irascible ringmaster-circus owner. The high points are the sound (and score) and cinematography featuring a lot of vertiginous panning (appropriate - as high wire trapeze artists are also an important element in the film). A fascinating side-light on 30s Japan.
Avalanche (1937) [Movie] WikiData TMDB IMDb
雪崩
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Noboru Kiritachi / Ranko Edogawa
other title: 雪崩 / Nadare
The study of a one-year marriage that begins to crumble. A married man is torn between the love of his wife, and the attraction to a cousin of his wife.
The Lovelorn Geisha (1960) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
夜の流れ
director: Mikio Naruse / Yūzō Kawashima actor: Yōko Tsukasa / Isuzu Yamada
other title: Courant du soir / Corriente nocturna
A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself 'already dead'.
Wife! Be Like a Rose! (1935) [Movie] Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData
妻よ薔薇のやうに
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Sachiko Chiba / Yuriko Hanabusa
other title: Frau, sei wie eine Rose! / Ma femme, sois comme une rose
Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs her absent father to act as the go-between and negotiate the marriage. Kimiko travels and finds her father living with a second family.
The Thin Line (1966) [Movie] NeoDB IMDb TMDB WikiData
女の中にいる他人
other title: Lo straniero dentro una donna / L'Étranger à l'intérieur d'une femme
Tashiro coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako. In an effort to further relieve his tortured sense of guilt, he then confesses to Sugimoto. Neither his wife nor his friend can believe that he could have been involved.
The Whole Family Works (1939) [Movie] NeoDB Douban TMDB IMDb
はたらく一家
director: Mikio Naruse actor: 徳川夢声 / 本間敦子
other title: 工作家庭 / はたらく一家
Father of nine children cannot find a job. Despite their aspirations, the children are encouraged by both parents to hold down menial jobs and contribute to the family expenses. Eventually ...@
Two in the Shadow (1967) [Movie] IMDb TMDB NeoDB Douban WikiData
乱れ雲
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Yūzō Kayama / Yōko Tsukasa
other title: Nuages épars / Nubes dispersas
A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to a remote branch in a small town. Before he leaves, he gives the man's widow a large sum of money that she uses to move back to her hometown.
A Wanderer's Notebook (1962) [Movie] NeoDB TMDB Douban WikiData IMDb
放浪記
other title: Hourou-ki / Chronique de mon vagabondage
Considered one of the finest late Naruses and a model of film biography, A Wanderer’s Notebook features remarkable performances by Hideko Takamine – Phillip Lopate calls it “probably her greatest performance” – and Kinuyo Tanaka as mother and daughter living from hand to mouth in Twenties Tokyo. Based on the life and career of Fumiko Hayashi, the novelist whose work Naruse adapted to the screen several times, A Wanderer’s Notebook traces her bitter struggle for literary recognition in the first half of the twentieth century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.
Sound of the Mountain (1954) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
山の音
director: Mikio Naruse actor: Setsuko Hara / Sō Yamamura
other title: 山の音 / Berggrollen
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.
Yearning (1964) [Movie] NeoDB Douban IMDb TMDB WikiData
乱れる
9.4 (5 ratings) director: Mikio Naruse actor: Yumi Shirakawa / Hideko Takamine
other title: Tormento / Midareru - Sehnsucht
War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) [Movie] NeoDB WikiData TMDB Douban IMDb
女が階段を上る時
9.3 (7 ratings) director: Mikio Naruse actor: Hideko Takamine / Masayuki Mori
other title: Quando una donna sale le scale / Quando Uma Mulher Sobe as Escadas
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.