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Rentarō Mikuni
(also sometimes credited as 三国連太郎) (January 20, 1923 – April 14, 2013) was a Japanese film actor from Gunma Prefecture. He appeared in over 150 films since making his screen debut in 1951, and won three Japanese Academy Awards for Best Actor, and a further seven nominations. He also won two Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actor, in 1960 and in 1989. The 1987 film '' Shinran: Path to Purity'' (親鸞：白い道), which he wrote and directed, was awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Actor Kōichi Satō is his son. Biography Mikuni was born the son of a woman who had become pregnant while working as an indentured servant. His mother then married an electrician who had learned his trade while serving in the military, the man Mikuni considered his father. His stepfather was a member of the burakumin, and Mikuni experienced prejudice as a child, such as automatically being suspected of theft when a bicycle was stolen. He was educated to elementary school lev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Nagano Prefecture to the southwest, Saitama Prefecture to the south, and Tochigi Prefecture to the east. Maebashi is the capital and Takasaki is the largest city of Gunma Prefecture, with other major cities including Ōta, Isesaki, and Kiryū. Gunma Prefecture is one of only eight landlocked prefectures, located on the northwestern corner of the Kantō Plain with 14% of its total land being designated as natural parks. History The ancient province of Gunma was a center of horse breeding and trading activities for the newly immigrated continental peoples. The arrival of horses and the remains of horse tackle coincides with the arrival of a large migration from the mainland. From this point forward, the hor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stepbrothers (1957 Film)
is a 1957 Japanese drama film directed by Miyoji Ieki. The screenplay by Nobuyoshi Terada and Yoshikata Yoda is based on the novel of the same name by Torahiko Tamiya. Plot In 1921, Rie, daughter of a simple carriage driver, is introduced as a maid into the household of tyrannic company commander Kito, his two sons Ichiroji and Gojiro and his sickly wife. Following his wife's death, Kito is forced to marry Rie, who expects a child after he raped her. Rie gives birth to a son, Yoshitoshi, and later to a second son, Tomohide, who are both treated with disdain by Kito and his sons from his previous marriage. Also, she and her sons are forced to live in a small, separate room in the Kito family mansion. One after another, Kito's sons follow in the family tradition and start a military career, although Yoshitoshi only reluctantly so. When Kito learns that Tomohide, still a student, and young maid Haru have fallen in love, he furiously fires Haru and sends Tomohide to his former nann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Himiko (film)
''Himiko'' ( ja, 卑弥呼) is a 1974 Japanese fantasy drama film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. It was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival Feature Film Competition. Plot In an unnamed forest, a group of women with white-painted faces and robes wander to a ritual site. One of the women, Himiko, the shaman and translator of the Sun God, lies on the ground while another holds a bronze mirror up which reflects the sun's light. Himiko starts to convulse and moan, imitating an orgasm which symbolizes the Sun God penetrating her body. We see several different tribes, one of the Land People, and one of the Mountain People. The Mountain People are a raggedy, unsightly group, all conjoined together by a single rope, and donned with haunting makeup consisting of heavy paint, cobwebs and strings. They wander around the mountain like insects, twitching and in almost no control of their own limbs and muscles. A lone traveler appears, named Takehiko, from the far side of the mountain and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabi No Omosa
is a 1972 Japanese film directed by Kōichi Saitō. Also known as a Journey Into Solitude in English. The story is about a 16-year-old girl who is unsatisfied with her life and leaves her home in search of something else. Cast * Kumiko Akiyoshi * Etsushi Takahashi was a Japanese actor from Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture. Takahashi often worked with Kihachi Okamoto and Satsuo Yamamoto. After graduating Rikkyo University, Takahashi joined NHK acting school. In 1964, he joined Bungakuza Theatre Company's act ... as Daizo Kimura References External links * 1972 films Films directed by Kōichi Saitō Japanese drama films 1970s Japanese films {{1970s-Japan-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Profound Desire Of The Gods
is a 1968 Japanese film by director Shohei Imamura. The culmination of the director's examinations of the fringes of Japanese society throughout the 1960s, the film was an 18-month super-production which failed to make an impression at the time of its release, but has since risen in stature. Plot Presenting a vast chronicle of life on the remote Kurage Island, the film centres on the disgraced, superstitious, interbred Futori family and the Tokyo engineer sent to supervise the creation of a new well for a sugar mill on the island – an encounter which leads to both conflict and complicity in strange and powerful ways. Cast *Kazuo Kitamura as Engineer Kariya, a modern-day married man from Tokyo who gets entangled in the Futori family. Kariya is sent to Kurage Island by his boss at the sugar cane corporation to find a water source for a sugar mill on the island. Eventually he is seduced by Toriko. *Kanjūrō Arashi as Yamamori Futori, the patriarch of the Futori family. *Rentar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zatoichi The Outlaw
is a 1967 Japanese ''chambara'' film directed by Satsuo Yamamoto and starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind masseur Zatoichi. It was originally released by the Daiei Film, Daiei Motion Picture Company (later acquired by Kadokawa Pictures), and is the first film produced by Katsu Productions (Katsu's own company). ''Zatoichi the Outlaw'' is the sixteenth episode in the 26-part film series devoted to the character of Zatoichi. Plot In a rural village, Zatoichi (Katsu) encounters Shushi Ohara (Suzuki; modeled after 18th-century agriculturalist Yagaku Ohara) a sword-less rōnin who defends himself against multiple attackers without killing them. Ohara leads a peasant movement advocating the Abstinence, abstention from gambling, Alcoholic beverage#Alcohol consumption, drinking, and whoring. Cast *Shintaro Katsu as Zatoichi *Rentarō Mikuni as Boss Asagoro *Kō Nishimura as Suga *Yuko Hamada as Oshino *Toshiyuki Hosokawa as Nisaburo *Takuya Fujioka as Zatosanji *Kenjiro Ishiyama as Tats ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Fugitive From The Past
, also titled ''Straits of Hunger'' or ''Hunger Straits'', is a 1965 Japanese crime drama film directed by Tomu Uchida and starring Rentarō Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari and Ken Takakura. It is based on the 1962 novel ''Kiga kaikyō'' by Tsutomu Minakami. Plot In 1947, two ex-convicts on parole murder pawnbroker Sasada and his family in Iwanai, Hokkaido island, take his money and set fire to the house to cover the tracks. They escape together with a third man, Inukai, to Shimokita peninsula. The murderers' dead bodies later wash up on the shore after the Tōya Maru ferry accident, but policeman Yumisaka becomes suspicious because they are not listed as passengers. He believes that the missing Inukai killed his two accomplices while crossing the strait between the islands. Meanwhile, Inukai is sheltered by a prostitute, Yae, and gives her a large sum of money in return, which enables her to start a new life. When Yumisaka questions Yae, she pretends that her customer was not Inukai. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kwaidan (film)
is a 1964 Japanese anthology horror film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales, mainly '' Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things'' (1904), for which it is named. The film consists of four separate and unrelated stories. ''Kwaidan'' is an archaic transliteration of the term , meaning "ghost story". Receiving critical acclaim, the film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Plot "The Black Hair" was adapted from "The Reconciliation", which appeared in Hearn's collection ''Shadowings'' (1900). An impoverished swordsman in Kyoto divorces his wife, a weaver, and leaves her for a woman of a wealthy family to attain greater social status. However, despite his new wealthy status, the swordsman's second marriage proves to be unhappy. His new wife is shown to be callous and selfish. The swordsman regrets leavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolves, Pigs And Men
is a 1964 Japanese black-and-white crime film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Plot Three brothers are born in a slum. Kuroki, the eldest brother, leaves to join a yakuza organization. Jirō, the middle brother, leaves five years later, leaving the youngest brother Sabu to care for their mother alone. Kuroki's organization sets up Jirō to be arrested and he spends five years in jail. When he is released, he finds Sabu and others carrying his mother's coffin away and Sabu tells him that their mother would not have wanted to see him anyway because he stole her money when he left. At the opening of Club Phoenix, Kuroki's boss tells him that Jirō has been released and that he must keep him close in order to keep an eye on him. Sabu attempts to bring their mother's cremated remains to Kuroki but Kuroki gives him money for a grave and kicks him out. Sabu throws the remains in the river and uses the money to celebrate his freedom with his friends. At the Mizuhara Trading office, Jirō and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harakiri (1962 Film)
is a 1962 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The story takes place between 1619 and 1630 during the Edo period and the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. It tells the story of the ''rōnin'' Hanshirō Tsugumo, who requests to commit seppuku ''(harakiri)'' within the manor of a local feudal lord, using the opportunity to explain the events that drove him to ask for death before an audience of samurai. The film continues to receive critical acclaim, often considered one of the best samurai pictures ever made. Plot The film takes place in Edo in the year 1630. Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku within the courtyard of the palace. To deter him, Saitō Kageyu (Rentarō Mikuni), the daimyō's senior counselor, tells Hanshirō the story of another rōnin, Chijiiwa Motome—formerly of the same clan as Hanshirō. Saitō scornfully recalls the practice of rōnin requesting the chance to commit seppuku on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Catch (1961 Film)
''The Catch'' ( ja, 飼育, Shiiku, Breeding) is a 1961 Japanese war drama film directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is based on the prize-winning novella ''Shiiku'' (translated as ''The Catch'' or ''Prize Stock'') by Kenzaburō Ōe. Plot During the summer of 1945, a U.S. plane crashes in a rural Japanese area. The villagers capture the surviving black pilot and lock him in a stable, awaiting official instructions how to proceed with their prisoner. While waiting, seething conflicts in the community come to the surface. Takano, the domineering and abusive local landlord, uses the villagers' anger and frustrations, which they blame on the captive, to turn the attention away from his own misdeeds and eventually kills him. Shortly after, Japan's defeat is declared. The community decides to make deserter Jirō, who had been hiding in the woods to escape his draft, responsible for the incident. Jirō first agrees, but then rebels against the plan, and is accidently killed in a subsequent fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
