Taro Kuroki, 42, is a stuntman with a samurai’s heart. He loves adventures, plays pranks with the police Read More »
Tag Archives: Mitsuko Baishô
Sword of Fury AKA Miyamoto Musashi (1973) Tai Katô, Jirô Tamiya, Keiko Matsuzaka, Mitsuko Baishô
In Part I we see the young would-be swordsman setting out to achieve greatness in war Read More »
Love Letter AKA Koibumi (1985) Tatsumi Kumashiro, Ken’ichi Hagiwara, Mitsuko Baishô, Keiko Takahashi
A spontaneous and youthfully careless painter and teacher Sh?ichi lives an ordinary family life Read More »
Zegen (1987) Shôhei Imamura, Ken Ogata, Mitsuko Baishô, Chun-Hsiung Ko
The award-winning director of such esteemed films as Black Rain and The Ballad of Narayama has chosen here to tell the decidedly dicey true tale of Iheiji Muraoka Read More »
The Life of Chikuzan (1977) Kaneto Shindô, Ryûzô Hayashi, Nobuko Otowa, Mitsuko Baishô
Chikuzan Takahashi, in his late sixties at the time of filming, is a blind musician who has spent most of his life on the roads of Northern Japan Read More »
Warm water under a red bridge (2001) Shôhei Imamura, Kôji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baishô, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Flame Of Blood / Hono-o no Gotoku (1981) Tai Katô, Bunta Sugawara, Mitsuko Baishô, Tomisaburô Wakayama, Drama, Action
The story is set in Bakumatsu and revolves around the Bunta Sugawara character, a yakuza (of course 🙂 but instead of a modern yakuza/gangster, he’s a gambler/bakuto). After he kills someone and gets wound, is saved by a blind woman (Mitsuko Baishô), who took care of him.
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Kikansha sensei (2004) Ryuichi Hiroki, Kenji Sakaguchi, Masaaki Sakai, Mitsuko Baishô, Drama
Seigo Yoshioka (Kenji Sakaguchi) is a teacher that became mute after a kendo accident. He feels lost after the accident and eventually decides to teach again on a small island where his mother was born. The children there on the island quickly name him “Kikansha Sensei” (Teacher Locomotive) after learning he is mute.
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Yume / Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990) Akira Kurosawa, Ishirô Honda, Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baishô, Toshie Negishi, Drama, Fantasy
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.
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The Crazy Family / Gyakufunsha kazoku (1984) Gakuryû Ishii, Katsuya Kobayashi, Mitsuko Baishô, Yoshiki Arizono, Comedy, Drama
The Kobayashi family finally get the chance to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment in favour of the suburban house of their dreams. But all is not well: the house is infested by termites and the family starts cracking up: Son Masaki is studying so obsessively for his exams that he’s losing his mind; daughter Erika is oblivious of all but her forthcoming record company audition, grandfather Yasukuni starts getting World War II flashbacks and father Katsuhiko is so worried about his family’s “sickness” that he thinks can only be cured by group suicide…
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Unagi / The Eel (1997) Shôhei Imamura, Kôji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baishô, Drama
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he’s away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he “befriended” in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn’t let her become close to him.
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