This comedy portrays the everyday life of an ordinary salary-man who uses himself as a model to write a novella. Read More »
Tag Archives: Michiyo Aratama
Tora-san 3: His Tender Love AKA Otoko wa tsurai yo: Fûten no Tora (1970) Azuma Morisaki, Kiyoshi Atsumi, Michiyo Aratama, Chieko Baishô
In an effort to get him to settle down, Tora’s family attempts to arrange a marriage for him. Read More »
The Sword of Doom AKA Dai-bosatsu tôge (1966) Kihachi Okamoto, Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Yûzô Kayama
Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. Read More »
The Balloon (1956) Yûzô Kawashima, Shirô Amakusa, Michiyo Aratama, Izumi Ashikawa
Haruki Murakami (Masayuki Mori), once lionized as a master painter Read More »
I Want to be a Shellfish (1959) Shinobu Hashimoto, Furankî Sakai, Michiyo Aratama, Kumi Mizuno
On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband Read More »
Summer Clouds (1958) Mikio Naruse, Chikage Awashima, Michiyo Aratama, Kumi Mizuno
A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. Read More »
The Human Condition III: A Soldiers Prayer (1961) Masaki Kobayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Tamao Nakamura
Part three of a trilogy. After the Japanese defeat to the Russians in the last episode, Kaji, the Japanese soldier and humanistic protagonist Read More »
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959) Masaki Kobayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Kokinji Katsura
Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army Read More »
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959) Masaki Kobayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima
In the World War II, the pacifist and humanist Japanese Kaji accepts to travel with his wife Michiko to the tiny Manchurian village Loh Hu Liong Read More »
Suzaki Paradise Red Light (1956) Yûzô Kawashima, Michiyo Aratama, Yukiko Todoroki, Seizaburô Kawazu
A couple stand indecisively on a bridge in Asakusa. Tsutae and Yoshiji have lost confidence and passion for their future as they get on the bus for Tsukishima and get off at Suzaki. Read More »
The Devils Temple (1969) Kenji Misumi, Shintarô Katsu, Hideko Takamine, Michiyo Aratama, Drama
An abandoned temple in the mountains outside of the old capital city of Kyoto is the scene of a fated meeting between a traveling priest, two women, and a vicious killer. Read More »
Onna no naka ni iru tanin / The Stranger Within a Woman (1966) Mikio Naruse, Keiju Kobayashi, Michiyo Aratama, Mitsuko Kusabue, Crime, Drama
Tashiro (Keiju Kobayashi) coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto (Tatsuya Mihashi) in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Read More »
Kokoro / The Heart (1955) Kon Ichikawa, Masayuki Mori, Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Mihashi, Drama
Kon Ichikawa’s rich adaptation of Natsume Soseki’s classic novel depicts a complex relationship between a student and an older man he calls “sensei.” Read More »
Flag in the Mist / Kiri no hata (1965) Yôji Yamada, Chieko Baishô, Osamu Takizawa, Michiyo Aratama, Crime, Drama
When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko (Chieko Baisho) travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan’s top lawyer to defend her brother.
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Kwaidan (1964) Masaki Kobayashi, Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Art-house, Fantasy, Horror
After more than a decade of sober political dramas and socially minded period pieces, the great Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi shifted gears dramatically for this rapturously stylized quartet of ghost stories. Featuring colorfully surreal sets and luminous cinematography, these haunting tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, adapted from writer Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folklore, are existentially frightening and meticulously crafted.
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