Mitsuko Mito

Acting

Mitsuko Mito

Born 1919-03-23 · Onuma District, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

Mitsuko Mito (水戸光子 Mito Mitsuko, 23 March 1919 – 5 April 1981) was a Japanese actress. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1935 and 1973. Her real name was Mitsuko Sekiba. In 1934, the year after she dropped out of Okazaki Municipal Girls' High School (now Aichi Prefectural Okazaki Kita High School), she moved from the Manpei Hotel in Nagoya to the Manpei Hotel in Atami where she was working. There, she was scouted by Shochiku director Isaburo Inoue, who happened to be staying at the hotel, and joined the Shochiku Kamata Studios . In 1945, she married actor Morikawa Shin. She retired from acting and had a child, but divorced the following year. She returned to the big screen early in Omitsu no Endan, released in October of the same year. While she played cheerful, down-to-earth characters, after leaving Shochiku she also broadened her acting range by taking on dirty roles in films such as Woman, Osho, Outcome of War, Ugetsu Monogatari, and An Inn at Osaka. She died of a liver tumor on April 5, 1981 at the age of 62.

Acting credits

Ugetsu poster
8.0

In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.

Ugetsu

1953

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island poster
7.2

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

1956

Bridge poster
NR

A 1959 Yoshiaki Bansho adaptation of an Osaragi Jiro story.

Bridge

1959

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple poster
7.2

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple

1955

Flame of My Love poster
5.6

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.

Flame of My Love

1949

Dedication of the Great Buddha poster
10.0

The film depicts how the work to build the Great Buddha overcame a number of obstacles as proponents and opponents clashed over the construction of the Buddha. This work is based on a play by Hideo Osada, which was performed by the Shin Kyodo Theater Company in 1940.

Dedication of the Great Buddha

1952

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto poster
7.2

Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

1954

Shin Shokoku Monogatari: Otena no To Part 1 poster
NR

Ainu chieftain Otena Kamui dies leaving a secret to his son. Years later, the grown son and his child are drawn into the hunt for the “Tower of Otena” treasure while a corrupt magistrate’s family fractures around them.

Shin Shokoku Monogatari: Otena no To Part 1

1955

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Suna-e jubaku

1953

Only She Knows poster
NR

A young woman is attacked by a serial rapist and murderer whom her detective father is investigating. Though she survives, the impact of the event creates increasing discord and agony for her and her loved ones.

Only She Knows

1960

The Detective Denshichi Case Files: The Beautiful Bat poster
10.0

The head of Oshu, Harumichi Honma, was ordered by the boat bugyo (Commissioner of the board) Tajima Kuze to extract five gold coins to the Shogun family in Edo, and put it into Ryujin Maru. However, Tajima, who was the chief retainer of the shogunate, said that he was a member of the board, tetsugoro Funabashi, kumiyumi no Kami ichibei, and his son, masakichi, and others, and in the middle of the night, he killed all the members with poison in the night of the storm, threw Masayoshi, who was a fellow of the city, and masakichi, who escaped from the death of poison, into the sea and sank the boat to eliminate evidence.

The Detective Denshichi Case Files: The Beautiful Bat

1957

The Tree of Love poster
7.0

A young doctor, Kozo Tsumura, falls for young nurse Katsue Takaishi. But she's got a secret: she's a widow with a son. Kozo and Katsue decide to run away to Kyoto, but her child suddenly became sick and she just missed the train and Kozo. She makes it to Kyoto finally, but is unable to meet him. Plus she isn't accepted into Kyoto society. She goes back to her hometown and tries to forget him. She quits the hospital to concentrate on her singing. She makes her professional debut with the hit "Aizen Katsura". Kozo is in the audience.

The Tree of Love

1938

There Was a Father poster
7.0

Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.

There Was a Father

1942

No artwork available
NR

The daughter of a Prime Minister turns down the proposal of a young teacher when she falls for the wrong man. Despite the continual degradation by the man she loves, she is unwilling to leave her awful relationship.

A Fallen Woman

1967

Zoku suna-e jubaku: Yukijorō poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Zoku suna-e jubaku: Yukijorō

1953

Ai no Noutan poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Ai no Noutan

1959

No artwork available
NR

A film adaptation of Nobuko Yoshiya’s popular novel.

Tsuma mo koisu

1950

A Full Life poster
10.0

A woman becomes dissatisfied with her marriage and joins a political theater troupe to protest the U.S. Security Pact.

A Full Life

1962

I Will Buy You poster
7.1

A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising baseball player to The Toyko Flowers.

I Will Buy You

1956

The Song of the Cart poster
6.9

A lifetime story of a woman who stubbornly lives in a poor mountain village in post-war Japan.

The Song of the Cart

1959

Port of Flowers poster
7.0

The sweet but naive denizens of a charming port town are hoodwinked by a couple of con men at the outset of World War II. But the hustlers’ plan backfires when they come down with severe cases of conscience. Keisuke Kinoshita’s directorial debut is a breezy, warmhearted, and often very funny crowd-pleaser that’s a testament to the filmmaker’s faith in people.

Port of Flowers

1943

Mr. Thank You poster
7.1

In Depression-era Japan, a courteous bus driver carries an eclectic group of passengers from the mountainous Izu to Tokyo.

Mr. Thank You

1936

No artwork available
NR

A melodrama in which two lovers reunite after a long journey through life.

Aizenso

1949

The Scarlet Bat poster
NR

A bizarre duel on a snowy night with a woman at stake, a sudden and brazen murder, and a thrilling chase of love and passion.

The Scarlet Bat

1950