
Acting
Akio Isono
Born — Died
1910-10-20 — 1986-01-21
Place of birth
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Known for
Acting
Credits
53 titles
Akio Isono (October 20, 1910 – January 21, 1986) was born in Tsurumi, near Yokohama in 1910. His family ran a newspaper sales business. In 1917, at the age of seven, he became a pupil of Hanayanagi Shotaro, who was known as a great actor of the new school, and trod the boards for the first time in child roles at the Hongoza theater. After that he went on to perform in theaters run by Shochiku. In 1921, he performed in his first leading film role in Yamagureru under the direction of Ushihara Kiyohiko, and he then alternated leading roles on the stage with those at Shochiku Pictures. In 1925, he became an exclusive actor for Shochiku Cinema, Kamata Studios and starred in a number of films. I…
Known for
8.0As supernatural events and monster attacks rock Japan, the military and government look to be overwhelmed. Three intrepid young investigators—two pilots and a reporter—take it upon themselves to study these unexplained phenomena in order to inform and protect the public.
Ultra Q
1966
8.2After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
1959
7.1A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising baseball player to The Toyko Flowers.
I Will Buy You
1956
6.9Five years after the end of the Second World War, Reikichi, a repatriated veteran, translates love letters for Japanese women to American GIs, while searching for his lost love, Michiko.
Love Letter
1953
6.5Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Two meet again in Hokkaido only to be separated again.
Always in My Heart Part 2
1953
6.3A rural village elder plans an event on the return of a farmer's daughter from the city, unaware that she has become a Westernized burlesque artist.
Carmen Comes Home
1951
Film credits
1960s · 3 titles
6.3One week into newlywed Teiko Uhara's marriage, her husband, Kenichi, leaves on a short business trip and never returns. Teiko travels across Japan to search for him, and along the way discovers some surprising facts about her husband's past. With only a pair of old photographs among his belongings to go off of, Teiko tries to figure out what has happened to him.
Zero Focus
1961
NR1962 Japanese movie
Kono ni uruwashi
1962
NRA melodrama set in Kuroshima.
I Will Never Forget
1960
1950s · 25 titles
8.2After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
1959
7.1A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising baseball player to The Toyko Flowers.
I Will Buy You
1956
6.9Five years after the end of the Second World War, Reikichi, a repatriated veteran, translates love letters for Japanese women to American GIs, while searching for his lost love, Michiko.
Love Letter
1953
6.5Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Two meet again in Hokkaido only to be separated again.
Always in My Heart Part 2
1953
6.3A rural village elder plans an event on the return of a farmer's daughter from the city, unaware that she has become a Westernized burlesque artist.
Carmen Comes Home
1951
8.033-year-old poor writer Ogata was able to endure his miserable life cheerfully thanks to Yoshie, a 19-year-old innocent young wife. After graduating from a girls' school in Hokuriku, she immediately moved to Tokyo to meet and marry Ogata. After neatly writing Ogata's manuscript, he would buy dorayaki as a gratuity and devour it.
Mole Alley
1953
7.0Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Machiko is not allowed to see Haruki. They finally meet again, but Haruki departs to Europe.
Always in My Heart Part 3
1954
9.0Akitaro Orizuru, who set out on a journey to avenge his father's death in the darkness, returned to Itako, his hometown, where the Ayame Festival was approaching, for the first time in five years. His late father's brother, Sutezo, who took off his waraji, runs a small prostitute with only one child, Sutematsu. In addition, only Shigezaburo, who left a mark in the middle wind, was ill-mannered by Inomatsu. Akitaro was accompanied by a daughter named Omitsu on the way to here, but she was Ura's younger sister who works at Fujikura's house, and the villagers worked on the fifty cars to meet her critically ill father.
The Young Avenger
1957
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Zac Zac Girl
1951
NRIn this four part mystery-adventure, detective Kogoro Akechi and the members of the Boy Detectives Club must capture the Bronze Monster, a giant metal monster that steals valuable clocks.
The Bronze Monster
1954
5.8Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza.
The Rose on His Arm
1956
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Akuma no kao
1957
NRWatanabe Kazuma and Kawai Matagorō from the Bizen Okayama Ikeda clan were close friends, but they inevitably became enemies after Matagorō killed Kazuma's younger brother, Gentayū, and fled. Seeking assistance, Kazuma asked his brother-in-law, Araki Mataemon, for help, but Mataemon refused, saying that it was against the code for a brother to avenge another brother's death. On the other hand, the lord of the clan, Ikeda Tadao, ordered a search for Matagorō, who was found to be sheltered by the Hatamoto, including Andō Jiemon, in Edo. Tadao was furious but unable to act. Matagorō, in Edo, came to regret his birth as a samurai. He met and fell in love with Okō, a bathhouse maid. As the discord between the Hatamoto and the Ikeda clan deepened, Tadao died of illness. Seizing the opportunity to ease the conflict, the shogunate ordered the Ikeda clan to be succeeded by the young lord Katsugorō and to relocate to the Ikeda clan of Inshū Tottori. Meanwhile, Matagorō was exiled from Edo.
荒木又右衛門
1955
NRNo synopsis available yet.
An Angel Dreams Too
1951
No synopsis available yet.
Hearts A-Flutter
1957
NRFirst sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".
Story of Second Class Private, Sequel
1956
5.2Strip dancer Carmen falls in love with Hajime, who is engaged to the daughter of a right-wing politician.
Carmen's Innocent Love
1952
8.0A young, talented singer (Misora) is orphaned, not once but twice, and has to turn to a rather unlikely, and unwilling, parental figure, while avoiding her wealthy, absentee father, his hired goons, and the neighborhood fortune teller (Enoken) who's after the reward money.
The Tokyo Kid
1950
Nagisa Harumi had moved to Tokyo dreaming of becoming a revue star, but she couldn’t even land a job as a dancer and ended up working as a theater usher. She had told her boyfriend back home that she had become a star, but unfortunately, he had come to Tokyo to see her in all her glory.
Yume o meshimase
1950
NRA boy, who is separated from his mother in an air raid, endures suffering and grief alongside his kind uncle.
Hiroi Ten
1959
NRMariko studies at a missionary school in Shinshu. She drops out of school and joins her father on a circus tour when she discovers that her father, Ryutaro, whom she always thought was an agricultural and forestry engineer, was a circus clown. Over time, Mariko's singing attracted the attention of the public.
Hibari's Circus: The Sad Little Dove
1952
NRBank robbers hide their loot in an underwater cave in a small fishing village, but the Ama (female divers) of the village suspect something and dive to find it.
Love in the Deep
1958
10.0The movie depicts the youth of kamikaze pilots who scattered young lives in the sky.
Flying in the Air
1957
First installment of the "Pfc. Story" series of military-themed comedies from Shochiku, and seventh overall sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".
Pfc. Story - The Divine Tempest
1959
NRSecond sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".
続二等兵物語 南方孤島の巻
1956
1940s · 5 titles
NRShochiku melodrama about the lives of the humble people living in the poor tenement called the Ryuheiso.
The Woman Who Holds the Key
1946
7.3Following a young man through his childhood ambition to follow his father into the military to losing his life in combat in China.
The Story of Tank Commander Nishizumi
1940
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Odoru ryûgûjô
1949
NRA young girl gives up high school to help out family expenses and starts to work as a bus conductor.
Dawn Chorus
1941
10.0A story of a store that makes Tabi socks.
Okinu and Banto
1940
1930s · 17 titles
6.9A pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew—The Masseurs and a Woman is made up of crisscrossing miniature studies of love and family at a remote resort in the mountains. With delicate and surprising humor, Hiroshi Shimizu paints a timeless portrait of loneliness and the human need to connect.
The Masseurs and a Woman
1938
7.0An aging geisha, whose angry teenage son is ashamed of her profession, works alongside a young geisha, resentful of her family for forcing her into a life of shame.
Apart from You
1933
7.0Three couples connected to rival business and theatrical families navigate complicated romances, workplace disputes, and family opposition.
Men vs. Women
1936
6.8A period piece about the love of a wealthy blind woman, a teacher of koto and shamisen, and her devoted manservant. Based on a novella by Tanizaki Junichiro.
Okoto and Sasuke
1935
6.6Mikio Naruse’s final silent film is a gloriously rich portrait of a waitress, Sugiko, whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a suffocatingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.
Street Without End
1934
5.5Kinuyo is a daughter of doctor of Chinese medicine, and Yasuo is a son of surgeon. Their families always fight like cat and dog. This relationship is ancestral. Although Kinuyo and Yasuo love each other, they have different thoughts toward treatments.
Lady Doctor Kinuyo
1937
NRDomestic comedy involving a strong wife and a "henpecked" husband taking place in a family-run judo school.
Mother's Love Letter
1935
NRThe movie follows a young woman (Kinuyo Tanaka), a daughter of a high-ranking businessman and his neglected mistress, as she struggles to ease her mother's loneliness, while also having an affair with her father's subordinate.
Mother and Child
1938
8.0A businessman runs afoul of the law and commits suicide, leaving behind a wife and five children. The eldest son takes the family to Tokyo and labors to restore its name and fortune
Five Siblings
1939
10.0A melodrama by noted auteur and father of director Yoshitaro Nomura, Hotei Nomura. This is apparently the first adaptation of Izumi Kyoka's The Romance of Yushima.
The Genealogy of Women
1934
6.0Pre-war Asakusa was a riotous district of cabarets, dance-halls and brothels - a striking backdrop for Shimazu's story of innocence and experience. Pretty, young Reiko is the new dancer in an infamous theatre troupe, and her fellow performers try to protect her virtue in a land of vice. Meanwhile, an ageing actor wants to be a hero off stage as well as on, and the troupe matriarch Marie has to keep them all together.
The Lights of Asakusa
1937
7.4Keitaro is a law student and Yaeko is a high school girl. They are neighbors, and their friendship is starting to develop into something more romantic. Then, Yaeko's sister Kyouko has a breakup with her husband and returns home. Kyouko is clearly interested in Keitaro and Yae becomes anxious.
Our Neighbor, Miss Yae
1934
NRJapanese home drama starring Kinuyo Tanaka.
Before the Wedding
1933
7.0Following the accidental death of a logging boss in the Kiso mountains, a local thug pressures the boss's daughter into marriage. When the boss's new foreman arrives to protect her, a trio of clumsy but loyal lumberjack friends hatch a series of schemes to defeat the thug's gang and secure the couple's union.
Lumberjack and Lady
1935
8.0The seventh film in the popular series starring the Yotamono trio (Mitsui, Abe and Isono). Summer came and the three of them decided to open a store on the beach to get rich...
The Layabout and Seabathing
1933
No synopsis available yet.
Arashi no naka no shojo
1932
Japanese movie from 1934. The final film of director Hôtei Nomura, who died from a stroke suffered at a screening of this film.
Storm in the City
1934
