Akio Isono

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

Film credits

1950s · 25 titles

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love poster
8.2

After 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

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

Love Letter poster
6.9

Five 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

Always in My Heart Part 2 poster
6.5

Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Two meet again in Hokkaido only to be separated again.

Always in My Heart Part 2

1953

Carmen Comes Home poster
6.3

A 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

Mole Alley poster
8.0

33-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

Always in My Heart Part 3 poster
7.0

Machiko 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

The Young Avenger poster
9.0

Akitaro 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

Zac Zac Girl poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Zac Zac Girl

1951

The Bronze Monster poster
NR

In 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

The Rose on His Arm poster
5.8

Ignoring 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

Akuma no kao poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Akuma no kao

1957

荒木又右衛門 poster
NR

Watanabe 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

An Angel Dreams Too poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

An Angel Dreams Too

1951

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hearts A-Flutter

1957

Story of Second Class Private, Sequel poster
NR

First sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

Story of Second Class Private, Sequel

1956

Carmen's Innocent Love poster
5.2

Strip dancer Carmen falls in love with Hajime, who is engaged to the daughter of a right-wing politician.

Carmen's Innocent Love

1952

The Tokyo Kid poster
8.0

A 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

No artwork available
NR

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

Hiroi Ten poster
NR

A boy, who is separated from his mother in an air raid, endures suffering and grief alongside his kind uncle.

Hiroi Ten

1959

Hibari's Circus: The Sad Little Dove poster
NR

Mariko 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

Love in the Deep poster
NR

Bank 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

Flying in the Air poster
10.0

The movie depicts the youth of kamikaze pilots who scattered young lives in the sky.

Flying in the Air

1957

No artwork available
NR

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

続二等兵物語 南方孤島の巻 poster
NR

Second sequel to "Story of Second Class Private".

続二等兵物語 南方孤島の巻

1956

1930s · 17 titles

The Masseurs and a Woman poster
6.9

A 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

Apart from You poster
7.0

An 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

Men vs. Women poster
7.0

Three couples connected to rival business and theatrical families navigate complicated romances, workplace disputes, and family opposition.

Men vs. Women

1936

Okoto and Sasuke poster
6.8

A 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

Street Without End poster
6.6

Mikio 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

Lady Doctor Kinuyo poster
5.5

Kinuyo 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

Mother's Love Letter poster
NR

Domestic comedy involving a strong wife and a "henpecked" husband taking place in a family-run judo school.

Mother's Love Letter

1935

Mother and Child poster
NR

The 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

Five Siblings poster
8.0

A 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

The Genealogy of Women poster
10.0

A 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

The Lights of Asakusa poster
6.0

Pre-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

Our Neighbor, Miss Yae poster
7.4

Keitaro 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

Before the Wedding poster
NR

Japanese home drama starring Kinuyo Tanaka.

Before the Wedding

1933

Lumberjack and Lady poster
7.0

Following 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

The Layabout and Seabathing poster
8.0

The 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 artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Arashi no naka no shojo

1932

No artwork available
NR

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

Series credits