
Acting
Jun Ōtomo
Born 1899-11-21 · Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Originally a music teacher, Jun joined the Toho Mobile Culture Corps during WWII. He ultimately became active as a character actor in Toho and Shintoho productions in the '50s and '60s. Noted for his menacing onscreen countenance, he was remembered for his mild-mannered and affable nature in private life.
Acting credits
7.9Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
Throne of Blood
1957
8.1A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Yojimbo
1961
8.1After 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
Japanese war film.
Kôshitsu to sensô to waga minzoku
1960
NRNo synopsis available yet.
剣聖 暁の三十六番斬り
1957
5.0Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.
Black Line
1960
6.4A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.
Jigoku
1960
6.5This horror tale adapts the Japanese legend about a man who faces the consequences of betraying his wife in order to acquire wealth and power.
Ghost Story of Yotsuya
1959
7.0Based on the novel by proletarian writer Sunao Tokunaga. The story is about a long strike by workers at a large printing house and the strikers' steadfastness, which neither hunger nor violence could break. The heroine of this story actively participates in her colleagues' struggle against layoffs, oppression, and police brutality.
The Street Without Sun
1954
6.6Three sisters earn money for their bossy mother by being samisen street musicians. This means mainly playing a banjo type instrument for tips in bars...
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
1935
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The Band in Paradise: Acharaka's Big Hit
1956
4.9First film of a trilogy following the dramatic life of Rika, a half-Japanese/half-American woman who becomes the tough-as-nails leader of an all-girl crime gang.
Rika: The Mixed-Blood Girl
1972
7.1Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.
Stakeout
1958
7.0A love triangle develops between a benevolent student, his innocent girlfriend, and a cruel petty criminal, all as a point of diagnosis of a social disease that had Japan slowly succumbing to lawlessness during the post-War era.
Black River
1957
Horror film directed by Satoru Kobayashi. Kin'ya Ogawa served as Kobayashi's assistant on this film.
Ghost Story: Cruel Phantom
1964
6.0War drama about army nurses.
Broken Blossoms
1959
3.6Two young crooks who scam betters in the race track are employed by a yakuza gang called the Shigemori Syndicate to steal a shipment of handguns from a rival gang. Somewhere in the process they find themselves on the run from their own gang and one of them becomes himself romantically entangled with the boss's girlfriend. An ambitious underboss of the gang offers them a way out if they murder the previous boss but things don't turn out as planned (for everyone).
Fire Line
1961
NRSecond movie in the Sakura Code series.
Sakura sakazuki: gikyōdai
1969
10.01959 film directed by Teruo Ishii for Shintoho.
Fight to the Death in a Blizzard
1959
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The History of Love
1955
6.5The year is 1945, months prior to Japan's ultimate defeat in WW2, and military lieutenant Sugawa is sent on a critical mission to deliver micro-fiche war plans to Tokyo from his base in Malaysia. But while flying over Chinese waters his plane is shot down and he is taken aboard a ship bound for Shanghai to deliver its merchandise - a ship filled with Female Slaves kidnapped from Japan. Will he abandon the women to pursue his main objective? Or will he fight foes, spies and pirates to save these women against all odds?
Female Slave Ship
1960
7.8The murder of the chief official of Kobe city's Customs triggers an investigation of a prostitution ring called the 'Yellow Line' that sells Japanese women. A hired assassin is betrayed by his organization, and kidnaps a woman who happens to be the girlfriend of a newspaper reporter.
Yellow Line
1960
Japanese crime film.
トップ屋を殺せ
1960
3.0First film in Teruo Ishii's Line series.
Secret White Line Zone
1958