Misako Watanabe

Acting

Misako Watanabe

Born

1932-10-23 (93)

Place of birth

Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

73 titles

Misako Watanabe (渡辺美佐子) (b. 23 October 1932) is a Japanese actress. She is a graduate of the Haiyuza Theatre Company. In 1997 she received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and in 2004 the Order of the Rising Sun.

Known for

Haru yo koi poster
9.0

A successful screenwriter looks back on her life when she learns her husband has cancer. A year-long series, starring Narumi Yasuda.

Haru yo koi

1994

Ohisama poster
9.0

Ohisama is a Japanese television drama that aired on NHK in 2011 in the Asadora time slot. Set in Nagano prefecture, "Ohisama" covers the life of Yoko Sudo (Mao Inoue) through World War II. Yoko Sudo with her smile is able to bring brightness to those around her & she follows her mother's motif to laugh through the hard times. During the onset of WW II, Yoko is a high school student and "Ohisama" follows her as she eventually becomes a teacher and then gets married and has a child. Yoko then opens a soba restaurant with her student. --asianwiki

Ohisama

2011

Ichiban Daiko poster
NR

The 35th NHK Asadora about a man who enters the world of popular theater.

Ichiban Daiko

1985

Kwaidan poster
7.7

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Kwaidan

1965

Red Suspicion poster
8.3

Sachiko is the 17-year old daughter of radiotherapist Professor Oshima. After exposure to radiation in the hospital, she develops leukemia. As if that was not enough trouble for one lifetime, discovers that Oshima is not her real father, and that her boyfriend is really her half brother.

Red Suspicion

1975

Psycho Doctor poster
7.7

No synopsis available yet.

Psycho Doctor

2002

Film credits

2010s · 5 titles

Midnight Diner 2 poster
7.6

The Master's late-night diner welcomes a woman troubled by funeral fans, an elderly scam victim, and a noodle delivery man struggling with love.

Midnight Diner 2

2016

Bread of Happiness poster
6.7

A couple decide to relocate from Tokyo to the northern island of Hokkaido where they settle and establish a bakery and café called Mani. One cooks. The other bakes. Everyone walks out happy.

Bread of Happiness

2012

The Great Passage poster
7.2

Majime, an eccentric man in publishing company, who has unique ability of words, joins the team that will compile a new dictionary, The Great Passage. In the eclectic team, he becomes immersed in the world of dictionaries. But the team is overwhelmed with problems.

The Great Passage

2013

The Antique poster
6.4

Job-hunting Daisuke heads to the Antiquarian Bookshop Biblia in Kita-Kamakura with a book signed by Natsume Soseki that his deceased grandmother left behind. He asks the beautiful shop owner Shioriko to authenticate the book. However, the book in question hides an unexpected secret from his grandmother.

The Antique

2018

Sketches of Life poster
6.0

Ryota Tanaka, a young man who was struggling to become a manga artist in Tokyo, came back to his hometown in Fukuoka, feeling the limits of his dream. It was a part-time job at the local life extension zoo that introduced Ryota, who was in the old friend's room, without relying on his parents' home. While working with the director Noda and veterinarian Aya Ishii, Ryota knew that this is a rare zoo in the world that puts emphasis on “animal welfare” that puts animal health and happiness first. However, the management of the garden is in a critical situation due to the budget reduction, and Ryota decides to draw a comic again to convey this effort with her own picture...

Sketches of Life

2019

2000s · 6 titles

Tokyo Towers: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad poster
6.9

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

Tokyo Towers: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad

2007

Face poster
6.6

Awkward and withdrawn, Masako kills her sister in an explosion of pent-up humiliation and rage that sends her tumbling into fugitive life.

Face

2000

The Milkwoman poster
6.9

Minako (TANAKA Yuko), begins her day running up and down the hills of her hometown delivering milk door to door. When that's done, she heads to her day job as a supermarket cashier. Minako is 50 and single. In one of the houses to which she delivers milk is a man with whom she has secretly been in love since high school. The man, Keita (KISHIBE Ittoku), lives with his wife Yoko, who is terminally ill. Caring for her at home, he works in the children's affairs section of the local municipal office. Though he insists that he wants nothing more than an "ordinary" existence, his life is in turmoil below the surface. The director uses a variety of narrative devises to portray the loneliness, isolation, and hope of these people who have seemingly allowed their goals and dreams to slip away, whilst keeping them agonizingly close to hand.

The Milkwoman

2005

Farewell, Kuro poster
7.2

Based on a true story set in Matsumoto city, Nagano, during 1960s. A stray dog wanders into a high school's grounds. The dog, named Kuro, stays at the school and becomes a special friend to everyone.

Farewell, Kuro

2003

No artwork available
NR

Version of Proof of the Man (1977).

Proof of the Man 2001

2001

Bare Essence of Life poster
6.0

Yojin, an eccentric young farmer living in the countryside, falls in love for the first time in his life. Her name is Machiko, she teaches in a kindergarten and is from Tokyo.

Bare Essence of Life

2009

1990s · 4 titles

In Blazing Love poster
8.0

An illustration of the tragic lives of geishas at a popular geisha house, Shinonomero. Shortly after being sold to a geisha house at age 5, Shizu is befriended by a fellow older geisha, Tsuru. After years of living and working together, Tsuru and Shizu manage to run the operations of Shinonomero as the proprietress and assistant. Despite vows to never to let their lovers come between them or Shinonomero, moments of weakness leave Tsuru and Shizu caught up in a web of betrayal and plunged into debt. With the guilt of losing Shinonomero to Udo, a yakuza who loaned them money, it is now up to young Shizu to redeem Tsuru’s honor and restore Shinonomero as their own.

In Blazing Love

1994

Tsugumi poster
7.5

Tsugumi, who lives in a small seaside town, has been in delicate health from birth. Her parents spoiled her and she is rough and selfish. However, a few people are attracted by her beauty and unique character.

Tsugumi

1990

The Abe Clan poster
7.8

A Choice between Loyalty or Duty of the Samurai! Can the heartlessness of society crush the honor of an individual? In the spring of the 18th year of Kanei, Hosokawa Tadatoshi, feudal lord of the Higo area, died. Although Tadatoshi forbade his vassals to follow him in death before he died, they still committed seppuku one after the other. The new feudal lord, Mitsunao, Tadatoshi's son, also gave the order forbidding seppuku. Abe Yaichiemon obeyed his former lord's last wish but is now being called a coward by his comrades and finally decided to follow Tadatoshi in death in order to save his family's honor. Mitsunao, upset by Yaichiemon actions, punished the Abe family unfairly. Objected to this, the Abe family shut themselves up in their manor as the lords troops moved in. This is the true story of what happened within the Hosokawa clan in early Edo era.

The Abe Clan

1995

Sennen-Tabito poster
10.0

Knowing that he has only a month to live, a pianist goes back to his beloved ocean. He meets a girl with a broken leg. She is the daughter of his dearest woman who died many years ago. The relationship between them becomes closer. They rescue a man who tries to commit suicide. When the pianist is nearing his end, that man finds love in the girl's heart...

Sennen-Tabito

1999

1960s · 23 titles

Kwaidan poster
7.7

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Kwaidan

1965

Youth of the Beast poster
6.9

When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence.

Youth of the Beast

1963

The Inheritance poster
7.3

A dying businessman intends to will ¥200 million to his three illegitimate children, but his associates scheme to take advantage of the situation.

The Inheritance

1962

Samurai Spy poster
6.4

Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.

Samurai Spy

1965

Facing to the Clouds poster
NR

A rookie newspaper journalist, Takema Sakaki, has a strong sense of justice. In the Diet Building he gets acquainted with a library worker, Reiko Nakafuji. Reiko's father was a member of the Diet who was assassinated six years ago. Through Reiko, Takema joins Tsūkai-kai, a group of young people who respect her late father's political ideas. With the assistance of Tsukai-kai, Takema eventually uncovers the political scandal related to postwar compensation which led to the murder of Reiko's father.

Facing to the Clouds

1962

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai poster
6.7

After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai

1963

The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka poster
6.6

The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined to win his love that they volunteer as subjects for his experiments

The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka

1967

Tokyo Untouchable poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Tokyo Untouchable

1965

Wait for Tomorrow poster
NR

Kohei Misugi works in a vegetable market, but his ambition is to be a photographer. He is given his first opportunity to demonstrate his talent by the Sakura Film Company which offers him an assignment to "Cover Tokyo" with a camera. But he is disillusioned when he is told he must work together with Miharu, a good looking girl in the film company's publicity department. Then the fun begins.

Wait for Tomorrow

1960

Children of Izu poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Children of Izu

1962

With Beauty and Sorrow poster
5.7

When the man who seduced famous painter Otoko Ueno as a teenager–and then wrote a bestselling novel about it–reappears in her life, her pupil–and lesbian lover–hatches a plot to destroy the man and his livelihood.

With Beauty and Sorrow

1965

Take Aim at the Police Van poster
6.2

A sniper kills two prisoners in a police van, and the driver sets out to find the killer.

Take Aim at the Police Van

1960

Cold Rice, Osan, Chan poster
7.0

Three stories revolve around independence, a man searching for his wife, and a poor craftsman trying to make money.

Cold Rice, Osan, Chan

1965

At the Side of the Bridge poster
NR

1962 Japanese movie

At the Side of the Bridge

1962

Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi poster
NR

1962 Japanese movie

Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi

1962

Human poster
6.9

The ship Kaijin Maru is left adrift after losing all means of navigation in a storm. The four people on the ship are becoming increasingly desperate as food and water run out.

Human

1962

零戦黒雲一家 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

零戦黒雲一家

1962

Sasuke and His Comedians poster
6.6

Osaka in the early 1600s, aftermath of the historical Battle of Sekigahara; a group of orphan children are wandering through the battlefield scavenging for armour when they encounter a young boy named Sasuke with magical powers he says came from a meteor that crashed onto the Earth…

Sasuke and His Comedians

1963

Dissolution Rites poster
7.0

Sawaki is released from prison after serving eight years for murdering a rival gang leader in order to obtain the land rights to a landfill for the Kotaki clan and he discovers that the world has changed significantly in that time. The police have forced the disbanding of all yakuza groups in and around Tokyo and most of the former yakuza have moved on to legitimate jobs. Sawaki is disgusted that his yakuza brothers have abandoned their codes of honor and are abusing their newfound power in the legitimate business world to exploit the poor. Sawaki feels partly responsible for making them so powerful and enabling their corruption, so he decides to follow his traditional code of honor to save the residents of a small town where his former lover lives.

Dissolution Rites

1967

Being Two Isn't Easy poster
6.9

The days leading up to a toddler's second birthday are seen alternately from the child's point of view as well as that of his parents.

Being Two Isn't Easy

1962

Kimagure tosei poster
NR

1962 Japanese movie

Kimagure tosei

1962

The Gambling Monk poster
NR

One summer day, the chief monk of the Hojuin Temple dies. Harumichi rushes back to town hearing about his brother's death and requests for a grand funeral. He had been unwilling to take over the family business and had chosen a life as a middle school teacher far away from home, but considering the circumstances, he changes his mind. As the new chief of Hojuin, Harumichi scrambles around day after day for donations. He has kept strictly to the straight and narrow, until he passes a bicycle race track where the sounds of cheering fans induce him into a new way of life...

The Gambling Monk

1963

The Hill is Full of Flowers poster
NR

A youth drama directed by Kiyoshi Horiike, who was adapted from "Young Tokyo no Yane" by Akira Saiga from "Oka wa Hanazakari" based on Yojiro Ishizaka. Miwako Kazuki left the English literature department and joined Toyo Critics. She was attracted by Noro, the editor-in-chief, whose wife died a few years ago and was now living with her two orphans and her old mother....

The Hill is Full of Flowers

1963

1950s · 16 titles

A Slope in the Sun poster
5.9

The young Takako Kuramoto has come to Tokyo to study and starts working for the rich Tashiro family as tutor of the daughter, Kumiko, while she receives attention from her two older brothers, Yukichi and Shinji. Meanwhile, the exact parentage of Shinji comes to light.

A Slope in the Sun

1958

Endless Desire poster
6.8

Set in post-war Japan, a group of five, four men and one woman, gathers in the basement of a butcher shop to dig up a cache of morphine buried during the war. A grimly humorous tale of twisted relationships as one by one each of the group is eliminated.

Endless Desire

1958

Hungry Soul poster
6.2

Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a beautiful widow. Reiko meets her husband’s business rival, a young, capable businessman, and falls for him. Meanwhile, Mayumi enters into a relationship with Shimotsuma, a friend of her late husband.

Hungry Soul

1956

Kikenna onna poster
6.0

Based on the Seichō Matsumoto's story The Woman Who Took the Local Paper.

Kikenna onna

1959

Hungry Soul, Part II poster
6.5

A continuation of Hungry Soul, from the same year. Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a beautiful widow. Reiko meets her husband’s business rival, a young, capable businessman, and falls for him. Meanwhile, Mayumi enters into a relationship with Shimotsuma, a friend of her late husband.

Hungry Soul, Part II

1956

Tower of Lilies poster
6.8

A group of Okinawan high school girls are drafted as nurses during the American invasion of the island. As the enemy army advances further, the situation for the girls becomes increasingly desperate as food and shelter run out and the number of injured climbs, leading to the film's tragic finale.

Tower of Lilies

1953

Break Down that Wall poster
7.5

A man is wrongfully accused of murder.

Break Down that Wall

1959

The Man Who Rode the Typhoon poster
NR

This typhoon spectacle is bursting with the charm of tough guy Yujiro, a student of architecture at Hokkaido University, who takes on a conspiracy involving a mysterious accidental death at a construction site.

The Man Who Rode the Typhoon

1958

The Rambling Guitarist poster
6.9

Arriving in the town of Hakodate, a wandering musician, Shinji Taki, is soon recruited by the local gang as a hired hand. However, with the arrival of a sinister gunman, Taki's mysterious past catches up with him.

The Rambling Guitarist

1959

The Third Dead Angle poster
NR

Yoshikawa and Kaji are alumni - Yoshikawa leads a life loyal to his company Toho Corporation, whilst Kaji works in the underground world for Aoyama, a fixer trying to buy Toho out. One day, Yoshikawa is ordered to take a look into the information leakage which had resulted in a serious fall of the company stock price. Following his order, Yoshikawa reunites with Kaji but their relationship gets complicated through the presence of Akiko, the daughter of Kubo, chairman of Toho Corporation. There is an obvious financial conspiracy and several men are killed - Who is the true mastermind behind all the plots?

The Third Dead Angle

1959

Masked Woman poster
NR

A touching literary and artistic story about the sadness and pathos of a woman's love, crying in agony over her hidden past.

Masked Woman

1959

Temptation poster
8.0

Shokichi, the owner of the clothing store, lives with his daughter Hideko and plans to open an art gallery. One day, Hideko led a handsome art student, Shohei and a poor painter, Sohei. Sohei’s painting was praised by a great printer at the completion ceremony of the art gallery. Since he became successful as a painter, but he looked quite indifferent. Around the same time, Shohei’s sister brought Sohei’s pictures to the gallery and Shokichi noticed that she was a daughter of his first love.

Temptation

1957

Forever, My Love poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Forever, My Love

1958

This Day's Life poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

This Day's Life

1957

Who's the Real Killer poster
10.0

Film about a car dealer who gets into financial trouble.

Who's the Real Killer

1957

But the Flesh is Weak poster
7.3

A woman who grew up in a prestigious household, begins to have an affair outside the marriage.

But the Flesh is Weak

1957

Series credits

Haru yo koi poster
9.0

A successful screenwriter looks back on her life when she learns her husband has cancer. A year-long series, starring Narumi Yasuda.

Haru yo koi

1994

Ohisama poster
9.0

Ohisama is a Japanese television drama that aired on NHK in 2011 in the Asadora time slot. Set in Nagano prefecture, "Ohisama" covers the life of Yoko Sudo (Mao Inoue) through World War II. Yoko Sudo with her smile is able to bring brightness to those around her & she follows her mother's motif to laugh through the hard times. During the onset of WW II, Yoko is a high school student and "Ohisama" follows her as she eventually becomes a teacher and then gets married and has a child. Yoko then opens a soba restaurant with her student. --asianwiki

Ohisama

2011

Ichiban Daiko poster
NR

The 35th NHK Asadora about a man who enters the world of popular theater.

Ichiban Daiko

1985

Red Suspicion poster
8.3

Sachiko is the 17-year old daughter of radiotherapist Professor Oshima. After exposure to radiation in the hospital, she develops leukemia. As if that was not enough trouble for one lifetime, discovers that Oshima is not her real father, and that her boyfriend is really her half brother.

Red Suspicion

1975

Psycho Doctor poster
7.7

No synopsis available yet.

Psycho Doctor

2002

Haru and Natsu poster
7.8

As Haru emigrates from Japan with her family to the coffee plantations in Brazil, Natsu is left behind in the care of spiteful relatives. Losing all contact, each must make her own way in an unforgiving world. Hardships abound in the struggle to survive in war-torn Japan and in the face of anti-Japanese sentiment in Brazil, financial ruin, familial pressure, abandonment and lost love. However they also experience the precious joy of survival and success. Now, after 70 years, Haru comes back to Japan to find her estranged sister.

Haru and Natsu

2005

Cat Soup Theater poster
7.0

23 animated shorts based on Nekojiru, aired as part of "Bokusho Mondai Boss Chara Ou"

Cat Soup Theater

1999

Mango no Ki no Shita de poster
NR

Rinko and Aya, employed in the Philippines in 1944, escape one of the most gruesome battles of the Pacific War. Based on the accounts of actual women survivors, this special depicts the friendship - the joy and sadness - shared by these two women, whose lives remain intertwined in wartime and long beyond.

Mango no Ki no Shita de

2019

Princess Maison poster
6.0

A story revolves around a 26-year-old single woman Sachi who lives in Tokyo working for a pub. She frequents a show house alone as she plans to buy a home of her own. She looks around the room seriously and asks incisive questions to the attendants. Through her house hunt, we can catch a glimpse of what the modern Japanese women truly want.

Princess Maison

2016

Water Boys 2005 Summer poster
NR

Water Boys 2005 Natsu is a two-part Japanese drama series that aired in Japan on Fuji Television on August 19 and 20 2005. This is the third and final season of the series Water Boys, as its alternate title suggests, Water Boys Finale.

Water Boys 2005 Summer

2005

Battleship Musashi poster
NR

Battleship Musashi

2016

彼女の恋文 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

彼女の恋文

2006

Sorcerer’s Orb poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sorcerer’s Orb

1954