
Acting
Kayako Sono
Born 1929-10-07 · Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Acting credits
7.1On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.
Dodes'ka-den
1970
NRA hobo exposes the misdeeds of a new yakuza.
Debt of Honor
1966
5.6A ruined businessman was forced to sell his daughter, Hisano, to a brothel in Yoshiwara, the largest red-light district in Tokyo. The owner of the brothel has hopes to make her a great new addition which will attract the richest of customers. But after several months of training, she tries to flee Yoshiwara when the time has come for her to take her first customer...
Tokyo Bordello
1987
7.3A cantankerous but loveable high school teacher teaches a night school in a poor neighborhood for adult students on the fringes of Japanese society.
A Class to Remember
1993
7.3A cynical samurai is left as the sole survivor to fulfill a plot to assassinate the puppet of a villain intent on usurping the shogunate in the 17th century. A Shogunate Elder connives to rule Japan by making his puppet, the Shogun's brother Tsunashige, the next Shogun. The best strategist in Japan, Yamaga, leads a plot to stop the Elder, but his cabal is betrayed and most of the conspirators are captured and tortured.
The Great Killing
1964
5.6Drama about the difficult relationship between a former wrestler, his wife and their adopted children.
Oar
1985
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Mr. Lady Cinderella at Dawn
1990
7.2A former Buddhist monk turned erotic filmmaker, Subuyan lives with hairdresser Haru and her two teenage children. Shooting two skin flicks per day, he somehow manages to stay out of the clutches of the yakuza, but real trouble starts when Haru discovers him lusting after her daughter.
The Pornographers
1966
6.7Gang leader Nami (cult film legend Meiko Kaji) kills a member of a yakuza group and goes away to prison. Upon her release three years later, she’s a shamed woman confined to living in the shadowy world of sex clubs and street gangs. She returns to the city to live with her uncle, a billiard-hall owner, and after befriending pimp and ne’er-do-well Ryuji (Tsunehiko Watase), she gets a job working at a hostess club in the chic Ginza neighborhood, where the expensive shops and neon lights conceal a dark world of crime and sexual slavery. But when a rival gang attempts to muscle in on the club, Nami becomes enmeshed in a violent struggle that forces her to wield a skilled pool cue to defend her uncle’s business, and eventually a short sword to wreak bloody vengeance upon her enemies.
Wandering Ginza Butterfly
1972
9.0Rivalry between a hoodlum group and a gangster organization.
Hooligans on Buggies
1970
9.01968 film
Kawachi fūten zoku
1968
7.7Tai Kato’s early 20th century set yakuza epic about an ordinary merchant girl (Hiroko Maki) who crosses paths with an assassin (Tetsuya Watari). The encounter sends her to jail as a suspected accomplice. Years later she marries a yakuza boss, whose gang is affiliated with working class people.
The Blossom and the Sword
1973
NRThe drama special satirizes the daily life of a wife with a businessman husband who is busy with his work.
Onna no Katei
1977
NRYoung Sentaro struggles to avenge the murder of his younger sister Osuga and their father.
Snake Princess: Oshima and Sentaro
1965
NRNo synopsis available yet.
大安旅行
1968
NRAn old man who has spent his life being respectful, honest and married for 35 years suddenly has thoughts of cheating with a young girl. He goes on a trip with the girl, but they are followed by a yakuza and all hell breaks loose.
Dislikes
1964
8.0Chotaro and Nakanishi, a duo of unemployed advertisers, drifted to Isehama, a port town near Yokohama, but a gang was making its presence felt in the town and the shopkeepers in the shopping arcade were troubled by it. Chotaro poses as a journalist and uses his words of wisdom to suggest that pen is mightier than the sword, so they create a mini-comic magazine and launch a campaign to expel the gang.
Justice! Allies! Everybody Gather!!
1975
6.4A film about the substantial population of Koreans living in Japan, and the love affair between Kayako, a Japanese girl, and Sanjun, a Korean.
For Kayako
1984
8.0After a friend and business colleague dies, Tora-san visits the man's daughter, then takes her to Tokyo so she can study for a night school exam.
Foster Daddy, Tora!
1980
10.0Part two.
Showdown of Men 2
1967
6.5The tale of real-life Yakuza boss Shimizu Jirocho is told from his earliest beginnings as a gambler on the road as he forms his gang and sets out on the path to fame and fortune. One of the smartest and strongest of all the gang bosses, he went on to survive the end of the samurai era and become a successful businessman. But first, he must survive against all odds in order to build his reputation and develop his strength. Powerful portrayals of the group are led by the great Tsuruta Koji with help from the likes of Matsukata Hiroki.
The Kingdom of Jirocho 1
1963
NRFirst film produced by Nikkatsu Children's Films.
The New Class of the Sewage Canal
1976
8.0Comedy of an entertainment agent and strip-teasers.
Follow the Girls
1971
10.0This is the Twelfth film in the series. There were seventeen Wolves of the City films between 1968 & 1974, in the main aimed at shock-value & “pinku” soft-core with sex, nudity, violence, gunplay, & a lot of mainly pointless foolishness when the biker gang coopts racist or nazi imagery, inventing a non-existent youth culture void of morality…
Delinquent Boss: Smooth Talking, Good Fighting
1971