Kumeko Otowa

Acting

Kumeko Otowa

Born

1915-07-08 (111)

Known for

Acting

Credits

48 titles

Known for

Ran poster
8.0

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

Ran

1985

Kagemusha poster
7.8

A feudal epic presenting the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. The impostor becomes comfortable living his life among nobility, but his responsibilities to his station grow more demanding the longer he occupies it.

Kagemusha

1980

Dreams poster
7.7

Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.

Dreams

1990

Rhapsody in August poster
7.2

An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.

Rhapsody in August

1991

Floating Clouds poster
7.7

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

Floating Clouds

1955

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island poster
7.2

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

1956

Film credits

1990s · 4 titles

1960s · 9 titles

1950s · 17 titles

Floating Clouds poster
7.7

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

Floating Clouds

1955

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island poster
7.2

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island

1956

Repast poster
7.6

In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.

Repast

1951

The Tears of Geisha Konatsu poster
NR

A sequel to Geisha Konatsu (1954).

The Tears of Geisha Konatsu

1955

Geisha Konatsu poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Geisha Konatsu

1954

Flowing poster
7.2

Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mother's trade in the late days of geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portrays the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.

Flowing

1956

The Lonely Swordsman (Part 2) poster
8.0

Historical drama about a sleep-eyed ronin

The Lonely Swordsman (Part 2)

1957

The Naked General poster
7.0

A film about the life of Kiyoshi Yamashita, a Japanese painter with disabilities.

The Naked General

1958

Sazae-san poster
7.5

An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip. The first entry in Toho's Sazae-san series.

Sazae-san

1956

Muntinlupa no yo wa fukete poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Muntinlupa no yo wa fukete

1952

Okuni and Gohei poster
6.3

A high-born woman named Okuni travels around the country with Gohei, a samurai retainer who is in service to her. They are in search of Tomonojo, who has killed the man who was Okuni’s husband and Gohei’s master, and they cannot return to their lord’s home until they have fulfilled their duty of hunting down and killing Tomonojo.

Okuni and Gohei

1952

Third Class Executives poster
7.0

1950s Japanese comedy.

Third Class Executives

1952

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Employee with the Secret Savings and the Autocrat Company President: The Employee with the Secret Savings Fights Bravely

1956

Aishu no machi ni kiri ga furu poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Aishu no machi ni kiri ga furu

1956

The Shadow Daughter poster
8.0

Fusako, a girl raised in a geisha house, tries to escape her dark past and faces repeated heartbreaks. After an unexpected pregnancy, she has an abortion and decides to start a new life away from the geisha world.

The Shadow Daughter

1957

The Wedding Night poster
NR

A psychological Japanese drama about a department store clerk whose fleeting encounter with a mysterious woman leads to obsession, deceit, and tragic consequences. The film explores desire, guilt, and the blurred line between love and delusion.

The Wedding Night

1959

No artwork available
NR

Japanese comedy film.

娘十八びっくり天国

1952

1940s · 10 titles

1930s · 6 titles