Kumeko Urabe

Acting

Kumeko Urabe

Born 1902-10-05 · Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Kumeko Urabe (Japanese: 浦辺粂子), born Kimura Kume ((木村 くめ)), (October 5, 1902 – October 26, 1989) was a Japanese movie actress, one of the first in the country. She worked on stage and in film and television. Urabe was born in a rural part of the Shizuoka Prefecture. She lived in several homes while growing up, as she relocated with her father, a Buddhist priest, among the temples to which he was assigned. Urabe completed her education in Numazu, and left school in 1919 to join a theatre company, touring under various stage names as an actor and dancer. In 1923, Urabe auditioned at the film studio Nikkatsu, and adopted the name Kumeko Urabe, by which she was known for the rest of her life. She appeared in her first film the following year, and continued to act until 1987. She worked with such directors as Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse, and performed in over 320 films, including Ikiru, Older Brother, Younger Sister, Portrait of Madame Yuki, She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum, and Street of Shame. She also starred in television dramas, including thirteen episodes of Toshiba Sunday Theatre between 1958 and 1980. In the following decade, she carved a niche as a Grandma idol, until her death in 1989.

Acting credits

Ikiru poster
8.3

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Ikiru

1952

Secret Club 000 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Secret Club 000

1965

Hachiko poster
7.8

The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.

Hachiko

1987

Floating Weeds poster
7.5

A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

Floating Weeds

1959

Early Spring poster
7.5

A young salaryman and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he embarks on an extramarital affair.

Early Spring

1956

Shinzōyaburi no oka poster
NR

A moving story depicting the spirit of a young marathon runner who set a new world record in Boston, encouraged by the love of his family, a young woman’s prayers, and warm friendship.

Shinzōyaburi no oka

1954

Twenty-Four Eyes poster
7.7

From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.

Twenty-Four Eyes

1954

Irohanihoheto poster
NR

The anonymous partnership Investment Economic Association, led by its president Ryuichi Amano, collected money from many ordinary people and paid out large dividends, making it famous as "Japan's only investment bank for ordinary people." On the other hand, Detective Muneharu Matsumoto of the Metropolitan Police Department's Second Investigative Division has suspicions about this organization, and has been spying on the business association for many years. However, Matsumoto was having a hard time getting any solid proof of the nature of the incident...

Irohanihoheto

1960

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director poster
7.2

In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life and career of his friend and mentor Mizoguchi.

Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director

1975

Tokyo Twilight poster
7.7

Two sisters learn about the existence of their long-lost biological mother, but the younger is unable to accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.

Tokyo Twilight

1957

Koga Manshion poster
NR

Kazuo Hasegawa's debut at Daiei.

Koga Manshion

1949

To the Ends of the Earth poster
NR

In this downbeat, emotionally gripping drama, a lone guardian of some small huts on one of the northernmost, small islands off Japan remembers his once happier past and the events that destroyed everyone he held dear.

To the Ends of the Earth

1953

Haha no mizūmi poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Haha no mizūmi

1953

Asakusa monogatari poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Asakusa monogatari

1953

Street of Shame poster
7.7

Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

Street of Shame

1956

Yearning poster
8.1

War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.

Yearning

1964

Checkers in Tan Tan tanuki poster
7.0

Seven raccoons with supernatural powers sneak into a freight train, disguise themselves as humans, and head to Tokyo with the intention to create a band. They become superstars "Checkers" but their true identity will be revealed very soon.

Checkers in Tan Tan tanuki

1985

An Heir's Place poster
10.0

This film stars Tanaka Kinuyo as the mother of the heir to the Hosho name, a famous lineage of Noh actors. The heir, Hosho Yagoro, is played by Hasegawa Kuzuo who went on to become familiar among Ichikawa Kon fans as Yukinojo in An Actor's Revenge, which was also co-written by Ito, adding to the relatedness of An Heir's Place.

An Heir's Place

1953

Yobiko hoshi poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Yobiko hoshi

1952

Jakoman and Tetsu poster
7.5

In a village subsisting on its herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one of the fish companies by the name of Tetsu, decides to overthrow Jakoman and his cohorts.

Jakoman and Tetsu

1964

Typhoon Over Nagasaki poster
6.2

Pierre Marsac, a French engineer working for the Nagasaki shipbuilding yards, has fallen in love both with Japan and a charming Japanese girl named Noriko. But Françoise Fabre, a French journalist and Pierre's former lover, contacts him while visiting the Land of the Rising Sun. They meet again, find out their love might not be dead. Meanwhile, Pierre gradually becomes estranged from sweet, humble Noriko. One day, a typhoon strikes Nagasaki...

Typhoon Over Nagasaki

1957

Two in the Shadow poster
7.8

A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to a remote branch in a small town. Before he leaves, he gives the man's widow a large sum of money that she uses to move back to her hometown.

Two in the Shadow

1967

Color poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Color

1965

Portrait of Madame Yuki poster
6.8

A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness.

Portrait of Madame Yuki

1950