Ichirō Sugai

Acting

Ichirō Sugai

Born — Died

1907-07-24 — 1973-08-11

Place of birth

Kyōto, Kyōto Prefecture, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

64 titles

Known for

Ashita Koso poster
NR

The 8th NHK Asadora. Starring Yumiko Fujita in a family drama. The first Asadora filmed in color.

Ashita Koso

1968

Kogarashi Monjiro poster
8.0

Monjiro was born into a poor farm family in Mikazuki Village, Nitta County, Ueshu, and abandoned his hometown when he was 10 years old. He has been traveling aimlessly with a long toothpick in his mouth. Monjiro avoided getting involved in anything, but wherever he went, he ended up getting involved in incidents

Kogarashi Monjiro

1972

Sansho the Bailiff poster
8.1

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

Sansho the Bailiff

1954

Stray Dog poster
7.6

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Stray Dog

1949

One Wonderful Sunday poster
7.2

Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope.

One Wonderful Sunday

1947

The Most Beautiful poster
5.6

Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.

The Most Beautiful

1944

Film credits

1960s · 15 titles

Gamera vs. Barugon poster
6.4

Gamera escapes from his rocket enclosure and makes his way back to Earth as a giant opal from New Guinea is brought back to Japan. The opal is discovered to have been an egg that births a new monster called Barugon. The creature attacks the city of Osaka by emitting a destructive rainbow ray from his back, along with a freezing spray capable of incapacitating Gamera.

Gamera vs. Barugon

1966

The Pornographers poster
7.3

A 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

Yakuza Law poster
6.1

A story of yakuza lynching during the Edo, Meiji, and Showa periods.

Yakuza Law

1969

A Samurai Never Tells a Lie poster
9.5

The shogun's vassal Harima Aoyama and a chamber maid are in love with each other, but they cannot be together due to a difference of their status. Soon, an offer of marriage is brought to Harima. Trying to test his love, Okiku breaks one of the plates of the family treasure of the Aoyama family, but Harima doesn't notice. However, someone surrounding her witnesses the moment Okiku breaks the plate on purpose.

A Samurai Never Tells a Lie

1963

Tokyo In Love poster
NR

Akio Tsukaro, dreaming of working for a beauty school's flag shop one day, stayed at Bunta Tadokoro without being involved in salon art, even though he graduated from beauty school. One day, Akio saw Michiko, a beautiful girl raining in Ginza. Since then, Akio has become unforgettable with the mascot that Michiko has taken away...

Tokyo In Love

1965

The Sound of Waves poster
7.0

On a small island, inhabited by only fourteen hundred people, a young fisherman's son, Shinji falls in love with Hatsue, the daughter of the richest and most difficult man on the island. Despite their differences in class, they begin to meet and rumors spread of them having an illicit affair. Soon after, Shinji jumps into a stormy sea to help a ship in distress. The vessel turns out to be owned by Hatsue's arrogant father, who now becomes an understanding and sympathetic parent and allows the two lovers to marry.

The Sound of Waves

1964

Dash to the Sun poster
NR

A song drama based on the autobiographical song "The sun is laughing" by composer Endo Minoru. It tells the story of a young man who moves to Tokyo with a big dream of becoming a composer, and despite the unfamiliar city life, sticks to his original intentions with the gentle encouragement of his young wife, and takes the music world by storm.

Dash to the Sun

1966

Night of Sorrow poster
NR

A young lawyer looking for a true culprit to save his innocent friend. But behind the case is the father of a woman he loves.

Night of Sorrow

1966

Black Test Car poster
7.1

Two car manufacturers spy on each other to try to find out details and prices of a new sports car each is about to launch.

Black Test Car

1962

The Long Death poster
9.0

On January 26, 1948, a robbery of the Teigin bank took place in Tokyo - the criminal poisoned the bank employees and fled the scene with a large amount of money. In parallel with the investigation conducted by the Japanese police, journalists are also trying to find the culprit. Based on a true incident.

The Long Death

1964

A Good Man, A Good Day poster
NR

The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.

A Good Man, A Good Day

1961

A Lustful Man poster
5.6

Fascinated with women from an early age, Yonosuke had his first sexual encounter at the age of seven. From that day on, he recklessly and forwardly pursues women, feeding his fascination and experience. As Yonosuke's salacious behavior brings much cause for shame to the family, his father eventually breaks relations with him. Expelled from the family, 19-year-old Yonosuke embarks on a pilgrimage of lust, traveling far and wide to acquaint himself with women of all walks.

A Lustful Man

1961

Violent Street poster
NR

1963 Toei film

Violent Street

1963

Woman Gambler poster
6.4

Mourning the death of her boyfriend, Yukiko wanders aimlessly from one city to another. During her mourning, she becomes addicted to gambling. One day, a man that resembles her deceased lover asks for help. He's being pursued by a dangerous gang of yakuza.

Woman Gambler

1965

Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki poster
NR

Hideo Ishizaki, who was painting on the shore of the lake, saves a woman named Keiko.

Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki

1963

1950s · 33 titles

Sansho the Bailiff poster
8.1

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

Sansho the Bailiff

1954

The Life of Oharu poster
7.8

During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.

The Life of Oharu

1952

Early Summer poster
7.9

In postwar Tokyo, Noriko lives with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her social life, her more traditional family worries about her single marital status at the advanced age of 28. 40-year-old business associate Takako proposes, Noriko's family press her into accepting, but when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.

Early Summer

1951

Ittōsai wa sebangō 6 poster
NR

Ittōsai, who trained in the Itto-ryu style deep in the mountains of Nara, joins a professional baseball team.

Ittōsai wa sebangō 6

1959

Chikamatsu Monogatari poster
7.8

When the wife of a 17th-century Kyoto scrollmaker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves truly falling for one another.

Chikamatsu Monogatari

1954

Odd Obsession poster
6.2

A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introduction of his daughter's lover to his wife.

Odd Obsession

1959

A Girl Who Delivers Happiness poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

A Girl Who Delivers Happiness

1955

Driving Like Mad poster
NR

Two men clash over the beautiful star of a motorcycle show.

Driving Like Mad

1955

Night Drum poster
5.9

Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially greeted by the effusive welcome of his family, spiteful whispers also reach his ear about an adulterous affair carried on, in his long absence, between his wife and a famous drummer. With Hikokuro’s honor imperiled by rumor, his family insists on a formal investigation into the veracity of the gossip. Through the combined testimony of many witnesses, a tale unwinds around the visits of a traveling musician hired to tutor the family heir, the spurned attentions of the man who started the rumor, and the ultimate truth behind the accusations. The conclusion of events prove as much an indictment of bushidō as it is of the reluctant parties involved. Adapted from a 1706 play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and based on a true case.

Night Drum

1958

Hana aru dotō poster
NR

An emotionally charged tale of love and passion set on a remote island lighthouse, where a mysterious woman arrives out of nowhere to cast a shadow over a wedding.

Hana aru dotō

1951

Taira Clan Saga poster
6.8

Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.

Taira Clan Saga

1955

Cape Ashizuri poster
9.0

Among Yoshimura’s complex and political works, this episodic film, set in the early 1930s, follows the life of a young left-wing student activist disenchanted by the increasingly hawkish state of Japanese society.

Cape Ashizuri

1954

Darkness at Noon poster
6.9

Police beat a murder confession out of four innocent men who are then sentenced to death. Based on a true story.

Darkness at Noon

1956

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

A Geisha poster
7.6

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people.

A Geisha

1953

Forever My Love poster
NR

American Sergeant falls in love with a Japanese woman.

Forever My Love

1952

The Angry Street poster
6.7

University students Sudo and Mori make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Sudo becomes gradually involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister Masako. In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.

The Angry Street

1950

Hana no kenkajō poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hana no kenkajō

1953

I Am Being Targeted poster
NR

A thriller of deduction and duels, in which a newspaper reporter bravely takes on a gang in the city’s skyscraper district over a mysterious recording by a diva.

I Am Being Targeted

1950

Asakusa no hada poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Asakusa no hada

1950

Boshisen poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Boshisen

1951

The Tale of Genji poster
6.0

Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his heart is broken by Awaji does Genji realizes how much pain he himself has caused.

The Tale of Genji

1951

The Eagle of the Pacific poster
7.8

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan's navy into war with the United States. He opposes the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, overruled, he leads his forces to the best of his ability.

The Eagle of the Pacific

1953

Saijoke no kyoen poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Saijoke no kyoen

1951

Mr. Pu poster
6.5

A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.

Mr. Pu

1953

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Coming Up of Kodokan

1953

Haha tsubaki poster
NR

Kamezo, a manzai comedian, had been taking a break from performing while his partner Tsuruko was giving birth, but Tsuruko announced that she was retiring from the stage. That child was, in fact, the son of Takashi Yashiro, a politician with a promising future. Believing that a relationship between a politician and a female manzai comedian would bring unhappiness to Yashiro and his wife, Tsuruko changed her address and was even preparing to leave the stage. Tsuruko’s alcoholic father, having caught wind of this, snatched the child, Yoko, and squandered the small sum of money he had received from Yashiro on drinking.

Haha tsubaki

1950

Mitsurin no mehyō poster
NR

A film filled with eroticism and humor, set in the Northern Alps where a naked woman has appeared, as depicted in the article “Naked Woman Appears in the Jungle,” and featuring a showman and a newspaper reporter.

Mitsurin no mehyō

1950

Clothes of Deception poster
7.0

The story of two sisters in post-war Japan. One is a geisha and the other works for the tourist board.

Clothes of Deception

1951

The Life of a Horse Trader poster
6.8

The tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka "The Shark," a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, despite being a father and a husband he is frequently drawn to taverns.

The Life of a Horse Trader

1951

Murahachibu poster
NR

A villager's family is ostracized after he makes an accusation of rigged elections

Murahachibu

1953

Who's the Real Killer poster
10.0

Film about a car dealer who gets into financial trouble.

Who's the Real Killer

1957

No artwork available
NR

1950 daiei movie.

Shimai hoshi

1950

1940s · 12 titles

Stray Dog poster
7.6

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Stray Dog

1949

One Wonderful Sunday poster
7.2

Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope.

One Wonderful Sunday

1947

The Most Beautiful poster
5.6

Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.

The Most Beautiful

1944

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two poster
6.0

A few years after his breakthrough, Sanshiro resumes his path to judo mastery—testing his discipline against an American prizefighter and later facing vengeful karate brothers. As rival schools and public spectacle push him toward violence, he must reconcile strength with restraint and the true spirit of his art.

Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two

1945

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sabakareru aijō

1947

Sanshiro Sugata poster
6.5

A hotheaded youth in 1880s Meiji Japan apprentices to judo master Shōgorō Yano, trading brute jujutsu bravado for discipline and humility. As Sanshirō matures, he proves judo’s spirit against old-guard challengers—including a deadly duel—while falling for his vanquished opponent’s daughter. Based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita, son of Tomita Tsunejirō, the earliest disciple of judo.

Sanshiro Sugata

1943

A Fool's Love poster
9.0

Adaptation of Junichiro Tanizaki's novel whit the same name. It is perversely erotic relationship between a young salaryman and his teenage wife whom he 'adopted' at first as to 'train' her to be his idealistic modern woman.

A Fool's Love

1949

Doburoku no Tatsu poster
NR

Tomoraka Tasaka's first postwar work.

Doburoku no Tatsu

1949

Apostasy poster
6.0

In the Meiji period, a schoolteacher tries to hide his lower-class upbringing as he supports a visiting liberal intellectual.

Apostasy

1948

Suicide Troops of the Watchtower poster
6.8

Stalwart soldiers of the Japanese Empire – Japanese and Korean alike – stand in defense of a military outpost threatened by "bandits."

Suicide Troops of the Watchtower

1943

Lord for a Night poster
8.0

In 1887, two businessmen, Echigo-ya and Kitahara, compete for railroad construction authorization from the government. The minister states that a local noble must not object, and his missing younger brother is the only one who could sway him. Meanwhile, Omitsu, a hotel employee tired of Echigo-ya’s wife’s arrogance, teams up with Kitahara to stage a scheme where a vagrant young man pretends to be the noble’s lost brother, aiming to trick and embarrass the wealthy woman.

Lord for a Night

1946

Messenger from the Moon poster
NR

It was a sanatorium in the highlands. Patients such as Totsuka, Hirota, and Hashida were battling their illnesses under the devoted care of Michiko, a nurse so beautiful and noble that she was nicknamed “The Messenger from the Moon.” When Totsuka learned that Hirota, who was about to be discharged, secretly loved Michiko, he devised a plan and arranged for them to spend some time alone in a birch grove. Hirota and Michiko made a firm vow for their future, but around that time, an unexpected visitor arrived at Hirota’s hospital room.

Messenger from the Moon

1949

Series credits

Behind the camera