Chieko Higashiyama

Acting

Chieko Higashiyama

Born 1890-09-30 · Chiba, Japan

Chieko Higashiyama (September 30, 1890 – May 8, 1980) was a Japanese actress. Graduating from the girls' school at Gakushuin, she married a businessman in 1909 and spent eight years in Moscow. In 1925, at the age of 35, she decided to become an actress. She trained at the Tsukiji Shōgekijō, a pioneering theater then-famous for modern Japanese plays and translated performances of Western playwrights. Higashiyama appeared in many stage productions, most famously as Madame Ranevskaya in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." She also appeared in films, including Tokyo Story, which was voted the best film of all time in the 2012 Sight and Sound directors' poll.

Acting credits

Tokyo Story poster
8.1

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Tokyo Story

1953

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

The Loyal 47 Ronin poster
6.3

Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official, who will become the target of a merciless revenge.

The Loyal 47 Ronin

1958

No artwork available
10.0

1947 Toho film directed by Tadashi Imai

Chikagai nijuyojikan

1947

The Snow Flurry poster
6.9

After surviving the double suicide pact she made with her lover, a woman gives birth to their child.

The Snow Flurry

1959

The Idiot poster
7.0

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

The Idiot

1951

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

The Maid's Kid poster
8.3

In order to pay back Mrs. Kajiki for her good deed in the past, Hatsu moves from her village in Akita to Tokyo to start working as a maid for her family. She grows close to their youngest son Katsumi, experiencing things that will change her view on life.

The Maid's Kid

1955

Maboroshi no Satsui poster
NR

Adaptation of the Shôji Yuki novel.

Maboroshi no Satsui

1971

The Nun poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Nun

1958

A Samurai's Love poster
8.0

A film about the Ghost of Okiku that's based on the kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki.

A Samurai's Love

1954

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

The Flower That Crossed the Mountain poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Flower That Crossed the Mountain

1949

Natsuko’s Adventure in Hokkaido poster
NR

Born to a prestigious family, Natsuko is not impressed by any one of her suitors. Determined to spend her life serving god, she sets off to a convent in Hakodate, Hokkaido, and meets along the way a young bear-hunter with whom she begins an adventure.

Natsuko’s Adventure in Hokkaido

1953

Port of Flowers poster
7.0

The sweet but naive denizens of a charming port town are hoodwinked by a couple of con men at the outset of World War II. But the hustlers’ plan backfires when they come down with severe cases of conscience. Keisuke Kinoshita’s directorial debut is a breezy, warmhearted, and often very funny crowd-pleaser that’s a testament to the filmmaker’s faith in people.

Port of Flowers

1943

Diary of a Mad Old Man poster
6.7

Utsugi, a seventy-seven-year-old man of refined tastes who is recovering from a stroke, discovers that, while his body is decaying, his libido still rages on -- unwittingly sparked by the gentle, kindly attentions of his daughter-in-law Satsuko, a chic, flashy dancer with a shady past. Pitiful and ridiculous as he is, Utsugi is without a trace of self-pity, and his diary shines with self-effacing good humor.

Diary of a Mad Old Man

1962

The Second Kiss poster
NR

As an orphan, Yamauchi Fumiko was taken in by the politician Kawabe Sotaro and raised by him. Perhaps because of their similar circumstances, she fell in love with Murakawa Sadao, a young man who had also been cared for by Kawabe after losing his father. Standing in the way of their romance is Kawabe’s only daughter Kyoko. She was in love with Murakawa, and Kawabe had even given his consent to their marriage. Through Kyoko’s scheming, Fumiko was forced into a blind date with Miyata, a senior executive at Murakawa’s company.

The Second Kiss

1954

If Indeed One Loves poster
10.0

The film consists of three short stories. Tomiko, the heroine of the first story, "The Flower Girl" (dir. Kozaburo Yoshimura), is a little girl who bears the unbearable burden of caring for her family. Tomiko's father has been unable to find work for a long time, and her older sister is terminally ill—it is unlikely that she will ever recover. To feed her family, Tomiko runs around the city from morning until late at night selling flowers... The second novella (dir. Tadashi Imai) also depicts the lives of the poor. An unfamiliar girl brings young Kavano a letter from his mother. It turns out that the girl's name is Kuniko, she is very hardworking, but her family is dying of hunger. Therefore, her mother decided to send Kuniko to her son so that he would marry her. The short story is called "The Unexpected Bride." The third short story, which gave the film its title, is particularly interesting: "When You Love" (dir. Satsuo Yamamoto). It shows the family of a young peace activist.

If Indeed One Loves

1955

Ai to chie no wa poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Ai to chie no wa

1956

Swords and Brocade poster
9.0

A young lord joins gang of Robin-esque robbers.

Swords and Brocade

1951

When a Woman Loves poster
8.0

Story of a romance between a middle-aged journalist and a young woman.

When a Woman Loves

1960

The Blue Sky Maiden poster
7.0

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she is not who she thought she was.

The Blue Sky Maiden

1957

Miyamoto Musashi IV: The Duel at Ichijo-ji Temple poster
7.0

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent.

Miyamoto Musashi IV: The Duel at Ichijo-ji Temple

1964

Broken Drum poster
6.7

When the future of his construction company falls into danger, a controlling father pushes his children into unsatisfying marriages and careers in order to regain financial stability.

Broken Drum

1949