
Writing
Sumie Tanaka
Born — Died
1908-04-11 — 2000-03-01
Place of birth
Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Known for
Writing
Credits
28 titles
Sumie Tanaka (田中澄江, Tanaka Sumie, 11 April 1908 — 1 March 2000) was a Japanese screenwriter and playwright. An outspoken feminist, her stories often focused on women struggling with familial and societal expectations. She was a long-time collaborator of film director Mikio Naruse and wrote screenplays for Japan's first major female director Kinuyo Tanaka.
Known for
7.5Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.
Forever a Woman
1955
7.6In 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
6.5In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.
Girls of the Night
1961
6.2In Kyoto a young kimono maker with traditional ideas gets involved with a married professor.
Undercurrent
1956
NRTV adaptation of the novel "Twenty-Four Eyes", combining animation with a few live-action scenes.
Twenty-Four Eyes
1980
7.2Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th-century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.
A Wanderer's Notebook
1962
Behind the camera
7.5Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.
Forever a Woman
1955
7.6In 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
6.5In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.
Girls of the Night
1961
6.2In Kyoto a young kimono maker with traditional ideas gets involved with a married professor.
Undercurrent
1956
NRTV adaptation of the novel "Twenty-Four Eyes", combining animation with a few live-action scenes.
Twenty-Four Eyes
1980
7.2Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th-century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.
A Wanderer's Notebook
1962
8.0In Asakusa, Tokyo, a couple of a violinist Yamano and a revue dancer Hanae lives in poverty. One day Hanae’s little sister rolls into their apartment and begins to stir things up with her riotousness.
Dancing Girl
1957
6.1Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.
Little Peach
1958
6.5A traditional bar mistress in Kyoto clashes with her Tokyo rival.
Night Butterflies
1957
7.3The story of Kiyoko, a young woman who has successfully managed to make a break with her dysfunctional family who have been trying to arrange a marriage for her with a disagreeable man whom she has rejected.
Lightning
1952
7.2Otsuta 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
7.0After the death of his parents, railway worker Yuichiro Murofushi returns to his hometown and agrees to an arranged marriage at the insistence of his uncle and aunt. However, the arrangement soon falls through due to various circumstances.
The Journey
1967
7.0Five women classmates from a college in Tokyo are on the first stretch of a walking tour when one of them, Masako, falls ill at a railway station. Osen, a middle-aged maid from a nearby inn, takes her in and nurses her, assisted by Dr. Minami, a young physician who diagnoses her illness as a mild case of pneumonia. With Masako in good hands and needing a few days to recuperate, her classmates continue their tour. Masako’s recovery, however, is hampered by her spoiled and immature nature and her determination to punish the world for the loss of her mother.
Dispersed Clouds
1951
6.8The Ueki family may not be wealthy, but smiles are never in short supply. The father is awarded prize money for 25 years of service to his workplace, but has it stolen on the way home from the ceremony...
Home Sweet Home
1951
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Onna no hashi
1961
8.0A childless lawyer and his wife take in the quiet daughter of an imprisoned client, whose presence eventually creates romantic tension with the husband. The household dynamic is further disrupted by the arrival of a bold friend from Osaka and the wife's chance encounter with a former flame.
Woman Unveiled
1958
NRIt is 1922 and Fumiko is a high school student. Her family is poor but she loves to study literature. Her father, a peddler, does not return home and Fumiko finds herself in financial trouble, not being able to pay for her schooling and her school excursion trip. Still, she gets a temporary job at a factory and tries to make ends meet. A film about bright side of youth adapted from the television serial of the same name.
Eddy Currents of Life
1964
6.3After their father quarrels with local military men, Anju and Zushio are forced to flee, but they are captured and sold into slavery. When their mother dies, they are sold to Sansho the Bailiff, a cruel man who subjects them to hideous torments. While Anju falls into a lake and is transformed into a swan, Zushio escapes and after being adopted to a nobleman grows to a young man. He will then fight to defeat the evil Dayu and free all the slaves.
The Orphan Brother
1961
6.9When a family has to relocate due to the war, they are ostracized by their new community.
Boyhood
1951
4.0The woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her.
Women in Prison
1956
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Seagull of the Night
1957
NRMotoko Fujikawa works in the Seisen Church as an assistant to pastor Maki Inokichi. Motoko falls in love with Inokichi's virtuous character and devotes herself to the rehabilitation of a delinquent girl, gradually finding her job at the institution more worthwhile than the marriage recommended by her parents. Meanwhile, inside Inokichi's heart a flame of unknowing love for the single-minded Motoko begins to burn...
Aiyoku no sabaki
1953
NRYasue (Todoroki) and Fumikichi (Oda), a married couple, have no children, but they take in children from other places and wind up raising three kids.
This Is Home
1956
10.0This 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
NRLove story between a student and girl whose parents are itinerant entertainers. Set in Japan in the 1920's.
The Izu Dancer
1960
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Red Fan
1952
7.5In a rural district of Tokyo, the owner of a farm is abandoned by his two daughters who are attracted to the life of the big city.
Beauty the Enemy
1959
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Kokoro ni hana no saku hi made
1955
