Tokuko Sugiyama

Acting

Tokuko Sugiyama

Born — Died

1926-08-16 — 2014-08-28

Place of birth

Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

40 titles

Tokuko Sugiyama (杉山 とく子), also known by her birth name and former stage name Tokuko Sugiyama (杉山 徳子), was a Japanese actress born on August 16, 1926, in Tokyo. She is renowned for her notable roles in the film "The Town with a View of the Capsule" (キューポラのある街) and the TV dramas "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" (男はつらいよ) and "Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari Series" (渡る世間は鬼ばかりシリーズ). After completing her education at Jissen Women's Academy Second High School, Sugiyama initially worked as a nursery school teacher and in Chiba Newspaper's advertising department. Her journey into the entertainment industry began when she applied to Toho's New Face audition and later joined the Bungakuza theater company in 1946. Fol…

Known for

Making It Through poster
7.3

A family drama series that follows the lives of the Okakura family, focusing on the parents and their five daughters. It explores personal struggles, and societal issues through the interactions and conflicts among the family members.

Making It Through

1990

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love poster
8.2

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

1959

It's Tough Being a Man poster
NR

The original TV Drama series the famous Tora film series was based on.

It's Tough Being a Man

1968

Twelve Months poster
6.9

A young queen requests a bouquet of snowdrop flowers for New Year's Day in exchange for a reward. One greedy woman sends her stepdaughter, whom she does not like, to look for the flowers in a cold forest, knowing the task will be impossible for her. The girl almost freezes to death in the forest, but she is rescued by the spirits of the Twelve Months, who create spring around her. The girl is able to deliver the bouquet to the queen, but others want a share of the reward.

Twelve Months

1980

The Wild Swans poster
6.3

A young girl must spend six years making sweatshirts out of poison ivy in order to save her six brothers which have been turned into swans by an evil sorceress.

The Wild Swans

1977

A Taxing Woman poster
6.7

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

A Taxing Woman

1987

Film credits

1990s · 3 titles

1980s · 16 titles

Twelve Months poster
6.9

A young queen requests a bouquet of snowdrop flowers for New Year's Day in exchange for a reward. One greedy woman sends her stepdaughter, whom she does not like, to look for the flowers in a cold forest, knowing the task will be impossible for her. The girl almost freezes to death in the forest, but she is rescued by the spirits of the Twelve Months, who create spring around her. The girl is able to deliver the bouquet to the queen, but others want a share of the reward.

Twelve Months

1980

A Taxing Woman poster
6.7

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

A Taxing Woman

1987

A Distant Cry from Spring poster
7.4

The quiet life of a mother and her young son living on a farm in Hokkaido is changed by the arrival of a man who ignites flames of romance in the heart of the mother and shows her boy the importance of grit and kindness, but then he leaves with the autumn wind.

A Distant Cry from Spring

1980

Final Take: The Golden Age of Movies poster
6.6

Director Ogata discovers a new female star in Koharu Tanaka, who works selling candy at a studio theater and she is given a part as a bit player. After the studio's top leading lady is embroiled in a scandal, Koharu is suddenly thrust into the limelight when she replaces her in a film and gains instant fame and fortune. But the going is not always easy, and she soon seeks help from unexpected quarters.

Final Take: The Golden Age of Movies

1986

Bungakusho Satsujin Jiken: Oinaru Jyoso poster
9.0

A young doujinshi writer doesn't win the literary prize award, and ends up killing the selection committee.

Bungakusho Satsujin Jiken: Oinaru Jyoso

1989

Metamorphosis poster
5.1

A sensuous movie based on a literary work. Hitomi Kuroki stars as the film’s heroine.

Metamorphosis

1986

Tora-san's Promise poster
8.7

Tora-san returns to his family's home to attend an elementary school class reunion. After he embarrasses himself by getting drunk and insulting all his ex-classmates, he resumes his travels. In Kyushu he meets an outspoken 18-year-old girl who becomes enamored of Tora-san and follows him around. One of Tora-san's old friends is terminally ill and makes Tora-san promise him to marry his wife once he is gone.

Tora-san's Promise

1981

Lake of Illusions poster
4.0

A free-spirited girl living in a Japanese province spends her time working in a brothel and running with her dog. When her routine is shattered she gets on a path of hate and self discovery.

Lake of Illusions

1982

Hearts and Flowers for Tora-san poster
8.0

During his travels, Tora-san gets drunk with an old man in Kyoto. Though Tora-san never fully comprehends his importance, the old man is a Living National Treasure ceramist. At his home, Tora-san makes a good impression on the old man's maid, who apparently falls in love with Tora-san.

Hearts and Flowers for Tora-san

1982

The Empty Table poster
6.9

One year after the Kidojis' eldest son Otohiko was arrested for his part in a terrorist kidnapping, which resulted in multiple deaths, all the other perpetrators' parents have either resigned from their professional positions or taken their own lives, Nobuyuki Kidoji remains adamant that he is not responsible for his son's actions.

The Empty Table

1985

The Wives of Rokumeikan poster
NR

A blockbuster drama that depicts the lives of the people who colored the dawn of modern Japan, centering on a woman who rose from a courtesan to the wife of the prime minister, and through the wives of former Meiji military commanders, many of whom were geishas.

The Wives of Rokumeikan

1988

Tora-san, the Go-Between poster
6.9

In Nagasaki, Tora-san and an acquaintance help an old woman who has fallen and injured herself. She invites them to her home where the three share a night of eating and drinking. The old woman's health deteriorates and she dies. At her funeral, Tora-san falls in love with the old woman's daughter, but winds up acting as a go-between for her and a young law student.

Tora-san, the Go-Between

1985

Foster Daddy, Tora! poster
8.0

After a friend and business colleague dies, Tora-san visits the man's daughter, then takes her to Tokyo so she can study for a night school exam.

Foster Daddy, Tora!

1980

Auto Town poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Auto Town

1981

War and Flowers poster
7.0

Japanese Drama film about the female experience during the war years.

War and Flowers

1989

Mofuku no niau hitozuma futari poster
NR

Yuki Kimura, a company president's secretary, agrees to marry his son Yutaka on the president's recommendation. When Yutaka breaks up with his lover, a hostess, she implies she's going to commit suicide. In a panic to get to her quickly, Yutaka punches a man at a taxi stand. The next day, when Yutaka's lover hears the news about a man dying and realizes it was the man Yutaka punched, she demands money...

Mofuku no niau hitozuma futari

1986

1970s · 10 titles

The Wild Swans poster
6.3

A young girl must spend six years making sweatshirts out of poison ivy in order to save her six brothers which have been turned into swans by an evil sorceress.

The Wild Swans

1977

Great Jailbreak poster
7.0

A group of prisoners attempts to break the Abashiri prison. This film can be considered a sequel to the Abashiri Bangaichi series, written and directed by Ishii Teruo. The friendship between two men on death row, a fleeting love affair with a traveling dancer and a deadly battle with the real culprit who has hunted him down filmed over a long period of time on location in Hokkaido.

Great Jailbreak

1975

Tora-san's Runaway poster
8.0

After an encounter with a dying yakuza's son and at his sister Sakura's urging, Torajiro attempts to change his vagrant lifestyle and become an honest worker with a steady job.

Tora-san's Runaway

1970

Stage-Struck Tora-san poster
8.2

Tora-san leaves Shibamata once again after an argument with his family and finds himself at an inn where he meets Tomekichi, a young man who looks up to Tora-san.

Stage-Struck Tora-san

1978

The Village poster
7.4

This appears to be a labor of love. Its about a village which is given the opportunity to put on a musical. They would have to pay the overhead and, being that they are farmers and always busy and not rich, question the wisdom and feasibility of such an idea. A spokesperson for the acting troupe Ms. Kono lays out the whole thing and they must decide. You get little slices of rural life in Japan far, at least in sentiment, from Tokyo. The best thing about this film is that it has heart. The acting is good, but it is really about the simple storyline of outing on a show. Films rarely get made with such simplistic plots these days. Enjoy this little slice of what city people call “the simple life”.

The Village

1975

Tora-san Plays Cupid poster
8.0

Tora-san becomes friends with Toraya's newest tenant, a pachinko-playing electrician that goes by the nickname Watt. Tora attempts to match Watt with a young waitress.

Tora-san Plays Cupid

1977

Games poster
6.5

A 16-year-old girl works in a factory to pay her late father’s debt. When she makes up her mind to become a hostess, a boy approaches her with kind and gentle manners...(Also occasionally known in English as “Play”)

Games

1971

Center of Tokyo poster
NR

Set in the downtown area in the heart of Tokyo, this film depicts the lives of poor but kind-hearted people.

Center of Tokyo

1974

Kobayashi Takiji poster
8.0

A tribute to proletarian author Takiji Kobayashi (1903-1933)

Kobayashi Takiji

1974

White-haired Demon poster
NR

When a neglected wife and her lover poison her cello-playing husband, a mysterious white-haired visitor from South America arrives, plunging the murderers into a paranoiac descent of guilt and madness.

White-haired Demon

1978

1960s · 5 titles

1950s · 3 titles

Series credits