Acting

Masakazu Kuwayama

Born — Died

1922-08-16 — 1983-09-04

Place of birth

Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

46 titles

Known for

Kwaidan poster
7.7

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Kwaidan

1965

宇宙少年ソラン poster
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

宇宙少年ソラン

1965

Port Arthur poster
7.4

Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War of (1904 - 1905). In the story dominated the character Lt Takeshi Kogyo (Teruhiko Aoi), teachers, and a reserve officer who became commander of the platoon and later company. At the same time monitors the conduct of the army commander general Nogi (Tatsuya Nakadai), which was commissioned of the emperor Matsuhito (Toshirô Mifune) to the conquest of the fort.

Port Arthur

1980

The Insect Woman poster
7.2

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

The Insect Woman

1963

Dodes'ka-den poster
7.1

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

Dodes'ka-den

1970

Juvenile Wife poster
5.0

A newlywed wife suffers the consequences for her husband’s actions when he cheats a customer at his credit company out of a large sum of money.

Juvenile Wife

1980

Film credits

1980s · 6 titles

Port Arthur poster
7.4

Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War of (1904 - 1905). In the story dominated the character Lt Takeshi Kogyo (Teruhiko Aoi), teachers, and a reserve officer who became commander of the platoon and later company. At the same time monitors the conduct of the army commander general Nogi (Tatsuya Nakadai), which was commissioned of the emperor Matsuhito (Toshirô Mifune) to the conquest of the fort.

Port Arthur

1980

Juvenile Wife poster
5.0

A newlywed wife suffers the consequences for her husband’s actions when he cheats a customer at his credit company out of a large sum of money.

Juvenile Wife

1980

Horny Working Girl: From 5 to 9 poster
4.9

A woman named Chieko Kuwano is hired as an assistant manager at a large corporate office in Japan. She’s smart, sexy, and willing to do almost anything for her sex-starved new boss but, since he’s married, his deviant behavior makes her uncomfortable. Fed up with the boss and his perverted ways, the ladies in the building band together to enact their own special kind of revenge… that is, after they have a lesbian three-way slumber party, of course!

Horny Working Girl: From 5 to 9

1982

The Longest Tunnel poster
10.0

After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this project Akutsu becomes involved with Tae Makimura leading to his estrangement from his wife.

The Longest Tunnel

1982

Mitsuryōzuma: oku no uzuki poster
5.0

In the sweltering heat a wife searches for men to satisfy her insatiable lust. But someone is watching… and learning.

Mitsuryōzuma: oku no uzuki

1981

Uno Kôichirô no uwaki nikki poster
3.7

No synopsis available yet.

Uno Kôichirô no uwaki nikki

1980

1970s · 19 titles

Dodes'ka-den poster
7.1

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

Dodes'ka-den

1970

Ballad of Orin poster
7.2

Expelled from her group for losing her virginity, blind travelling musician Orin endures a life of hardship, abuse, and poverty while wandering the countryside, finding brief companionship with an army deserter, and struggling against a society that marginalises her.

Ballad of Orin

1977

Case of the Disjointed Murder poster
7.5

In the summer of 1947, various men and women gather at a mansion in the countryside at the invitation of Kazuma Utagawa. They are artists, novelists, poets, painters, playwrights, actresses, etc. Then the murders begin, one after another. The incident seemed to have no continuity...

Case of the Disjointed Murder

1977

Yumeno Kyusaku's Girl Hell poster
5.5

Utae and Aiko attend an all-girl private school where the devoutly religious principal seems to be raping some of the students, including Utae.

Yumeno Kyusaku's Girl Hell

1977

Sweet Revenge poster
6.8

Masao is falsely accused and jailed for the murder of a loanshark to whom he owed a lot of money. His sister Kiriko makes the long trip to Tokyo, specifically to accost Otsuka, Japan's top criminal defence lawyer, and plead with him to take her brother's case. They live in Kitakyushu which, though a city, she contends that the local lawyers are not up to the job. Otsuka contemptuously brushes her off. A year passes. Masao has suicided in jail, his appeal having failed due to the lack of interest and competence of the local defence lawyer. Kiriko returns to Tokyo, planning revenge on Otsuka for refusing the case and causing her brother's death.

Sweet Revenge

1977

A Portrait of Shunkin poster
7.8

Okoto is blind since childhood. Her young servant Sasuke is in love of her. One day Koto is badly scarred on her face. In order to preserve the memory of her once beautiful face, Sasuke takes away his own sight.

A Portrait of Shunkin

1976

Ghost Train poster
NR

After seven people vanish from a train, a bumbling police detective teams up with a female college student to solve the mystery.

Ghost Train

1978

Harry and His Geisha Girls poster
3.3

Mr. Harry, who suffers from a "peanut sized" penis complex, comes to Japan to undergo a genital transplant operation, the first of its kind in the world. The operation is a success but Harry soon is involved into a shady plot related to his organ donor.

Harry and His Geisha Girls

1978

Waga seishun no eleven poster
NR

Soccer movie.

Waga seishun no eleven

1979

Poetry of Baseball Enthusiasts poster
5.5

Live-action adaptation of Shinji Mizushima's manga.

Poetry of Baseball Enthusiasts

1977

Attack at Daylight poster
5.0

A truck driver is reunited with friends from his youth in a seedy bar and gets drawn into a web of crime.

Attack at Daylight

1970

Youth - Part II poster
5.0

Isamu, a star athlete in high school, becomes a race cyclist. He wins his debut races, but soon his opponents see through his lack of strategy and beat him easily. Isamu's maths teacher, a race cycling freak, says he knows the solution to Isamu's problem. But will Isamu listen to him?

Youth - Part II

1979

No artwork available
NR

1977 Japanese film directed by Tengo Yamada.

The Skies of Haruo

1977

A Violent School Revolution poster
NR

A Violent School Revolution

A Violent School Revolution

1975

Murderer! poster
8.0

A cowardly samurai is sent as an official executioner targeting the clan's former sword instructor, a man whose sword and spear skills are second to none.

Murderer!

1976

Shiosai poster
7.5

Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo. Yasuo spreads unpleasant gossip about his rival, and Hatsue's father forbids her to see Shinji. But when the boy saves the passengers on a boat owned by Hatsue's father, his luck in love begins to change.

Shiosai

1971

Kage no tsume poster
NR

After accidentally hitting and killing a man on a rainy highway, a married couple takes in the victim’s widow and disabled mother out of guilt. What begins as an uneasy act of compassion gradually turns into a tense and psychologically charged living arrangement. As suspicions, jealousy, and hidden desires surface, the relationship between the two women spirals toward obsession, betrayal, and tragedy.

Kage no tsume

1972

No artwork available
4.3

One day, Yumiko, an office worker, is called in by the managing director. Having been holding in her urge to urinate, she is ordered by the managing director to relieve herself in front of him, and embarrassed, she urinates into a vase. Later, when section chief Suzuki invites Yumiko on a drive, he takes her virginity that same day, awakening her to the pleasures of sex.

Sigh

1973

The Flag, Class A, Grade 4. poster
NR

When teacher Kimura is assigned to Yuko’s Class A, 4th Grade, the children are very happy. But they are surprised to hear from her that she is expecting a baby in October. The children have learned many things. They have been brought closer together among themselves and they have gained a closer relationship with their parents. Above all, they have learned about some of the important things in life as they advance toward the still unknown realm of adulthood.

The Flag, Class A, Grade 4.

1976

1960s · 19 titles

Kwaidan poster
7.7

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Kwaidan

1965

The Insect Woman poster
7.2

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

The Insect Woman

1963

A Trap poster
7.1

When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan's top lawyer to defend her brother. Unfortunately her naive idealism is shattered when the lawyer refuses to take the case based on her insufficient funds. What follows is a long determined revenge plot that sees the heroine become a Tokyo bar hostess and worse to punish the lawyer. The plot thickens with another murder mystery and a sleuthing reporter.

A Trap

1965

Carmen from Kawachi poster
6.2

Like a girl runaway, Tsuyu moves to Osaka to work as a bar hostess. She meets the owner of a model school, Yoko, and seriously thinks about becoming a fashion model. Yoko tells her that she can move in to Yoko’s house to take lessons, while making a living at the same time.

Carmen from Kawachi

1966

Dissolution Rites poster
7.0

Sawaki is released from prison after serving eight years for murdering a rival gang leader in order to obtain the land rights to a landfill for the Kotaki clan and he discovers that the world has changed significantly in that time. The police have forced the disbanding of all yakuza groups in and around Tokyo and most of the former yakuza have moved on to legitimate jobs. Sawaki is disgusted that his yakuza brothers have abandoned their codes of honor and are abusing their newfound power in the legitimate business world to exploit the poor. Sawaki feels partly responsible for making them so powerful and enabling their corruption, so he decides to follow his traditional code of honor to save the residents of a small town where his former lover lives.

Dissolution Rites

1967

A Story Written with Water poster
6.3

Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.

A Story Written with Water

1965

The Irresponsible Fool poster
7.0

Picked up and raised on an island in the Seto Inland Sea, Yasukichi's only trait is his innate mischievousness. However, because his love for his hometown is exceptionally stronger than anybody's, he is trying everything he can to somehow help the inhabitants of the island which are going through a recession. He saddles himself with a debt to bring a cheap band onto the island and tries to market the underwater sightseeing ship on the island without regards for the Marine Act.

The Irresponsible Fool

1964

She and He poster
7.0

As her husband Eiichi becomes more entangled in his life as businessman, Naoko looks for ways to expand her own life even as her husband's life shrinks in scope and intimacy. She finds new interests, new love, and a greater sense of her place in the world.

She and He

1963

Konto 55: Mankind's Weaknesses poster
NR

A Toho film featuring the comedy duo Konto 55, (コント55号), comprised of comedians Kinichi Hagimoto and Jiro Sakagami.

Konto 55: Mankind's Weaknesses

1969

Warm Current poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Warm Current

1966

Escape from Japan poster
5.7

As Japan is preparing to host the Olympics, a gang member wanting to go to America is sought after by the police after helping his friend conduct a robbery.

Escape from Japan

1964

No artwork available
10.0

Love story of a working-class boy and girl.

Two Hearts in the Rain

1968

My Destiny poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

My Destiny

1968

The Betrayers Out! poster
NR

Shochiku's popular series of gang films, this one has the hero returning from prison bent on revenge. He runs into Chinese hoodlums, blackmailers and gold-smugglers. But he also aids and abets young lovers yet, despite his help, their love ends in tragedy and he tracks down his prey in Kobe.

The Betrayers Out!

1966

All My Children poster
7.3

School teachers responsible for the lives of their students work to evacuate Allied bombings near the end of WWII.

All My Children

1963

A Bold Life poster
NR

Depicts the checkered story of a businessman working for a toy company in financial trouble, who overcomes hardships to win a major victory.

A Bold Life

1961

East China Sea poster
10.0

Rokurō starts a part-time job on a fishing boat, but the ship has an engine failure in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

East China Sea

1968

We Sell It Because It Sells poster
7.0

Young bartender operates secret sex club as a profitable side business.

We Sell It Because It Sells

1969

Fumiko's Diary poster
NR

As she describes the lives of her parents, who run a tofu store and try to follow their convictions without thinking of themselves, Fumiko realizes that a family based on true trust between parents and children is the only place where a wonderful human being can be formed in a society undergoing drastic changes.

Fumiko's Diary

1968

Series credits