Acting

Masaru Kodaka

Born

1928-11-03 (97)

Place of birth

Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

49 titles

Known for

Mother poster
7.0

A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.

Mother

1952

Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War poster
8.0

Meiji Tenno portrays the buildup to the Russo-Japan War. In addition to showing the political events that led to war, it also shows the era from the story of a farm family in rural Japan that sends their son off to war. As such, it could be considered an anti-war movie, showing how, while war is devised by governments, the people do not really understand what war is, and its combatants often do not know what they are fighting for.

Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War

1957

Chakkari fujin to ukkari fujin poster
NR

The Chakkari and Ukkarai families live in a modest residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo. Both husbands are ordinary office workers at the same company. Mrs. Chakkari, Satoko, is incredibly shrewd, while Mrs. Ukkarai, Sachiko, is incredibly absent-minded. As a result, a series of hilarious and tragicomic situations unfolds.

Chakkari fujin to ukkari fujin

1952

The Sacrifice of the Human Torpedoes poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Sacrifice of the Human Torpedoes

1955

Composition Class poster
6.8

Masako, the daughter of an impoverished itinerant tinsmith, wins a grammar school composition contest with an essay about her neighborhood. The much publicized essay ends up causing the family problems and their chronic money troubles threaten Masako's further education.

Composition Class

1938

Ghost Cat of Nabeshima poster
6.5

Tanuma Kandayuu is a high class samurai of the house of Nabeshima. He finds a lavish board of Go (a Chinese Board game) at Kinbei's store. He recommend Kinbei to offer it to his lord. Kinbei hesitates at first, since he knows the board has a mysterious legend surrounding it; it's believed that for every game played on the board, one death is required.

Ghost Cat of Nabeshima

1949

Film credits

1960s · 5 titles

Five Violent Girls poster
NR

The All Girl's Rugby Team try to keep their private college from falling into the hands of Yakuza and unscrupulous businessmen.

Five Violent Girls

1960

Black Line poster
5.0

Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.

Black Line

1960

Ghost of the Pearl Divers poster
7.4

No synopsis available yet.

Ghost of the Pearl Divers

1960

Female Detective poster
NR

With the object of discovering the male accomplice of Hideko, a bad girl, Michiko, a police-woman, disguises herself and infiltrates a gang. Then in a reformatory, under the name of Suzuko, she finds a certain girl who is familiar with Hideko and from her she approaches a woman, named Keiko. One day, at a beer-hall, the police-woman meets Keiko who just finished a secret narcotics transaction and asks her about Hideko. However, with the sudden appearance of Saburo, one of the gang, her search fails, and an exciting pursuit begins. Later Keiko is found dead.

Female Detective

1960

Face of the Dice poster
NR

Rumiko, the female boss from Kanto. The film is a fierce counterattack by a Yakuza woman against all men! It shows the power of a woman who fights, a woman who makes money, and a woman who explodes! More energy than in any male movie!

Face of the Dice

1966

1950s · 30 titles

Mother poster
7.0

A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.

Mother

1952

Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War poster
8.0

Meiji Tenno portrays the buildup to the Russo-Japan War. In addition to showing the political events that led to war, it also shows the era from the story of a farm family in rural Japan that sends their son off to war. As such, it could be considered an anti-war movie, showing how, while war is devised by governments, the people do not really understand what war is, and its combatants often do not know what they are fighting for.

Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War

1957

Chakkari fujin to ukkari fujin poster
NR

The Chakkari and Ukkarai families live in a modest residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo. Both husbands are ordinary office workers at the same company. Mrs. Chakkari, Satoko, is incredibly shrewd, while Mrs. Ukkarai, Sachiko, is incredibly absent-minded. As a result, a series of hilarious and tragicomic situations unfolds.

Chakkari fujin to ukkari fujin

1952

The Sacrifice of the Human Torpedoes poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Sacrifice of the Human Torpedoes

1955

東京シンデレラ娘 poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

東京シンデレラ娘

1954

Emperor & Empress Meiji and the Sino-Japanese War poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Emperor & Empress Meiji and the Sino-Japanese War

1958

Submarine Ro Hasn't Surfaced poster
NR

Japanese war film.

Submarine Ro Hasn't Surfaced

1954

No artwork available
NR

On a Sunday morning, young dentist Toshio Ezaki wakes up with a hangover, on a bench in his office. He finds a poisoned woman in a green-striped Western-style outfit lying in his exam room. He must retrace his blurry steps of the night before, and navigate a web of embezzlement, murder, framings, and false identities in Tokyo's Ginza district, to discover the identity of the dead woman and why she is there—and hopefully prove his innocence, before his wedding in three days...

Golden Beast

1950

Nonki saiban poster
NR

A spectacular comedy with a star-studded cast that depicts unusual trials and unexpected verdicts regarding the five deadly sins: the crime of beauty, the crime of a terrifying wife, the crime of taking the wrong course, the crime of seducing, and the crime of killing with laughter.

Nonki saiban

1955

The Cock Crows Twice poster
6.5

Three young women make a suicide pact, but they grow to have a better understanding of themselves.

The Cock Crows Twice

1954

Five Sisters poster
8.0

The story of five sisters.

Five Sisters

1954

The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty poster
8.0

The year is 1937, and it has been six months since the Sendai Infantry left for Manchuria. The rotted corpse of a young woman is found at the bottom of a well, but her face and limbs are gone. The military police begin an investigation and search fervently for the person responsible, but they can't even determine the victim's identity, much less find any clues. However, the incident is made public when newspapers give wide coverage to the story, so Staff Sergeant Kosaka is dispatched from Tokyo to solve the case. Eventually, General Tsunekichi is taken into custody by local infantrymen because of the testimony of another unit, but the spirit of the dead woman appears before Staff Sergeant Kosaka, who continues to investigate on his own...

The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty

1957

Kingorō no kaigun taishô poster
NR

Japanese comedy film.

Kingorō no kaigun taishô

1959

Riverside Fish Market Empire poster
NR

Obscure Japanese movie by director Kyotaro Namiki

Riverside Fish Market Empire

1952

新遊侠伝 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

新遊侠伝

1951

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Chests Covered In Fresh Blood poster
NR

Sashichi investigates the mysterious murders of four beauties, all of whom were stabbed in the chest.

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Chests Covered In Fresh Blood

1959

Queen Bee poster
7.0

Earlier version or Prequel to Queen Bee and the School for Dragons.

Queen Bee

1958

No artwork available
NR

Japanese sports comedy film about kendo.

The Fencing Collegian

1956

Madam of the first class and husband of the third class poster
NR

Domestic comedy produced by Shin Toho Studios directed by Komori Kiyoshi and starring Todoroki Yukiko and Ito Yunosuke.

Madam of the first class and husband of the third class

1954

Kuronekokan ni Kieta Otoko poster
NR

Comedy-horror film by Masaki Môri.

Kuronekokan ni Kieta Otoko

1956

新遊侠伝 遊侠往来 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

新遊侠伝 遊侠往来

1951

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Dead Woman's Tattoo poster
NR

The fifth volume of the Ningyo Sana Torimonocho series. Based on the original work by Seishi Yokomizo, the film was adapted by Mitsuo Kaneda (The Nude Model Murder Case), directed by Tatsuo Yamada, who worked on The Golden Bugyo, and shot by Kikuzo Kawasaki. Keiko Hibino, Shigeru Amachi, Tomisaburo Wakayama

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Dead Woman's Tattoo

1958

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: The Ox of Edo poster
NR

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: The Ox of Edo

1957

お嬢さん女中 poster
NR

Japanese comedy film.

お嬢さん女中

1955

No artwork available
NR

Japanese comedy film.

太陽娘と社長族

1958

Ghost Stories of Wanderer at Honjo poster
7.8

A samurai rescues a mischievous tanuki from hunters and sets it free. When the samurai's wastrel son hatches a plot to kill his father for his fortune, the magical tanuki is determined to protect its rescuer.

Ghost Stories of Wanderer at Honjo

1957

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Naked Princess and Mysterious Bear Man poster
NR

This time around, Sashichi is investigating a case of serial murders believed to be perpetrated by a giant bear.

Casebook of Dandy Sashichi: Naked Princess and Mysterious Bear Man

1959

坊ちゃんの特ダネ記者 poster
NR

Japanese comedy film.

坊ちゃんの特ダネ記者

1957

No artwork available
NR

Japanese comedy film.

ノイローゼ兄さんガッチリ娘

1956

Onna daigaku yakyūkyō jidai poster
NR

Japanese comedy film.

Onna daigaku yakyūkyō jidai

1956

1940s · 9 titles

Ghost Cat of Nabeshima poster
6.5

Tanuma Kandayuu is a high class samurai of the house of Nabeshima. He finds a lavish board of Go (a Chinese Board game) at Kinbei's store. He recommend Kinbei to offer it to his lord. Kinbei hesitates at first, since he knows the board has a mysterious legend surrounding it; it's believed that for every game played on the board, one death is required.

Ghost Cat of Nabeshima

1949

Mother Never Dies poster
6.2

The premature death of a young mother serves as inspiration for her husband and son.

Mother Never Dies

1942

No artwork available
8.0

This film focuses on Koreans living in Japan. The filmmaker’s humanism comes across in the portrayal of a girl living in a shabby tenement, the warmth of a Korean girl she meets, and the friendliness of this Korean girl’s family.

The Brick Factory Girl

1946

Musashibo Benkei poster
9.0

A 1942 Jidaigeki by the veteran jidaigeki filmmaker Kunio Watanabe about the legendary warrior Musashibo Benkei with Hideko Takamine portraying Minamoto no Yoshitsune (who is, of course, a man). The film climaxes in the famous encounter/fight btw Benkei and Yoshitsune at the Gojo Bridge.

Musashibo Benkei

1942

Hideko the Cheerleader poster
9.0

Hideko, a young Baseball fan, determined to cheer for her favourite baseball team by creating a new song for them.

Hideko the Cheerleader

1940

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Kodakara fūfu

1941

Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky poster
5.0

Young men endure challenging flight training in the Yokaren, a program feeding new pilots into the Army and Navy. By the time of the filming, the pressure of the war had led the government to shorten the training and expand the age range of the recruits. Yokaren was highly selective, and thus an object of great fascination and desire for boys and young men. In this Navy–sponsored film, Setsuko Hara plays the daughter of a family that often entertains recruits on their days off—a surrogate sister to many trainees. Her fragile younger brother aspires to join the program, but is rejected. With perseverance and much support from Hara and their mother, he surmounts his weaknesses and becomes a flier.

Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky

1943

The Splendid Gold Mine poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Splendid Gold Mine

1941

A Fond Face from the Past poster
6.0

A Fond Face from the Past is also set in a rural community, specifically a village outside Kameoka, near Kyoto. In some ways this short, thirty-six-minute film is Naruse's most moving negotiation of the militarist restrictions of the time, perhaps because it is also his most direct engagement with the culture of war. When a newsreel comes to Kameoka featuring a local man named Yoichi, it causes some excitement in the community and, of course, in Yoichi's own family. First of all his mother makes the newsreel (Nippon News, no. 14), which begins with the same marching music that opens his own film, followed by a curious baby judging context in Los Angeles featuring two hundred Japanese babies. Released in January 1941, almost a year before the pacific war begins, this “found footage” is indicative of Japanese imperialist ambitions beyond Asia long before Pearl Harbor.

A Fond Face from the Past

1941

1930s · 5 titles