
Acting
Kiyoshi Yamamoto
Born 1933-10-08 · Kanagawa, Japan
Acting credits
6.9A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb.
The Bullet Train
1975
7.8The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army divisions to defend it at all costs. The mission quickly degenerates as vital resources and troops are diverted to other islands. After a civilian evacuation ends in tragedy most of non-combatants are forced to remain on the island. Many convert to soldier status. Tokyo sends mixed messages that squander time and resources, as when they order the defenders to build an airstrip for aircraft that never come. The truth soon becomes obvious: the high command decides that the island cannot be held and effectively abandons the Okinawan defenders. When the Americans land many troops are deployed in the wrong places. As the slaughter mounts, a suicidal attitude takes hold. Okinawa becomes a death trap, for civilian volunteers and non-combatants as well.
The Battle of Okinawa
1971
5.5A jewelry broker is killed and a large amount of money is stolen. A female detective from the Metropolitan Police Department transforms into a geisha to catch the criminal.
The Return of the Newshound and the Lady Cop
1987
5.6A ruined businessman was forced to sell his daughter, Hisano, to a brothel in Yoshiwara, the largest red-light district in Tokyo. The owner of the brothel has hopes to make her a great new addition which will attract the richest of customers. But after several months of training, she tries to flee Yoshiwara when the time has come for her to take her first customer...
Tokyo Bordello
1987
7.0Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters who struggle to live in Tokyo.
The Akasaka Sisters: Soft Touch of Night
1960
6.4A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.
Station
1981
6.1A man whose son has been murdered pushes to create laws to financially protect victims' families.
Oh, My Son!
1979
7.0Shozo Hirono has managed to separate from the Yamamori family and create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War
1973
NRThe Story of the three Japanese castaways Otokichi, Kyukichi and Iwakichi. After their ship the Hojunmaru was damaged, they drifted to America and landed on the US-Westcoast in 1834. They had the wish to return to Japan, a long journey was awaiting them.
Adrift at Sea
1983
7.5A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.
Goyokin
1969
6.9One 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
8.2During WWII, Zensaku, middle-aged and deaf in one ear, learns that his son has fallen for the daughter of a war officer responsible for the maiming.
Hymn to a Tired Man
1968
NRThe Saika clan, that had succeeded in battle against the large armies of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, had in the Tokugawa era of Ieyasu, been driven into the mountains 7 generations later, forced into subsistence hunting. A man comes to them offering revenge: to assassinate current Tokugawa Shogun Yoshimune. (Made-for-TV movie)
Legend of the Assassin
1984
7.0A car going at 25 mph plunges into the sea at Shinko Harbour, Toyama prefecture. Inside is the local business magnate Fukutaro Shirakawa, who perishes. Riding alongside him and surviving unhurt is his second wife, Kumako. It soon comes to light that Kumako’s husband was insured for 300 million yen and she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband for the insurance money. The newspapers denounce her as an evil woman, while the public is in no doubt about Kumako’s crime. Ritsuko Sahara is chosen as her defence attorney but the pair clash over almost everything...
Suspicion
1982
7.5Before leaving prison, Oida uncomfortably enters into an agreement with his cell mate: in exchange for a half-share of 30,000,000 yen, he is to assassinate three strangers given to him on a list. However, upon meeting his first potential victim, Oida has second thoughts. Yet, even as he tries to back out, the body count starts climbing. Oida must now try to alert the people on his list of their impending danger, and find out why they are being targeted in the first place.
Cash Calls Hell
1966
7.5Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor.
Sword of the Beast
1965
8.0The government in Edo era is suffering from a financial crisis. It hires "Kage" to provoke the collapse of small hans (prefectures). "Kagekari" are people who were hired by Daimyos (mayors of local governments) to resist kage. The young mayor of Suwa Takashiwa, Tadamaru was assaulted by a kage on his way to Edo. Zyubei and Gennnosuke, the Kagekaris, try to carry injured Tadamaru to Edo.
Shadow Hunters
1983
6.2Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.
Main Line to Terror
1975
7.0Gathering a band of 13, Inspector General Shmada Shinzaemon sets out on a death-defying journey to cut down the shogun’s half-brother, Matsudaira Naritsugu.
13 Assassins
1990
7.0A 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
10.0A pioneer farmer's stubborn dream of building Japan's greatest ranch is put to the test when a leisure resort company sets its sights on his village's land.
Rise, Fair Sun
1973
9.0Two soon-to-be kamikaze pilots stop by a local school near their base to play the piano one last time, leaving a deep impression on a teacher. Years later, she seeks out the relatives of the pilots when the piano is old and about to be discarded.
Summer of the Moonlight Sonata
1993
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Waga seishun no toki
1975
NRThis TV dramatization of Kitakata Kenzo's hard-boiled novel depicts a man who fights a deadly battle with a group of corrupt bosses who control the hot spring town. Sakaguchi, the owner of a long-established inn in a seaside hot spring town, rebels against the Shimoyama Tourism company that dominates the town, and is arrested by the police for a minor assault. One day, Sakaguchi's old best friend Shindo shows up and tells Sakaguchi's son that he will definitely get his father out of the police. (TV film adaptation of the novel, separate from the 1985 Yoichi Sai-directed film)
Let Him Rest in Peace
1989