Isao Kimura

Acting

Isao Kimura

Born — Died

1923-06-22 — 1981-07-04

Place of birth

Senda, Hiroshima, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

64 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Isao Kimura (木村 功 Kimura Isao), also known as Kō Kimura, was a Japanese actor. He appeared in several films directed by Akira Kurosawa. The first was Stray Dog (1949) as Yusa the criminal. Perhaps his most notable collaboration with Kurosawa was in Seven Samurai as the youngest of the samurai, Katsushiro. During his career he also appeared in several films directed by Mikio Naruse as well as appearing in the famous Lone Wolf and Cub film series. In addition to a film career spanning almost thirty years, Kimura founded and directed an acting company which ultimately went bankrupt. He died of esophageal cancer at 57 years old.

Known for

Seven Samurai poster
8.5

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Seven Samurai

1954

Ikiru poster
8.3

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Ikiru

1952

High and Low poster
8.4

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

High and Low

1963

Ayu no uta poster
NR

The 24th NHK Asadora. Starring Senri Yamazaki as a woman who makes her life at a fishing port.

Ayu no uta

1979

Throne of Blood poster
7.9

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Throne of Blood

1957

Stray Dog poster
7.6

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Stray Dog

1949

Film credits

1970s · 3 titles

1960s · 24 titles

High and Low poster
8.4

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

High and Low

1963

Hero of the Red Light District poster
8.7

A successful textile industrialist from the provinces, who is beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until an indentured peasant prostitute, Tamarazu, takes the unsavoury assignment and treats him with brash tenderness.

Hero of the Red Light District

1960

Black Lizard poster
6.9

A detective tries to outwit an art loving thief who has kidnapped the daughter of a jeweler to get to an exquisite diamond.

Black Lizard

1968

Miyamoto Musashi poster
7.1

In this first episode, we are introduced to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he became the man of legend. His beginning are not exactly auspicious. He sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of the historic battle. He and his friend Matahachi manage to escape the slaughter although the latter is wounded in his leg. They stumble across the young Akemi who makes her living with her mother Oko by robbing corpses of their armor and anything else they can sell. Oko takes it into her head to seduce Matahachi, which she does first by skillfully sucking the gangrene from his blood, and then just by sucking.

Miyamoto Musashi

1961

Miyamoto Musashi IV: The Duel at Ichijo-ji Temple poster
7.1

In the fourth installment, Musashi's potentially greatest opponent Kojiro jumps in and out of the story at the oddest and most coincidental moments. As his great love Otsu has succumbed to madness. Musashi then sets off to beat the functionaries of a treacherous clan in an arranged duel. 73 against one. Boastful Kojiro watches, secure in the knowledge that only he is a worthy opponent.

Miyamoto Musashi IV: The Duel at Ichijo-ji Temple

1964

The Affair poster
6.6

As a young woman, Oriko condemned her widowed mother for openly pursuing relationships with younger men. After her mother passes away, she finds herself in an unhappy, loveless marriage and begins to understand her mother’s actions.

The Affair

1967

The Shape of Night poster
6.8

Yoshie Nogami, a factory worker by day, works as a bar hostess at night. She begins a passionate affair with one of her regulars, but his changing demeanor and constant demands for money lead Yoshie down a dark path.

The Shape of Night

1964

The Temple of Wild Geese poster
6.5

Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.

The Temple of Wild Geese

1962

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai poster
6.7

After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.

Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai

1963

Snow Country poster
6.7

This movie is based on an immortal literary work "The Snow Country," a story about a life of geisha Komako who lives in a region with heavy snowfalls.

Snow Country

1965

Assassination poster
7.1

In 1863, when American warships approach Japan, an enigmatic ronin becomes an important figure in a complex game of power between the Shogunate and the empire.

Assassination

1964

Cases of Umon: The Woman with an Umbrella poster
10.0

Ryutaro Otomo as the Edo magistrate Umon Kondo is out to solve a crime that centers around the murder of a jail guard & the escape of a criminal who is later himself killed. His dying words in Umon's arms were, "I didn't kill the guard." The murdered criminal had been a safe-cracker & only his girlfriend knows where he hid a fortune. She is kidnapped, so the plot gets thicker & thicker.

Cases of Umon: The Woman with an Umbrella

1963

Affair in the Snow poster
6.9

In an isolated mountain resort, a woman gets involved in a love triangle between herself, her volatile lover and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she had platonic feelings.

Affair in the Snow

1968

Impasse poster
6.4

Shingo and Ritsuko have a baby: Takashi. They happen to be a happy couple, but soon Ritsuko wants to know who is the true father of Takashi, born by artificial insemination.

Impasse

1967

Our Marriage poster
7.1

Poverty-stricken sisters reach the age when they start attracting marriage proposals. They must decide between marrying for love or money, but their ambitions clash when they both fall for the same man.

Our Marriage

1962

Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro poster
7.2

The fifth and final installment with the build up of the epic battle between Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi. With all the familiar characters making appearances: Otsu (Musashi's great love), Akemi, Matahachi (his former fellow soldier), old lady Osugi (still doggedly trying to defeat Musashi), and even the return of Priest Takuan (the man responsible for his journey towards enlightenment). But most of all, the boastful, long-haired and long-sworded Sasaki Kojiro.

Miyamoto Musashi V: Musashi vs Kojiro

1965

Could I But Live poster
8.0

After receiving a phone call from a woman whose child has contracted polio, government official Masayoshi Sakata decides to do everything he can to eradicate the disease.

Could I But Live

1964

The Journey poster
7.0

After 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

Miyamoto Musashi III: Birth of Two Sword Style poster
6.9

In the third installment of Yoshikawa's novel Musashi, things continue from the 2nd film at the end of battle, where Miyamoto continues on a mission of learning; with the introduction of his arch-rival Sasaki Kojiro; and lastly the large cast of characters rendezvouses for a fateful finale.

Miyamoto Musashi III: Birth of Two Sword Style

1963

Bloody Record of the Shinsengumi poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Bloody Record of the Shinsengumi

1963

Knightly Advice poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Knightly Advice

1962

Miyamoto Musashi: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights poster
7.3

The remake of Yoshikawa's novel continues with the second installment in which Takezo, soon to be Miyamoto Musashi, emerges from the Himeji Castle after three years of intense contemplation and philosophical study and starting on his epic quest to complete his skill in the Way.

Miyamoto Musashi: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights

1962

Young Lord Yakuza poster
8.0

Young Lord Taihei goes to Edo to find the lost family treasure, a plover incense burner, under the disguise of a ronin.

Young Lord Yakuza

1961

Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall poster
6.8

A headstrong young man seeks to join the Shinsengumi, but while his determination impresses his superiors, questions begin to arise as to his true identity and intentions.

Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall

1964

1950s · 31 titles

Seven Samurai poster
8.5

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Seven Samurai

1954

Ikiru poster
8.3

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Ikiru

1952

Throne of Blood poster
7.9

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Throne of Blood

1957

The Story of Pure Love poster
6.8

Junai Monogatari AKA Story of Pure Love is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances. The film depicts their lives as thieves, menial laborers who can get little pay, society outcasts, and of course, lovers. Junai Monogatari depicts, mostly, their struggles within the Japanese reformatory system and Mitsuko's worsening sickness.

The Story of Pure Love

1957

Vacuum Zone poster
8.5

Just before the end of the war, Japanese soldier Kitani is released from prison, having served his term for theft. Told in flashback, viewers learn about Kitani's past and reasons behind his prison sentence.

Vacuum Zone

1952

The Angry Street poster
6.7

University students Sudo and Mori make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Sudo becomes gradually involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister Masako. In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.

The Angry Street

1950

Cape Ashizuri poster
9.0

Among Yoshimura’s complex and political works, this episodic film, set in the early 1930s, follows the life of a young left-wing student activist disenchanted by the increasingly hawkish state of Japanese society.

Cape Ashizuri

1954

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land poster
7.0

Onna Hitori Daichi wo Yuku (A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land, Kinuta Production, 1953) was the second feature film directed by Kamei Fumio, who is known as a master of documentary films, and followed his “Haha Nareba Onna Nareba(Become a Mother, Become a Woman)” (1952).

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land

1953

A Billionaire poster
6.8

An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.

A Billionaire

1954

Beyond Love and Hate poster
7.0

A young man, convicted of a crime and imprisoned in the penitentiary, comes to believe that his wife is being unfaithful to him. He contrives his escape from the prison in order to seek her out and learn the truth, but the police give chase and he must flee into the mountains.

Beyond Love and Hate

1951

Summer Clouds poster
7.7

A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his wife. Her older brother tries to marry off his children and hang on to/ extend his farm through an advantageous marriage in the face of threatened land confiscation and the desire of his children to get comfortable urban jobs instead of the backbreaking work in the paddy fields under parental control.

Summer Clouds

1958

Tokyo Detective Girl poster
NR

Woman private eye Emiko goes undercover to reveal the truth of a murder case.

Tokyo Detective Girl

1959

Still I Live On poster
6.0

About the struggles of day labourers to achieve dignity and a standard of living above the starvation level. Utilising the Zenshinza theatrical troupe.

Still I Live On

1951

Mr. Pu poster
6.5

A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.

Mr. Pu

1953

Vice poster
NR

A movie adaptation of Funayama Kaoru's novel of the same name, which depicts the story of a modern youth who is attracted to the evil path. Saburi Shin, a well-known actor who also demonstrated his skill as a director in a bold social work, embodies a person with a complicated dilemma in a shadowy manner, and is a dramatic work that plays a part in the lead role.

Vice

1958

Beautiful Days poster
6.9

A romantic drama depicting the lives of two generations of a family who run a Tokyo florist shop.

Beautiful Days

1955

Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree

1955

Little Peach poster
6.1

Anzukko (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

Dancing Girl poster
6.4

The troubled relationship between a writer and his ballet teacher wife, who has for years loved another man, finally leads to the breakup of the family.

Dancing Girl

1951

At the End of the Clouds poster
NR

A movie that depicts the tragic fate of many Yokaren flight-academy pilots.

At the End of the Clouds

1953

The Valley Between Love and Death poster
8.0

A great ambition to portray with sharp satire and humor the course of modern anxiety and love that is about to be driven to despair.

The Valley Between Love and Death

1954

Showdown in Blood poster
NR

Hayata and his best friend Ushijima came to Tokyo to become champions. Hayata repeatedly sought to join Tamura's boxing club, but Tamura fell in love with Ushijima's punch. Then Hayata decides to become Ushijima's manager and make good money on his friend's talent. Ushijima himself is a peaceful, kind guy who doesn't really like boxing, but under the wise guidance of Hayata, he starts to defeat one opponent after another...

Showdown in Blood

1957

The End of a Day poster
7.5

Military doctor Leutenant Hanada deserts during the war in the Philippines with a local girl. The officer in command orders Lieutenant Uji to shoot Hanada. Uji takes a sharpshooter called Takagi and tracks him. At first Uji cannot forgive Hanada but as Uji is isolated from the main force he too starts to think of desertion.

The End of a Day

1954

Rice poster
6.8

A touching story depicting the harsh lives of farmers in Kasumigaura. An attempt to start a fishery business to revive an ailing farming community creates friction amongst the proud residents.

Rice

1957

The Sacrifice of the Human Torpedoes poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Sacrifice of the Human Torpedoes

1955

Beyond the Seasonal Wind poster
9.0

Japanese drama film.

Beyond the Seasonal Wind

1958

Elegy poster
9.0

Wataru Naohiko who has the prosecutor general as his father became a young composer and its symphony "saint" invoked the world echoed. But his disciple Uchiyama and his best friend prosecutor Daisuke Toki accused his music as a sesame of pause-only technique, not a truly heart-hungry art.

Elegy

1951

Sekidô matsuri poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sekidô matsuri

1951

The Love Letter Trial poster
NR

This story takes place at a school under the new educational system. It all began when a love letter addressed to Takeshi Kodama, the straightforward art teacher, from Yoko Kagawa, a young and beautiful female teacher, was found lying in the school hallway. It soon became clear that Ms. Kagawa was not the one who had written the letter, but this incident made her feel the need to explore the emotions of her adolescent female students.

The Love Letter Trial

1951

Student Double Suicide poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Student Double Suicide

1954

Ofukuro poster
7.0

Shizuka, Eiichiro, and Mineko, their father and son, live modestly in a certain suburb, leading a dreary but happy life. Eiichiro is troubled by Shizuka's desire to live together in familiar Tokyo. Mineko is the exact opposite of Eiichiro. A literary masterpiece depicting the fateful sorrow and humor of a mother and child

Ofukuro

1955

Series credits