Fumiko Umeka

Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. It’s a way of life that leads to madness.

Based on the life and career of novelist Fumiko Hayashi, she bitterly struggles for literary recognition in the first half of the 20th-century – her affairs with feckless men, the jobs she took to survive (peddler, waitress, bar maid), and her arduous, often humiliating attempts to get published in a male-dominated culture.

1961 Japanese movie

Tonii is a salesman at a mortgage company, and although he is in a romantic relationship with Haruko, a typist at the company, they cannot get married because they have nowhere to live. Growing impatient, Haruko declares, “As long as he can support us, I’d even marry an old man,” leaving Tonii deeply troubled.

1955 Japanese movie