Kei Kumai

Directing

Kei Kumai

Born — Died

1930-06-01 — 2007-05-23

Place of birth

Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

41 titles

Kei Kumai (熊井 啓, Kumai Kei, 1 June 1930 – 23 May 2007) was a Japanese film director from Azumino, Nagano prefecture. After his studies in literature at Shinshu University, he began work as a director's assistant. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for his first film, Nihon rettō, in 1965.[2] His 1972 film Shinobu Kawa was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival.[3] His 1973 film Rise, Fair Sun was entered into the 24th Berlin International Film Festival. Sandakan No. 8 received widespread acclaim for tackling the issue of a woman forced into prostitution in Borneo before the outbreak of World War II. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language…

Known for

Death of a Tea Master poster
5.6

Years after the death of legendary tea master Rikyu, his disciple Honkakubo attempts to resolve the mystery of the master's death.

Death of a Tea Master

1989

Sandakan No. 8 poster
7.8

A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.

Sandakan No. 8

1974

The Sea Is Watching poster
5.8

O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.

The Sea Is Watching

2002

Willful Murder poster
8.0

The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical reporter follows the case for years, but the basic question remains unanswered: was the victim killed by members of the burgeoning Communist movement in Japan, or was the death stage-managed by the authorities in hopes of discrediting the Communists?

Willful Murder

1981

The Long Darkness poster
6.5

The relationship between Tetsuro, a university student from a disgraced, burdened family, and Shino, a waitress supporting her impoverished relatives. The couple decides to marry despite the significant emotional and social hardships each faces, viewing their love as a means to overcome the shame and despair inherited from their pasts.

The Long Darkness

1972

Darkness in the Light poster
6.8

A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade.

Darkness in the Light

2001

Film credits

Behind the camera

Death of a Tea Master poster
5.6

Years after the death of legendary tea master Rikyu, his disciple Honkakubo attempts to resolve the mystery of the master's death.

Death of a Tea Master

1989

Sandakan No. 8 poster
7.8

A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.

Sandakan No. 8

1974

Sandakan No. 8 poster
7.8

A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.

Sandakan No. 8

1974

The Sea Is Watching poster
5.8

O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.

The Sea Is Watching

2002

The Sea Is Watching poster
5.8

O-Shin is a young brothel worker who, one night, helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.

The Sea Is Watching

2002

Willful Murder poster
8.0

The president of the Japanese National Railways is found dead during a period in which train service is plagued by numerous layoffs, strikes and shutdowns. The government says that the president was murdered; the police claim it was a suicide. A quizzical reporter follows the case for years, but the basic question remains unanswered: was the victim killed by members of the burgeoning Communist movement in Japan, or was the death stage-managed by the authorities in hopes of discrediting the Communists?

Willful Murder

1981

The Long Darkness poster
6.5

The relationship between Tetsuro, a university student from a disgraced, burdened family, and Shino, a waitress supporting her impoverished relatives. The couple decides to marry despite the significant emotional and social hardships each faces, viewing their love as a means to overcome the shame and despair inherited from their pasts.

The Long Darkness

1972

The Long Darkness poster
6.5

The relationship between Tetsuro, a university student from a disgraced, burdened family, and Shino, a waitress supporting her impoverished relatives. The couple decides to marry despite the significant emotional and social hardships each faces, viewing their love as a means to overcome the shame and despair inherited from their pasts.

The Long Darkness

1972

Darkness in the Light poster
6.8

A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade.

Darkness in the Light

2001

Darkness in the Light poster
6.8

A middle-aged salaryman with a typical family, living quietly in a provincial city (Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture), wakes up one morning in the summer of 1994 to find himself the prime suspect in the biggest mass-murder case of the decade.

Darkness in the Light

2001

Love and Faith poster
6.4

Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin's father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord's plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse.

Love and Faith

1978

Rise, Fair Sun poster
10.0

A 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

Rise, Fair Sun poster
10.0

A 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

The Sea and Poison poster
7.0

Two interns and a nurse are interrogated by American MPs for their involvement in an atrocity during the war: the vivisections of a downed American air crew.

The Sea and Poison

1986

The Sea and Poison poster
7.0

Two interns and a nurse are interrogated by American MPs for their involvement in an atrocity during the war: the vivisections of a downed American air crew.

The Sea and Poison

1986

Luminous Moss poster
6.2

A headmaster and a novelist, looking for inspiration, regard a strange natural phenomenon before sharing stories of their own.

Luminous Moss

1992

Luminous Moss poster
6.2

A headmaster and a novelist, looking for inspiration, regard a strange natural phenomenon before sharing stories of their own.

Luminous Moss

1992

Sun and Stars poster
NR

It's a thrilling, action-packed entertainer with sparks of men versus villains in an up-and-down tale of brothers burning with masculine will and passion.

Sun and Stars

1962

An Ocean to Cross poster
9.0

Set in Japan's Tenpyou era (729-749 CE), four young monks are sent to China to study Buddhism and bring a high priest back to Japan with them. The film tells the tale of the four monks' youth and the life and times of the high priest Ganjin.

An Ocean to Cross

1980

Deep River poster
7.3

A group of Japanese tourists try to forget their pasts and find themselves in India.

Deep River

1995

Deep River poster
7.3

A group of Japanese tourists try to forget their pasts and find themselves in India.

Deep River

1995

The Long Death poster
9.0

On January 26, 1948, a robbery of the Teigin bank took place in Tokyo - the criminal poisoned the bank employees and fled the scene with a large amount of money. In parallel with the investigation conducted by the Japanese police, journalists are also trying to find the culprit. Based on a true incident.

The Long Death

1964

The Long Death poster
9.0

On January 26, 1948, a robbery of the Teigin bank took place in Tokyo - the criminal poisoned the bank employees and fled the scene with a large amount of money. In parallel with the investigation conducted by the Japanese police, journalists are also trying to find the culprit. Based on a true incident.

The Long Death

1964

The Sands of Kurobe poster
7.0

Kitagawa is an engineer charged with construction of a gigantic tunnel through the Japan Alps for the transportation of equipment in the building of the massive Kurobe Dam. The tunnel crosses an earthquake fault and Kitagawa is beleaguered not only by cave-ins and flooding, but by strife between management and the workers's union. Adding to Kitagawa's stress is the knowledge that as his attention is pulled inexorably toward the tunnel construction, his youngest daughter is dying from leukemia.

The Sands of Kurobe

1968

The Sands of Kurobe poster
7.0

Kitagawa is an engineer charged with construction of a gigantic tunnel through the Japan Alps for the transportation of equipment in the building of the massive Kurobe Dam. The tunnel crosses an earthquake fault and Kitagawa is beleaguered not only by cave-ins and flooding, but by strife between management and the workers's union. Adding to Kitagawa's stress is the knowledge that as his attention is pulled inexorably toward the tunnel construction, his youngest daughter is dying from leukemia.

The Sands of Kurobe

1968

Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi poster
NR

1962 Japanese movie

Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi

1962

Isseki Nicho poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Isseki Nicho

1961

Love in Ginza poster
5.0

Hanjiro is a struggling painter that shares a tiny apartment in the back streets of Ginza with his jazz pianist friend who works at a bar. When he and his sweet heart, Hisako decide to get married, Hanjiro is faced with a tough decision. Needing to buy a ticket back home to tell his mother the good news, he compromises his creative principles for love and sells his portrait of Hisako. Hisako heads to the station to see him off, but gets hit by a car...

Love in Ginza

1962

A Chain of Islands poster
6.8

When a US army sergeant is found drowned in Tokyo Bay, an investigation is launched to determine how and why he lost his life. The investigation uncovers a black market scheme involving counterfeit money, murder, and conspiracy.

A Chain of Islands

1965

A Chain of Islands poster
6.8

When a US army sergeant is found drowned in Tokyo Bay, an investigation is launched to determine how and why he lost his life. The investigation uncovers a black market scheme involving counterfeit money, murder, and conspiracy.

A Chain of Islands

1965

The Call of the Foghorn poster
9.0

A sailor is stuck in the harbor due to an engine failure in his boat, and he learns that a friend of his has died, reportedly from suicide. He begins to investigate the matter himself, and finds there may be more to the story...

The Call of the Foghorn

1960

The Cards Will Tell poster
NR

A 1960 crime film

The Cards Will Tell

1960

Wounded Beast poster
NR

A tense action game that skillfully intertwines the human love between a criminal, his sister and his lover, and the desperate pursuit of a detective who is trying to catch a fleeing young criminal.

Wounded Beast

1959

Apart from Life poster
6.2

A film set in Nagasaki examining prejudice against atom bomb victims.

Apart from Life

1970

Apart from Life poster
6.2

A film set in Nagasaki examining prejudice against atom bomb victims.

Apart from Life

1970

Shikibu monogatari poster
3.7

Toyoichi Otomo suffers from psychological and spiritual troubles after a horrific industrial accident. He lives with his elderly mother and wife near Mt. Aso in rural Kyushu. He seeks solace in a small religious group run by Buddhist nun Chishu-bo who claims to be the 68th descendant of famed 11th century poet Izumi Shikibu. The members of her sect regard her as a living saint. Yet instead of balming his soul, she riles his libido by playing a sexual cat-and-mouse game with the fragile Toyoichi. When she does bed him, it leads to a miracle healing -- followed by a terrible calamity.

Shikibu monogatari

1990

Shikibu monogatari poster
3.7

Toyoichi Otomo suffers from psychological and spiritual troubles after a horrific industrial accident. He lives with his elderly mother and wife near Mt. Aso in rural Kyushu. He seeks solace in a small religious group run by Buddhist nun Chishu-bo who claims to be the 68th descendant of famed 11th century poet Izumi Shikibu. The members of her sect regard her as a living saint. Yet instead of balming his soul, she riles his libido by playing a sexual cat-and-mouse game with the fragile Toyoichi. When she does bed him, it leads to a miracle healing -- followed by a terrible calamity.

Shikibu monogatari

1990

Two People, Yet All Alone poster
NR

1962 Japanese movie

Two People, Yet All Alone

1962

To Love poster
6.7

Mitsu works in a factory and has a crush on Tsutomu, a young man she met on the Tokyo streets. One day the two go out, and after some deception, Tsutomu manages to have his way with her. Coming from a broken home, he is frightened by love, so he cruelly allows her to wake up alone. A month passes and a more grown-up Tsutomu returns. The lovers joyously reunite and move in together. All is blissful until both notice a strange sore on Mitsu's arm. The doctors diagnose it as leprosy. Without telling Tsutomu, Mitsu checks into a leper sanitarium. Hanging out with society's pariahs gives her much insight. She discovers the old lepers to be wonderful people. In turn, Mitsu becomes their source of joy and renewed hope. Still, she misses her Tsutomu. One day, the doctors inform her that they erred and that the sore is not leprosy. Happily she heads back to her true love until she realizes with a guilty pang that to return to him would mean unhappiness for her newfound friends

To Love

1997

To Love poster
6.7

Mitsu works in a factory and has a crush on Tsutomu, a young man she met on the Tokyo streets. One day the two go out, and after some deception, Tsutomu manages to have his way with her. Coming from a broken home, he is frightened by love, so he cruelly allows her to wake up alone. A month passes and a more grown-up Tsutomu returns. The lovers joyously reunite and move in together. All is blissful until both notice a strange sore on Mitsu's arm. The doctors diagnose it as leprosy. Without telling Tsutomu, Mitsu checks into a leper sanitarium. Hanging out with society's pariahs gives her much insight. She discovers the old lepers to be wonderful people. In turn, Mitsu becomes their source of joy and renewed hope. Still, she misses her Tsutomu. One day, the doctors inform her that they erred and that the sore is not leprosy. Happily she heads back to her true love until she realizes with a guilty pang that to return to him would mean unhappiness for her newfound friends

To Love

1997