Kaneto Shindō

Directing

Kaneto Shindō

Born — Died

1912-04-22 — 2012-05-29

Place of birth

Hiroshima, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

48 titles

Kaneto Shindo (新藤 兼人, Shindō Kaneto, April 22, 1912 – May 29, 2012) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and author. He was married to actress Nobuko Otowa (1925–1994), who appeared in several of his films. He directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include Children of Hiroshima, The Naked Island, Onibaba, Kuroneko and A Last Note. His scripts were filmed by such directors as Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Fumio Kamei and Tadashi Imai. He won the 1996 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year for A Last Note. Shindo was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, and he made several films about Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. Like his earl…

Known for

Hachiko poster
7.8

The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.

Hachiko

1987

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun poster
7.6

A war widow determined to clear the name of her disgraced husband, who was court-martialed for desertion and executed. Official records have been destroyed, and the ministry that distributes benefits continues to deny her a pension. Twenty-six years after the war, she seeks out four survivors of her husband's garrison. Each tells a dramatically different story about her husband's conduct, but she is determined to learn the truth.

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun

1972

Onibaba poster
7.7

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

Onibaba

1964

Kuroneko poster
7.4

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost.

Kuroneko

1968

The Perfect Education poster
5.4

Schoolgirl Kuniko is kidnapped by a middle-aged man Iwazono when she is jogging. He tells her that he had a failed marriage which leaves him a deep and everlasting scar in his mind. He kidnaps her in search of a perfect marriage and intends to lock her in the room and 'educate' her to perform perfect sex where body and soul are united.

The Perfect Education

1999

Edo Porn poster
5.9

The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.

Edo Porn

1981

Film credits

Behind the camera

Hachiko poster
7.8

The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.

Hachiko

1987

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun poster
7.6

A war widow determined to clear the name of her disgraced husband, who was court-martialed for desertion and executed. Official records have been destroyed, and the ministry that distributes benefits continues to deny her a pension. Twenty-six years after the war, she seeks out four survivors of her husband's garrison. Each tells a dramatically different story about her husband's conduct, but she is determined to learn the truth.

Under the Flag of the Rising Sun

1972

Onibaba poster
7.7

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

Onibaba

1964

Onibaba poster
7.7

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

Onibaba

1964

Kuroneko poster
7.4

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost.

Kuroneko

1968

Kuroneko poster
7.4

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost.

Kuroneko

1968

The Perfect Education poster
5.4

Schoolgirl Kuniko is kidnapped by a middle-aged man Iwazono when she is jogging. He tells her that he had a failed marriage which leaves him a deep and everlasting scar in his mind. He kidnaps her in search of a perfect marriage and intends to lock her in the room and 'educate' her to perform perfect sex where body and soul are united.

The Perfect Education

1999

Edo Porn poster
5.9

The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.

Edo Porn

1981

Edo Porn poster
5.9

The world-famous woodblock artist Hokusai (1760-1849), a widower in need of a steady income, lives with his daughter Oei in the house of his friend Bakin.

Edo Porn

1981

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage poster
7.1

Zatoichi's trek through 88 temples to atone for his violent past is interrupted as he stumbles into a village terrorized by a violent yakuza boss.

Zatoichi's Pilgrimage

1966

The Strange Tale of Oyuki poster
7.2

A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise.

The Strange Tale of Oyuki

1992

The Strange Tale of Oyuki poster
7.2

A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise.

The Strange Tale of Oyuki

1992

The Naked Island poster
8.0

A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.

The Naked Island

1960

The Naked Island poster
8.0

A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.

The Naked Island

1960

The Naked Island poster
8.0

A family of four are the sole inhabitants of a small island, where they struggle each day to irrigate their crops.

The Naked Island

1960

The Perennial Weed poster
7.0

A detective wonders that his sister is a murder suspect.

The Perennial Weed

1975

Irezumi poster
6.8

Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality seems to transform under its influence.

Irezumi

1966

The Geisha House poster
7.7

Set in a Kyoto geisha house during the post-WWII era, the young Omocha begins her rigorous apprenticeship within the traditional community of geiko and maiko. She must navigate complex internal rivalries and a strict social hierarchy while the house struggles to maintain its customs. As modern society shifts around them, the residents face the increasing pressure of Japan's changing cultural identity.

The Geisha House

1999

The Battle of Okinawa poster
7.8

The 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

Night Drum poster
5.9

Following a yearlong attendance upon his shogun in Edo, samurai Hikokuro makes a long-awaited return to his home and doting wife, Dane. Initially greeted by the effusive welcome of his family, spiteful whispers also reach his ear about an adulterous affair carried on, in his long absence, between his wife and a famous drummer. With Hikokuro’s honor imperiled by rumor, his family insists on a formal investigation into the veracity of the gossip. Through the combined testimony of many witnesses, a tale unwinds around the visits of a traveling musician hired to tutor the family heir, the spurned attentions of the man who started the rumor, and the ultimate truth behind the accusations. The conclusion of events prove as much an indictment of bushidō as it is of the reluctant parties involved. Adapted from a 1706 play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon and based on a true case.

Night Drum

1958

The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka poster
6.6

The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined to win his love that they volunteer as subjects for his experiments

The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka

1967

Two Wives poster
7.3

After a random encounter at a bar, two couples collide. Two men, two women, embroiled in a love-and-hate drama that threatens to engulf them. The sexual anxiety between the interwoven couples tautens right up to the nearly unbearable tension of the climax...

Two Wives

1967

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

Easy-Going Married Couple poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Easy-Going Married Couple

1956

Tsumiki kuzushi poster
10.0

A conflict between parents and their delinquent daughter.

Tsumiki kuzushi

1983

The Life of Chikuzan poster
8.2

After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s, the rough-hewn blind shamisen player and folk-song collector named Takahashi Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a peasant on a remote and arid island.

The Life of Chikuzan

1977

The Life of Chikuzan poster
8.2

After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s, the rough-hewn blind shamisen player and folk-song collector named Takahashi Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a peasant on a remote and arid island.

The Life of Chikuzan

1977

Faraway Sunset poster
10.0

Faraway Sunset tells the story of the famed bacteriologist who is known to have discovered the agent that cause syphilis, and for his relentless search for a cure to yellow fever. As a toddler, his mother's neglect had caused an accident to his left hand, fusing together all the fingers in a bizarre twist of fate. Naturally extremely remorseful for being the cause of her son's handicap, she does everything she could to ensure that he gets to lead a normal life, despite having to fend off bullies and unfair prejudices.

Faraway Sunset

1992

Manji poster
6.5

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture.

Manji

1964

The Bride from Japan poster
9.0

A young Japanese-American comes from California looking for a bride, going on blind dates with three candidates from Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya.

The Bride from Japan

1959

The Bride from Japan poster
9.0

A young Japanese-American comes from California looking for a bride, going on blind dates with three candidates from Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya.

The Bride from Japan

1959

A Last Note poster
7.1

A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past

A Last Note

1995

A Last Note poster
7.1

A retired actress whose husband has recently died visits her summer home. There she has encounters with old friends and acquaintances who bring various stories and news of death and the past

A Last Note

1995

The Ball at the Anjo House poster
7.0

After Japan's defeat in the war, the Anjo family lose their peerage and wealth. Since their mansion is due to pass into the hands of a creditor, the family holds one last ball before leaving.

The Ball at the Anjo House

1947

Tokyo Elegy poster
NR

In 1945, in a Shanghai filled with a palpable sense of unease as the war was still raging, Atsuko Kijima and Ryuji Kudo fell in love and exchanged promises of marriage. Ryuji was deployed shortly thereafter, and after the war ended, he was taken to Siberia as a prisoner of war. Atsuko, who had returned to Tokyo, clung to the promise she had made with Ryuji—that if he were safe, he would “come to the garden of St. Nicholas Cathedral at noon on Christmas Day.” Relying on that promise, she went to St. Nicholas Cathedral at noon on Christmas Day in both 1946 and 1947, but Ryuji never appeared.

Tokyo Elegy

1951

Hymn poster
6.6

The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings.

Hymn

1972

Hymn poster
6.6

The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings.

Hymn

1972

Rika 3: Juvenile's Lullaby poster
6.0

Reform schools are a way of protecting society by ridding it of lawless juvenile delinquents. But who's protecting the juvenile delinquents from corrupt reform schools? Rica could be considered a bit of an expert on reform schools, having spent most of her early life in and out of them. When Rica is dragged back once again, she gets a severe beating and is finally sent off to a mental hospital with the intention of selling her and her pals into a slave trade. A trader takes Rica's friend Jun to a mountain cottage where she's pegged for the lead in his clandestine porno film operation. Once again, it's up to tough-as-nails Rica to bust up this corrupt racket once and for all!

Rika 3: Juvenile's Lullaby

1973

Fighting Elegy poster
7.0

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.

Fighting Elegy

1966

Kanawa poster
6.0

A woman takes revenge on her husband after he leaves her for a younger woman by harassing the couple with unwanted phone calls at night.

Kanawa

1972