
Acting
Bokuzen Hidari
Born — Died
1894-02-20 — 1971-05-26
Place of birth
Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan
Known for
Acting
Credits
60 titles
Bokuzen Hidari (左 卜全 Hidari Bokuzen, 20 February 1894 - 26 May 1971) was a Japanese actor and comedian born in Kotesashi Village (now part of Tokorozawa), Iruma District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. He appeared in such films as Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, The Lower Depths and Ikiru. Hidari was famous among Japanese audiences for his portrayals of meek, downtrodden men, and although a teetotaller, was renowned for his convincing drunk scenes (see esp. "Ikiru").
Known for
8.5A 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
8.3Kanji 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
8.2Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Red Beard
1965
7.5Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.
Forever a Woman
1955
7.1A failed science experiment gives a librarian the ability to turn into a gaseous substance. He goes on to rob banks to fund his dancer girlfriend's career, killing those who interfere. Now Tokyo's most wanted criminal, can authorities stop him?
The Human Vapor
1960
5.9A nuclear explosion in the far north unleashes Gamera, the legendary flying turtle, from his sleep under the ice. In his search for energy, Gamera wreaks havoc over the entire world, and it's up to the scientists, assisted by a young boy with a strange sympathic link to the monster, to put a stop to Gamera's rampage.
Gamera, the Giant Monster
1965
Film credits
1970s · 3 titles
7.4Traveling salesman Kuruma Torajirō falls in love with an inn manager as New Year's approaches.
Tora-san, His Tender Love
1970
8.0Comedy of an entertainment agent and strip-teasers.
Follow the Girls
1971
8.0Students against teachers in the wildest kiss-stealing, petting-orgy ever.
Shameless School: Tackle Kiss
1970
1960s · 28 titles
8.2Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Red Beard
1965
7.1A failed science experiment gives a librarian the ability to turn into a gaseous substance. He goes on to rob banks to fund his dancer girlfriend's career, killing those who interfere. Now Tokyo's most wanted criminal, can authorities stop him?
The Human Vapor
1960
5.9A nuclear explosion in the far north unleashes Gamera, the legendary flying turtle, from his sleep under the ice. In his search for energy, Gamera wreaks havoc over the entire world, and it's up to the scientists, assisted by a young boy with a strange sympathic link to the monster, to put a stop to Gamera's rampage.
Gamera, the Giant Monster
1965
7.8A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to a remote branch in a small town. Before he leaves, he gives the man's widow a large sum of money that she uses to move back to her hometown.
Two in the Shadow
1967
7.5Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from him a reduction in taxes. Shiba takes up their fight, joined by two renegades from the magistrate's guard, Sakura and Kikyo. The three outlaws find themselves in a battle to the death.
Three Outlaw Samurai
1964
6.4In feudal Japan, gangsters chase a young girl who might testify against their boss. When the gangsters murder the girl's grandfather on sacred ground, the door is opened for the Yokai Monsters to step in.
Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts
1969
NRContemporary comedy.
The Age of Lawless Moneymaking
1961
5.7A young factory worker struggles to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
The Sunshine Girl
1963
7.1Misawa Ihei (Nagato) is traveling with his wife Tae (Iwashita Shima) who abhors the practice of sword fighting for prize money. Tae is the daughter of the clan's chief counselor who married the low-ranking Ihei to avoid becoming the clan lord's mistress. Into the mix comes Oba Gunjuro (Tetsurō Tamba), a mysterious ronin who will do anything for money. This leads to a fitting climax as the forces of hate and love converge while the couple attempt to break through the border!
Samurai from Nowhere
1964
NRComedy about residents of Shinjuku.
Shinjuku Plaza
1969
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Oshichi's Vegetable Store: The No.1 Girl at the Edo Festival
1960
NRThe fourth "Tenamonya" feature. Adapted from the popular television comedy, Fujita stars in this film based on historical events.
Last Days of the Tokugawa Regime: Tenamonya Confusion
1967
7.1Remake of Akira Kurosawa's films "Sanshiro Sugata and "Sanshiro Sugata Part II". A young man, Sanshiro Sugata, troubled by personal problems, takes up judo. His teacher, Shogoro Yano, is a devout man who has aroused the enmity of the local practitioners of jujitsu, the older and more accepted of the two sports. Sugata uses his newly learned prowess to gain a measure of respect from others; however, Shogoro insists that the sport has a spiritual side, a lesson Sugata has yet to learn. Eventually, in hand-to-hand combat with the father of a young woman he loves, he comes to understand the true meaning of judo.
Sanshiro Sugata
1965
6.8Daisuke Honda, a war photographer in Vietnam, meets Yuriko Sawanouchi, a stewardess on his plane back to Japan. After drinking with her at a Tokyo bar, he becomes involved in saving Yuriko from assassination by stylish, female ninjas. When trying to rescue Yuriko from kidnappers, Daisuke discovers a group of foreigners are hunting for a WWII-era treasure hidden on an island by Yuriko's father.
Black Tight Killers
1966
7.0Joe, Okita, and Serizawa hear of the armed robbery of a truck carrying one billion eighty million yen's worth of Mint paper. Knowing that the thugs will now need a counterfeiter to make the bogus bills, they each decide to cash in on it by selling them the idea that they need Sakamoto, the best counterfeiter in Japan. A seesaw game unfolds between the three men as each tries to outdo the other two in handing over Sakamoto for one million yen to Hijikata, the big boss, who intends to make counterfeit money with the stolen paper. A little belatedly, they realize it needs their combined forces to outwit Hijikata and they raid his place together. Outnumbered, however, they are thrown into a basement room and the gas is turned on. Certain death stares them in the face, but the three men are not ones to take things lying down....
Danger Pays
1962
NRSequel to "何処へ" (1966). A coming-of-age drama adapted from the novel by Yojiro Ishizaka.
Zoku izuko e
1967
NRThe 10th "Ekimae" feature.
Heavenly Gods in Front of the Train Station
1964
6.5In Osaka's slum, capricious folks without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the trading of ID cards and blood.
The Sun's Burial
1960
7.0No synopsis available yet.
This Madding Crowd
1962
7.0A high school boy and girl in the midst of their youth try to get their parents to remarry.
Red Bud and White Flower
1962
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Onsen Geisha
1963
10.0Fourth entry in the Ekimae series, focusing on the restoration of a Fukushima hot spring inn.
A Comedy in Front of the Station: Onsen
1962
6.5The life in a small village in Shikoku and the love story between two young people.
Song of Love
1967
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Local Reporter
1962
6.5Japan, February 1868. As the Tokugawa shogunate declines and the power of Emperor Meiji grows, Gonzo, a soldier of the Restoration Army, returns to Sawando, his hometown, to announce the end of tyranny.
Red Lion
1969
6.5Fourth entry in Toho's Wakadaishō series directed by Jun Fukuda and released on a simultaneous screening with Matango. Filmed on location in Hawaii.
Young Guy in Hawaii
1963
NRThis is a film adaptation of a popular NHK drama that depicts a strong-willed woman, Hana, who lives a lively life while being swept up in the waves of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras.
Ohana han
1966
9.0Gen is a lonely orphan boy. His sole sense of companionship comes from an imaginary friend, the god Prince Fudo-Myo. Prince Fudo-Myo comes to the boy's rescue in times of difficulty.
The Youth and His Amulet
1961
1950s · 29 titles
8.5A 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
8.3Kanji 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
7.5Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.
Forever a Woman
1955
7.0A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.
The Idiot
1951
7.2A poor rickshaw driver finds himself helping a young woman and her son after the woman's husband dies suddenly.
The Rickshaw Man
1958
7.3An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.
I Live in Fear
1955
6.1Lavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.
The Legend of the White Serpent
1956
NRKeita, who had been taken along as a cover for his father-in-law’s affair, was discovered by his new wife when she unexpectedly showed up while he was sharing a room with a geisha.
The Bride Carries On
1956
7.5A woman marries, gives birth to a stillborn child, and divorces, falls in love with a hotel-keeper, only to find herself subordinated to his drive for success, takes up with a tailor who cannot console himself with her strong personality.
Untamed Woman
1957
6.9A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.
Scandal
1950
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Hanayome no tameiki
1956
7.1Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
The Lower Depths
1957
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The Bell of Love
1959
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Easy-Going Married Couple
1956
5.5The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. But Ouso prevails in the mission and returns to his father's castle under a new name, Prince Yamato Takeru. Otomo plots to have the Prince sent into even greater danger, but Otomo is unaware that the gods have favored the Prince and the outcome is far from what any of them expected.
The Three Treasures
1959
NRComedy about a car salesman delivering a late model station wagon from Tokyo to Izumo to a representative of the Japanese Diet, who plans to use the car in a bribe.
Fancy Talker
1958
NRJidai-geki by Kiyoshi Saeki
Tenpo Suikoden - Otone's Night Fog
1950
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The Girl in the Target
1957
No synopsis available yet.
Kingoro's Pure Diary: Comic Yakuza Story
1957
NRNo synopsis available yet.
A Week in Hawaii
1959
6.7The story is about the social problems faced by Japan's indigenous Ainu, mostly centered on the reactions of the characters to their oppressed state.
A Whistle in My Heart
1959
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Gendai no yokubô
1956
9.0Based on the novel "Ekimae Ryokan" by Masuji Ibuse, a longtime hotel employee struggles to bring his old-fashioned ryokan in line with postwar Japanese business practices.
The Hotelman's Holiday
1958
NRA comedy about newlyweds.
Shinkon noroke bushi
1953
6.6Mataemon Araki, a renowned swordsman, helps a young man find vengeance.
Vendetta of a Samurai
1952
9.0Yoshida Denkichi does loses sight of his wife Chiyoko and daughter Toyoko during the war, and is taken in by a familiar woman, Oshige, and becomes the owner of "Fujimura" in the town of Hato. Eiko is a timid woman who hates Terada, a watchmaker who is obsessed with her; Tamie is a hard worker who asks for money from customers to support her mother and daughter Teruko; Tane, who dreams of the day they can be together, gives money to her lover Takeda; Machiko, an apres girl, is selective about her customers in the name of romance. They are women working in the red light district at "Fujimura."
House of Many Pleasures
1955
NRThe fourth "Otora-san" feature.
Otora-san's Ghostly Rascals
1958
6.5In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess Yuhime steals the scrolls, Tasaburo, a samurai with magical powers, and his brother Senshiro are sent to retrieve them.
Yagyu Secret Scrolls
1957
10.0No synopsis available yet.
All is Well
1955
