Isao Tamagawa

Acting

Isao Tamagawa

Born — Died

1922-01-11 — 2004-01-01

Place of birth

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Acting

Credits

65 titles

Known for

Onihei Hankachō poster
7.8

Hasegawa is a chief police of big heart who leads a band of samurai police and cultivates reformed criminals as informants to solve difficult crimes.

Onihei Hankachō

1989

Taikouki poster
NR

Based on the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (February 2, 1537 – September 18, 1598) a Sengoku period daimyo who unified Japan.

Taikouki

1965

Kwaidan poster
7.7

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Kwaidan

1965

Chiba Shusaku: Kendo Masshigura poster
NR

Chiba Shusaku: Kendo Masshigura is a Japanese period drama that aired on the TBS network from November 2, 1970 to August 30, 1971 in the "Brother Gekijo" slot. It ran for 44 colour episodes of 30 minutes each. Based on Sohachi Yamaoka's novel "Chiba Shusaku", it depicts the youth of Chiba Shusaku, founder of the Hokushin Itto-ryu school of swordsmanship. A hot-blooded young man who calls himself Shusaku enters the dojo of Asari Matashichiro and, through encounters with all kinds of people, grows rapidly both in swordsmanship and in character. Produced by TBS and Shochiku. Rerun on the Japanese CS channel Jidaigeki Senmon Channel from March 17, 2025.

Chiba Shusaku: Kendo Masshigura

1970

Zigeunerweisen poster
6.5

A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.

Zigeunerweisen

1980

Port Arthur poster
7.4

Depicts the bloody siege of the fortress of Port Arthur, one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world, during the Russo-Japanese War of (1904 - 1905). In the story dominated the character Lt Takeshi Kogyo (Teruhiko Aoi), teachers, and a reserve officer who became commander of the platoon and later company. At the same time monitors the conduct of the army commander general Nogi (Tatsuya Nakadai), which was commissioned of the emperor Matsuhito (Toshirô Mifune) to the conquest of the fort.

Port Arthur

1980

Film credits

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 16 titles

Graveyard of Honor poster
6.7

A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the yakuza but quickly loses his self-control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.

Graveyard of Honor

1975

Mount Hakkoda poster
6.6

Two infantry regiments of the Imperial Japanese Army—210 men overall—tackled Mt. Hakkoda in the winter of 1902 to prepare for war with Russia.

Mount Hakkoda

1977

A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness poster
5.6

A rookie golfer must cope with the stress of fame after a marketing executive transforms her into a sports celebrity.

A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness

1977

Utamaro's World poster
5.6

Utamaro was an artist who lived in Edo (which was later to become modern-day Tokyo) in the late 18th century. This film, which has a complex and wide-ranging storyline, recreates the world of that time, as it appeared in Utamaro's paintings.

Utamaro's World

1977

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

Sweet Revenge poster
6.8

Masao is falsely accused and jailed for the murder of a loanshark to whom he owed a lot of money. His sister Kiriko makes the long trip to Tokyo, specifically to accost Otsuka, Japan's top criminal defence lawyer, and plead with him to take her brother's case. They live in Kitakyushu which, though a city, she contends that the local lawyers are not up to the job. Otsuka contemptuously brushes her off. A year passes. Masao has suicided in jail, his appeal having failed due to the lack of interest and competence of the local defence lawyer. Kiriko returns to Tokyo, planning revenge on Otsuka for refusing the case and causing her brother's death.

Sweet Revenge

1977

Shadow Hunters poster
7.2

Set during the declining years of the Tokugawa shogunate, Shadow Hunters details the questionably noble exploits of three ronin who act as "Shadow Hunters". These three ronin are not your normal ornery ruffians who are looking for a drink, a broad and someone to jab a sword into, but are in fact former samurai who, rather than follow their destroyed fiefs and murdered masters into death via seppuku, have dedicated their combined sword prowess to stopping the government from raping its daimyos for valuable resources.

Shadow Hunters

1972

The Militarists poster
7.5

The second film in Toho's series on the military history of the Showa era, Hiromichi Horikawa's war drama offers a look at the career of controversial politician Hideki Tojo and the strained relationships between Japan's government, military, and the media.

The Militarists

1970

Cobra 2 poster
NR

A Datsun driving, face-punching moody super-cop Cobra Cumera battles homicidal mobsters intent on causing mayhem and trouble in beautifully shot Tokyo. Complete with strippers, muggins, drugs, car chases, bouncy pop tunes, freak-outs, and a saucy lady assassin.

Cobra 2

1976

Black Jack: The Visitor in the Eye poster
6.2

Komori Chiaki is a budding tennis student. However, one day while training, her coach hits a ball into her eye on accident. At the hospital, the news that she will never regain the sight in her eye leaves her heartbroken. As a last resort, she undergoes a costly surgery from the mysterious doctor known as Black Jack, where after a successful operation, a mysterious figure starts to emerge in her vision, and only she can see it.

Black Jack: The Visitor in the Eye

1977

Men and War II: Land of Love and Sorrow poster
6.4

As the Japanese military has established the puppet state of Manchukuo and is advancing its invasion of Asia, fighting intensifying battles against anti-Japanese partisans, the Godai zaibatsu becomes involved in large-scale opium smuggling. Shunsuke, second son of the Godai family, falls in love with a married woman. Meanwhile, Kohei, the love of the second daughter, Junko, throws himself into the anti-war movement.

Men and War II: Land of Love and Sorrow

1971

Teenage Years: Keiko’s Story poster
2.0

High school student Keiko struggles with the pressures of college entrance examinations and a chaotic home life, ultimately succumbing to alcohol, marijuana, gang members and rape.

Teenage Years: Keiko’s Story

1979

The Summit of Mt. Fuji poster
NR

The Japanese government decides to install a radar on the top of Mt. Fuji, in order to detect typhoons as far as 800 km south of the Japanese archipelago, but the task will not be easy.

The Summit of Mt. Fuji

1970

Take Me Away! poster
8.0

Kyoko met Tetsu during her trip to San Francisco. Soon they fell in love but getting married was not in his mind. They were to meet again back in Tokyo but Tetsu didn't turn up. She went to look for him in San Francisco but all she found was him with his new girlfriend. Kyoko went back to Tokyo and eventually married a big corporate CEO.

Take Me Away!

1978

Hazardous Graduation poster
4.0

Sex games by students at a junior high school are exposed by the principal and teachers, but the tables are turned in favor of the students.

Hazardous Graduation

1970

Cross-Currents poster
6.3

A ryokan maid is on trial for pushing a familiar guest off a cliff to his death. An eager attorney offers to take the case to gain notoriety.

Cross-Currents

1972

1960s · 35 titles

Kwaidan poster
7.7

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.

Kwaidan

1965

Tokyo Drifter poster
7.1

After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.

Tokyo Drifter

1966

Branded to Kill poster
7.2

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

Branded to Kill

1967

Story of a Prostitute poster
6.6

Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story of a Prostitute is a tragic love story as well as a rule-bending take on a popular Taijiro Tamura novel, challenging military and fraternal codes of honor, as seen through Harumi's eyes.

Story of a Prostitute

1965

Gate of Flesh poster
6.6

In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post–World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama, shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.

Gate of Flesh

1964

Pale Flower poster
7.4

A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

Pale Flower

1964

Japan's Longest Day poster
7.3

Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen. Emperor Hirohito, however, joins with his ministers in asking the unthinkable, the peaceful surrender of Japan. When the military plots a coup to overthrow the Emperor's civilian government, Anami must face the choice between his desires and loyalty to his Emperor.

Japan's Longest Day

1967

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

House of Terrors poster
5.3

A hunchbacked caretaker presides over a forlorn mansion inhabited by the ghosts of his previous masters. An unbelieving trio (a doctor, his assistant and his niece) fail to heed the caretaker's warnings and are slaughtered horribly by the jealous occupants.

House of Terrors

1965

Tokyo Bay poster
7.0

An investigation into a drug smuggler who is assassinated in front of an insurance building sets two detectives, Sumikawa and Akine, into a sprawling investigation through Tokyo's underworld.

Tokyo Bay

1962

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

Outlaw: Heartless poster
6.8

Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) was indebted to Mitsugimoto. Sawada, a low rank yakuza with a gambling problem owed Mitsugimoto three million yen. This equation can only lead to one answer. Mitsugimoto needs to pay and Goro's coming to collect.

Outlaw: Heartless

1968

Tale of Army Brutality poster
9.5

Director Jun'ya Satô's debut film focuses on the inhuman training of recruits, the brutal drill system that reigned in the Japanese army during World War II, where in the first two years of training, ordinary people were turned into inhuman killers. For his first film, the director was awarded the Blue Ribbon Awards in the Debutant of the Year nomination.

Tale of Army Brutality

1963

Profit from Killing poster
NR

The bustling Ikebukuro area was under the control of the Hanamura Kogyo yakuza gang, and there was no end to the violence. The tramp Bin Tsuzuki returns to his hometown after being released from Abashiri prison, and he is noticed when he saves a student from gangsters from the Hanamura gang. But this was only the beginning of a bloody struggle...

Profit from Killing

1964

Safari 5000 poster
7.2

A Japanese racing driver for Nissan named Godai (Yujiro Ishihara) have a rivalry with a French driver named Pierre (Jean-Claude Drouot). Godai is enlisted to race in an annual endurance race, The East African Safari Rally. Peripheral to this is the story concerning Godai's former lover Yuko (Ruriko Asaoka), a fashion designer, and her friend Anna (Emmanuel Riva), who happens to be Pierre's wife.

Safari 5000

1969

To Your Majesty, The Emperor poster
NR

A conscript from a poor background writes the Emperor asking if he can stay in the army when his service is up.

To Your Majesty, The Emperor

1963

The Flower and the Angry Waves poster
7.2

A young yakuza in love with the girl who's to marry his clan oyabun, kidnaps the girl before fleeing with her. In Tokyo, he hides under the identity of a worker while the young woman becomes a waitress in a restaurant.

The Flower and the Angry Waves

1964

Homecoming poster
NR

Moriya Tomoko, a young girl working for a publishing company, is told by a woman art dealer that her real father did not die, as everyone believes, during the revolution in Cuba, but is now living in Japan. Tomoko's mother has remarried a strict, narrow-minded university professor, whose only worry is protecting his family name from the slightest blemish.

Homecoming

1964

Gambling is My Destiny poster
NR

Shadowed and alone. Today, a melancholy guitar sobs in a wandering seaside town.... To make amends, he hides his identity and saves his girlfriend's sister from certain death. Filmed on location on the scenic Manazuru Peninsula, the action is set amidst rugged rocky terrain and raging waves!

Gambling is My Destiny

1965

Zero Fighter poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Zero Fighter

1966

The Black Gambler: The Gambling Syndicate poster
7.0

Place your bets! Japan's greatest gambler, Koji Himuro (Akira Kobayashi), faces off against an international cabal of gamblers with only his wits and his incredibly skilled left hand against every conceivable way to cheat someone in a game.

The Black Gambler: The Gambling Syndicate

1965

Penitentiary Brothers poster
NR

Authentic action drama of modern gangsters.

Penitentiary Brothers

1969

The Flower and the Sword poster
NR

A dangerous mobster threatens the life of a businessman's mother in this thriller. As Ryuji oversees the building of a bridge in Japan, a powerful gangster plans to stop the project. By any means necessary.

The Flower and the Sword

1964

Call My Black Dice poster
NR

The wandering gambler (Akira Kobayashi) once again picks up the dice he forswore in order to take revenge of the gangsters who exploit good citizens. The second installment in The Gambler series.

Call My Black Dice

1964

Dear Mr. Prime Minister poster
NR

Kakumaru (Kiyoshi Atsumi) is an unpopular manzai performer who is too good-natured but has a very bad manners. Moulin, Kakumaru's former partner, gained popularity through her comedy routine with his wife Rouge, and in contrast to Kakumaru, she became a popular talent. Meanwhile, Kakumaru, inspired by his master's death, decides to move to Tokyo and reunites with Mulan. However, Moulin is caught having an affair by Rouge and is in trouble. For now, he introduces Kakumaru to an entertainment company, but instead of performing manzai, Kakumaru is entrusted with the job of firing a boiler. Kakumaru is completely tired and spends his days drinking alcohol, but one day he meets his childhood friend Ayako again...

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

1964

若い川の流れ poster
NR

The story follows Misako Kitaoka, a junior college graduate and Nitto Lease sales department employee, as she grows through work, love, and friendship. For the sake of the company's managing director and his wife, Misako recommends her colleague Tensuke Sone to Fusako, the managing director's daughter and best friend. Fusako and Sone meet at the executive director's Karuizawa villa, but for some reason Kensuke becomes angry when he learns that Misako is the one who recommended him...

若い川の流れ

1968

対決 poster
10.0

Late Taishō period. The Shibatora family, led by Naojirō, held power over the Tomigawara area in Jōshū. After launching an attack on the Takayasu family for encroaching on their territory, they were instead ambushed by Takayasu's forces. Taking full responsibility, Naojirō turned himself in to the police. Six years later, upon his release, he is enraged to find that everything has changed drastically from how it once was.

対決

1967

Kokoro no sanmyaku poster
9.0

A film dealing with the trials and tribulations of a primary school before and after the Pacific War, set in Fukashima Prefecture.

Kokoro no sanmyaku

1966

The Rough One poster
10.0

A tale of wannabe yakuza youths. When not cooking up scams with his buddies, Zenkichi develops a crush on Taro's disgusted sister, Miki. But soon the young hoods run afoul of their underworld idols when they rob the wrong gang, led by brutal boss Konno. When Zenkichi's pals start to bite the dust, he hooks up with a more traditional yakuza, Tetsugoro, to retaliate.

The Rough One

1969

Seishun no Sabaki poster
NR

University karate club member Kikuo is actually the son of a yakuza boss. However, he disliked his father's business and never spoke about his family at school. One day, his father, Tatsuzo, becomes the guardian of the Yamanaka-gumi.

Seishun no Sabaki

1965

The Stars and I Decided... poster
NR

The brother of an up-and-coming kendoka is mysteriously murdered while working on a new model of motorboat.

The Stars and I Decided...

1965

At the Side of the Bridge 4 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

At the Side of the Bridge 4

1963

Blood Shed poster
7.0

Ginjiro was born to a family of nobility, though he yearned for freedom. To earn this freedom, he affiliates himself with the worst of the worst. Swearing his allegiance to the notorious Kuroiwa crime syndicate, the yakuza family known for its thirst for blood, Ginjiro equips for battle. When a rival family raids their gambling parlor, he slashes a masked henchman. Unbeknown to him, his victim was no henchman.

Blood Shed

1966

Barren Love poster
NR

A young surgeon and a nurse working at a hospital fall in love, but numerous trials stand in their way.

Barren Love

1967

Invasion of Kanto Government poster
NR

A passionate man, driven by his boss's will, who fell to an assassin's blade, dedicates himself to rebuilding the gang. This thrilling, entertaining masterpiece by Eiki weaves together love and longing into its intense portrayal.

Invasion of Kanto Government

1965

1950s · 4 titles

Series credits