
Acting
Heihachirō Ōkawa
Born — Died
1905-09-09 — 1971-05-27
Place of birth
Soka, Saitama, Japan
Known for
Acting
Credits
56 titles
Heihachiro Okawa (Japanese: 大川 平八郎 Hepburn: Ōkawa Heihachirō, 9 September 1905 – 27 May 1971), also sometimes credited as Henry Okawa (ヘンリー大川), was a Japanese film actor active from the 1930s to 1971. With hopes of starting a business, he traveled to the United States in 1923 and studied at Columbia University. He also studied at the Paramount Studios acting school and eventually began working in Hollywood, appearing in films by Howard Hawks and William Wellman. He returned to Japan in 1933 and co-starred in the Photo Chemical Laboratories (PCL) film Horoyoi jinsei. He later appeared in foreign films under the name Henry Okawa. He is best known for Moyuru ōzora (1940), Dawn of Freedom (1944…
Known for
7.8The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957
6.9At the turn of the century, all of the Earth's monsters have been rounded up and kept safely on Monsterland. Chaos erupts when a race of she-aliens known as the Kilaaks unleash the monsters across the world.
Destroy All Monsters
1968
7.0After a meteorite unleashes a three-headed beast upon Tokyo, Mothra tries to unite with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the extraterrestrial threat.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
1964
7.7A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.
Floating Clouds
1955
6.7A ghost man with his face hidden entirely by bandages is killing beautiful nude models. Detective Kindaichi investigates.
Ghost Man
1954
6.4A British officer falls in love with his Japanese instructor at a military language school. They start a romance, but she is regarded as the enemy and is not accepted by his countrymen.
The Wind Cannot Read
1958
Film credits
1960s · 8 titles
6.9At the turn of the century, all of the Earth's monsters have been rounded up and kept safely on Monsterland. Chaos erupts when a race of she-aliens known as the Kilaaks unleash the monsters across the world.
Destroy All Monsters
1968
7.0After a meteorite unleashes a three-headed beast upon Tokyo, Mothra tries to unite with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the extraterrestrial threat.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
1964
7.1After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.
Chûshingura
1962
7.5Agent Jiro Kitami attempts to stop a smuggling ring from shipping arms to Vietcong guerrillas.
Interpol Code 8
1963
NRNo synopsis available yet.
King of the Raccoon Dogs
1966
10.0Yukio, a farm boy, and Toru, a fisherboy, live in a small Japanese village that is periodically threatened by a volcano on one side and tidal waves on the other. Yukio's younger sister Setsu follows then and dreams of becoming a pearl diver. Toru is preparing to go fishing with his father when a bell tolls and a danger flag is hung high on the hill behind the village to warn of an impending tidal wave by the village patriarch, known as Old Gentleman.
The Big Wave
1961
7.0Following combat duty in Korea, a group of United States Marines (Tom Tryon, David Hedison and Tom Reese) are given a furlough in Japan.
Marines, Let's Go
1961
NR1962 Japanese movie
Jūyaku kōho-sei nanbā 1
1962
1950s · 16 titles
7.8The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957
7.7A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.
Floating Clouds
1955
6.7A ghost man with his face hidden entirely by bandages is killing beautiful nude models. Detective Kindaichi investigates.
Ghost Man
1954
6.4A British officer falls in love with his Japanese instructor at a military language school. They start a romance, but she is regarded as the enemy and is not accepted by his countrymen.
The Wind Cannot Read
1958
6.3In Japan, scientifically advanced invaders from the war-destroyed planet Mysteroid cause an entire village to vanish, then send a giant robot out to storm the city by night, after which they request a small patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women, claiming to be pacifists. Mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist.
The Mysterians
1957
5.1A Communist spy ring in Japan is hard at work trying to sabotage the American war effort during the Korean War, using kidnapping, murder and a disturbed former kamikaze pilot. A U.S. secret agent, posing as a reporter, is dispatched to Tokyo to put a stop to these nefarious activities.
Tokyo File 212
1951
7.8Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a brilliant tactician, is a loyal subject of the emperor, despite his grave misgivings about leading Japan's navy into war with the United States. He opposes the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, overruled, he leads his forces to the best of his ability.
The Eagle of the Pacific
1953
NRThe daughter of a former Miss Universe winner finds success as a fashion model in Tokyo following the death of her fiancé.
All of Myself
1954
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The History of Love
1955
7.0A racist sergeant stationed in post-war Japan finds himself softening towards the children and falling for a local woman.
Three Stripes in the Sun
1955
7.0Atsuko is an office secretary who is also her family's primary source of income and caretaker in postwar Japan.
A Ripple in a Morning
1952
10.0The story follows a dysfunctional family whose daily life is thrown into chaos when an English tutor from abroad moves into their home. Her presence awakens hidden desires, jealousy, and emotional conflicts among the father, mother, and children, gradually transforming the entire household. At its heart, the film explores love, rivalry, and the longing for a new beginning.
Husband Comes Home Every Suturday
1954
6.4The troubled relationship between a writer and his ballet teacher wife, who has for years loved another man, finally leads to the breakup of the family.
Dancing Girl
1951
7.5In pre-war Shanghai, a man falls in love with a mysterious woman, but she eventually disappears. Back in Japan, he is obsessed by her memory and tries to recreate the world he knew then.
Lil's Return from Shanghai
1952
6.5Two American G.I.s visiting Tokyo find themselves mixed up with espionage, a pretty flight attendant, a mad scientist, geisha girls, and a goofy magician-hypnotist and his white rabbits.
Geisha Girl
1952
No synopsis available yet.
Love Express
1954
1940s · 11 titles
8.0What is marriage? Young couple in match-making wanted to know before they decide. They visited married couples of sisters and brothers. Love comedy in 1942.
Sky of Hope
1942
NRTwenty-year-old Yoshiko (Setsuko Hara) and her younger sister Asako (Yōko Yaguchi) struggle to accept changes in their home during the preparations of their widowed father's wedding to his chosen bride, Maki Tsuneko (Sadako Sawamura), who's anxious about her conduct as the bride.
Wedding Day
1940
6.8No synopsis available yet.
Wings of Victory
1942
NRThis film was made by the Japanese occupation authorities in the Philippines as a propaganda film to show the Philippine people the "benefits" of the Japanese invasion and takeover of their country.
The Dawn of Freedom
1944
8.0In 1937 fighting erupted between Japanese and Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge. A team of Japanese spies broadcasting radio programs to promote pro-Japanese sentiment were searching for a Chinese speaking announcer. Only 53 minutes of the film survives.
Shanghai Moon
1941
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Keshô yuki
1940
6.2No synopsis available yet.
Bouquet of the South Seas
1942
8.0A bizarre murder at a hot springs resort threatens to disrupt an Edo detective's (Hasegawa) vacation. When his hot-blooded wife (Yamada) starts snooping around, however, he finds himself reluctantly drawn in to the case.
The Man Who Waited
1942
NRPart one of two.
Hikari to kage (Zenpen)
1940
NRA family comprised of a father, mother and three sisters lives in a posh area. The father is a doctor who has to join the army and work at war. The four remaining women have to take care of themselves. The eldest sister is calm and lady-like. The middle sister (played by Hara Setsuko), in contrast, is active and contemporary. She aspires to be a physician too. The story is based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
The Sisters' Agreement
1940
NRThe title might sound shocking, but the red hands mean, the hands which drag fishnets. Ohama, 15 or 16 years old girl lost her family and lived alone in a fishermen's village. She is a strong-minded girl and very popular among young children. I guess that this story is one of the origins of girl's manga in the 1950s in which I belonged to the first generation of Japanese story manga.
Mother of the Red Hands
1941
1930s · 20 titles
6.3Toyomi is pregnant -- and while Shintaro and Yurie are on their extended honeymoon, she bears his child, a girl named Kiyoko. She is supported in adversity by close friend Michiko and her mother but also, surprisingly, Shintaro's mother and siblings. Even moreso, Toyomi and Yurie become friends. Part two of a two-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan.
Learn from Experience, Part Two
1937
6.7After some fruitless career hunting in downtown Tokyo, Chiyo accepts a job as a bar hostess in Shiba ward. Well away from glamorous Asakusa and Ginza, this is a neighbourhood tavern where the women are dirt poor, each having only one kimono to their name...
Morning's Tree-Lined Street
1936
10.0In 1930s Japan, a beer seller and a struggling music student fall in love while chasing their dreams.
Tipsy Life
1933
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The Responsibility of Kissing
1936
6.6Three sisters earn money for their bossy mother by being samisen street musicians. This means mainly playing a banjo type instrument for tips in bars...
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts
1935
NRAdaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.
Drifting
1935
6.7Wealthy young Toyomi and Shintaro are in love. However, Shintaro’s father is arranging for him to marry Yurie, the scion of an even wealthier family. The two lovers flee to Tokyo, but when Shintaro returns to proclaim his intent to marry Toyomi, his father browbeats him into attending the marriage meeting with Yurie. Part one of a two-part romance based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan.
Learn from Experience, Part One
1937
7.2Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs her absent father to act as the go-between and negotiate the marriage. Kimiko travels and finds her father living with a second family.
Wife! Be Like a Rose!
1935
6.7Young Hiroko’s conservative principles place her at odds with most modern women, as she has already submitted to her mother’s choice of man for any marriage prospect. Wed into an affluent family that practically treats her as a housemaid, locked away like a 'doll' by her estimation, Hiroko’s own submission to traditional thinking brings contradictions to light.
A Woman's Sorrows
1937
NRIn 1930s Tokyo, the energetic Enoken and his ragtag group of friends navigate a series of chaotic misadventures involving romance and poverty.
Romantic and Crazy
1934
6.0A five member circus runs into problems while touring rural Japan.
Five Men in a Circus
1935
6.6Mr. Tsurujiro is a Japanese folk singer assisted by Ms. Tsuruhachi on the shamisen. The pair is popular, but he often nitpicks her music and so they split. She marries a benefactor, but after a joint show, feels music is above marriage.
Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro
1938
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Easy Alley
1939
6.3Ino tries to control Mon’s every move, but she becomes a fallen woman, having an affair with a student, Obata whereas her sister San remains a “good girl.” The mother is very supportive of her daughters, but, the father, Akaza, who is the stonecutter foreman on the damn, lacks control of his family.
Brother and Sister
1936
6.2A story of two sisters, the older being more traditional, the younger a "moga" ("modern girl"). Their widowed father runs the family sake shop, but is running into financial trouble, causing him to tamper with his stock; Meanwhile, his long-time mistress yearns for something more serious. Amidst this, the older sister is introduced to a well-off suitor: A university boy, much more intrigued by the less traditional little sister. A doddering grandfather, an officious uncle and busybody neighbors also don't make the lives of the hardworking members of the family any easier.
The Girl in the Rumor
1935
NRThe film tells about the life of the former vassal of the Ako clan - Fuwa Katsuemon Masatane.
Blizzard Ronin
1939
6.7Otherwise promising young man Asaji and his younger brother Yuji face blighted lives due of society's disapproval of their illegitmacy and déclassé family.
The Road I Travel with You
1936
Japanese film based on the life of writer Ichiyo Higuchi (1872-1896).
Ichiyo Higuchi
1939
Musical film
Odoriko nikki
1934
7.0Japanese war movie
Numazu Officer School
1939

