Yoshiko Maki

Rhapsody in August

An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.

Gassan

Akira leaves for the Mt. Gassan foothills before winter's onset, visiting the local temple and interacting with the residents all while falling for fair Fumiko.

The Forest Is Alive

Film adaptation of the stage version of Samuil Marshak's "Twelve Months"

Dodes'ka-den

On a Tokyo dump’s shantytown edge, interwoven vignettes follow residents scraping by: a boy who “drives” an imaginary trolley, a homeless father and son designing a dream house, a young woman brutalized at home, drunks, schemers, and saints of small kindnesses. Kurosawa crafts a ragged mosaic of hardship, fantasy, and flickers of grace that keep people moving forward.

A Trap

When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan's top lawyer to defend her brother. Unfortunately her naive idealism is shattered when the lawyer refuses to take the case based on her insufficient funds. What follows is a long determined revenge plot that sees the heroine become a Tokyo bar hostess and worse to punish the lawyer. The plot thickens with another murder mystery and a sleuthing reporter.

The First Catch

Based on the comic book series of the same name by Yûsuke Aoyagi.

New Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion

Once again we focus on Nami Matsushima. This time she has a sister who goes missing and after getting too caught up in doing something about it, our innocent heroine is given a fifteen year sentence for a murder she didn't commit. She's sent to an all women prison where she's not exactly welcome. Her fellow inmates torture, humiliate and try to kill her; but the Scorpion prevails long enough to get some justice.

Raised in a Palace

Set in the pleasure district of Kyoto, Tamiko (Yoshiko Mita, in her first lead role) is a young girl attending high school by day and training as a geisha at night She sees her future as an entertainer, not a prostitute, & she expects a happy marriage with a medical student, Yasuke (Katsuo Nakamura), a sweet fellow she deeply loves. but things started to getting worse for Tamiko and she's forced to become the mistress of the disgusting Tsukada (Seiji Miyaguchi).

The Empty Table

One year has passed since the Kidojis' eldest son Otohiko was arrested for his part in a terrorist kidnapping, which resulted in multiple deaths. Although the parents of all the other perpetrators have either resigned from their professional positions or taken their own lives, Nobuyuki Kidoji tries to remain adamant that he was not responsible for his son's actions.

Vengeance Is Mine

A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.

Tenpo suiko-den: ohara yugaku

A great famine struck all of Japan: the so-called Great Tenpō famine. It was a time when there were frequent uprisings in rural areas due to farmers losing their land as a result of strict tax collection. The Tonegawa area of ​​Boso was a lawless area for a generation, as two major forces fought against each other: Sukegoro of Iioka, who wields power with his industrial capital behind him, and Shigezo of Sasakawa, a rising yakuza. Furthermore, the successive floods of the Tone River, which could be called fate, forced the farmers into even more poverty and despair. Meanwhile, farmers in Nabe Village continue to live a lethargic life, but agricultural reform is about to begin under the hands of Yugaku Ohara, a ronin who has settled in the village.

Lesson

The days of love between a free-spirited heroine who continues to seek freedom and a young man who is attracted to her charm. Starring Kumiko Akiyoshi.

The Shy Deceiver

A young thug wanna-be yakuza falls in love with a country girl.

Walleyed Nippon

Comedy about a Japanese-American professor, a nuclear scientist, who returns to Japan to search for a typically subservient Japanese wife.