Kumeko Urabe Movies

A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness.

War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly...

The sexual experiences of the passionate Sakiko, from her fling with her boss in her first job to her ending up as a prostitute.

Melodrama by Kon Ichikawa

Part 2 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series

1959 adaptation of Junichiro Tanizaki's novel.

Ushimatsu's father told him never to reveal his lower-caste heritage; years later, he now contemplates confiding in an activist fighting against such...

1945 Japanese movie

Jiro, a smooth-talking, womanizing bartender, flees from a Yakuza boss to Yanagase.

Out of the blue, a bourgeois family on the Sea of Japan finds an unconscious woman on the beach and decides to let her board.

Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic...

A teacher in a poor island community tries to improve his students' spirits by entering them in a volleyball tournament as long-shot underdogs.

Atsuko is an office secretary who is also her family's primary source of income and caretaker in postwar Japan.

Gangsters Ken and Maki are rivals in the ticket-scalping game. They make an uneasy truce, but Ken wrecks the truce by agreeing to fix a boxing match...

In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts...

A film by Kiyoshi Saeki

1953 Toho adaptation of Natsume's novel.

Tokyo, 1890. Through avarice, a series of misunderstandings, and failures of courage, the engagement of Kan-ichi (a student) and Miya (the daughter...

Japanese prison exploitation movie. Part 1 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series

Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial...