Masao Shirai

Portrait of Chieko

Takamura, a poet and sculptor, marries a budding artist named Chieko who dreams of becoming an oil painter. When a series of hardships befall her family, she finds herself unable to confide in her husband, and the pain she carries within begins to weigh heavily on her sanity...

The Kii River

Epic saga of an idealistic land-owning family dealing with militarism, war, social change and economic reform.

The Scent of Incense

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.

Pale Flower

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

Destroyer Yukikaze

Yutaro Kida, a worker at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, volunteers for the navy but finds himself a cook's mate in the galley of a gunboat. But his dream is eventually realized when he is transferred to the new and powerful destroyer Yukikaze which he helped to build. When the Pacific War breaks out Yukikaze performs valiantly in the South Pacific, and while on shore leave, Kida meets and falls in love with Yukiko, younger sister of his commander.

The Night We Danced

Follows the lives of three sisters who have a dance act together.

A Legend, or Was It?

A Tokyo family escaping the war relocates to a Hokkaido village; their daughter is set to marry the local leader's son, but her siblings disapprove.

Nonsense Boys

Japanese comedy film.

To Your Majesty, The Emperor

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

Shichinin no keiji

Miyoko Sekiguchi, who works at a second-rate trading company, and car mechanic Koji Fukumoto are in love. The morning after Koji and Miyoko went out for a drive, the strangled corpse of a call girl is discovered in Toyamagahara. Chief Akagi, Detective Sergeant Sawada, and the other detectives begin to suspect Koji during their investigation. Koji insists he's innocent, but has no evidence to prove it. Even when detectives come to Miyoko's home and workplace and her coworkers begin to look down on her, Miyoko continues to trust and love Koji...

Escape from Hell

This suspense drama set in the mid 1700's depicts the plan of the Tokugawa rulers to send a number of homeless men to a remote island Sado to perform forced labor. Living conditions on the island are terrible and the men soon become rebellious. Based on a short story by Seichō Matsumoto.

Sing, Young People

A story about four best friends and their lives inside and outside college. Then suddenly one of them receives a surprising offer to be a movie star.

The Body

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

A Flame at the Pier

A young dockworker who owes his life to his boss becomes embroiled in union activity on the Yokohama waterfront. The rebel Saburo works as an errand boy for a shipping company and vents his frustrations by plucking on the guitar.

Ballad of a Workman

A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family.

Akitsu Hot Springs

Yoshida’s first big-budget production and colour film is a haunting tale of unrequited love and postwar disillusion. The story of the fatal attraction between a spineless intellectual and a strong woman is conventional, but its enactment is radically new.

Seikurabe

Japanese drama film.

Tokyo Bay

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.

Drunkard's Paradise

A father and son are both heavy drinkers. However, the son dies in an accident at a bar, leaving behind a fiance…. A unique social satire that focuses on why people drink alcohol.

Honno-Ji in Flames

The plot is based on the novel "Akechi Samanosuke no Koi," the final work in a trilogy by Hiroshi Kato about the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga at the temple Honnoji. Historically, the general Akechi Mitsuhide is credited with causing Nobunaga's downfall. Kato's novel focuses on Mitsuhide's nephew Samanosuke, who fought alongside his uncle during the assault on Honnoji.