
Acting
Miki Odagiri (小田切美喜) was known primarily for her important and timeless role as the upbeat office girl in Akira Kurosawa's classic Ikiru opposite Takashi Shimura, whose character is dying of cancer, and Miki, as Toyo Odagiri, inspires him to live... just by being herself: bubbly, spontaneous, and optimistic. Her character is also filled with blunt sarcasm that was extremely rare in movies of the early-1950's. Perhaps Miki and Takashi's most memorable scene is when she's telling him the nicknames she created for their fellow workmates... including his! Sadly, beyond Ikiru, finding the handful of other Japanese movies she appeared in, especially on DVD or Blu Ray, is extremely difficult. But she left an impression in what's considered not only one of the legendary Kurosawa's greatest achievements, but one of the best movies ever made, worldwide.

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Yasuichiro Isa, who works in the labor section of Sone Mining Tokyo Headquarters, paid a monthly fee for his younger brother, Reiji, who was in trouble because he had a bonus of 10,000 yen more.

Akiko Yasutomi, an 18-year-old high school student, lives in poverty with her mother Hisako, but she has feelings for her cousin, a medical student named Masato Miki, who lives upstairs. However, when Masato becomes a part-time tutor for Akiko's classmate, Natsuko Shigeno, and Akiko becomes close to Natsuko, Akiko feels lonely. These feelings also help her to lose her purity to Junichi Yoda, whom she met by chance through an accidental mistake.

Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo. Yasuo spreads unpleasant gossip about his rival, and Hatsue's father forbids her to see Shinji. But when the boy saves the passengers on a boat owned by Hatsue's father, his luck in love begins to change.

A young woman, who must support her father as a middle-aged man's mistress, finds herself falling in love with a student closer to her age.

Story of a romance between a middle-aged journalist and a young woman.

1962 Japanese movie

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation, such as scholars and noblemen. In this historical and biographical drama, this is the situation that the young Shinran (1173-1263) discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time.

A priest in Hokkaido adopts a blind orphan girl, and as she grows up he finds himself falling in love with her.

Film directed by Shima Koji and starring Wakao Ayako
