Movies: Toho Eiga Co Ltd

At the beginning of the Meiji era, three brothers of a samurai family each stand up to the times....

Following Flower Picking Diary (1939), Tamizo directed another film starring Hideko Takamine, based on a story by Nobuko Yoshiya. Takamine plays a poor young girl, trying to become a teacher on her quest to become independent to be able to look after...

“19 vassals of Lord Hosokawa ask permission to commit harakiri with him, as a demonstration of their loyalty. Only Yaichiemon Abe is refused permission, forced instead into the vassalage of his lord’s successor. Humiliated and derided, Yaichiemon eve...

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An irreverent take on a medieval Noh drama, Hokaibo sees Enoken play the titular monk whose lusts drive him to murder....

A 1942 film....

This is the story of a woman who enters the world of sales. She works at a company in Ginza as a typist. She determines that she needs money for her family and herself and asks her co-worker, who is a salesman, for guidance on sales. Armed with the i...

A typically modern take on the well-known Naniwabushi character (and real life 19th-century gangster) Mori no Ishimatsu, whose proverbial stupidity Enoken takes to farcical extremes....

My Daughter's Only Wish tells the story of a poorly paid and clumsy office clerk, played with much comedic talent by Atsushi Watanabe. His biggest problem: His daughter Hideko is too clever and is expected by her teachers to enter the school for high...

Enoken plays legendary ninja Sarutobi Sasuke, whose magical powers never help as much as expected - in war or in love....

A Fond Face from the Past is also set in a rural community, specifically a village outside Kameoka, near Kyoto. In some ways this short, thirty-six-minute film is Naruse's most moving negotiation of the militarist restrictions of the time, perhaps be...

1941 Toho adaptation of Natsume's novel....

This is a rokyoku film of Tenjuken Ungetsu II (Hideko Itami), a popular rokyoku performer who was famous for her seven different voices for men and women of all ages....

A self-absorbed young actor humiliates an elderly Noh performer, who then commits suicide. His act of cruelty compels his father to disown him, leading the once promising actor to a life on the streets. But his desire to win back the respect of his f...

Two brothers move to their grandfather's house after their father is drafted and play war games with their new classmates....

Twenty-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 a...

A man attacks the shogun, but does not succeed in his assassination attempt. He flees to the mountains and hides in a shed. There he finds an old man and a girl. The latter is the daughter of Shogun's former wife and also has revenge on her mind. The...

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A documentary on the living practices of farmers in rural japan during the 1940s....

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