Acting
The three-hour Ai yo jinrui to tomo ni are / Love, Be with Humanity (1931) starts as a satire of alienation in the world of money, develops into a lumberland epic with a forest fire on Sakhalin Island, turns into a tragedy of King Lear dimensions, and manages to amaze the blasé audience with a happy end in the Wild West.
Brothers Keiji and Ryoichi move to a new neighborhood in the Tokyo suburbs after their father, an office clerk, is promoted. The boys join the local gang as lowly new kids and emerge as natural leaders after defeating a bully. While visiting the home of their father's boss, the brothers witness the ridicule their father endures to please his superior. Angry and embarrassed, the boys find their naive ideas about power being challenged.
A modern girl suddenly intrudes into a widower's family home.
Japanese silent film from 1928. Kinema Junpo ranked it among the ten best Japanese movies of the year.
Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.
Toshie, a young, conservative secretary-typist has fallen in love with Shozo Narita, a young man she has met through her work.
The 1929 Japanese film "Mother" which helped child actress Hideko Takamine become a star.
A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.
A President of the confectionery company announced his retirement, and his sixteen year old granddaughter, Madoka was ordered to be a new head. But Madoka wants to be a stage dancer, so she won't concentrate her office job. Madoka meets Akiyama, a stage director. Akiyama introduce her to his neighbors. In among poor but open minded people, Madoka has changed. Her new ambition is her company provide nice sweets for children. She decide to focus on the office job. But she doesn't know that company executives has conspiracy against her...
No description available.
A period piece about the love of a wealthy blind woman, a teacher of koto and shamisen, and her devoted manservant. Based on a novella by Tanizaki Junichiro.
Part two of Shimizu's major silent Seven Seas, a family drama of the intertwining fates of the rich, decadent Yagibashis and the far less prosperous Sone family.
Comedy by Kiyohiko Ushihara. Once a full-length feature film, now only 14 minutes remain.
Created by Shochiku’s cultural film department on behalf of the Ministry of Education, this film tells an ironic anecdote juxtaposing the fate of a cooper’s son with that of the son of a middle-class salaried worker, and championing the virtues of honest poverty and diligence. An educational film preaching a fable-like message, it is however filled with humorous scenes that offset the film’s didacticism. Original director Yoshio Nishio fell ill and was replaced halfway through the shooting by the admired filmmaker Hiroshi Shimizu; though finished in May 1931, the film was shelved and never given a general release. Shot as a silent film, this version of the film features musical accompaniment, sound effects, and a spoken commentary track by a benshi narrator, thus bearing witness to the variety of forms taken by sound film during this transitional period.
A farmer’s boy, obsessed with his balsa-and-paper flying models and with dreams of real aircraft, develops a friendship with the daughter of the local squire, who introduces the lad to her pilot brother and his flying officer friends; through hard work, and despite the handicap of a lowly class status, he eventually succeeds in qualifying as a pilot and joining the air force.
A private detective chases a female pickpocket into a film studio and dashes through the sets. With special appearances by a star-studded cast.
A group of rank-and-file soldiers are jailed for crimes against humanity, themselves victims of a nation refusing to bear its burdens as a whole.
