Yōko Sugi
Acting
Biography
Yōko Sugi (8 October 1928 – 15 May 2019) was a Japanese actress mainly active in the 1950s, who appeared in films of Mikio Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka and Tadashi Imai. Sugi was born on 28 October 1928 in what is now Bunkyō Ward, Tokyo, Japan. In 1947, she auditioned at Toho studio's "New Face" competition and received a contract. She debuted in Tadashi Imai's 1949 Aoi Sanmyaku, and performed in several other coming of age films. She repeatedly appeared in films of Mikio Naruse, including Repast, Husband and Wife, and Sound of the Mountain, and in Kinuyo Tanaka's Forever a Woman and The Moon Has Risen. In 1962, Sugi married an American, retired from the entertainment industry, and moved to the United States, where she worked as a public relations manager at the New Otani Hotel in Los Angeles. Occasionally returning to Japan, she appeared in films like Shirō Toyoda's The Twilight Years. She served as a Japanese Cultural Envoy to the United States for the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2005. Sugi moved back to Japan in 2017. She died of cancer on May 15, 2019.
Known For
A bride arrives at the Shimizu household, where the seven members of the family live as they please. However, the groom, the youngest son of the family, is going to study alone in the USA, and the bride is left alone in the eccentric house.
Kininaru Yomesan
In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.
Drunken Angel
Riyo, an orphaned 17-year old, sails from Yokohama to Hawaii in 1918 to marry Matsuji, a man she has never met. Hoping to escape a troubled past and start anew, Riyo is bitterly disappointed upon her arrival: her husband is twice her age. The miserable girl finds solace with her new friend Kana, a young mother who helps Riyo accept her new life.
Picture Bride
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.
Sound of the Mountain
Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.
Forever a Woman
A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.
Mr. Pu
A young woman tries to raise money to open her own coffee shop. She arranges a loan when her rigid family won't help and then her husband becomes jealous of the loan officer.
A Wife's Heart
1960 Japanese movie
Jiyūgaoka fujin
A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.
Husband and Wife
In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.
Repast
Following the Second World War, the lives of various people in a poverty-stricken area of Tokyo are entertwined. Pachinko parlor girls, shoeshine boys, a maker of costume jewelry, and a streetcorner artist all struggle to make their livings and to find happiness in difficult surroundings.
Tokyo Sweetheart
Mokichi Asai is a widowed father living in Nara with three daughters—Chizuru, Ayako, and Setsuko. The youngest, Setsuko, plays matchmaker for her older sisters, leading to humorous and awkward romantic entanglements.
The Moon Has Risen
No description available.
Wakôdo no uta
The story of five sisters.
Five Sisters
This little seen early work by Ichikawa was produced during the director's Shintoho period (1947-51). Written by Kaneto Shindô and featuring Ryô Ikebe as a young policeman it is part crime drama, part social study. Definitely not an undiscovered masterpiece, but still a must for Ichikawa buffs.
Pursuit At Dawn
Teacher Yukiko finds herself in opposition to conservative faculty and villagers after defending a student for being in a relationship with a young man from Tokyo.
The Blue Mountains: Part I
Continuation of The Blue Mountains: Part I. Released a week later.
The Blue Mountains: Part II
In post-war Japan, The Second Drawer follows Funada, a devoted company man whose planned family trip is disrupted by the sudden death of his boss. Thrust into a delicate business negotiation and a chance encounter with a mysterious woman, he becomes entangled in a quiet storm of corporate intrigue, personal sacrifice, and emotional complexity. As relationships shift and secrets surface, Funada must navigate the fine line between duty and desire in a world where ambition and morality rarely
Executive Chair
Portmanteau film about young lovers.
The First Kiss
A film by Kiyoshi Saeki