
Yoshiko Kuga
Acting
Biography
Yoshiko Kuga (久我 美子, Kuga Yoshiko, 21 January 1931 – 9 June 2024) was a Japanese actress. Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. In 1946, while still attending Gakushuin Junior High School, she became an actress for Toho studios. In 1947, she made her debut as one of the lead actresses in the omnibus movie Four Love Stories (四つの恋の物語, Yottsu no Koi no Monogatari). In the 1950s, she started working independently and starred in many productions of the Shochiku studios under the direction of Keisuke Kinoshita. Other important directors include Kenji Mizoguchi (The Woman in the Rumor), Yasujirō Ozu (Equinox Flower), and Tadashi Imai (An Inlet of Muddy Water). Since the 1970s, she appeared mainly on television and on stage. Kuga was married to actor Akihiko Hirata from 1961 until his death in 1984. She died from aspiration pneumonia on 9 June 2024, at the age of 93.
Known For

The 7th NHK Asadora. Starring Tadashi Yokouchi in a narrative about an employee of the national railroad living through 50 years of modern history with his wife.
Tabiji

When the Golden Race invited other races to join them in the stars, three sentient races answered their call. The Goldens called them the Bronze, Silver and Heroic Tribes. Just before the Gold Tribe left to travel to another Universe, a fourth race appeared, traveling to the stars on their own accomplishments. The Golds named the human race the Iron Tribe. During the passing of time, humanity suffers at the hands of the more dominant races and is now facing extinction. Following a prophecy left by the Gold Tribe, Princess Deianeira sets out to search for the powerful being who might be able to save humankind. She meets a wild haired boy on an abandoned planet—a fateful encounter that will not only change the fortunes of Humanity, but also the fate of the universe.
Heroic Age

The series depicts the employees of a security company from different generations and backgrounds facing many difficult questions. It features a guard who survived a suicide mission during the war and his conflicts, rebellion, empathy and reconciliation with the younger generation born after the war.
The Roads Men Travel

Katsu Kaishū deals with end of the Edo period. Based on Kan Shimozawa's novels "Katsu Kaishū "
Katsu Kaishu

After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese government uses the cells to create a new bio-weapon, ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). They seeks the aid of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who's experiments result in a new mutation.
Godzilla vs. Biollante

The drama begins in August 1945, three days after the end of the Pacific war. A freight train completely jam-packed with passengers heads for Aomori from devastated Tokyo. On the train is Takahara Miki and her sister Sachi. Miki and Sachi are the daughters of a wealthy landlord living in a village in the Tsugaru area in Aomori prefecture, but they have been living in Tokyo since before the war to attend school. After seeing her village does not have a doctor, Miki is determined to become a rural doctor.
Inochi

The 37th NHK Asadora. A woman from Kyoto moves to Nara and runs a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) and then enters the fashion industry.
Miyako no kaze

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.
Good Morning

University student Minoru Niijima is a timid young man who gives up on his girlfriend's older brother after being threatened by him. Minoru's father, Seiichi, is a tired office worker nearing retirement, and his mother, Reiko, is an ordinary housewife who is considerate of her husband and believes her children are well-behaved. Minoru's older brother, Shigeru, works as a bed salesman. He is a nuisance to Minoru, as he is rough and always brags about his work. Minoru's younger sister, Yoko, is a second-year high school student, but to Minoru, she still has the childishness of a middle school student. One day, Minoru is persuaded by his university friend, Karaki, to commit a sexual assault on a train. Unfortunately, the girl he chooses is a female student from a delinquent group, and he ends up being beaten up by the delinquent group. However, the new member of the group who appears before Minoru is his younger sister Yoko.
Pieces of Autumn

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.
The Idiot

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

Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading politicians were killed and the center of Tokyo was briefly held by the insurgents before the coup was suppressed.
Four Days of Snow and Blood

During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyotomi to overcome the seat of power, Osaka Castle. Mohei's daredevil skills will be put to severe tests.
Daredevil in the Castle

When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous friends.
Spring Dreams

Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He convinces Takeda to kill the lord of neighboring Suwa and take his wife as a concubine. He then convinces the widow, Princess Yu, to accept this arrangement and to bear Takeda a son. He pledges them his life. He then spends years using treachery, poetic sensibility, military and political strategy to expand Takeda's realm, advance the claim of Yu's son as the heir, and prepare for an ultimate battle with the forces of Echigo. Has Kansuke overreached? Are his dreams, blinded by love, too big?
Samurai Banners

Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.
Equinox Flower

In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disaster for the clan. The information is divided among the three scrolls, all of which must be possessed for the secrets to be understood. When Princess Yuhime steals the scrolls, Tasaburo, a samurai with magical powers, and his brother Senshiro are sent to retrieve them.
Yagyu Secret Scrolls

This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
Tokyo Fair Weather

The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a college student Kobata, which causes a scandal that will threaten the marriage prospects of the younger sister San, in her cash-strapped family. The ill-tempered eldest brother Inokichi decides to take on the role of disciplinarian, with harrowing results.
Brother and Sister

A harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitchhiking to rob middle-class men.