The End of Summer / Kohayagawa-ke no aki (1961)
Drama
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
Starring: Ganjirô Nakamura, Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Michiyo Aratama, Keiju Kobayashi, Masahiko Shimazu
Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Conflagration / Flame of Torment / Enjô (1958)
Drama
Goichi Mizoguchi, an aspiring Buddhist monk who became involved in the temple that was owned by his father, through a series of flashbacks, framed as a police interrogation, Mizoguchi unravels the story of his obsession with the temple beginning with his childhood.
Starring: Raizô Ichikawa, Ganjirô Nakamura, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôichi Funaki, Tamao Nakamura, Jun Hamamura, Tanie Kitabayashi, Michiyo Aratama
Director: Kon Ichikawa
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer / Ningen no joken V-VI / Ningen no jôken (1961)
Drama | History | War
His ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival.
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Tamao Nakamura, Yûsuke Kawazu, Chishû Ryû, Kyôko Kishida
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity / Ningen no joken III-IV / Ningen no jôken (1959)
Drama | History | War
As a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Jun Tatara, Kei Sato, Keiji Sada, Yûsuke Kawazu
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love / Ningen no joken I-II / Ningen no jôken (1959)
Drama | War
A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima, Keiji Sada, Sô Yamamura
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Kaidan / Kwaidan / Ghost Stories / Hoichi the Earless / Weird Tales (1964)
Fantasy | Horror
This film contains four stories. "Black Hair": A poor samurai who divorces his true love to marry for money, but finds the marriage disastrous and returns to his old wife, only to discover something eerie about her. "The Woman in the Snow": A woodcutter meets an icy spirit in the form of a woman spares his life on the condition that he never tell anyone about her. A decade later he forgets his promise. "Hoichi the Earless": Hoichi is a blind musician, living in a monastery who sings so well that a ghostly imperial court commands him to perform the epic ballad of their death battle for them. But the ghosts are draining away his life. "In a Cup of Tea": a writer tells the story of a man who keep seeing a mysterious face reflected in his cup of tea…
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura, Michiyo Aratama, Rentarô Mikuni, Kenjirô Ishiyama, Ranko Akagi
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Dai-bosatsu tôge / The Sword of Doom (1966)
Action | Drama
In this epic Japanese samurai adventure, a bloodthirsty young fighter kills a man in competition and is pursued by the slain warrior's brother.
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshirô Mifune, Michiyo Aratama, Yûzô Kayama, Yôko Naitô
Director: Kihachi Okamoto
Tsuma / Wife (1953)
Drama
Ten years into a marriage, the wife is disappointed by the husband's lack of financial success, meaning she has to work and can't treat herself and the husband finds the wife slovenly and mean-spirited: she neither cooks not cleans particularly well and is generally disagreeable. In turn, he alternately ignores her and treats her as a servant. Neither is particularly happy, not helped by their unsatisfactory lodgers. The husband is easily seduced by an ex-colleague, a widow with a small child who needs some security, and considers leaving his wife. She fights back, writing to and visiting the mistress to demand she leaves her husband alone. He consults his friends, she her relatives. Around them, marriages are ending in fights and suicides but in this case, the mistress gives up the stressful fight, leaving the couple together again, no happier than before.
Starring: Mieko Takamine, Ken Uehara, Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Sanae Takasugi
Director: Mikio Naruse
