With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geishas contemplating their troubles with men and money.

Taiyô to bara

1956

Japanese

6.6

♡ 1

Action

Crime

Keisuke Kinoshita Director

Sadako Sawamura as Akiyama's mother

Keijirô Morozumi as Bar master

Tetsuya Watanabe as Nozue

Fujio Suga as Sushi shop master

Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza.

Women of the Night

1948

Japanese

7.2

♡ 8

80%

Kenji Mizoguchi Director

Sadako Sawamura as

Hiroshi Aoyama as

Kikue Môri as

Sanae Takasugi as Natsuko Kimijima

In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law, descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons.

Dry Lake

1960

Japanese

6.8

♡ 3

Action

Drama

student protest

Masahiro Shinoda Director

Reiko Minakami as

Sadako Sawamura as Aki Katsura

Hizuru Takachiho as Fumie Sono

Kayoko Honoo as Setsuko Kitamura

A reckless student contemplates terrorism in a prescient film that confirmed Shinoda as a fearless member of Shochiku's iconoclastic New Wave. At the height of student protests, Shimojo takes his aggressions to another level, beset by seemingly insoluble feelings of alienation.

Mother

1952

Japanese

7.5

♡ 3

Mikio Naruse Director

Eiko Miyoshi as

Sadako Sawamura as O-Sei

Masao Mishima as Ryousuke Fukuhara

Eiji Okada as Shinjiro

A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.

The Catch

1961

Japanese

6.8

♡ 4

Nagisa Ôshima Director

Akiko Koyama as Hiroko Ishii

Sadako Sawamura as Katsu, Kazumasa's wife

Rentarô Mikuni as Kazumasa Takano

Teruko Kishi as Masu Tsukada

Towards the end of WWII, a black American pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions as to how to proceed with their 'catch'.

Ruten no ôhi

1960

Japanese

6.7

♡ 6

Kinuyo Tanaka Director

Eiji Funakoshi as Futetsu

Sadako Sawamura as Kazuko Sugawara

Tetsuya Watanabe as military engineer B

Machiko Kyô as Ryûko Korinkakura

Pu Zhe, the younger brother of the Emperor of Manchukuo, marries Ryuko the daughter of an aristocratic family. To the surprise of all, a deep love between Pu Zhe and Ryuko develops and is put to the test when Japan loses the war.

Onna bakari no yoru

1961

Japanese

7.3

♡ 3

Drama

woman director

Kinuyo Tanaka Director

Akemi Kita as Chieko

Sadako Sawamura as Dr. Kitamura

Chieko Seki as Oyuki

Yôsuke Natsuki as Tsukasa Hayakawa

In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.

We'll Meet Again

1957

Japanese

7.2

♡ 5

Action

based on novel or book

Comedy

Drama

stepparent stepchild relationship

Yasuzô Masumura Director

Tetsuya Watanabe as

Keizô Kawasaki as Ryôsuke Hirooka

Sadako Sawamura as Tatsuko Ono

Ayako Wakao as Yûko Ono

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she is not who she thought she was.