Isuzu Yamada
Isuzu Yamada (山田 五十鈴, Yamada Isuzu, 5 February 1917 – 9 July 2012) was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
Yôjinbô
1961
Yagyû ichizoku no inbô
Following the death of the second Tokugawa shogun, it is revealed that he was poisoned by retainers of his son Iemitsu in hopes of gaining him the shogunate despite the stammer and birthmark which undermine his respect.
Yôjinbô
A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
Tôkyô boshoku
Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.
Kuroi kawa
The story follows a university student who moves into an apartment building and becomes involved with a waitress. The landlord then attempts to evict the tenants and sell the building through illicit means.
Kumonosu-jô
Mikio and Washizu are the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Fortress under a local lord, who reigns in the Spiders' Web Castle. After defeating the lord's enemies in battle, they visit the fortress. Washizu, driven by his wife, conspires and murders the lord, becoming lord of the castle. But his evil deeds come back to haunt him.
Donzoko
Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.
Yûyake-gumo
A coming-of-age story portrayed as the loss of all youthful illusions. Sixteen-year-old Yoichi dreams of becoming a sailor. His parents are fishmongers, and Yoichi lives together with them and his four siblings in cramped living conditions.
Nagareru
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.
Okuman choja
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.
Hiroshima
The film shows the bombing of Hiroshima and the horrific aftermath following the detonation of an atomic bomb on humans for the first time in history.
Meito bijomaru
In 19th-century Japan, a young swordsmith is determined to make the best sword possible after an inferior one he made indirectly led to the death of his guardian.
Naniwa erejî
A young woman becomes a mistress of her boss in order to support her family.
Gion no shimai
A geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto feels obliged to help her lover when he asks to stay with her after going bankrupt and leaving his wife. However, her younger sister opposes this, thinking that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them.
Orizuru Osen
In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When Kumazawa is arrested, Osen agrees to help Sokichi finance his dream of going to medical school.
Maria no Oyuki
"Oyuki, the Virgin" is based on Kawaguchi Matsutaro’s adaptation of Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif” “Lump of Fat,” also the inspiration for Ford’s Stagecoach. To this story Mizoguchi added some of his own elements.