Background
Yoshikata Yoda was born on 14 April, 1909 in Kyoto, Japan.
(Sonosuke Asai (Benkai Shiganoya) is the owner of the Asai...)
Sonosuke Asai (Benkai Shiganoya) is the owner of the Asai Drug Company. He is unhappily married to Sumiko (Yoko Umemura), and they are mutually unkind to one other. Mr Asai tries to get one of his employees, telephone operator Ayako Murai (Isuzu Yamada), to meet him for dinner. She discusses this after work with a male colleague (and apparently boyfriend), Mr Nishimura, revealing that her father is in serious difficulties: unemployed and threatened with arrest after embezzling 300 yen. After an argument at home she decides to take up Mr Asai's offer and become his mistress. She quits her job and lives alone in a modern apartment block, bored and waiting for Mr Asai. When they attend a Bunraku puppet show, Dr Yoko calls them out. His wife greets them, furious that they are having an affair. However, Mr Fujino, a business acquaintance of Asai intervenes, lying that Ayako was his date, not Asai's.
1936
(The story centers around two sisters (Umekichi and Omocha...)
The story centers around two sisters (Umekichi and Omocha), who are geisha, living in a lodging house (okiya) of their own in the licensed pleasure district of Gion, Kyoto. The two women have very different outlooks on relationships with men. Umekichi, the elder sister, is the ideal geisha; she grew up going to dance and music lessons, wears kimono, and has a strong sense of giri, or loyalty, to her patron. Umekichi’s younger sister, Omocha, was educated in public schools and wears western clothing, except when she is working as a geisha. Unlike Umekichi, Omocha doesn’t trust men and believes that they will only use geisha and then abandon them without a care. Thus, she uses men to her own advantage. In doing so she is willing to manipulate and lie to her customers.
1936
(The film is set in Japan in 1885, alternating largely bet...)
The film is set in Japan in 1885, alternating largely between Tokyo and Osaka.
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Last-Chrysanthemum-English-Subtitled/dp/B01LW1R49D/?tag=2022091-20
1939
(The plot revolves around the consequences of an attack by...)
The plot revolves around the consequences of an attack by Lord Asano Naganori on Lord Kira Yoshinaka, an influential court official in the Tokugawa Shogunate. After overhearing Kira insult him in public, Asano strikes Kira with a sword in the corridors of Edo Castle, but succeeds only in wounding him. As attacking a Shogunate official is a grave offense, Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi sentences Asano to commit seppuku and issues an edict stripping the Asano Clan of their lands and wealth. Kira, meanwhile, is not punished by the Shogun because, it is thought, of family connections. As a result of the Shogun's judgement, all samurai loyal to the Asano Clan become rōnin while the late Lord Asano's family is ruined.
https://www.amazon.com/Ronin-Genroku-Ch%C3%BBshingura-Region-Mizoguchi/dp/B00EZY9Q0W/?tag=2022091-20
1941
(Michiko Akiyama (Kinuyo Tanaka) is married to Tadao Akiya...)
Michiko Akiyama (Kinuyo Tanaka) is married to Tadao Akiyama (Masayuki Mori), a college professor but a vulgar man with a low-class background. Towards the end of World War II, they flee the Bombing of Tokyo to her parents' estate in the suburban Musashino. When her parents die, Michiko inherits the estate. Nearby is her cousin, Eiji Ono (So Yamamura), a wartime profiteer with loose morals, and his wife Tomiko (Yukiko Todoroki). After the end of the war, the extended family is joined by the young and handsome Tsutomu Miyaji (Akihito Katayama), another cousin of hers and former prisoner-of-war. n the immediate post-war era, Japanese traditions and morals decline. Tadao comes home drunk every night and has sexual relationships with students. He also propositions Tomiko. However, Tomiko, unhappy in her marriage, also lusts after Tsutomu. Michiko also has mutual feelings for Tsutomu but resists his advances because she is a married woman and because she does not want him to fall prey to permissiveness. However, when she learns of her husband's plans to swindle her out of her inheritance and run off with Tomiko, she decides to commit suicide to frustrate Tadao's theft and to leave most of her estate to Tsutomu.
https://www.amazon.com/Musashino-Fujin-Kenji-Mizoguchi-Regions/dp/B001C93UNW/?tag=2022091-20
1951
(Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassan...)
Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss - with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real - is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
https://www.amazon.com/Ugetsu-English-Subtitled-Masayuki-Mori/dp/B00BLGW5T6/?tag=2022091-20
1953
義賢 依田
Yoshikata Yoda was born on 14 April, 1909 in Kyoto, Japan.
Yoshikata Yoda graduated from the Kyoto Prefectural 2nd Commercial School.
Yoshikata Yoda worked at the Sumitomo Bank and then entered the scenario department of Nikkatsu Motion Picture Company (1930). He wrote the scenario for "Horse Race and Wife" (1931). Left the company (1934) due to illness.
Later became scenario writer for director Kenji Mizoguchi. Since 1936, worked in combination with Mizoguchi and after the war, wrote the scenarios for the 14 pictures out of 16 directed by Mizoguchi. Among those pictures: Saikaku Ichidai Gnna (Life of A Woman, written by Saikaku Ihara), Ugetsu Monogatari (Tale of Ugetsu, which was written by Akinari Ueda), and Sansho Dayu (a rich man living in the Middle Age of Japan).
(Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassan...)
1953Sisters of the Gion
(The story centers around two sisters (Umekichi and Omocha...)
1936(The plot revolves around the consequences of an attack by...)
1941(Michiko Akiyama (Kinuyo Tanaka) is married to Tadao Akiya...)
1951(The film is set in Japan in 1885, alternating largely bet...)
1939Osaka Elegy
(Sonosuke Asai (Benkai Shiganoya) is the owner of the Asai...)
1936