Sayuri Yoshinaga Movies

Veteran Japanese filmmaker Yoji Yamada's 80th feature film concerns a mother living in 1940s-era Tokyo who is forced to care for her two daughters alone after her husband is jailed for expressing reformist views on the Japanese invasion of China. Professor Shigeru Nogami (Mitsugoro Bando) is an outspoken man with some particularly unpopular political views, and for his role in speaking out against the Japanese invasion of China he is promptly jailed. In the wake of his imprisonment, Professor Nogami's devoted wife, Kayo (aka Kabei, played by Sayuri Yoshinaga), is suddenly relegated to the status of single mother. As Kayo does the best to care for the couple's two young daughters, her stern policeman father (Umenosuke Nakamura) proves little help. Thankfully for Kayo and the two children, the people of the neighborhood are more concerned with the well-being of her family than her husband's political views. One of the professor's former students in particular, the clumsy but well-meaning Yamasaki (Tadanobu Asano), does his best to ensure that the Nogami family is properly cared for until the day his mentor can return. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Famed onnagata (a man who plays women's parts in Kabuki) Tamasaburo Bando follows up on the success of his directorial debut, Gekashitsu, with this soft-focused romance about love and obligation, based on a novel by Kafu Nagai. Set during the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kaede (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is the former mistress of a wealthy merchant. When he dies, she is forced out on the street and forced to give up her young daughter to the merchant's family. The film opens with her working in a high-class brothel abutting Tokyo Bay. Though she has passionate affection for a drug wholesaler, whom she loves as well, Kaede is swamped with not only debts to the bordello and family obligations -- she is expected to support her parents and her sister -- but also guilt over losing her child. This pain is only increased when Kaede learns that her daughter is being abused. She does the only thing she can: She buys back her child by signing on at the brothel for a longer stint. Meanwhile, her lover tries to buy her out of prostitution, but she refuses in order to pay for her child's freedom. As a result, her lover hangs himself, heaping further sorrow on the downtrodden but elegant heroine. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

The Japanese actress and film director Kinuyo Tanaka had a career as significant to that country's movie industry as Lillian Gish's was in the U.S. -- it spanned the early days of silent movies and continued well into the 1970s. This biographical drama covers her career up to the point when she is working on The Life of Oharu (1952) with director Kenji Mizoguchi. In addition to reviewing the great actress's professional life, the movie provides a brief tutorial in the history of Japanese cinema. In real life, she continued to be a potent presence both in front of and behind the camera until her death in 1977, winning an award at the Berlin Film Festival for her acting work in Sandakan 8 ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Makioka Sisters will probably best be appreciated by those with an intimate knowledge of 20th century Japanese culture. The film, set just before World War II, chronicles the experiences of four upper-class Osaka sisters, two of them married. We see the shifting political and social scene through their eyes, with director Kon Ichikawa (who adapted the film from Junichiro Tanikazi's novel) conveying the proper sense of confusion and distraction. At times the film is a little too confused and distracted, thus total audience attention is not only necessary, but mandatory. Makioka Sisters, sometimes listed as Makica Sisters, has also been released under the title Fine Snow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is the third of a series of Japanese epics dealing with the exploits of a family that owns factories in Manchuria in the 1930s. The atrocities committed by Japan in China are not glossed over but become central to the story. Battles with the Chinese and the Russians are shown on a big scale in this lavishly produced picture. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This is a simple, down-to-earth comedy that revolves around the age-old issues of love and matchmaking. One group of farmers heads out to cut grass each summer, bringing with them a charming young woman who is not yet married. Their leader is an old matriarch who has her own counterpart in another, similar group of peasants that harbor a young and marriageable bachelor in their midst. These two bands of peasant workers camp near each other and as sure as night follows day, the attractive young woman and the bachelor are looked upon as a most likely romantic duo. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi