"Actor: Kinuyo Tanaka"

• Three Films by Yasujir? Ozu (2 x Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (23/10/2023) from £25.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This year marks the 120th anniversary of Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu's birth. From his early silent films to his final features in the 1960s, Ozu perfected a style that stripped away unnecessary plot mechanics and camera movement. In doing so, he produced a cinema whose surface simplicity belies character studies of depth, warmth and on occasion, humour. This new set features three newly restored films, all presented on Blu-ray in the UK for the first time: Dragnet Girl (1933, 99 mins) Sweet-faced Tokiko is an ordinary typist, but come nightfall she's a fun-loving gangster's moll. When her boyfriend strays, Tokiko is forced to reassess her life. Hugely popular when it was released, Ozu's Dragnet Girl remains one of his most enduring silent films. Record of Tenement Gentleman (1947, 75 mins) Tashiro, a fortune-telling resident in a poor district of Tokyo, has been followed home by a young boy whose father took him to the city but became separated from him. Initially unwilling to look after Kohei, Tashiro gradually warms to the boy. A Hen in the Wind (1948, 84 mins) A soldier returns home at the end of World War II, and refuses to forgive his wife for prostituting herself one night to pay off medical bills for their son.

• Ugetsu | Blu Ray | (19/05/2025) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation

• Equinox Flower / There Was a F | Blu Ray | (17/01/2011) from £17.62   |  Saving you £2.37 (13.45%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story) comes this much loved family comedy. Shin Saburi plays Wataru Hirayama an old-fashioned father whose outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter tells him she wants a love match. Outwitted and outflanked by his wily female relatives Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat. The director's playful use of colour poetry and arch humour combine to make this tale of old versus new at once deeply moving and razor-sharp. Also contains full length feature There Was a Father Ozu's powerful war-time drama as an extra.

• Sansho The Bailiff (1954) | Blu Ray | (27/01/2020) from £32.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually separated by vicious slave traders. Under the dazzling direction of KENJI MIZOGUCHI (Ugetsu), this classic Japanese story became one of cinema's greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil. Blu-Ray Special Edition Features Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary by Japanese-literature professor Jeffrey Angles Video interviews with critic Tadao Sato, assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka, and legendary actress Kyoko Kagawa, on the making of the film and its lasting importance PLUS: A book featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu and two versions of the story on which the film was based: Ogai Mori's 1915 Sansho Dayu and a written form of an earlier oral variation

• THE LIFE OF OHARU | Blu Ray | (17/04/2017) from £21.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A LONG UNAVAILABLE MASTERPIECE OF JAPANESE CINEMA, IN A NEW RESTORATION A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society throughout its history, KENJI MIZOGUCHI (Ugetsu) had already been directing movies for decades when he made The Life of Oharu in 1952. But this epic portrait of an inexorable fall from grace, starring the incredibly talented KINUYO TANAKA (The Ballad of Narayama) as an imperial lady-in-waiting who gradually descends to street prostitution, was the movie that gained its Director international attention, ushering in a new golden period for him. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New high-definition digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Introductory commentary by scholar Dudley Andrew Mizoguchi's Art and the Demimonde, an illustrated audio essay featuring Andrew Kinuyo Tanaka's New Departure, a 2009 film by Koko Kajiyama documenting the actor's 1949 goodwill tour of the United States New English subtitle translation PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez

• Ozu Collection - The Gangster Films (2-DVD) | DVD | (18/03/2013) from £21.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (36.38%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The latest volume in the BFI's ongoing releases of the works of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu focuses on his crime films. These rare, silent works mix the thrills of western filmmaking with compositions that served as a forerunner to his renowned, mature, post-war style. All films are here presented with newly commissioned scores by Ed Hughes. Episode Comprise: Walk Cheerfully That Night's Wife Dragnet Girl Special Features: The only surviving fragment of A Straightforward Boy

• An Autumn Afternoon | Blu Ray | (23/05/2011) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Yasujiro Ozu's captivating final film An Autumn Afternoon displays the master director's skills at their consummate best. Ozu regular Chishu Ryu (Tokyo Story) plays Shuhei Hirayama a concerned father eager to find a husband for his faithful daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) before she sees out her days caring for him. A cast of colourful characters weave seamlessly in and out of the story highlighting themes of loneliness and fear for the future with deep poignancy and ironic humour. Ozu's rarely-seen post-war film A Hen in the Wind (1948) is also included here. In a Japan recently devastated by WWII a devoted but near destitute mother waits for her husband's demobilisation. When her son falls seriously ill she turns to prostitution to pay his hospital bills.

• The Life Of Oharu | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Mizoguchi reckoned The Life of Oharu was his masterpiece, and who are we to disagree? Certainly it's among his most perfectly structured films, in which anger at the treatment of women in Japanese society is balanced by the director's flawless sense of period, and by expert pacing and visual composition. The story is set in the 17th century, when Japan had settled into a rigidly hierarchical society. Kinuyo Tanaka, in perhaps the finest role of her career, plays Oharu, a highborn woman of the Imperial court. Disgraced when she falls in love with a man of a lower class (Toshiro Mifune, in his only film for Mizoguchi), she's made the mistress of a feudal lord. After bearing him a son she's cast out, and gradually sinks into prostitution and penury. The inevitability of Oharu's fate is tempered by her resilience of spirit--and by the compassion of Mizoguchi's gaze. Although the story is set in the past, he fully intends parallels with modern-day Japan; just after completing the film, he told an interviewer, "Comparing today with [earlier] periods, I don't find much difference: women have always been treated like slaves." The Life of Oharu was shown at the 1952 Venice Festival, where it was awarded the Golden Lion. It brought Mizoguchi a belated international fame just four years before his death, and initiated the run of late masterpieces that rounded off his career. --Philip Kemp

• Late Mizoguchi - Eight Films 1951-1956 | DVD | (24/01/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Kenji Mizoguchi looms over the history not only of Japanese cinema - but of world cinema altogether. These eight films from the last decade of Mizoguchi's career represent a collection of eight of his greatest works which is to say eight of the greatest films ever made. Oy-sama (1951) is an adaptation of Tanizaki Jun'ichir: a poignant tale of two sisters and their ill-fated relationship with the same man: a tale of the social mores and affairs of the heart that might destroy siblings. Ugetsu monogatari (1953) a ghost-tale par excellence and one of the most highly acclaimed works of the cinema is an intensely poetic sublimely lyrical tragedy of men lured away from their wives which consistently features on polls of the best films ever made. Gion-bayashi (1953) is a drama set in the world of the geisha a subtle masterwork that yields myriad insights into the lives of Japan's service-class in the early '50s. Sansh-day (1954) recounts an unforgettably sad story of the 11th century involving kidnapping and indentured servitude - and figures again with its exquisite tone and purity of emotion as one of the most critically revered films of any era. Uwasa no onna (1954) another Mizoguchi picture set in a modern geisha house pits mother against daughter with the ensuing drama forcing both to confront their attitudes toward family and business in what is one of the filmmaker's most astute filmic examinations of oppressed femininity. Chikamatsu monogatari (1954) the tragic story of a forbidden love affair between a merchant's wife and her husband's employee was hailed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa as a great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi. Ykihi (1955) recounts an 8th-century Chinese story of a widowed emperor and his imperial concubine filmed in sumptuous hallucinatory Agfa-stock colour. Akasen-chitai (1956) aka Street of Shame is Mizoguchi's final masterpiece and one of the greatest last films ever made depicting the goings-on in a Tokyo brothel carrying the name Dreamland where dreams are nevertheless shattered beneath the weight of financial necessity and all questions of conscience - a last testament which inspired the great French critic Jean Douchet to proclaim: For me along with Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux and Renoir's La Rgle du jeu the greatest film in the history of the cinema.

• Sansho Dayu | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Based on an ancient legend, as recounted by celebrated author Mori Ogai (in his short story of the same name, written in 1915), and adapted by Mizoguchi, Sansho Dayu [Sansho the Steward, aka Sansho the Bailiff] is both distinctively Japanese and as deeply affecting as a Greek tragedy. Described in its opening title as one of the oldest and most tragic in Japan's history, Mizoguchi depicts an unforgettably sad story of social injustice, family love, and personal sacrifice - all conveyed with exquisite tone and purity of emotion. Set in Heian era (11th century) Japan, it follows an aristocratic woman, Tamaki (played by Tanaka Kinuyo, who also stars in Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari), and her two children, Zushio (Hanayagi Yoshiaki) and Anju (Kagawa Kyoko), who are separated by feudal tyranny from Tamaki's husband. When the children are kidnapped and sold into slavery to the eponymous Sansho (Shindo Eitaro), the lives of each of the family members follow very different paths - each course uniquely, and insufferably, tragic. Famed for its period reconstructions and powerful imagery, often through the director's trademark long takes, Sansho Dayu is one of the most critically revered of all of japanese cinema - a Venice Film Festival Silver Lion winner that often appears in lists of the greatest films ever made.

• Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama (Masters Of Cinema) | DVD | (21/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ugetsu Monogatar: Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari [Tales of the Rain and Moon] is a highly acclaimed masterwork of Japanese cinema. Based on a pair of 18th century ghost stories by Ueda Akinari. Amidst the pandemonium of civil war potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. Famed for its meticulously orchestrated long takes and its subtle blending of realistic period reconstruction and lyrical supernaturalism Ugetsu Monogatari is an intensely poetic tragedy that consistently features on polls of the best films ever made. Oyu-Sama:Another literary adaptation - this time of a story by one of Japan's modern literary masters novelist Tanizaki Jun'ichiro - Mizoguchi's Oyu-sama [Miss Oyu] is a poignant and contemplative tale of two sisters and their ill-fated relationship with the same man. At the core is Mizoguchi-regular Tanaka Kinuyo (who also stars in Ugetsu Monogatari) as the eponymous Oyu the older sister who allows marital customs to dictate the lives of those caught up in this complex love triangle. Continuing the director's fascination with the relationship between affairs of the heart and the social mores that shape and sometimes destroy them Mizoguchi transforms his subject matter into the realm of the transcendental through the use of long mobile shots - an approach that reaches its apotheosis in a take of almost six minutes - infused with humanity and emotion.

• Sansho Dayu/Gion Bayashi | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Based on an ancient legend as recounted by celebrated author Mori Ogai (in his short story of the same name written in 1915) and adapted by Japanese director Mizoguchi Kenji Sansho Dayu is both distinctively Japanese and as deeply affecting as a Greek tragedy. Described in its opening title as ""one of the oldest and most tragic in Japan's history"" Mizoguchi depicts an unforgettably sad story of social injustice family love personal sacrifice and fateful tragedy. Set in Heian era (11th century) Japan it follows an aristocratic woman Tamaki (played by Tanaka Kinuyo who also stars in Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari) and her two children Zushio (Hanayagi Yoshiaki) and Anju (Kagawa Kyoko) who are separated by feudal tyranny from Tamaki's husband.

• Ballad of Naryama (Imamura 1983) | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (55.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse he/she would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.

• Ugetsu Monogatari | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari [Tales of the Rain and Moon, aka Ugetsu] is a highly acclaimed masterwork of Japanese cinema. Based on a pair of 18th century ghost stories by Ueda Akinari, the film's release continued Mizoguchi's introduction to the West, where it was nominated for an Oscar and won the the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion award (for Best Direction). In 16th century Japan, amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. Famed for its meticulously orchestrated long takes and its subtle blending of realistic period reconstruction and lyrical supernaturalism, Ugetsu Monogatari is an intensely poetic tragedy that consistently features on polls of the best films ever made.

• The Lady Of Musashino | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Mizoguchi's dissection of the Japanese reaction to the aftermath of war as a fastidiously moral woman faces upheaval with the changing times brought about by the new post-Imperial period...

• Chikamatsu Monogatari/ Uwasa no Onna | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on a centuries old tale with roots in real events Chikamatsu Monogatari tells the hauntingly tragic story of a forbidden love affair between a merchant's wife Osan (Kyoko Kagawa) and her husband's employee Mohei (Kazuo Hasegawa) in an era when the punishment for adultery was crucifixion. When a series of innocent events lead to the false accusation of an affair between Osan and Mohei the accused pair are forced to flee an almost certain death sentence. On the run the outlaw couple grow closer together drawn inexorably towards the romantic crime of which they are accused. Released the same year Uwasa No Onna offers a contrasting portrait of attitudes concerning love and relationships. Set in a modern Kyoto geisha house the film revolves around Hatsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka) madame of her own geisha house. When Hatsuko ends up pursuing the same man as her daughter Yukiko (Yoshiko Kuga) both women are forced to confront their attitudes towards each other and the family business.

• The Japanese Masters Collection | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Floating Weeds (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1959): Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devastating revenge. Beautifully composed and surperbly played 'Floating Weeds' is one of Ozu's most affecting poignant and powerful films. The End Of Summer (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1961): This penultimate film by Japanese master director Yasujiro Ozu examines the difficulties faced by the Kohayagawa family as they struggle to adapt their traditional values to a rapidly changing post-war Japan. As the family's generations-old sake making business begins to fail in the face of increasingly fierce competition Manbei the incorrigible elderly patriarch rekindles an affair with an old flame much to the disapproval of his daughter Fumiko. He is further distracted by his attempts to marry off his other two daughters: Akiko the eldest and a widow with a small son and Noriko the youngest who is still single. A sublime bittersweet elegy for a vanishing world The End of Summer is beautifully shot in muted colour elegantly acted and masterfully directed by one of the 20th Century's greatest filmmakers. The Lady of Musashino (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1951): Mizoguchi's dissection of the Japanese reaction to the aftermath of war as a fastidiously moral woman faces upheaval with the changing times brought about by the new post-Imperial period... The Life of Oharu (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1952): In feudal Japan the daughter of a samurai Oharu falls in love with a man below her station. Expelled from the castle in Kyoto her family tries to regain respectability but Oharu is forced into a new life as a concubine and then a fallen woman ever hoping to preserve some semblance of purity in a corrupt world...

• Ozu - Tokyo Twilight / Equinox Flower / Good Morning | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A collection of classic movies from lauded Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. Regarded by many as the world's finest director and renowned for his formalist style Yasujiro Ozu made his first film in 1927 and went on to direct 55 films before his death in 1963. It was only during his final years however that his genius as a film-maker was recognized in the West alongside such contemporaries as Buuel Bergman and fellow countryman Akira Kurosawa. This box set features three works