Kunie TanakaFilmography

Hikariogoke

Actors: Rentaro Mikuni, Eiji Okada, Kunie Tanaka, Tetsuta Sugimoto, Taketoshi Naito

Synopsis: The island of Hokkaido, in Japan, is located near the Arctic Circle and is famous for its cold, snowy winters. In this understated drama, a celebrated writer is being shown some caves, which have glow-in-the-dark moss, by the local school headmaster. One cave has quite a history, as flashbacks Read More

Tasumania Monogatari

Actors: Kunie Tanaka, Jinpachi Nezu

Synopsis: Eiji Kawano (Kunie Tanaka) has recently broken from the Japanese company he used to work for. As an immigrant to Tasmania, he has been won over by the island's immense natural beauty, and he is conscience-bound to oppose his former employer's ecologically unsound practices. He is also estranged Read More

Baian the Assassin [TV Series]

Actors: Ken Watanabe, Isao Hashizume, Jun Miho, Kunie Tanaka, Chikage Awashima, Hiroshi Abe

Ronin-Gai

Actors: Yoshio Harada, Kanako Higuchi, Renji Ishibashi, Shintaro Katsu, Kunie Tanaka

Synopsis: Kazuo Kuroki's Ronin-Gai transpires during the final years of the time when samurais figured prominently in Japanese society. The title town is filled with prostitutes and samurai who have been disgraced. The hedonistic warriors are presented with the possibility of redemption when the women of Read More

Uhoho Tankentai

Actors: Yukiyo Toake, Kunie Tanaka, Mariko Fuji

Synopsis: The demands of his scientific work require Kazuya to live most of the time at his laboratory, visiting home only occasionally. In this domestic drama, the scientist has returned for one of his rare visits home. At first, his two sons are simply delighted to see him. Before long, they notice that Read More

Yasha

Actors: Ken Takakura, Ayumi Ishida, Nobuko Otowa, Yuko Tanaka

Synopsis: In an emotional and dramatic -- if not melodramatic accounting of a former Japanese gang member, some of the traits of the yakuza, or Japanese Mafia, are brought forward. Shuji (Ken Takakura) has taken the bold step of leaving his yakuza clan behind to start a new life in a small fishing village. Read More

Nogare No Machi

Actors: Isao Natsuki, Mitsuko Kusabue

Synopsis: There is mayhem at every turn in this unevenly scripted melodrama that highlights the violent activities of truck driver Koji Nagai (Yutaka Mizutani). First the man is arrested for a murder he did not commit, but then when he is released, his subsequent behavior seems to make up for that mistake. Read More

Shoot Out

Chikagoro Nazeka Chaarusuton

Actors: Yu Fujiki, Ichiro Zaitsu

Synopsis: A group of old men take over an empty house and proclaim it to be a new "country" they have founded, called Yama. ("Yamato" is one of the oldest names for Japan, "yama" itself means "mountain.") The men basically refuse to be thrown out of this domicile by some gangsters, and they are successful Read More

Eki

Actors: Ken Takakura, Chieko Baisho, Ayumi Ishida, Setsuko Karasuma, Yuko Kotegawa

Synopsis: The infamous "Criminal 22" is at large in Tokyo. This is a vicious, sadistic murderer who takes special delight in "offing" cops. Detective Ken Takakura makes it his mission in life to wipe Criminal 22 from the face of the earth. If The Station plays like an American crime-and-punishment picture Read More

Kaette Kita Waka Daisho

Actors: Yuzo Kayama, Kunie Tanaka, Ichiro Arishima

Synopsis: The antics and adventures of Waka Daisho (Yuzo Kayama) and Ao Daisho (Kunio Tanaka) started out in a series of 17 movies made between the mid-'60s and early 1970s. After a hiatus of more than a decade, the two actors reprise their roles in this film, the 18th in the series. Waka Daisho is the Read More

Kindaichi Kosuke No Boken

Actors: Ikko Furuya, Kunie Tanaka, Hideko Yoshida

Synopsis: Kosuke Kindaichi is a popular detective found in Seishi Yokomizo's novels, and this is one of several movies that have been made based on his character. Yokomizo's plots have more twists and turns than Japanese calligraphy and loudly invite parody. This film is not an RSVP to that invitation. Read More

Kimiyo fundo no kawa wo watare

Actors: Ken Takakura, Yoshio Harada, Kunie Tanaka, Ryoko Nakano

Lupin the 3rd: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

Actors: Yuki Meguro

Synopsis: Japan's most famous animated anti-hero comes to life in director Takashi Tsuboshima's live action adaptation of Japanese comic artist Monkey Punch's wildly popular manga series. The malevolent Maccherone organization is determined to acquire an invaluable national treasure, and the only thing Read More

The Wolves

Synopsis: Wolves is set in Japan in the 1920s. The disintegration of the ancient samurai traditions is paralleled with the rise of the Yakuza, Japan's equivalent of the Mafia. Three gangsters try to keep themselves from getting killed, not only by their higher-ups but by those who perceive them as a threat Read More

Summer Soldiers

Actors: Barry Cotton, Lee Reisen, Keith Sykes

Synopsis: This fascinating Japanese drama takes an objective look at the relationship between American GIs and deserters in Japan during the Vietnam war. Many of the men went on leave to Tokyo. Some did not want to return and ended up sheltered by Japanese "host families" who would conceal them for a night. Read More

Silence Has No Wings

Actors: Mariko Kaga, Fumio Watanabe

Synopsis: This Japanese allegory comments upon societal values in modern urban Asia. It begins as a small boy catches a rare butterfly and races to bring it to his beloved teacher. Unfortunately, the teacher accuses him of lying because that species does not occur in their area. The crushed child, not Read More

Dodes'ka-Den

Actors: Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura

Synopsis: Dodes'ka-Den (aka Dodesukaden) was Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's first project since Red Beard (1965), and his first ever in color. Kurosawa focuses this time on Tokyo slum life. We watch as a variety of unfortunates debase themselves to survive, yet, somehow, emerge with more innate dignity Read More

Live Your Own Way

Synopsis: When 4 boys and their sister are orphaned, they work hard to care for each other and grow up in this Japanese drama. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Duel at Ezo

Synopsis: In this adventure, set in Japan, a Shogun warrior sets off to save the daughter of a Russian count. She is being held captive by Shimada who took her to defend himself from the count who cheated him. The warrior battles Mikuni, another warrior who is trying to return an arms shipment to his Read More

Young Guy on Mt. Cook

Synopsis: In this sequel to Young Guy Graduates, Young Guy has become a sales engineer for a Japanese auto company and lives in Sydney, Australia. When a former schoolmate comes to visit, poor Young Guy is so busy that he cannot show him the sights. Instead he asks a good friend to take the visitor around. Read More

Goyokin

Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tetsuro Tamba, Kinnosuke Nakamura, Isao Natsuyagi, Yoko Tsukasa

Synopsis: In this samurai movie, an evil warrior violates his samurai codes of ethics by stealing some gold to pay an unfair government tax and then murdering the fishermen who witnessed the robbery. His actions are derided by his brother-in-law. In anger, the samurai casts his sister's husband out of the Read More

Young Guy Graduates

Synopsis: In this Japanese drama, recent university graduate Young Guy makes a bad impression when he is late on his very first day at his new company because he had to help an old man and his daughter find a cab. Fortunately, his employers accept his excuse. Later, the Young Guy meets a girl and a friend Read More

Gion Matsuri

Actors: Shima Iwashita, Toshiro Mifune, Eitaro Ozawa, Takashi Shimura

River of Forever

Synopsis: In this Japanese melodrama, a youthful truck driver does all he can to keep away from hospitals and physicians. Then he meets a pretty nurse while visiting an ailing friend. Later, following a traffic accident, he reluctantly undergoes a check up and must reveal that he has terminal leukemia. The Read More

Operation X

Synopsis: In this Japanese WW II drama set in northern China near the war's end, a youthful officer disregards advice and launches an attack against the Chinese. As a result his unit is slaughtered and he is taken captive. Later a reward is posted for his return. To earn the reward the leader of a band of Read More

Sanjuro

Actors: Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiju Kobayashi, Reiko Dan, Takashi Shimura

Synopsis: Set in the mid-19th century when the disintegration of a rigid social structure was turning the once wealthy into paupers, or vice-versa, this kinetic drama by acclaimed Akira Kurosawa features the hero Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune), one of many samurai whose once traditional positions were fast Read More

Pitfall

Actors: Hisashi Igawa, Kazuo Miyahara, Sumie Sasaki, Kunie Tanaka

Synopsis: Mysterious goings-on twist and turn this effective but slightly uneven drama of murder and intrigue into a Gordian knot, skillfully woven by director Hiroshi Teshigahara. One day an impoverished miner is taken aback when he notes that he is being followed around by some stranger dressed in white. Read More

The Sun's Burial

Actors: Masahiko Tsugawa, Yasuke Kawazu

Synopsis: The epidemic of juvenile delinquency in the mean streets of a Tokyo slum is depicted in this sordid story of sex and violence. The group is dwindled by suicide, murder, gang warfare and accidents as they engage in arson and gunplay. Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, the members of the gang Read More

Human Condition, Part 2: The Road to Eternity

Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Keiji Sada, Jun Tatara, Kei Sato

Synopsis: The second of Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy was titled The Road to Eternity (originally Zoku Ningen No Joken). Picking up where 1958's No Greater Love left off, this 1961 film finds the gentle, pacifistic Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) being sent to basic training camp in Read More