Masahiko Tsugawa Filmography

Yudan Taiteki

Actors: Koji Yakusho, Akira Emoto, Yui Natsukawa, Eiji Okuda, Masahiko Tsugawa

Synopsis: Jin (Koji Yakusho of Shall We Dance?), a straight-laced but unfocused cop, works in the robbery division. A widower for two years, Jin does his best to be there for his young daughter, Misaki (Rio Sugano), while remaining dedicated to his work. One day, Misaki is in the park and a kindly older man Read More

Pride

Actors: Masahiko Tsugawa, Ayumi Ishida, Scott Wilson, Ronny Cox, Suresh Oberoi

Synopsis: Few films made in Japan have created such international outrage as Shunya Ito's Pride -- an affectionate biopic on that country's most notorious prime minister, Hideki Tojo, who was hanged in 1948 during the Tokyo trials for war crimes. Funded by renown ultra right-wing investors, this film struck Read More

Marutai no onna

Synopsis: Following the release of his Minbo No Onna -- less a film than a textbook on how to extricate oneself from yakuza harassment -- veteran director Juzo Itami was attacked and almost killed by the mob for his effort. In this crime-comedy, he voices his outrage at the attack, which he viewed as an Read More

Super no Onna

Actors: Nobuko Miyamoto, Masahiko Tsugawa, Shiro Ito, Yuji Miyake, Akiko Matsumoto

Synopsis: Following up on the critical and box-office failure of his 1995 Shizukana Seikatsu, veteran director Juzo Itami made this satirical comedy about a down and out grocery store. The film opens with down home neighborhood grocery store Shojikiya (The Honest Store) getting squeezed out by a newer Read More

The Last Dance

Synopsis: Juzo Itami's Minbo no Onna -- a virtual textbook on how to beat yakuza harassment -- was a big hit and almost got its director killed in the wake of a gangland knife-attack. Itami's follow-up is a light-hearted meditation on death and dying, strongly recalling Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Ikiru. Read More

Bokuto Kidan

Actors: Masahiko Tsugawa, Yukio Sumida, Yoshiko Miyazaki

Synopsis: Noted filmmaker Kaneto Shindo directs this erotic drama adapted from the autobiographical book by renowned writer Nagai Kafu. Kafu, a noted rake and whoremonger, became one of Japan's more celebrated literary figures by documenting fleeting pleasures and subtle human interactions as he frequented Read More

Kira Kira Hikaru

Actors: Etsushi Toyokawa, Michitaka Tsutsui, Masahiko Tsugawa, Mariko Kaga

Synopsis: Joji Matsuoka directs this poignant romantic drama about a love triangle between an alcoholic woman and a gay couple. Hiroko Yakushimaru stars as Shoko, a translator in her late twenties who has low self-esteem and a serious drinking problem. Mutsuki (Etsushi Toyokawa) is a gay doctor in his early Read More

Heaven and Earth

Actors: Takaaki Enoki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Atsuko Asano, Tsunehiko Watase, Naomi Zaizen

Synopsis: Japan's answer to Don Simpson -- a flamboyant and brash producer drawn to make flamboyant and brash films -- Haruki Kadokawa takes a turn at the director's chair with this sprawling historical epic featuring a massive budget: a record-breaking five billion yen, and thousands of extras comprising Read More

Ageman

Actors: Nobuko Miyamoto, Masahiko Tsugawa, Shogo Shimada, Hideji Otaki

Synopsis: In Japanese society, geisha still have a role to play as exemplars of gracefulness and cultivation, despite the near disappearance of this livelihood and art form. One of the customs of being a geisha is that wealthy or prominent men will "buy" their contract, which means that they have a primary Read More

A Taxing Woman's Return

Actors: Nobuko Miyamoto, Rentaro Mikuni, Masahiko Tsugawa, Tetsuro Tamba, Toru Masuoka

Synopsis: This comedy satire is the sequel to the third biggest box office draw in Japan during the 1987 season. Ryoko (Nobuko Miyamoto) is the diligent female tax collector who exposes a fake religious cult using their status to avoid paying their share of taxes. She sets out to collect the evidence that Read More

Kyoshu

Actors: Hiroshi Nishikawa, Sairi Komaki, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Kirin Kiki

Synopsis: Sumio is a 15 -year-old teenager who lives with his mother and older sister in a small fishing village. Abandoned by his father who went to live with his mistress, Sumio and his family struggle to make ends meet. When his sister Yasuko falls in love with a schoolteacher, her mother forbids her to Read More

Tampopo

Actors: Ken Watanabe, Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Koji Yakusho, Rikiya Yasuoka

Synopsis: The sophomore directorial effort from ill-fated Japanese filmmaker Juzo Itami, Tampopo is an off-beat comedy featuring several intersecting stories all related to food. Tsutomu Yamazaki plays Goro, a truck driver who helps a young widow named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) improve her noodle Read More

A Taxing Woman

Actors: Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Hideo Murata, Shuji Otake

Synopsis: The taxing woman of the title is Nobuko Miyamoto (the wife of director Juzo Itami), who works for the Japanese version of the IRS. She is also "taxing" in her insistence upon upholding the letter of the law and doggedly tracking down tax cheats. Her current quarry is millionaire Tsutomu Yamazaki Read More

Jidaiya No Nyobo

Actors: Tsunehiko Watase, Masako Natsume, Masahiko Tsugawa, Hiroyuki Okita

Synopsis: In this rambling story about life in the slow lanes, a couple get married and while the wife wanders off for awhile, several small, unrelated incidents occur, and then she comes back. Yasu (Tsunehiko Watase) meets Mayumi (Masako Natsume) when she visits his curiosity shop and their initial Read More

Manon

Actors: Setsuko Karasuma, Koichi Sato, Hiroko Isayama, Ichiro Araki

Synopsis: Mitsuko (Setsuko Karasuma) is a woman who moves from one lover to the next -- some of whom get angry at her willingness to turn to other men, others who have been around the block more than once do not particularly care. Even when one of her lovers sacrifices his construction job to be with Read More

Shunkin Sho

Actors: Momoe Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Miura, Takeya Nakamura, Masahiko Tsugawa, Nobuo Nakamura

Synopsis: This romantic melodrama tells the story of the blind daughter of a wealthy pharmacist (Momoe Yamaguchi), in mid-19th-century Japan (just prior to the Meiji Restoration). A born autocrat, she transforms her father's apprentice into her lover and servant and teaches him to play the samsien for her Read More

The Executioner

Actors: Sonny Chiba, Makoto Sato, Eiji Go, Henry Sanada, Yasuaki Kurata, Masahiko Tsugawa

Synopsis: This exciting action film from prolific director Teruo Ishii stars Sonny Chiba as Kouga, a descendant of a long line of ninja warriors who has put his amazing physical abilities behind him and lost his way. Eventually, however, Kouga teams up with a hitman named Sakura (Mitsuru Sato) and his Read More

Cuba No Koibito

Actors: Masahiko Tsugawa, Gloria Lee

Synopsis: A Japanese sailor lands in Cuba and is eager to take in the scenery there. He is enamored with a local girl and soon love blossoms between the two. She speaks of the pre-Castro days when the Batista government contributed to the demise of her family. The woman leaves him when her devotion to the Read More

Satogashi ga Kawareru Toki

Actors: Ayako Wakao, Eiji Funakoshi, Takashi Shimura, Masahiko Tsugawa, Jun Fujimaki

Synopsis: Aiyako Wakao stars in this drama about an actress whose life experiences mirror those of the late Marilyn Monroe. The dedicated actress is befriended by an elderly producer, poses nude for a calendar, goes back to school, and marries a baseball player. After her divorce, she turns into an 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

Night and Fog in Japan

Actors: Fumio Watanabe, Miyuki Kuwano

Synopsis: Widely regarded as the most personal of director Nagisa Oshima's three 1960 films, Night and Fog in Japan centers around a gathering of former student activists, all of which protested the signing of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. Preferring to let go of the past, the old protestors had regrouped Read More

Sekishuncho

Actors: Ineko Arima, Keiji Sata

Sansho the Bailiff

Actors: Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro Shindo, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Ichiro Sugai

Synopsis: Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece opens in 11th-century Japan with an aristocratic woman Tamaki traveling through the woods with her daughter Anju, son Zushio, and maid. Through flashbacks, we learn that her husband, Taira no Masauji, was a local governor who was exiled because of his honesty and Read More