Nobuko Otowa Filmography

A Last Note

Synopsis: Veteran Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo was 82 when he directed this meditation on life, death, and loss. Following the passing of her husband, elderly former actress Yoko Morimoto (Haruko Sugimura) travels to her summer home in the mountains of Central Japan. Upon her arrival, her servant Tokoyo 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

Kosatsu

Actors: Nobuko Otowa

Chikuzan Hitori Tabi

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Mitsuko Baisho

Synopsis: After over 50 years of wandering up and down Japan, finally in the 1970s the rough-hewn blind shamisien player and folk-song collector named Chikuzan became a musical sensation. This biographical drama chronicles his wanderings and his life, with a particular focus on his humble beginnings as a Read More

Our Silent Love

Synopsis: In this Japanese love story, a young man, the son of deaf-mute parents, is given a job by a factory owner who thinks he would make a good match for his daughter who is also a deaf-mute. The girl is already in love with a similarly afflicted man, but her father objects as he does not want her Read More

Red Lion

Synopsis:
In this samurai tale, a brave warrior is told by the newly restored emperor that he must return to his home village and announce that there has been a tax cut. Unfortunately, it is a government ruse designed to ensure political control. When the warrior arrives in his home village, he Read More

Kuroneko

Actors: Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kiwako Taichi, Kei Sato, Hideo Kanze

Synopsis: Set in feudal Japan, this atmospheric and violent ghost story (whose title literally translates as The Black Cat in the Bush) begins with the brutal murder of two women by a band of mercenary samurai, whose leader is subsequently tracked down, seduced, and murdered by a young woman possessed by Read More

Tsuyomushi Onna To Yowamushi Otoko

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Hideo Kanze, Taiji Tonoyama

Synopsis: A mother leaves her husband and small village and travels to Kyoto with her teenage daughter. Their quaint country ways are soon discarded as they don negligees and bilk bar customers with sad stories of need. Their rural dialect is quickly replaced by the seductive siren calls of big-city painted Read More

Lost Sex

Actors: Hideo Kanze, Nobuko Otowa, Kaori Shima

Synopsis: This Japanese drama, the first to deal with some of the after-effects of the Hiroshima bomb, chronicles the quest of a respected drama teacher to find sexual satisfaction after he learns that the bomb blast has rendered him impotent. Nothing seems to work, so the teacher travels to his mountain Read More

Once a Rainy Day

Synopsis: In this Japanese drama, two childhood friends meet and reminisce about their youth. The man and woman had been great friends until the boy's mother abandoned him, and the girl's father abandoned her. Soon the two adults find themselves in love, but unfortunately their affair is doomed as neither Read More

Sei No Kigen

Actors: Taiji Tonoyama, Nobuko Otowa, Kayo Matsuo

Synopsis: During his final hospital stay before the end of his life, an older man is extremely infatuated by the girl in the bed next to him. One day, he attempts to kiss her. His wife is in the room at the time, and she completely understands and accepts the situation, but the man's children are horrified. Read More

Rise Against the Sword

Synopsis: In this Japanese epic, set in the Muromachi era, the leader of a group of Kaga, refuses to help their master, a samurai, fight a battle. In order to convince the Kaga leader, the samurai Lord orders his own daughter to seduce the other's little brother. It doesn't work, and the enraged Lord kills Read More

Pressure of Guilt

Actors: Keiju Kobayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Koreya Senda, Akira Nishimura

Synopsis: In this Japanese drama, an attorney is having an affair with his law partner's wife. Things go terribly wrong when during an argument, the philandering lawyer accidentally strangles her to death. Horribly frightened, the fellow checks her body again to see that she is dead, then flees. Time Read More

This Madding Crowd

Synopsis: In this interesting Japanese drama, a journalist travels to a tiny fishing village outside Tokyo to learn more about traditional customs and culture. There he carefully watches the locals going about their daily business. Among those observed are a recovered alcoholic caring for his crippled wife; Read More

Onibaba

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato, Jukichi Uno, Taiji Tonoyama

Synopsis: A landmark in fantasy cinema, this lyrical ghost story is set in medieval Japan amid a bloody conflict between rival fiefdoms. While the warrior Kichi's impoverished wife (Jitsuko Yoshimura) and mother (Nobuko Otowa) wait for his return from battle, they maintain a humble existence by luring lost Read More

Koge

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Mariko Okada

Ningen

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Kei Yamamoto

Till Tomorrow Comes

Synopsis: In this Japanese melodrama set in 1941, a baby girl is born blind just as her father is sent off to fight for his country. Wanting to cure her child, the mother convinces a local medico to do the surgery, but before he can, he too goes to war. Years pass and the doctor finally performs the Read More

Hadaka no Shima

Actors: Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horimoto

Synopsis: The titular island in this Japanese domestic drama is an agrarian flyspeck, almost completely cut off from contact with the mainland. Here the island's residents mechanically go through their everyday farming tasks. The film concentrates on a family of five, content with their existence despite Read More

Sekai Daisenso

Synopsis: This Japanese film speculates on the events which lead the U.S. and the Soviet Union into a nuclear Armageddon. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Youth and His Amulet

Synopsis: In this Japanese drama, a ten-year-old boy lives in the country with his sister and his widowed father, a Buddhist priest. When the father decides to remarry, the boy is devastated. The father, wanting to avoid trouble, then sends the boy to live with a parishioner in a neighboring village. The Read More

The Twilight Story

Actors: Fujiko Yamamoto, Hiroshi Akutagawa

Synopsis: In this Japanese drama, a village girl goes to Tokyo and becomes a hooker to support her ailing mother. While there she meets an unmarried teacher (at least he says he's unmarried) and falls in love. When she learns that he lied and is married to a woman whose child was fathered by another man Read More

The Diplomat's Mansion

Synopsis: Diplomat's Mansion was originally released in Japan as Tokyo Yawa. The protagonist, played by Hiroshi Akutagawa, is an elderly diplomat facing compulsory retirement. With no source of income, Akutagawa is forced to swallow his pride and rely on his bartender son Tsutomu Yamazaki. The Read More

Eien No Hito

Actors: Hideko Takamine, Tatsuya Nakadai

Synopsis: Slow-paced but endowed with understanding, characters of some depth and complexity, and good direction, this slice-of-drama by Keisuke Kinoshita is taken from a bitter confection. The tale begins when Sadako (Hideko Takamine) finds that she will not be able to marry the man she loves after all. Read More

When a Woman Loves

Actors: Ineko Arima, Shin Saburi, Nobuko Otowa

Synopsis: This standard melodrama about undying love is directed by Heinosuke Gosho and is adapted by Toshio Yasumi from a popular novel. The heroine, Kiyo Mizushima (Ineko Arima), falls in love while she is only a teenager with a married journalist who is at least twice her age. Unlike other teens, Kiyo's Read More

Genji Monogatari

Actors: Kazuo Hasegawa, Michiyo Kogure, Machiko Kyo, Mitsuko Mito, Nobuko Otowa

Synopsis: Genji Monogatori (A Tale of Genji) was another copacetic collaboration between Japanese director Kosaburo Yoshimura and screenwriter Kaneto Shindo. Based on a long-popular novel by Murasaki Shikibu, the film stars Kazuo Hasegawa as Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate. Read More

Children of Hiroshima

Synopsis: In this Japanese semi-documentary, a teacher and her ex-students offer their view of the horrible aftermath of the A-bomb in their city. The film was designed to generate sympathy from the American people responsible for the devastation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Oyu-Sama

Konyaku Yubiwa

Actors: Kinuyo Tanaka, Jukichi Uno