Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who created 30 films of his own as well as occasionally directing and writing for others in a career spanning seven decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it. He was involved with all aspects of film production.
Toho Co., Ltd. is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Toho is best known for producing and distributing many of Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya's kaiju and tokusatsu films as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa and the anime of Studio Ghibli, CoMix Wave Films, TMS Entertainment, and OLM, Inc. The company has released the majority of the highest-grossing Japanese films, and through its subsidiaries, is the largest film importer in Japan.
Kamatari Fujiwara was a Japanese stage and film actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1933 and 1984. In addition to regular appearances in the films of Akira Kurosawa, he worked for directors such as Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, Heinosuke Gosho and others.
The Quiet Duel is a 1949 Japanese medical drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa.
No Regrets for Our Youth is a 1946 Japanese film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is based on the 1933 Takigawa incident, and is considered a quintessential "democratization film", taking up many themes associated with social policy under the early Occupation of Japan.
Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967.
Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) and Floating Clouds (1955) being among her most noted films.
Susumu Fujita was a Japanese film and television actor. He played the lead role in Akira Kurosawa's first feature, Sanshiro Sugata, and appeared in other Kurosawa films including The Men Who Tread On the Tiger's Tail and The Hidden Fortress. Later, he was a supporting actor in Ishirō Honda's Mothra vs. Godzilla, among many other films.
Floating Clouds is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel Ukigumo by Japanese writer Fumiko Hayashi, published just before her death in 1951. The film received numerous national awards upon its release and remains one of director Naruse's most acclaimed works.
Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades.
Untameda.k.a.Untamed Woman is a 1957 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a novel by Shūsei Tokuda.
Kajirō Yamamoto was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was known for his war films and comedies and as the mentor of Akira Kurosawa. The combined list of his efforts as a director for documentaries, silent, and sound films includes over 90 film titles during his lifetime.
Yearning is a 1964 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse and starring Hideko Takamine and Yūzō Kayama. The story centers on a war widow whose deceased husband's family plans to drive her out of the shop which she runs in the family's house.
Ranko Hanai was a Japanese actress who appeared in about 200 films between 1929 and 1961.
Horse is a 1941 black-and-white Japanese drama film written and directed by Kajirō Yamamoto and starring Hideko Takamine. It is now best known for being the last film that Akira Kurosawa worked on before starting his own directorial career.
Kōji Mitsui was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 150 films from 1925 to 1975, including 29 of Kinema Junpo’s annual Top-10 winners and three of its 10 best Japanese films of all time. In 2000 the magazine named him one of the 60 most important Japanese actors of the 20th century.
Daughters, Wives and a Mother is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse.
Hideo Sekigawa was a Japanese film director known mainly for films with a left-wing agenda made in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His most noted works are the anti-war films Listen to the Voices of the Sea (1950) and Hiroshima (1953).
Chieko Nakakita was a Japanese actress. She appeared in the early films of Akira Kurosawa and later starred in many films by Mikio Naruse.
The Toho strikes, also translated as the Toho labor disputes or Toho labor upheaval, were a series of strike actions in Japan taken by workers in the Toho labor union against Toho management between 1946 and 1948. The third and largest action was notable for the union's months-long occupation of the Toho film studio, and their eventual removal by police backed by the United States Army.
