Ayako Wakao

In Edo Japan, a kabuki actor seeks revenge against the three men who drove his parents to their deaths years ago.

Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts...

Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it’s become a living hell, plagued by feuding father...

Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

After the boxing champion retires, the head of a powerful gym, Minegishi (So Yamamura), recommends Yamanaka (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), who is no longer in...

On his release from prison a young yakuza, along with his brother, decides to turn his back on criminal life instead of taking over the position of...

Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve...

A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

The four principals in a love affair collide when jealousy, blackmail and suicide enter the picture.

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuangdi conquered the rest of China. Qin's great accomplishments and also his serious faults are showed in this film. Qin adopted...

Two poor, married farmers have recently lost their only child; after a freak visitation, they pry open an alien cocoon to greet their new daughter.

In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war. She has to assist the surgeon...

Fascinated with women from an early age, Yonosuke had his first sexual encounter at the age of seven. From that day on, he recklessly and forwardly...

Sentaro is been severely beaten for his defiance of the government and the high taxes during a time of famine. He is befriended by Kada Gentaro, a...

A greedy, materialistic family attempts to cover-up the embezzlement committed by the son while keeping their other schemes active. They discover...

Tied to a mountain between her brutalizing spouse and her secret lover, disaster strikes; the authorities accuse her of murder and prompt a...

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of...

The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined...

[Period covered: 1614-1615] Tokugawa Ieyasu is now the ruler of all Japan. But one last loose thread must be tied up before his domination is...

[Period covered: 1595-1600] We last saw ninja Ishikawa Goemon, as he was about to be boiled alive. But a good ninja is both hard to find, and even...

Following the tragic death of his father, a young boy's family trains his horse to compete in the local derby.

Torajiro becomes homesick during his travels after watching a television report about his hometown and meeting a young woman that reminds him of his...

A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on her own.

A biting portrait of the world of classical Japanese dance: an ambitious young woman (Wakao Ayako) shoves aside her mentor (Kyo Machiko) on her way...

Legendary yakuza Shimizu Jirocho and his 28 henchmen travel the unruly path from a 'Fire Festival' in Akiba to a decisive battle by the Fujigawa.

Adaptation of the Yukio Mishima novel.

Once upon a time, Okuro (Ayako Wakao), a young female racoon, lived poorly with her drunken father. One day after they disguised themselves as...

Adaptation of the Shôji Yuki novel.

1930. In splendid snowy settings, the trials and pain of a woman married to a man who maintains a relationship with their servant.

Momoko and Asako are half sisters, daughters of the famous architect Tsuneo Mizuhara, who also have another half sister in Kyôto, Wakako, whom they...

Princess Kiyo accidentally injures a local priest, Anchin, while on a hunt. She apologizes, but feels irritated by Anchin’s indifference to her in...

A youth drama set in a Japanese university which is home to a group of active, leftist students.

Namiko is married, but has an infatuation with Ishizuka who runs a nightclub. The businessman is also planning on wrecking the company of Namiko's...

Yuko is sent to the coastal regions to be raised away from the rest of her sophisticated family where she finds out from her ill grandmother that she...

The middle of the Meiji period. Tororo Goro, a Nanjing expedition hit the first time to join the white thread at the water entertainer waterfall,...

Based on the first novel, Spring Snow, of Mishima Yukio's Sea of Fertility tetralogy, it follows the troubled and illicit affair between two...

Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic...

A young scriptwriter with a yakuza upbringing, an iron-fire dancer, a young painter, and a pure-hearted downtown girl fall in love in Asakusa in this...

The intense selfishness of a man brings him fame and fortune but not happiness.

A wife is diagnosed with an incurable disease at a young age. Her husband loves her, supports her, and tries to stay with her. However, the wife is...

Shimada is a student of U College. When the college's baseball team wins the day, he and his friend Ito drug two girls they met at the game.

In a match where professional baseball referee Yuzo Tagami was observing a young referee, Hara, a player who got angry at the indecisive judge,...

Group of women escape Chinese controlled area for Japanese occupied lands during Pacific War.

After a random encounter at a bar, two couples collide. Two men, two women, embroiled in a love-and-hate drama that threatens to engulf them. The...

On his return from school, young Ichiro finds his father in bed with his adopted sister, Namie. Enraged, he decides to outdo his father in terms of...

High-end cabaret hostess Masuko discovers her long-term lover is actually married. Determined to secure her future, she aggressively manipulates him...

Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's...

Japanese film directed by Tadashi Imai.

Seventeen years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a newspaper reporter looks for the bomb's effects, but everyone seems to have...

The film depicts a group of boys and girls who graduate from a local junior high school and head to Tokyo to find employment, and the teachers who...

It depicts a few days in the life of a farmer's wife who takes her first vacation in Tokyo.

Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima Chikage), the mistress of the Teradaya, a small...

"The Time of Reckoning" transforms a screwball-comedy plot into a sober study of a successful businessman with serious relationship problems...

It depicts the emotional ups and downs of a designer who runs a clothing store and her husband over the course of a summer.

Yano Reiko is a part-time student. After being introduced by a well-known classmate, she becomes the tutor for Mariko, the second daughter of the...

A small, out-of-the-way izakaya in Tokyo has become the favorite hangout of people searching for nourishment for their bodies and their souls. The...

A small, out-of-the-way izakaya in Tokyo has become the favorite hangout of people searching for nourishment for their bodies and their souls. The...

The drama special satirizes the daily life of a wife with a businessman husband who is busy with his work.

Utsugi, a seventy-seven-year-old man of refined tastes who is recovering from a stroke, discovers that, while his body is decaying, his libido still...

Kisuke, a young bamboo worker marries Tomoe, a courtesan who was once involved with Kisuke's late father.

This unique melodrama depicts the anguish of a new wife whose husband confesses to her his infertility on their wedding night. The virgin wife, who...

Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official, who will become the...

Adaptation of Seicho Matsumoto's novel of the same name.

Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give...

A young woman decides to leave school in order to help her sister.

The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. Her plan for a solid financial future has a double whammy. In the...

Keizo Tsujiguchi believes his wife Natsue was having an extramarital affair when their child was kidnapped and killed. He believes of her...

The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata...

Well before “Shogun” as warring clans were fighting for power throughout Japan, a Portuguese vessel ran aground off Tanegashima. Lord Tokitaka...

A young girl is rigorously trained in the feminine arts so that she can become a geisha. As she struggles through life, she learns to live not just...

In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the...

A story of aristocratic star-crossed love.

Adaptation of the novel by Masao Kume.

An uncle decides to put his delinquent orphaned niece into a temple in Kyoto known for its austere novitiate. Initially resistant to all forms of...

Hikaru Genji, the haunted romantic hero of Lady Murasaki Shikibu’s “Genji Monogatari” (Tale of Genji) comes to life in this new tale of his...

A musical about the escapades of some tanuki passing themselves off as humans in human society.

The three Matsunami sisters navigate adulthood and the complex social pressures of finding a husband while living under their traditional father’s...

Kazuko and Umeko have been friends since college. They are modern businesswomen who have many obligations in life and are not ready for marriage....

The story of three sportsman brothers living in the Ginza. One day, the three meet a raving beauty on separate occasions and are unaware they have...

Ayako Wakao portrays a downtown rice ball shop girl whose heart is set on her business. Involved in her life are three young men—stage actor Goro,...

A Yasuzō Masumura film about a love affair starring Ayako Wakao. The literal title is The Two Who Got Wet.

A suspense directed by Umetsugu Inoue, starring Ayako Wakao, depicting the intense lust created by the passion of a writhing woman.

Toshiko is the madam of a bar in Osaka who tries to keep her private life private and claims not to have a lover. However, she is in fact having a...

A romantic comedy depicting the variant and whimsical daily lives of the Japanese mademoiselles in the Metropolis of Tokyo. How they react against...

In a rural district of Tokyo, the owner of a farm is abandoned by his two daughters who are attracted to the life of the big city.

A light comedy with Ayako Wakao charming her patients.

Kyoko is the third daughter of the Nonomiya family, a very ordinary family. Momoko, the eldest daughter, is married to Ichiro, the president of...

Heitaro, who had served his firm loyally for 30 years, reaches the retirement age. He has four unmarried daughters and decides to split his...

A young man is determined to have as many affairs as possible but not to get married. One of his conquests is of a different mind however. For she is...

A young woman marries someone else, but cannot forget her first lover.

AKA Family of Women. A story about a wealthy family and the greed and selfishness of three daughters and relatives, after the passing of their old...

Shikiko Oba is nimble with her fingers and teaches dressmaking and designing. Among her pupils are Rinko, Katsumi and Tomie. Ginshiro, who is as...

Otama, daughter of a poor candy vendor, becomes the mistress of a man whom she believes to be a widower and owner of a prosperous dry goods store....

The inventor of a ground-breaking glue, Sanada, becomes rich thanks to his discovery a high executive in his company. Because of this promotion, his...

Akiko Yasutomi, an 18-year-old high school student, lives in poverty with her mother Hisako, but she has feelings for her cousin, a medical student...

Film directed by Eichi Koishi and starring Wakao Ayako

Film directed by Shima Koji and starring Wakao Ayako

Film directed by Seiji Hisamatsu and starring Wakao Ayako

A Girl isn't Allowed to Love is a 1955 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.

Ayako Wakao won the Blue Ribbon and the Kinema Jumpo for this film.

During the bloody era of the Tokugawa Shogunate collapse, a man appeared capable of overthrowing a corrupt government and ending the feud between the...

The wife Yuko Kusumon operating a pottery store was a chastal wife without complaints even though her husband is cheated with her heart. Koji Umeya,...

At sixteen, due to illness, Tsuruko goes blind, and has no choice but to become a massage therapist. One day, stumbling on a staircase, she meets a...

1959 youth comedy.

A beautiful older sister and her younger brother, both designers who paint the dreams of young hope, are paired with an innocent young artist and the...

When Shinsuke returns to Kyushu from the Russo-Japanese War he finds his Judo school hall neglected and in decay. His Judo teacher has died and his...

A studio introduction version for Daiei Stars.

Through the relationship between a woman who has lost her husband and her brother-in-law who proposes to her, the complexity of the female psyche and...

"Though still young, Natsuko gave up the life of a geisha to become the mistress of the president of a shipbuilding company. When he is about to...

1958 Japanese movie

A comedy movie for salaryman.

Reiko Minagawa leaves her home in Okayama to avoid an arranged marriage she doesn't want. Upon arriving in Tokyo, she calls Akira Isomura, a college...

A love melodrama about five siblings and the daughter of a businessman.

Chieko gets married and moves from Kumamoto to Tokyo when her boyfriend Saburo, who works for the Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, is...

Newlyweds Saburo and Chieko are renting a room. The two get into a fight over something trivial.

A factory town along the Sumida River. Jun Aoki and Miyo Murakoshi, who work at this factory, love music, with Jun playing the cello and Miyo the...

The story follows privileged college students who secretly work part-time at a beauty salon, amidst emotional and social struggles. It explores love,...

Moju Tsukai no Shojois a 1952 black-and-white Japanese film

A woman's desperate attempt to prove her husband's innocence after he has been sentenced to death for the murder of his mistress. She tracks down...

A sweet and melancholy melodrama set against the backdrop of the beautiful Seto Inland Sea, in which a pair of twin sisters, one a young lady of high...

A heartwarming tale of romance and thrills featuring an aging groom who discovers the potential of an exceptional racehorse hidden within an ordinary...