Directing

Minoru Shibuya

Born January 2, 1907 · Tokyo, Japan

Died December 20, 1980 · aged 73

Born in Tokyo, Shibuya attended Keiō University but left before graduating. He joined Shochiku in 1930 and worked as an assistant under Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, and Heinosuke Gosho, before making his debut as a director in 1937. Shibuya "worked with equal facility in comedy and melodrama and made his mark as an ironic but compassionate chronicler of the difficulties of the early postwar period"…

Known For

Look Up, Noble One

Look Up, Noble One · 1966

Look Up, Noble One

MovieDramaComedy

A Good Man, A Good Day

A Good Man, A Good Day · 1961

A Good Man, A Good Day

The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.

A Certain Woman

A Certain Woman · 1942

A Certain Woman

Pretty Oshige is deceived by her first love. After this, she lives a hard lifestyle, working at a number of jobs. Her only pleasure is her nephew, who eventually becomes a merchant marine. When Oshige meets her old love ten years later, she is able to forgive him and even thank him for the path her life has taken.

Freedom School

Freedom School · 1951

MovieDramaComedy

Minamimura, who had always wanted to be free, suddenly quits his job. His hardworking wife is surprised and angry, and throws him out of the house. Confused by his sudden freedom, Iosuke ends up living as a vagrant under a bridge. His wife, Komako, also finds herself freed and is unable to ignore her confusion.

Every-Night Dreams

Every-Night Dreams · 1933

Every-Night Dreams

In Depression-era Tokyo, the life of a single mother and her young son are disrupted by the return of her ex-husband, who fathered the child and walked out on her years earlier.

Drunkard's Paradise

Drunkard's Paradise · 1962

Drunkard's Paradise

A father and son are both heavy drinkers. However, the son dies in an accident at a bar, leaving behind a fiance…. A unique social satire that focuses on why people drink alcohol.

The Unbalanced Wheel

The Unbalanced Wheel · 1957

The Unbalanced Wheel

A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community.

The Shrikes

The Shrikes · 1961

Filmography

Sort

Look Up, Noble One

Look Up, Noble One · 1966

Look Up, Noble One

MovieDramaComedy

Director

A Good Man, A Good Day

A Good Man, A Good Day · 1961

A Good Man, A Good Day

The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.

Director

A Certain Woman

A Certain Woman · 1942

A Certain Woman

Pretty Oshige is deceived by her first love. After this, she lives a hard lifestyle, working at a number of jobs. Her only pleasure is her nephew, who eventually becomes a merchant marine. When Oshige meets her old love ten years later, she is able to forgive him and even thank him for the path her life has taken.

Director

Freedom School

Freedom School · 1951

MovieDramaComedy

Minamimura, who had always wanted to be free, suddenly quits his job. His hardworking wife is surprised and angry, and throws him out of the house. Confused by his sudden freedom, Iosuke ends up living as a vagrant under a bridge. His wife, Komako, also finds herself freed and is unable to ignore her confusion.

Director

Every-Night Dreams

Every-Night Dreams · 1933

Every-Night Dreams

In Depression-era Tokyo, the life of a single mother and her young son are disrupted by the return of her ex-husband, who fathered the child and walked out on her years earlier.

Assistant Director

Drunkard's Paradise

Drunkard's Paradise · 1962

Drunkard's Paradise

A father and son are both heavy drinkers. However, the son dies in an accident at a bar, leaving behind a fiance…. A unique social satire that focuses on why people drink alcohol.

Director

The Unbalanced Wheel

The Unbalanced Wheel · 1957

The Unbalanced Wheel

A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community.

Director

The Shrikes

The Shrikes · 1961

Director

Song of the Flower Basket

Song of the Flower Basket · 1937

Song of the Flower Basket

Three men fall in love with the same young girl who works in a tonkatsu restaurant in the Shitamachi district of Tokyo.

Editor

The Days of Evil Women

The Days of Evil Women · 1958

The Days of Evil Women

MovieDramaComedy

The common-law wife and daughter of a wealthy old man plot to murder him and steal his fortune, with the help of their male acquaintances.

Director

Crazy Uproar

Crazy Uproar · 1950

Also known as Crazy Uproar.

Director

Mother and Child

Mother and Child · 1938

Mother and Child

The movie follows a young woman (Kinuyo Tanaka), a daughter of a high-ranking businessman and his neglected mistress, as she struggles to ease her mother's loneliness, while also having an affair with her father's subordinate.

Director

Doctor's Day Off

Doctor's Day Off · 1952

Doctor's Day Off

Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off. However, it is not to be: on this hectic day a man just back from the war front visits the doctor with a medical emergency, followed by a woman who claims to have been molested. Then a yakuza arrives to ask the doctor to cut his finger off...

Director

Air Raid of the Enemy Plane

Air Raid of the Enemy Plane · 1943

Air Raid of the Enemy Plane

Japanese war movie.

Director

Modern People

Modern People · 1952

A section chief at the Bureau of Construction is in a shady relationship with a construction company. Then a new, young and honest subordinate is assigned to work under the section chief. Once he learns about the shady relationship, however, the new subordinate skillfully conceals the corruption and joins the corrupt, shady relationship.

Director

Street Without End

Street Without End · 1934

Street Without End

Mikio Naruse’s final silent film is a gloriously rich portrait of a waitress, Sugiko, whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a suffocatingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.

Assistant Director

Kiri aru jyoji

Kiri aru jyoji · 1959

Director

Futari dake no toride

Futari dake no toride · 1963

Futari dake no toride

Director

Banana

Director

The Radish and the Carrot

The Radish and the Carrot · 1965

The Radish and the Carrot

One day a company executive learns that his younger brother, whom he recommended, embezzled company funds. To save the situation he withdraws his life savings and gives money to his younger brother. He then suddenly disappears…

Director

Monrō no yōna onna

Monrō no yōna onna · 1964

Monrō no yōna onna

1964 Japanese movie

Director

Burden of Life

Burden of Life · 1935

A middle-aged father has just married off his third daughter, but still has his nine year old son to raise whom he resents as he was unwanted.

Editor

Southern Wind

Southern Wind · 1939

Based on the original work by Fumiko Hayashi, this is a story about a woman and two men. The lust is restrained and indifferent. The story even has an elegance to it, which is the charm of the 30 year old Kinuyo Tanaka. There was a time when Tanaka was adorable... Shin Saburi was young and Chishu Ryu was young too. It is a promise of melodrama that the rival or friend is prettier than the heroine Kinyo.

Director

Yassamossa

Yassamossa · 1953

Director