Acting

Nobuo Nakamura

Born September 14, 1908 · Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan

Died July 5, 1991 · aged 82

Nobuo Nakamura (中村伸郎 Nakamura Nobuo, September 14, 1908–July 5, 1991 ) was a Japanese actor, who made notable appearances in the films of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps his most famous roles were those of the callous deputy mayor in Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952), and the hairdresser's henpecked husband in Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953). Nakamura is famous for many notable pe…

Known For

High and Low

High and Low · 1963

MovieDramaCrime

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story · 1953

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood · 1957

Throne of Blood

MovieDramaHistory

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Tampopo

Tampopo · 1985

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love · 1959

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman · 1957

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman

MovieHorrorScience Fiction

An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote tribe as a god, and how it was discovered by modern man after it raided a skiers shelter following an avalanche, killing all inside. This is an adaptation of the Japanese film "Jūjin Yuki Otoko" (1955) with added American-made footage, narration, and music.

The War of the Gargantuas

The War of the Gargantuas · 1966

The War of the Gargantuas

MovieActionHorror

Gaira, a humanoid sea beast spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster, attacks the shores of Tokyo. While the Japanese military prepares to take action, Gaira's Gargantua brother, Sanda, descends from the mountains to defend his kin. A battle between good and evil ensues, leaving brothers divided and a city in ruins.

Movies

High and Low

High and Low · 1963

MovieDramaCrime

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story · 1953

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Throne of Blood

Throne of Blood · 1957

Throne of Blood

MovieDramaHistory

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Tampopo

Tampopo · 1985

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love · 1959

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman · 1957

Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman

MovieHorrorScience Fiction

An American scientist tells two colleagues about the finding of an abominable snowman living in the Japanese alps, where it is worshipped by a remote tribe as a god, and how it was discovered by modern man after it raided a skiers shelter following an avalanche, killing all inside. This is an adaptation of the Japanese film "Jūjin Yuki Otoko" (1955) with added American-made footage, narration, and music.

The War of the Gargantuas

The War of the Gargantuas · 1966

The War of the Gargantuas

MovieActionHorror

Gaira, a humanoid sea beast spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster, attacks the shores of Tokyo. While the Japanese military prepares to take action, Gaira's Gargantua brother, Sanda, descends from the mountains to defend his kin. A battle between good and evil ensues, leaving brothers divided and a city in ruins.

Frankenstein Conquers the World

Frankenstein Conquers the World · 1965

Frankenstein Conquers the World

MovieHorrorScience Fiction

During WWII, Germans obtain the immortal heart of Frankenstein's monster and transport it to Japan to prevent it being seized by the Allies. Kept in a Hiroshima laboratory, it is seeming lost when the United States destroys the city with the atomic bomb. Years later a wild boy is discovered wandering the streets of the city alone, born of the immortal heart.

The Bad Sleep Well

The Bad Sleep Well · 1960

The Bad Sleep Well

MovieCrimeDrama

In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.

Golden Partners

Golden Partners · 1979

Golden Partners

A motorcycle cop and a freelance photographer, having learned the location of 1 billion yen's worth of the Imperial Navy's gold, team up to salvage it.

Maboroshi no Satsui

Maboroshi no Satsui · 1971

Maboroshi no Satsui

Adaptation of the Shôji Yuki novel.

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.

An Autumn Afternoon

An Autumn Afternoon · 1962

An Autumn Afternoon

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

Dogora

MovieScience FictionCrime

A floating amorphous life-form descends from the atmosphere to consume carbon in the form of diamonds.

Equinox Flower

Equinox Flower · 1958

MovieComedyDrama

Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.

Sky Scraper!

Sky Scraper! · 1969

A film about the construction of the Kasumigaseki Building, the first high-rise building in Japan.

Submersion of Japan

Submersion of Japan · 1973

Submersion of Japan

MovieThrillerScience Fiction

A team of geophysicists investigating seismic activity on the seafloor discover that the islands of Japan, after suffering from massive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, will be pulled into the ocean, killing millions.

Blind Devotion

Blind Devotion · 1961

MovieRomanceDrama

Late romance by acclaimed filmmaker Kinugasa Teinosuke.

The Legendary Hell

The Legendary Hell · 1960

The Legendary Hell

Female

I Live in Fear

I Live in Fear · 1955

An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.

Mount Hakone

Mount Hakone · 1962

Japanese drama.

Late Autumn

Late Autumn · 1960

MovieDramaComedy

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

TV Shows

NET Playhouse

NET Playhouse · 1966

SeriesDramaFamily

NET Playhouse is an American dramatic television anthology series produced by National Educational Television. NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark, New Jersey to form WNET and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service. American television anthology series of wide range of genres, from history and drama, to fantasy, and science fiction. Fiction novels, stories, stage plays, fairytales, and historic events are dramatized in each episode.

The White Tower

The White Tower · 1978

The White Tower

The story contrasts the life of two doctors, former classmates and now both assistant professors at Naniwa University Hospital in Osaka. The brilliant and ambitious surgeon Goro Zaizen stops at nothing to rise to a position of eminence and authority, while the friendly Shuji Satomi busies himself with his patients and research.

The Trading Company

The Trading Company · 1980

The Trading Company

SeriesDramaCrime

An economic drama depicting the struggle and collapse of a Japanese general trading company. The US branch president of a trading company challenges Japan's internal power struggle and the North American oil market.

Kemono Michi

Kemono Michi · 1982

The drama sheds light on the dark side of Japan connected to the political and financial world by depicting the vicissitudes of women.