Acting

Tanie Kitabayashi

Born May 21, 1911 · Tokyo, Japan

Died April 27, 2010 · aged 98

Tanie Kitabayashi (北林谷栄, Kitabayashi Tanie, May 21, 1911 – April 27, 2010) was a Japanese actress and voice actress. Born Reiko Ando in Tokyo, she began as a stage actress. Early in her career, she became well known for portraying older women. Kitabayashi was a founding member of the famed Mingei Theatre, founded in 1950. In 1960, she won best actress awards at the 10th Blue Ribbon Awards and at t…

Known For

My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro · 1988

My Neighbor Totoro

MovieFantasyAnimation

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

Love: Starting on a Journey

Love: Starting on a Journey · 1985

Love: Starting on a Journey

MovieFantasyMystery

A girl suffering from an incurable disease get in a coma, while her boyfriend visit her to the hospital, she visits the beyond.

Station

Station · 1981

MovieDramaThriller

A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.

Proof of the Man

Proof of the Man · 1977

Proof of the Man

MovieDramaCrime

When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.

Scandal

Scandal · 1950

A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.

The Insect Woman

The Insect Woman · 1963

The Insect Woman

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

White Snake Enchantment

White Snake Enchantment · 1983

White Snake Enchantment

Uta married a priest who saved her when she tried to commit suicide at a waterfall. The love triangle between a lustful priest, his second wife and his son Masao.

Intentions of Murder

Intentions of Murder · 1964

Intentions of Murder

The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.

Movies

My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro · 1988

My Neighbor Totoro

MovieFantasyAnimation

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

Love: Starting on a Journey

Love: Starting on a Journey · 1985

Love: Starting on a Journey

MovieFantasyMystery

A girl suffering from an incurable disease get in a coma, while her boyfriend visit her to the hospital, she visits the beyond.

Station

Station · 1981

MovieDramaThriller

A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.

Proof of the Man

Proof of the Man · 1977

Proof of the Man

MovieDramaCrime

When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.

Scandal

Scandal · 1950

A celebrity photograph sparks a court case as a tabloid magazine spins a scandalous yarn over a painter and a famous singer.

The Insect Woman

The Insect Woman · 1963

The Insect Woman

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

White Snake Enchantment

White Snake Enchantment · 1983

White Snake Enchantment

Uta married a priest who saved her when she tried to commit suicide at a waterfall. The love triangle between a lustful priest, his second wife and his son Masao.

Intentions of Murder

Intentions of Murder · 1964

Intentions of Murder

The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.

Rikyu

Late in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan’s most powerful warlord, unifying the country.

River Without a Bridge Part 2

River Without a Bridge Part 2 · 1970

River Without a Bridge Part 2

Second part to "River Without a Bridge" (1969)

The Burmese Harp

The Burmese Harp · 1956

The Burmese Harp

In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a POW.

Before Dawn

Before Dawn · 1953

Beauty and the Thief

Beauty and the Thief · 1952

Beauty and the Thief

MovieAdventureDrama

The picture belongs to the jidai gekki (historic) genre. It is a powerful story of violence and eroticism, picturing a world at once sordid and poetic, with two central themes which intermingle to compound an admirable panel of a critical period in Japanese history: the great famine in the mid 19th Century.

Twilight of the Cockroaches

Twilight of the Cockroaches · 1987

Twilight of the Cockroaches

MovieFantasyDrama

The cockroaches of Saito's apartment live in peace with their human host, who gives them lots of space to breed and plenty of leftovers to munch on. In the midst of these high living times, Naomi and Ichiro plan to get married and start a family. But when a hard-bitten stranger roach named Hans appears with news of war with the humans across the lawn, it foretells disruption-not only of Naomi and Ichiro's relationship, but of the hive's entire way of life.

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum · 1966

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum

Letter from the Mountain

Letter from the Mountain · 2002

Letter from the Mountain

Husband and wife Michiko and Takao move from their urban existence in Tokyo to the isolated, rural farming village where Takao grew up.

Summer Storm

Summer Storm · 1956

A woman falls in love with her sister's fiancé.

Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan

Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan · 1959

Kiku and Isamu: Two Siblings Born in Japan

Kiku and her brother Isamu are social outcasts, children of a prostitute mother and black GI father, in postwar Japan.

Odd Obsession

Odd Obsession · 1959

A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introduction of his daughter's lover to his wife.

Koga Manshion

Koga Manshion · 1949

Kazuo Hasegawa's debut at Daiei.

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land · 1953

A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land

Onna Hitori Daichi wo Yuku (A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land, Kinuta Production, 1953) was the second feature film directed by Kamei Fumio, who is known as a master of documentary films, and followed his “Haha Nareba Onna Nareba(Become a Mother, Become a Woman)” (1952).

The Shadow of Fear

The Shadow of Fear · 1956

The Shadow of Fear

MovieThrillerDrama

In the backstreets of Ginza, the boss of a hairdressing salon is found dead, killed by strangulation. The detective on the case soon hears rumors about the murder.

Blind Devotion

Blind Devotion · 1961

MovieRomanceDrama

Late romance by acclaimed filmmaker Kinugasa Teinosuke.

Amagi Pass

Amagi Pass · 1983

MovieCrimeFantasy

Japan in the 1940s. A high school boy went into a magic encounter with Ozuka Hana, a geisha (pub-girl) when he traveled through Amagi Pass. A mysterious murder took place afterwards, an Ozuka was held responsible. 40 years later, the boy, who became a printing shop owner, was visited by a retired policeman who came from Amagi Pass. The truth then started to reveal itself.

TV Shows

Mayuko hitori

Mayuko hitori · 1971

Kano is known as a "cocoon child" whose father is an agriculturist. Her mother disappeared when she was little and since then Kano has been wondering why her mother left her thus changing the shape of her life.

おくさまは18歳

おくさまは18歳 · 1970

おくさまは18歳

SeriesComedyDrama