In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.

第2季大吉与节子 大吉准备参加厨师资格考试，以及考虑未来开自己的店，但是节子担心事业会失败而不赞成，首次考试失败，再次努力后考试通过。节子在收养小游以后热衷于照顾孩子，而大吉也非常喜欢小游，对待小游很好。但节子因为珠子姑姑要叶子回到夏威夷，大吉与珠子自行决定开店而不与她商量，于是放下小游的开学礼不管，离家出走到高级旅店中住了三日，全家也不知道节子的去向，最后节子突然饮酒过多入院才知道去向，为此大吉特地与节子多住一晚。 由于“多福”停止营业，大吉失去了厨师的工作，但在山口家的帮忙下开了料理店，由于小游被人收养，为了不致生活苦闷，开店后节子也到店里帮忙，成为老板娘。 弥生 弥生的丈夫阿良调任磐城，但弥生还要照顾婆婆与孩子，阿良只能单身赴任，小明与武志仍然对阿良非常陌生。而弥生在婆婆的支持下，担任西餐厅的服务生，夫妻间适应着新的相处关系。女儿明里不愿当像母亲一样的主妇，跑去当演员，阿良坚决反对，为此断绝与家人的联络，但在只是演出情色节目的角色，最后决定放弃演员的工作，并搬去跟阿良同住。 五月 幸乐家由木造大楼改为钢筋水泥，一二楼为幸乐所有，三楼以上归合作建商所有，多出租为办公室。二楼的部份为阿勇家与久子家(后为邦子等人使用)，一楼为幸乐餐厅与邦子的化妆店(后为久子经营)，希美决定与阿勇同住，五月开始了与婆婆小姑共处的生活。 希美由于为了考量对孙儿们平等，不断纵容久子及其一对子女小登及加奈，对五月与小爱、小真造成不小的困扰与压力，因此造成对立与冲突，历经不少的问题。希美鉴于小爱考上私立女中引来加奈的不满，坚决反对小爱考上私立女中，小爱由于希美的反对，私立女中考试的补习未能顺利补完就停止了，但是私立女中的考试却意外通过了，为此五月小爱希美与节子四人产生了不愉快，五月为了小爱的未来，断然把小爱送到冈仓家暂住，希美突然患病需要做手术，小爱不顾一切前往照顾，反而久子一家对希美的情况完全不闻不问，小爱的所为感动了希美，希美于是同意小爱考取私立女中。由于希美出资给久子一家前往夏威夷旅游，而小爱又要为升学温习，烦闷的小真于是在暑假中到幸乐帮忙。 久子健治夫妇间也有不少矛盾，眼见希美偏袒久子欺负五月，健治不时出言相助五月被久子以为健治与五月有染，二人又为了子女的教育问题出现争执，久子把健治赶出家门，未几因为久子买假货要赔钱，健治对自己又不离不弃，于是把健治接回家，并改变态度。 浩介夫妇由于小川家木材店的大哥突然过世，为继承小川家木材店的问题，搬回去与婆婆同住，但邦子与婆婆相处的十分不愉快，三天两头跑到小岛家找妈妈希美诉苦，最后木材店倒闭了，也因此产生了婆婆的照顾问题。 文子 文子夫妇的部分，由于阿亨不满意自己的工作，从公司辞职，将公寓卖掉开了有机食品店，并搬回婆婆家，虽然文子曾对此非常不满，但在大吉夫妇劝说下，文子接受阿亨的安排。婆婆年子虽然嘴巴上说不会管文子阿亨的事情，但身为婆婆总是忍不住唠叨了起来，文子对婆婆与丈夫十分不能接受而离开高桥家，但由于有机食品店阿亨忙不过来，还是回到高桥家当起老板娘，并改善与婆婆的相处。 叶子 叶子离婚后回到了冈仓家，开始找起工作来。而过去放弃与叶子结婚的太郎正好也离婚，两人再次的相遇更尊重与珍惜起彼此，太郎对叶子想工作与取得设计师资格的事，表示理解与支持，叶子虽然忙于工作，也同意了与太郎的订婚。政子对于过去反对两人的婚姻表示后悔，希望叶子与太郎能娶叶子，叶子也答应与太郎结婚。为了令叶子能与太郎结婚，政子主动提出提供地方，出资装修供大吉开始料理店。 长子 长子的丈夫昌之在工作途中突然脑出血过世，长子对动手术的英作未经她同意动手术十分不能理解，执意要告英作。在昌之往生后，在福岛居住的昌之的哥哥孝男夫妇为了贪图昌之的遗产，迫长子放弃财产继承与小游监护权，令小游一人独自继承昌之的所有财产，再以小游监护人的名义动用，长子在大吉夫妇与叶子的劝说下，被逼出远山家，开始找工作。 英作为了昌之的手术前来与长子说明，长子原谅了英作并接受英作的好意到医院当院长秘书。由于昌之公司留下的大量债务，财产都被抵债，包括昌之原有的住处，孝男把小游带到福岛。在福岛，小游受尽孝男夫妇的苛待，而且孝男称因为生活问题欲将小游送往孤儿院，小游为了在进孤儿院前见长子一面，独自一人从福岛来到东京，长子为了不给小游进孤儿院，竟向姐姐们借钱到外面租屋住，大吉与节子知道了遂收留小游在暑假中住一段日子，给大家尝试适应，在这段时间，节子被小游所感动，主动提出收养小游。 英作欲追求长子，但长子并未同意，英作遂接受母亲常子的安排，准备与院长女儿结婚。孝男突然提出由小游的阿姨收养小游，为此大吉夫妇与长子以游客的身份造访小游阿姨在云仙所开的旅馆，事后小游的阿姨与姨丈来访，由于小游的阿姨酷似小游生母，小游对阿姨产生了情感，且阿姨与姨丈拥有巨额财产但却没有继承人，冈仓家中，除了节子与长子二人，几乎全家也认为应该放弃小游，长子再三考虑下为了小游的未来，让小游改由阿姨收养。 英作由于长子的追求者有其他已经怀孕的女友，遂为了长子打了对方一架，长子也同意英作求婚。常子由于英作追求自己真爱的举动很有男子气概，且对于院长家与院长女儿的作为不悦，遂同意了两人的婚事。

Motoko Fujikawa works in the Seisen Church as an assistant to pastor Maki Inokichi. Motoko falls in love with Inokichi's virtuous character and devotes herself to the rehabilitation of a delinquent girl, gradually finding her job at the institution more worthwhile than the marriage recommended by her parents. Meanwhile, inside Inokichi's heart a flame of unknowing love for the single-minded Motoko begins to burn.

One of the major joys of writing about Japanese movies is that whenever you begin to get that tired, jaded feeling that you think you’ve seen it all and that there’s nothing left that’s ever going to set your pulse racing, you stumble across a whole previously hidden seam of movies that completely revolutionises any ideas of what Japanese cinema is. I remember getting this feeling watching the works of Hiroshi Shimizu at the 2003 Tokyo FILMeX, and I got it again at the same festival exactly one year later, during a 13-film retrospective of Tomu Uchida, which travelled to the Rotterdam Film Festival in a slimmed-down version a couple of months later. In English-language film circles, not much is really generally known about Japanese cinema prior to the 1960s. Anderson and Richie’s The Japanese Film: Art and Industry is still the bible for those who want to find out more, but more recent non-academic publications are limited by the films that are available for viewing. It’s a catch-22 situation, which DVD is slowly overcoming. Yet still, outside of the work of a few major directors like Kurosawa and Ozu, recent releases have tended to stick with products from more recent years, more often than not focused around the twin poles of art and exploitation. It is therefore really difficult to get any broader picture of what the industry was doing before the days of yakuza movies and Roman Porno. Yet the 1950s were the decade when the Japanese cinema had reached full maturity and cinema attendances were at a peak, the so-called Golden Age when the major companies were between them turning out around 500 films a year, all made by directors with several decades of experience behind them, at long-established studios with a large highly-trained professional team of technicians. Far from being the bastion of conservativeness that Oshima and the New Wave directors labelled it to be, I am coming to look at the decade as a vast lucky dip with some fabulous treasures still waiting to be found – such as The Outsiders, for example, an epic outdoor adventure in which an embittered Ken Takakura fights for the rights of Hokkaido’s oppressed Ainu population. Tomu Uchida was one of those names I’d heard bandied about a lot, most often in conjunction with the film Earth (Tsuchi) made in 1939. A seminal piece of social-realism made by a director noted for his leftist inclinations, Earth focused on the harsh lives of a community of farmers at a time when rapid urbanisation was bleeding the countryside dry. It was a political film in that it confronted the swelling ranks of the emergent urban middle classes who made up the large bulk of cinema audiences with the plight of the rural poor, paralleling the release of John Ford’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in America around the same time in 1940. Remember, long before the days of television, cinema was the only way of seeing how the other half lived, and in today’s image-saturated mass-media culture it is easy to overlook the power and immediacy of what people saw on the big screen. Uchida’s film was all the more political because it was made at the time when the lion’s share of agricultural production was being put towards Japan’s wartime expansion. Needless to say, it went bang in the face of the type of films the government was promoting at the time. Earth was filmed over the course of a year with a documentarist’s attention to detail, taking in each of the seasons and focusing very much on man’s relationship with the soil. This approach of drawing out the realism and charting the passage of time through the use of the four seasons much later became a staple of the documentary films made by the collective centred around Shinsuke Ogawa, such as Magino Village – A Tale (Sennen Kizami no Hidokei: Magino-Mura Monogatari, 1987), or more recently in the documentary-styled fictional work of Naomi Kawase, specifically the films Suzaku and Hotaru. Uchida’s film, by the way, is not to be confused with the German-Japanese co-production, The New Earth (Atarashii Tsuchi), directed by Mansaku Itami, the father of Tampopo director Juzo Itami. This film, released in 1941, was a nationalist propaganda work made under the instigation of Dr Arnold Fanck, the German director who sparked off the peculiar genre of the “Mountain Film” as typified by The Holy Mountain (Der Heilige Berg, recently released on DVD in the UK by Eureka). As written by Fanck, its goal was to portray “unity of the Nazi group-spirit and the racial spirit of the Japanese as opposed to the weak spirit of the democracies”, but there was conflict between the Japanese and the German creative elements throughout the production due to the way in which Fanck constantly misrepresented elements of Japanese culture in service of the film’s higher propagandist purpose (The Last Samurai, anyone?). Released overseas at the time as The Daughter of the Samurai, one of the first co-productions Japan ever made with the West thus ended up a classic textbook example of orientalist filmmaking. Much of what has been written about Uchida’s career in the English language – basically in Anderson and Richie’s book – has focused on his pre-war career. But as the FILMeX retrospective clearly demonstrated, this was only half of the story. In 1945, the left-leaning director travelled to the formerly Japanese-occupied area of Manchuria in China to join the Manchuria Film Association, or Man’ei, and was not to come back until 1953. Upon his return he continued for almost two decades to produce a wide range of films that fit into every genre conceivable, from traditional kabuki adaptations to melodrama and yakuza movies. The diversity of his oeuvre therefore means that getting a grip on what elements typify an Uchida picture is a difficult task, but on the evidence of The Outsiders, one of the original program that tellingly did not go over to the Rotterdam festival, perhaps it is fruitful to turn once again to the parallel with John Ford. The film’s mixture of heroic action, making full use of one of the top macho icons of its day, an expansive sense of location, masterful use of colour and composition and a focus on social injustice meted out on large sectors of the nation’s indigenous people had me thinking in terms of The Searchers. In what seems like another unlikely case of synchronicity, Ford’s film was released just two years previously in 1956. The Outsiders is something of a revelation. It certainly looks nothing like what you’d expect from a Japanese movie made around the mid-50s, which is perhaps the reason why it is completely unknown outside of Japan. Opening with a lengthy pan across the barren mountaintops of Hokkaido, Uchida’s third film in colour, after the two parts of the jidai-geki Daibosatsu Pass (Daibosatsutoge, 1957/58) is an undeniably exhilarating visual experience, making full use of the Toeiscope widescreen format to capture Japan’s northernmost territory in all its rugged beauty. It also is of particular interest for drawing attention to the destruction of the culture and the discrimination against the indigenous Ainu people, a dwindling race faced with danger of extinction since the Japanese nation began its concerted push northwards with the government extending administration over all parts of the landmass in 1868. Screen legend Ken Takakura is Ishitaro Kazamori, known as Byakki “the Phoenix” by the local Ainu population, as he whisks from village to village on horseback delivering supplies and educational books to the locals, an outcast Robin Hood character working for the future of his people. But Byakki’s rough methods aren’t to everyone’s tastes. Money has been going missing from the funds raised by the chairman of the Ainu Society, Dr. Ike (Kitazawa), a well-meaning “shamo” (non-Ainu) who has dedicated much of his life to researching the history and culture of Japan’s aboriginal people. When Dr Ike brings a young landscape painter Yoshiko Saeki (Kagawa) from Tokyo with him on his field trips to sketch the local landscapes, there is initially resentment of another outsider treating the local populations as her own pet project. But Yoshiko soon befriends Mitsu (Fujisato), an Ainu girl who was jilted years ago on the eve of the holy Bekanbe Festival by her “shamo” lover who couldn’t go through with the stigma of marrying into this ostracised class. Mitsu may also hold the key to Byakki’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, as the next Bekanbe Festival approaches, tension is growing between the Ainu and the Japanese settlers in the coastal town of Nanbetsu due to Byakki’s increasingly unruly antics. One local who steadfastly refuses to pitch in to Dr. Ike’s project is Oiwa (Mikuni), who runs the local fishery with his old father (Susukida), and runs a strict policy of not hiring any Ainu workers. Oiwa bears Byakki a particular enmity, because Byakki knows that Oiwa is living in denial, masquerading as a “shamo” and keeping his real Ainu ancestry well hidden. But Oiwa also knows a few secrets about Byakki. Hokkaido is in many ways Japan’s northernmost frontier, its own equivalent to the Wild West, and The Outsiders, though based on the novel Mori to Mizuumi no Matsuri by Taijun Takeda, most clearly resembles an American western, a gripping action film letting forth a righteous cry against social injustice against the indigenous population and unfolding against an epic landscape. Such genre appropriations can’t be coincidental. As could be seen as early back as Uchida’s own 1933 silent, The Police Officer (Keisatsukan), which also played at FILMeX, Japanese filmmakers were certainly not above borrowing heavily from typically American staples such as the cops-and-robbers film. I can’t say whether Uchida consciously modelled his film on the western, but the crucial fact about The Outsiders is that the story makes sense and works in its own right, rather than just being noteworthy as a cross-cultural hybrid curio. The main drawing point is of course Hokkaido itself, shot beautifully by cinematographer Shoe Nishikawa, picking out the autumnal russet-tinged hues of the majestic countryside of lakes, plains and woods, as the camera glides and tracks through a series of mainly exterior locations. But aside from this vibrant use of colour, also used to great effect in the matsuri (festival) scenes and the coloured fabrics of the traditional costumes, The Outsiders is also unique for revealing a facet of Japanese culture almost completely disregarded in its cinema. Bold, beautiful, and packing a powerful dramatic punch, there is little else quite like it. We can only hope that some adventurous DVD company will pick it up soon, because this is a film that could change people’s perceptions and prejudices about Japanese film for good. from midnighteye

〔花売り娘〕バー・クラルテの雇われマダム道江は、今宵ひどく不機嫌で、花売りの少女民子にもつらく当った。道江は旦那を刑務所に行かさないために二十万円つくる必要があるのだが、その金をマスターから出させるためにはマスターに身をまかせなければならぬ。銀座の夜は雨になった。道江はしょんぼりと雨宿りしている民子を哀れに思い、売れ残りを買いあげ千円札を与えた。民子は喜んで帰ったが、病気の姉は死んでいた。数日後、お礼を云うために、民子は道江の家を訪れた。あの日道江は折角二十万円つくったのに旦那は自殺していた。それ以来クラルテも止め、悲観して寝てばかりいたが、民子との再会で再び生きる力を見出した。 〔とびこんだ花嫁〕河野は朝っぱらからアパートのおばさんにたたきおこされた。前に故郷のお袋から写真を送って来ていた花嫁が、突如やって来たのだ。河野はキモをつぶし、その谷くに子という女を置いて工場へ出掛け、同僚の森川や古野に相談した。だが昼めしどき、やはり気になるので部屋へ帰ってみると、くに子はいましがた去ったところだと云う。方々探してみたが見つからず又部屋へ戻ってみると、河野のお袋からことずかったチャンチャンコやくに子の兄の御土産たる二つのタネ芋を渡すのを忘れていたと、くに子が彼を待っていた。さてそれからイモやアズキについての珍問答を繰り返すうちに、二人の心はほぐれてくるのだった。 〔愛すればこそ〕競輪場の臨時雇をしている母八重子と、姉娘とし子、妹娘みち子とは貧しい生活を送っていた。而も一人息子の茂は思想犯で牢に入っている。ところが、二十七才のとし子は、いい部屋が見つかったので、須藤という男と結婚しようとした。母も妹もとし子がこの際家を出ることを喜ばない。がその時訪れた伯父の五郎は、とし子の幸福は祈ってやって、その代り茂に帰ってもらえばよいのだと主張した。後ろ髪ひかれる思いだが、とし子は家を出て行った。翌日、八重子は刑務所の茂に面会に行ったが、茂は自分のえらんだ道をまげるわけにいかないと云うのだった。その後、ゆみ子という女性が来ている。八重子はこれは茂の何だろうかと気づかいつつ帰途につくと、背後からゆみ子が「お母さん、お母さん」と呼んで追って来た。息子たちの明るい明日を思えば、苦しい生活にも耐えられると八重子は思う。

Tora-san's opinions about Americans get challenged when another wandering peddler Michael Jordan stops by Shibamata.

製作＝東京映画　配給＝東宝 1958.01.15 10巻 2,738m 100分 白黒 朝日新聞に連載された川端康成の原作を「夜の鴎」の田中澄江、「続青い山脈」の井手俊郎、「幕末太陽伝」の川島雄三の三人が共同脚色、川島雄三が東京映画と新たに契約、監督した文芸篇。撮影は「一本刀土俵入(1957)」の飯村正が担当した。主演は「続々大番　（怒涛篇）」の原節子、「挽歌(1957)」の久我美子、森雅之、「地上」の香川京子、「その夜のひめごと」の三橋達也「気違い部落」の石浜朗。ほかに、太刀川洋一、中北千枝子、丹阿弥谷津子、荒木道子などが助演している。

今年12月に生誕110年・没後50年を迎える映画監督の小津安二郎。その最高傑作と称される「東京物語」が2012年、英国映画協会が行った「映画監督が選ぶ世界の映画NO1」に輝いた。小津映画は、今もなぜ世界の人々を惹きつけるのか？ 今年7月、小津監督と脚本家野田高梧との脚本執筆の日々を綴った「蓼科日記」が刊行された。派手なシーンもなく淡々と家族の物語を描く「小津調」の作品がどのように編み出されたのか、その創作のプロセスに迫る。 また、「東京物語」「秋刀魚の味」「秋日和」などに出演した司葉子、岡田茉莉子、香川京子という往年の名女優や、吉田喜重、篠田正浩など当時の助監督たちに、小津作品の魅力を聞いていく。 さらに、松竹大船撮影所の美術デザインを新たな視点で見つめることで、日本映画の黄金期といわれた撮影所のスタジオシステムが生んだ集団芸術の素晴らしさと、現代につながる普遍的な映画の味わいを再発見する。 番組では、小津監督ゆかりの人々の証言や本人の日記などを手掛かりに、いまなお世界で広く見られている小津作品独自の映像世界の魅力を浮き彫りにしていく。

A group of Okinawan high school girls are drafted as nurses during the American invasion of the island. As the enemy army advances further, the situation for the girls becomes increasingly desperate as food and shelter run out and the number of injured climbs, leading to the film's tragic finale.

Shozo is plagued by the needs of his ex-wife and his current one, but prefers the company of his cat.

During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyotomi to overcome the seat of power, Osaka Castle. Mohei's daredevil skills will be put to severe tests.

社会不断进步，生活日渐富裕，但当物质让我们感到如此富足之际，人与人之间的距离却原来越远。而在当下这个飞速发展的时代，很多人的困难却被有意无意忽略。美丽善良的里见凉（深田恭子 饰）是东京下町一所民间地区福利组织——社会福祉协议会的职员，童年一段刻骨铭心的经历，让她发誓再也不放开任何乞求帮助之人的手。入职以后，她时常不顾个人安危，为管辖区内的人们全力奔走。但即便如此，因为制度漏洞和部分从业人员的责任心稀缺，还是有很多人求告无门。 即便前方困难重重，里见凉从来没有放弃前进的脚步。她的爱心感染了同侪，也感动了社区内每一个平凡的人……

A university professor and his wife have two sons with infantile paralysis. Through trial and error, they struggle to open a school for disabled children at their own expense. Based on a true story, it features natural child performances under Hiroshi Shimizu’s skillful direction.

李香兰从影20周年纪念作品。

A poor peasant, after years of scraping, becomes a rich and powerful Osaka merchant. Mizoguchi Kenji's final project; he died before completing it and directing duties turned over to Yoshimura Kozaburo.

Three bankers, out on holiday, climb the Japanese Alps. One dies under mysterious circumstances, and later it is suggested that perhaps the man was murdered.

该纪录片由东宝策划，以采访和片场录像等构成，记录了黑泽明在东宝执导的21部电影之制作过程，从准备阶段到经过摄影、剪辑到公映为止的轨迹得到了完整的重现。全剧共21集，分别对应21部电影，收录于东宝在日本分三套发售的“黒澤明 THE MASTERWORKS DVD BOXSET”。

本片描写童谣诗人金子的婚姻恋爱。 大正9年春天，17岁的金子(松隆子)从女子学校毕业，在山口县仙崎的父母家书店金子文英堂帮忙，与祖母梅(香川京子)，哥哥的坚助(野村宏伸)一起生活，金子还有是继子的弟弟正佑(三宅健)。正佑很喜欢金子写的诗，金子开始用金子铃的笔名写诗，竟然被登载在杂志上，童谣诗人诞生了……

A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.