Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films The Burmese Harp and Fires on the Plain, to the documentary Tokyo Olympiad, which won two BAFTA Film Awards, and the 19th-century revenge drama An Actor's Revenge.
A hustler who gets in trouble with a gang boss in the port town of Sukago agrees to make good with the don by putting him in contact with a mysterious hitman — an assassin the hustler has no idea how to contact. Instead, he hires an actor to play the role, though the thespian has no idea what he's getting into.
Release Date2008-06-07
Charactersd Film Director
Vote Count38
The life of iconic Japanese director Kon Ichikawa.
Release Date2006-12-09
Charactersd Himself
Vote Count7
Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich. The segments include Lelouch's take on Olympic losers and their struggle to remain dignified even in the face of bitter disappointment and defeat; Zetterling's dramatic exploration of the world of weightlifting; and Pfleghar's piece on young Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischev's majestic performance on the uneven bars.
Release Date1973-10-06
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Charactersd Narrator
Vote Count16
Interview with Japanese film director, conducted by film critic Yuki Mori for the Directors Guild of Japan in 1999.
Release Date1999-01-01
Charactersd Interviewee
Documentary on film maker Akira Kurosawa
Release Date2000-12-24
Charactersd Self
Vote Count3
Monjiro was born into a poor farm family in Mikazuki Village, Nitta County, Ueshu, and abandoned his hometown when he was 10 years old. He has been traveling aimlessly with a long toothpick in his mouth. Monjiro avoided getting involved in anything, but wherever he went, he ended up getting involved in incidents
Release Date1972-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count5
Vote Count1
Master swordsman Bangaku Ajigawa is a Ronin with an honest heart, and hates deception. With no family or money, he lives by his own rules. Bangaku’s one treasure and reason to live is his master sword, Hekimitsuhira. But because of it, people around him regularly lie and deceive him. This light-hearted samurai drama follows the comedic life of Bengaku. Produced by Eizou Kyoto, this drama is to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Director Kon Ichikawa.
Release Date2002-03-05
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count10
When Milo the cat and Otis the dog are separated, they each set off on an adventurous and often perilous quest across mountains, plains, and snow-covered lands to reunite with one another.
Release Date1986-06-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobCo-Director
Vote Count207
This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.
Release Date1983-05-21
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count48
This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.
Release Date1970-10-31
DepartmentProduction
JobExecutive Producer
Vote Count141
Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal followers (now Ronin, masterless Samurai) dedicate their lives to avenging his death.
Release Date1994-10-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count21
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.
Release Date1956-01-21
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count156
When a tycoon passes away, he unexpectedly leaves the family fortune to outsider Tamayo on the condition that she marries one of the grandsons, pitting blood against blood.
Release Date1976-10-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count34
Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.
Release Date1958-09-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count29
This impressionistic portrait of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics pays as much attention to the crowds and workers as it does to the actual competitive events. Highlights include an epic pole-vaulting match between West Germany and America, and the final marathon race through Tokyo's streets. Two athletes are highlighted: Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, who receives his second gold medal, and runner Ahamed Isa from Chad, representing a country younger than he is.
Release Date1965-03-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count45
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.
Release Date1987-09-26
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count24
In Edo Japan, a kabuki actor seeks revenge against the three men who drove his parents to their deaths years ago.
Release Date1963-01-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count63
In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of Leyte.
Release Date1959-11-03
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count113
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.
Release Date1959-06-23
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count30
Inugami Sahei, who built up the wealth of the Inugami Clan, passes away, leaving a will with Furudate, his legal adviser, for his daughters Matsuko, Takeko and Umeko, all of whom have different mothers, and for their sons, as well as for Nonomiya Tamayo, the granddaughter of a person to whom Sahei feels heavily indebted. The will states that all his assets are inherited by Tamayo alone, on the condition that she marries one of the sons of the daughters. Furudate's assistant learns the content of the will, and seeks advice from Kindaichi Kosuke, a private detective, as he senses the air of unease. Shortly afterwards, murders start to occur one after another in the clan.
Release Date2006-12-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count16
A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption.
Release Date2000-05-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count9
Based on renowned Japanese writer Natsume Soseki's same-titled short story collection, Ten Nights of Dreams brings ten fantastical dream sequences to film with great visual and psychological panache. Representing the combined efforts of eleven directors, this outstanding anthology delves into the surreal subconscious with ten madly imaginative, reality-subverting visions that range from wonderfully wacky to nightmarishly unsettling.
Release Date2007-01-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count14
To solve the mystery of a murder of an old governess which takes place at a wealthy Daidoji family's country estate, family secrets and lies dating back several generations must be sorted out once and for all.
Release Date1978-02-11
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count7
In the future, one can achieve immortality by obtaining a mechanized body. Orphaned, young Tetsuro hitches a ride on the space train Galaxy Express 999 in the hope of obtaining a cyborg body to avenge his mother's death. Along the way, he meets Maetel, who is the spitting image of his dead mother.
Release Date1979-08-04
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count70
Kaze is a philandering TV producer. His wife and nine of his mistresses conspire to kill him. However each woman would rather keep him alive, as long as she was the only woman in his life.
Release Date1961-05-03
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count10
Kôsuke Kindaichi, a somewhat peculiar private detective, visits a remote town. He meets a police detective and they start to investigate an old unsolved murder. Then some murders happen. Kindaichi must find out about the past in order to reveal who the murderer is.
Release Date1977-04-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count14
A scruffy detective investigates the murders of three sisters on a small Japanese island in 1946.
Release Date1977-08-27
DepartmentProduction
JobExecutive Producer
Vote Count2
Set in 1926 when Japanese tradition was much stronger, this drama looks at the inner workings of a small family, especially the relationship between a sister and brother.
Release Date1960-11-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count15
The patriarch of a bickering family announces his retirement, stirring competition about who will succeed him as a leading practitioner of Noh theater, his granddaughter or grandson.
Release Date1991-03-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count5
Nakadai is an English teacher at a local school. He’s put-upon like the patron figure of dozens of films and televisions shows. Viewers who are especially fans of Nakadai will appreciate how the actor comically rants about here. His home life is almost disastrous, with a ditzy (but attractive) wife, three young children, a loud school nearby that’s controlled by a corrupt businessman he loathes, and frequent visits from layabout friends. And the grey-furred, green-eyed cat!
Release Date1975-05-31
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count3
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 second story, a beautiful young woman is employed by an unscrupulous real estate agent to convince male clients to invest in worthless property. The last story is about a widowed geisha who has no real financial worries and who falls in love with a forger.
Release Date1960-01-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count6
This extraordinarily complex film is not only a send-up of every samurai film ever made, it is also an extrapolation of the value of life. The Yamatai, represented by Prince Susano-O and elderly advisor Sumuke, hire Yumihiko of Matsuro to hunt the phoenix so that Queen Himiko, sister of Susano-O can have eteranal life.
Release Date1978-08-12
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count8
This time, Kousuke investigates a murder in a hospital. The murderer leaves misleading evidence to divert Kousuke's attention on the case. Suspicion and doubt clouds Kousuke's mind.
Release Date1979-05-26
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count3
Release Date1993-11-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Story of famed Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, with an emphasis on her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi.
Release Date1987-01-17
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count2
Okatsu is a widow raising five children - adults but still mama-dependent - in mid-eighteenth century Edo, Japan. Her frugality attracts unflattering comment even amid national tough times (the region is in famine) What Okatsu tells no one is that she saves so that a friend can start his own business once he's released from prison.
Release Date2001-11-10
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.
Release Date1954-11-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count3
A story of a shopkeeper and his ex-wife, lives full of tragedy.
Release Date1984-10-06
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A band of samurai warriors places a curse on a family fortune thus frustrating the heir 4 centuries later.
Release Date1996-10-26
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count3
In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past.
Release Date1955-08-31
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count13
Chieko (Momoe Yamaguchi) has been raised as the only child of parents who run a dry goods store. When Chieko was a middle-school student, she learned that her parents are not her biological parents. Cheiko's mother told her that she was stolen while sleeping under a cherry tree in Gion, Kyoto, Japan, but Chieko doesn't believe that. Her relationship with her parents is very close. Chieko only tells her childhood friend Shinichi, but...
Release Date1980-12-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
A female reporter is fired for writing about police corruption; to make money while hiding from the press, she posts a bounty upon herself.
Release Date1957-09-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Thriller drama by Kon Ichikawa
Release Date1951-04-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A sixteen-year-old who had been living on her own since her mother died, frequently gets in trouble with the police. She gets sent to an "institute" for young girls in the countryside. There the residents grow their own food, cook and clean for themselves, and are taught language, music, and sewing. While there the young girl slowly begins to form friendships and come out of her shell.
Release Date1943-04-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobAssistant Director
A melodrama of the ups and downs of youth, based on Bunroku Shishi’s popular novel. Chiharu, a ballerina, and Shinichi, a thorough rationalist and childhood friend. A woman named Tomi Funakoshi appears in front of the two, who are thinking of getting married someday.
Release Date1955-04-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A young man rents an apartment in Tokyo and discover it was built by his father. He falls in love with the daughter of the mistress of the house and decides to marry her. Only to discover that his father is is in debt and wants him to marry Ranko so that she may help his company by granting 1.5 million yen. Teruko decides to borrow money from a greedy bar owner who lends her money on certain conditions and photographs her without her consent. A love traingle forms between Koroku, Ranko, and Teruko. Things complicate when Koroku marries Teruko and Tsugawa threatens them for the money causing many twists and turns.
Release Date1948-09-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Based on the folk tales "Repayment from a crane". One snowy night a beautiful woman named Tsuru (Crane) visits poor peasant Taiju and says she will become his wife...
Release Date1988-05-21
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count2
A screwball tale of a suspected “lady thief” and the detective who is on her trail, following her from Osaka to her home village, where she is going to hold a memorial service for her father. Of course, the detective falls in love with his prey.
Release Date1952-11-02
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
The days leading up to a toddler's second birthday are seen alternately from the child's point of view as well as that of his parents.
Release Date1962-11-18
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count15
A math teacher loses his job while falling in love with a local girl.
Release Date1953-04-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count2
Release Date1953-08-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1952-02-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
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 melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a tanbi-ha work of decadence, aestheticism, and intrigue. Ichikawa's film presents the tragic plot of the young geisha who is unable to enact her love for a man publicly in any way other than a histrionic story of torment, a heart-rending tale of lovers being crushed by fate. Instead, Ichikawa shows the contest of wills that transpires as two geisha, Oko and Kiyoha fight for the top spot in Nihonbashi, the pinnacle of the Tokyo geisha world. Nihonbashi is an elegant, if steely, exposition of manners. The young doctor, Shinzo Katsuragi, is the object of affection for both women, but appears to be more the choice reward for the plotting and thieving of these two early modern superwomen, than a lover they swoon over.
Release Date1956-10-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count3
Comedy drama by Kon Ichikawa
Release Date1959-01-03
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Tamio Moroi, a young university graduate, works at a large brewery where he is taught to do nothing but look busy. When his father goes insane, he is told to send money for medical research into the condition. This prompts him to pay his father a visit, leading to a series of mishaps that leaves him at the bottom of the heap in what he once expected to be a promising lifetime career.
Release Date1957-03-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count4
Produced for Fuji TV in 2000, the film reinterprets the story of a special samurai force - the Shinsengumi - at the end of the Edo period.
Release Date2000-01-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A police procedural surrounding murder at a bookstore and the private lives of the cops trying to solve the case.
Release Date1981-10-10
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
A love triangle among a girl, her poor boyfriend, and a rich company president.
Release Date1949-06-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1952-07-08
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Enoken no wanwan taishô AKA Wanwan Taisho AKA Bowwow General directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Release Date1940-07-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobAssistant Director
Minako, a ballerina who has been dating since her school days, and Koheta, a banker. It was Koheta who was finally about to get married as a result of his promotion, but just then, a big change occurs in Minako's body..
Release Date1954-11-23
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
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.
Release Date1956-06-28
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count6
Machiko falls in love with a mysterious man, but her family wants something different for her.
Release Date1948-04-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
Release Date1985-07-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count6
Release Date1939-02-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobAssistant Director
Melodrama by Kon Ichikawa
Release Date1951-12-28
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A Japanese girl and a French boy make strides in overcoming the cultural barriers that prevent them from fully expressing the love they have for one another.
Release Date1971-04-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An early film by Kon Ichikawa
Release Date1950-03-30
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1951-03-10
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count5
Documentary on the city of Kyoto, Japan. Topics include the Ryoanji Temple stone garden, a geisha residence, the Katsura Imperial Villa, and the Gion Festival.
Release Date1969-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Romantic melodrama
Release Date1951-06-08
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
TV remake of Ozu's 'Late Spring'
Release Date2003-12-14
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
An intellectual couple in a staid and tedious marriage are surprised when the wife’s niece, who has run away from home, turns up unexpectedly to stay with them. Their mundane lives are sent into disarray by the emotional and energetic Ako.
Release Date1952-12-23
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Follows the fluctuating fortunes of three ronin in feudal Japan who wander from castle to castle, selling their services to whichever lord will fill their rice bowls. Though they use the servants' entrance, they still feel themselves bound by the samurai code of Bushido; and this tension leads to tragedy.
Release Date1973-04-07
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count11
Japanese "kayo" film based on the song "Ieraishan" by Yoshiko Yamaguchi.
Release Date1951-01-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Period piece about a samurai who marries a mysterious beautiful young woman who claims to have lost her memory.
Release Date1993-04-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count5
Release Date1949-09-29
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1943-04-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProduction Manager
War film by Kon Ichikawa
Release Date1951-10-19
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
With one million yen in stolen cash, Kurita plans his escape to Hokkaido with an unwilling bar girl named Katsumi.
Release Date1950-05-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Machida (Shintaro Katsu) is in constant trouble because of his instincts to do right every time, even when it endangers his life. A gang hires him for his "forceful personality," and assigns him to kill evil people, a president of a loan company and a drug baron.
Release Date1964-05-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1986-09-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
The daughter of a former Miss Universe winner finds success as a fashion model in Tokyo following the death of her fiancé.
Release Date1954-05-12
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
This little seen early work by Ichikawa was produced during the director's Shintoho period (1947-51). Written by Kaneto Shindô and featuring Ryô Ikebe as a young policeman it is part crime drama, part social study. Definitely not an undiscovered masterpiece, but still a must for Ichikawa buffs.
Release Date1950-06-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1976-01-17
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Ushimatsu's father told him never to reveal his lower-caste heritage; years later, he now contemplates confiding in an activist fighting against such discrimination.
Release Date1962-04-06
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count9
Set against the backdrop of an imperial victory in the civil war leading up to the Meiji Restoration, Fallen Blossoms tells the story of the sorrows of women in a geisha house in Kyoto by recounting the relationships of its inhabitants.
Release Date1938-02-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobAssistant Director
Vote Count1
The debut film of Shin Toho Productions
Release Date1947-02-25
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give them an heiress for the family business, he stands by helplessly as his wife is thrown out of the house for producing a son. Driven to a life of dissipation - his mistresses also fail to produce daughters - in the end he is just too tired to care.
Release Date1960-04-14
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count2
Kenichi Horie is determined to challenge his family, the law and the nature crossing the Pacific to America in a small sailboat. Despite his careful planning many unforeseen events will test his determination.
Release Date1963-10-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count12
An early, heavily Disney-inspired cartoon, written and directed by Kon Ichikawa. A bandit kidnaps a member of a concert audience as an act of revenge, and the concert's conductor, the Momotaro-esque Dangonosuke, goes to her rescue.
Release Date1936-01-01
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count1
Film mixing live action with the famous animated Italian rubber mouse, Topo Gigio.
Release Date1967-08-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count4
Release Date1953-06-10
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Detective Katahachi meets a young and beautiful pickpocket and doesn’t arrest her because she was not in the act. Instead, he listens to the story about her parents who killed himself and died for overwork to feel sorry about her.
Release Date1960-08-24
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count1
Release Date1946-10-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count2
Comedy about a 50-something movie director, his new bride, a classical dancer, and his adult son and daughter and their loves.
Release Date1953-11-10
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A documentary Ichikawa made for the 1970 Osaka Expo, originally made for projection on eight split panels.
Release Date1970-03-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Tokyo Olympiad director Kon Ichikawa documents the 50th anniversary of the Koshien games.
Release Date1968-09-21
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1996-01-01
DepartmentWriting
JobStory
The story of Dangonosuke, a boy samurai rescuing a woman from a villain is told comically.
Release Date1935-11-20
DepartmentVisual Effects
JobAnimation
A samurai suffers to achieve enlightenment while being forced by a Zen Buddhist.
Release Date2007-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector