The best Nobuko Miyamoto’s drama movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Nobuko Miyamoto’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Nobuko Miyamoto.
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
8/10
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.
Sing a Song of Sex
6.5/10
Four sexually hungry high school students preparing for their university entrance exams meet up with an inebriated teacher singing bawdy drinking songs. This encounter sets them on a less than academic path.
Tales of a Golden Geisha
6.4/10
The film stars two of Itami's regular actors, Nobuko Miyamoto as a geisha who brings luck to the men with whom she sleeps, and Masahiko Tsugawa as her unfaithful, sometimes partner. As well as showing her relationships with the man she loves and the men who employ her, it satirizes corruption and the influence of money in Japanese politics.
Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion
7.4/10
A grand old Japanese hotel is trying to get a prestigious contract as the site of a summit meeting of important foreign officials. Unfortunately, this hotel is quite popular with the Yakuza (Japanese gangsters) and is a favorite target of theirs for extortion. They employ a variety of schemes to con the hotel out of 'hush-money.' The hotel needs to rid itself of the Yakuza and finally begins to fight back by hiring Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer who is an expert at dealing with these criminals on their own terms. This film by Juzo Itami combines action with farce, as an all-out war ensues.
The Last Dance
6.8/10
A successful Japanese movie director in his 60s becomes increasingly ill while working on his latest film. His family, friends, and doctor try to keep the secret of his terminal cancer from him, but it gradually becomes clear. Coming to terms with his own mortality is painful, and involves some major conflicts with his wife and the hospital staff.
The Funeral
7.2/10
At the beginning of the film the father-in-law of the protagonist dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. The remainder of the film is episodic, moving from one incident to another over the course of the three-day funeral, which is held (as is customary) in the home. These incidents contrast old ways and new ways, young and old, ritual ceremony and true feelings, often comically, but sometimes with real poignancy.
Woman in Witness Protection
7.2/10
Biwako, a star actress, is the sole witness to a grizzly murder. After the cops persuade her to play the bait to catch the killers, two veteran detectives are assigned to protect her at all times. However, this also means that Biwako's new guardians have no choice but to deal with the overly-dramatic, hilarious, and sometimes harrowing ups and downs of her life.
A Quiet Life
6.9/10
Melodrama about the life of a mentally handicapped young man and his devoted sister after their famous novelist father and housewife mother go to Australia on a business trip.
It’s a flickering life
6.6/10
The story centers on a man who loves movies, work at movie studio in pursuit of his dreams, surrounded by great directors and star actors. He and his friend fall in love with the daughter or cafeteria played by Nagano Mei.
Botchan
7.2/10
Botchan (Kazunari Ninomiya) has sense of strong justice and does not lie. He is offered a teaching job at a middle in a small village far away from his hometown of Tokyo. Botchan accepts the position and begins to work as a math teacher. The assistant principle there wields absolute power. Botchan has a hard time dealing with his fellow teachers and the students.
A Taxing Woman's Return
6.7/10
Ryoko Itakura returns as the government tax agent willing to tackle the toughest cases. This time she takes on a fanatical but lucrative religious cult run by a vile lecher.
Kidnapping Blues
5.9/10
A man and a little girl meet in a bicycle parking in Tokyo. The little girl says she wants to watch the sea, and their travel begins. The man has no conscience of being a kidnapper. He asks the girl to phone her mother and tell her she’s with him. During their trip they will meet various people. But they always have to go further, or the man would to get arrested...
Buddies
6.7/10
Based on a celebrated book by Kuniko Mukoda, this film directed by Yasuo Furuhata tells of a close friendship undone by love....
Hankyu Railways - A 15-Minute Miracle
6.6/10
"Hankyu Densha" follows the lives of various people who commute on Hankyu Railway's Imazu Line - connecting the cities of Nishinomiya and Takarazuka in Hyogo prefecture. One of the commuters is Shoko (Miki Nakatani), an office worker in her 30s who lost her boyfriend to a younger colleague. There's also a college student (Erika Toda) who is so easily persuaded by her no good boyfriend. Other commuters include a grandmother & granddaughter, a house wife, a female high school student, and a female otaku college student. Although the train ride takes only 15 minutes between two stations, the lives of these commuters are changed as they interact with each other...
Deaths in Tokimeki
6.6/10
Deaths in Tokimeki tells the disturbing, compulsive story of a hit-man waiting to carry out a job: the assassination of the leader of a religious cult, masterminded by the leader's own deputy. But it is a story that is told in blocks, like the phrases in a child's computer game, and what counts most is not the narrative but the spaces between the blocks-the gaps that are filled with undefined menaces as potent as anything in Lovecraft.
Four Seasons: Natsuko
7/10
A young woman breaks off her long-term relationship with her boyfriend to move to Tokyo in search of new experiences.
Bizan
6.3/10
Sakiko, works independently at a travel agent in Tokyo. She was raised by her mother, Tatsuko, is hospitalized, Sakiko returns to her hometown Tokushima on Shikoku. The town is famous for its annual Awa Dance Festival. She is told by doctor, Terasawa Daisuke, that her mother has terminal cancer.
Lost Sex
7.2/10
A well-respected drama teacher confesses to his housekeeper that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has left him impotent. With the coming of spring, the sympathetic housekeeper suggests that the Master observe the Yobai , a custom in which the young men of a village steal into the bedrooms of susceptible women to have sex.
After School
The world of adults seen by a high school girl in the valley between school and home after school, and the sparkling poison that only a daughter of this age has, gradually spreads ripples in the world of adults.
Happiness Is Here
Hiroyuki Tachikawa is 28-years-old. He quits his job due to severe quotas and difficult relations. His girlfriend, Chieko Takanashi (Eriko Nakamura), also kicks him out. Hiroyuki Tachikawa then decides to go to the small port city of Tsuyazaki in Fukuoka Prefecture. There, he meets a 72-year-old woman, Fukuko Hanada. She doesn't know why, but she likes Hiroyuki Tachikawa and takes him to different places. The young man soon picks up on the meaning of happiness.
