The best Toki Shiozawa’s drama movies
We present our ranking of the best Toki Shiozawa’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Toki Shiozawa.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
8.1/10
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?
Dodes'ka-den
7.3/10
By turns tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s 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. The unforgettable Dodes’ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa’s life. And all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.
The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman
7/10
A salaryman's drunken ravings in public attract the attention of journalists who coerce him into telling them his life's story.
Station
7/10
A detective goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer who specialises in murdering police officers.
The Human Vapor
6.3/10
A librarian is subject to a scientific experiment which goes wrong and transforms him into 'The Human Vapour'. He uses his new ability to rob banks to fund the career of his girlfriend, a beautiful dancer. The Human Vapour is ruthless in his quest for money and kills anyone who stands in his way, especially police. He soon becomes Tokyo's most wanted criminal. Can he be stopped before he kills again?
Sazae-san
7.9/10
An adaptation of the popular Sazae-san comic strip. The first entry in Toho's Sazae-san series.
Rise Against the Sword
6.7/10
Farmer Abare Goemon is confronted by brigand-like samurai. He raises an army of farmers to fight them and does so brilliantly. When Lord Asakura sees the success Goemon has achieved, he attempts to recruit him to fight in a conflict between Asakura and another clan. Goemon refuses, and Lord Asakura sets out to destroy him.
Sudden Rain
7.2/10
A husband and wife's pet peeves and minor irritations escalate into major rifts and animosity.
Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion
6.7/10
This dazzling portrait of an orphaned girl at several stages of her life, from childhood to adulthood, opens with one of the most famous long takes in Japanese cinema, a single shot spanning months of time and disparate locations.
Daughters, Wives and a Mother
7.4/10
This film features a large extended family (and associates) even more extensive than the one portrayed by Ozu in "End of Summer". The central character is Setsuko Hara -- a poised middle-aged woman, whose wealthy (and prestigious) husband dies at the outset of the action, leaving her widowed but holding the proceeds of a million yen insurance policy. Being childless, her former in-laws have no objection to her return to her own family.
The Wiser Age
7.5/10
Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.
Mother
5.9/10
From the point-of-view of the children, "Mother" tells the story of the most unappreciated, loving and giving mother, who would sacrifice her own life, and sometimes the life of others, for her loved ones. In the autumn of 1955, a family of five children is living in the Tohoku area. In order to take care of her paralysed husband, the mother has to sacrifice her five children by giving them away. The children has to suffer all the loneliness and hardships that this decision has brought them. 15 years have passed, all five of them have got married. Now, they come to understand that their mother's love for them was the greatest love of all.
Adolescence Part II
8.1/10
A story of unhappy youths and the perils of lack of sex education.
