Search All

Search by Title

Release year:
Production year:

Advance Search

Search by Cast/Staff

Advance Search

Search by Company/Association

Advance Search

Categories

Genres

Genres: Specify

1969

Senbazuru

Thousand Cranes

千羽鶴

(c)KADOKAWA CORPORATION 1969

(c)KADOKAWA CORPORATION 1969

Release Date
April, 19th, 1969
Running Time
96 min
Genre
Feature
Color
Color
Screening Format
-,HDCAM SR
Screen Size
Cinema Scope (1:2.35)

[ Directed by ]

[ Cast ]

[ Staff ]

[ Production Company ]

DAIEI

[ Distributor (Japan) ]

DAIEI

[ Story ]

Kikuji Mitani (Mikijiro Hira) is an orphan and Chikako Kurimoto (Machiko Kyo) and Mrs. Ota (Ayako Wakao) were once his father's lovers.
When Kikuji was about ten years old, he had accompanied his father to Chikako's home and had seen the purplish birthmark on her breast. It was large as the palm of one's hand and he had been frightened and repulsed by its ugliness.
The affair with Mrs. Ota had lasted until his father's death and Kikuji remembers how he had hated both women. However, fate seems to take a sinister delight in throwing them together, for he had accepted Chikako's invitation to attend a tea ceremony in memory of his father.
At the ceremony, Kikuji is surprised to see Mrs. Ota and Fumiko (Eiko Azusa), her daughter, who looks exactly like her mother. He is doubly surprised to learn that Chikako had also invited Miss lnamura (Yoko Namikawa) as his prospective bride. Yukiko lnamura has not been told it is a marriage-meeting, so she innocently prepares tea and serves it to Kikuji.
She is very beautiful and the very girl Kikuji had asked the way to Chikako's tea ceremony cottage.
After the tea ceremony, Mrs. Ota is waiting for Kikuji and her almost pathetic happiness in seeing him makes him forget his former animosity. He feels she cannot distinguish him from his father whom she had loved so deeply. With one thought, their feet turn to a small restaurant where they make love.
Chikako takes it upon herself to break up the clandestine affair and gloats when Mrs. Ota commits suicide. Then she turns on her rival's daughter, but her very maliciousness drives Fumiko into Kikuji's arms, and when Chikako berates her, Fumiko leaves the only man she has ever loved.

【Quoted from the database of Kadokawa Corporation】
【Quoted from Unijapan Film Quarterly 1969.12.3】

[ Contact (International) ]

KADOKAWA CORPORATION
International Sales, Motion Picture Business

2-13-3 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8177
Rep: NATSUNO Takeshi (President)
Attn: MORI Chiyo
tel: +81 50 1746 1220
E-mail: mori-c@kadokawa.jp
http://www.kadokawa.co.jp

Relative Titles

Teacher and Three Children

Teacher and Three Children (2008)

Director
SHINDO Kaneto
Cast
EMOTO Akira, TOYOKAWA Etsushi, MUSAKA Naomasa

The latest by Shindo Kaneto who has won various awards both in Japan and abroad including the Grand Prix at the Moscow International Film Festival. It has been seventy years since he started his creative work, and as the oldest director at work at th...

Release Date
Sep, 27th, 2008
Postcard

Postcard (2011)

Director
SHINDO Kaneto
Cast
TOYOKAWA Etsushi, OTAKE Shinobu, MUSAKA Naomasa

One of Japan's foremost filmmakers, Shindo Kaneto is also the oldest director in Japan and has won numerous awards at film festivals at home and abroad. This work, which Shindo himself described as "the final directorial effort of my life in film," i...

Release Date
Aug, 6th, 2011
OWL

OWL (2003)

Director
SHINDO Kaneto
Cast
OTAKE Shinobu, ITO Ayumi

At the grand old age of 92, master filmmaker Shindo Kaneto (The Island, Onibaba) presents his 36th film. In a desolate, pioneer village in postwar northern Japan, a 37-year-old mother, Yumie (Otake Shinobu), and her 17-year-old daughter, Emiko (Ito ...

Release Date
Feb, 7th, 2004
Play It Cool

Play It Cool (1970)

Director
MASUMURA Yasuzo
Cast
ATSUMI Mari, KAWAZU Yusuke, NEGISHI Akemi

Tomi (Akemi Negishi) has taken up with one man after another but unable to hold on to one. At nineteen, she bore Yumi (Mari Atsumi) out of wedlock and now Yumi is going to dressmaking school. Tomi is supporting Yoshimura (Ryoichi Tamagawa) as she ha...

Release Date
May, 2nd, 1970