In a slum in Edo Japan, a ronin hopes that his deceased father's former master will hire him while a disgraced hairdresser attempts to regain his pride by kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy pawnbroker, who is set to be married.
A story of two sisters, the older being more traditional, the younger a "moga" ("modern girl"). Their widowed father runs the family sake shop, but is running into financial trouble, causing him to tamper with his stock; Meanwhile, his long-time mistress yearns for something more serious. Amidst this, the older sister is introduced to a well-off suitor: A university boy, much more intrigued by the less traditional little sister. A doddering grandfather, an officious uncle and busybody neighbors also don't make the lives of the hardworking members of the family any easier.
1936 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
Enoken plays both Kondo Isami and his deadly enemy Sakamoto Ryoma in this comedic, song-filled vision of the Meiji Restoration.
The study of a one-year marriage that begins to crumble. A married man is torn between the love of his wife, and the attraction to a cousin of his wife.
Story of a bandit king.
As suggested by the title, this film takes up the theme of the city, beginning with a series of traveling shots from Chiyo's point of view on a bus leaving the countryside and entering the metropolitan cityscape. After some fruitless job hunting in downtown Tokyo, Chiyo accepts a job as a bar hostess in Shiba ward. Well away from glamorous Asakusa and Ginza, this is a neighborhood bar where the women are dirt poor, each having only one kimono to their name....
1935 P.C.L. adaptation of Natsume's novel.
Japanese domestic drama.
The film generally regarded as Japan’s first true musical was also the first film made entirely in-house by the pioneering studio P.C.L., a company founded specifically to take advantage of emergent sound technology. P.C.L. worked in collaboration with a brewer’s firm, Dai Nihon Biru, who met the production costs of the film in full, and whose products are featured in the film in an example of the sophisticated and modern merchandising typical of the studio’s early work. The film is partially set in a beer hall, and its story concerns a beer seller at a train station and her relationship with a music student trying to create a hit song. Director Sotoji Kimura was to become a company stalwart, making such films as Ino and Mon, while actress Sachiko Chiba would emerge the studio’s first real star, appearing in such films as Wife Be Like a Rose.
The story picks up from Part 1 as Enoken's young scion forsakes his wealth and takes a department store job – in drag and sometimes blackface – to prove to the girl of his dreams that he be a hard-working, serious man.
Ino tries to control Mon’s every move, but she becomes a fallen woman, having an affair with a student, Obata whereas her sister San remains a “good girl.” The mother is very supportive of her daughters, but, the father, Akaza, who is the stonecutter foreman on the damn, lacks control of his family.
Enoken plays a magician real powers come from his magical hat. A jealous theater owner sends girls, then goons, to keep Enoken from performing his grand show!
The first in a series of films featuring the comedy duo Entatsu-Achako, providing them with a background story to do their popular manzai-routines on film. Here, Entatsu and Achako start out as rivals for the affection of a young woman but ultimately pair up to face a bigger rival. Entatsu chooses to become a boxer to get his chance at punching the rival out of the way.
Adaptation of Fumiko Hayashi's novel.
Hikoroku Laughs a lot
Enoken plays a cloistered rich kid whose father hires a disreputable tutor to teach him how to really be a millionaire: by drunken debauchery, women, and song.
