In the movies of those times, you can see young boys in the company scene often. Those boys were called kyuji (給仕), which means “waiter” literally. They are doing odd jobs in the company including serving tea, ushering visitors, buying tobacco, etc. Ordering lunch for the individual requests was also an important job. Those boys were hired often as soon as they graduated from elementary school.

A humble page fathers a child by the daughter of a clan official and is banished. Years later, the child, now a stable boy, is reunited with his father, but feudal codes threaten their happiness. Uchida’s poignant masterpiece condemns the inflexible class system and launches an indictment of values that favor symbolic objects over human life. The film’s focus is on character rather than swordplay, and charged performances - especially child actor Motoharu Ueki - add to the emotional power.

An omnibus of 13 stories singing the praises of Japanese patriotism during wartime, set on the frontlines and back home.

刻劃年輕人在新舊時代的夾縫中，怎麼捍衛純潔的愛情。醉心寫作的茂夫愛上美那子，遭父親反對，他逃出富裕的家庭，和美那子同居，靠美那子到酒館工作維持生計。茂夫伯父運用影響力害他找不到工作，更跑去勸說美那子離開茂夫。情節有點像我們的粵語長片，但頑固的父親、體諒的母親、替哥哥出頭的妹妹，還有新舊女性特質集於一身的美那子，都只日本老片才跑出來的人物。本片開拓的題材影響不少後來的導演，如小津戰後便拍成《彼岸花》。

An Inn at Osaka, rarely seen outside Japan, follows the story of an insurance company executive from Tokyo, Mr. Mito, who is demoted to the Osaka office. He takes a room at a small inn and tries to rebuild his life. Notable for its exquisite framing and cinematography, An Inn at Osaka allows its complicated plotlines to disappear behind the minutiae of penury and humiliation that Mito and others suffer during the post-war economic and social reconstruction.

湘南の海の近くに家を建てたサラリーマンが、借金返済のため会社の部長にその家を貸す。サラリーマンの妻と子供は軽井沢の実家に帰るが、そこではヤクザが暴力事件を起こしていて……。歌舞伎役者・中村勘三郎が現代劇に出演した作品で、ヤクザと対決する男を熱演している。

社員たちのスト突入を目前にした製薬会社社長・奥平。ただでさえ頭の痛いこの時期に、焼き芋屋のじいさんが、屋敷の居間で脳溢血で倒れてしまった。病気が病気だけに、むやみに動かすこともできず、じいさんを奥平の屋敷で寝かせることになるのだが……。木下惠介が、自らの脚本を映画化した風刺喜劇。

A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.

Though plagued by ill health all his life, a young Japanese man is obligated to fulfill his family's longstanding military tradition.

二战期间，为了鼓舞驻军中国的士兵们的士气，日本军方从各部队集结了21个年轻士兵，组成野战军乐队，并任命园田少尉（佐分利信 饰）担当教官之职。园田要在三个月内将他们训练成一群熟练掌握乐器的优秀乐手。然而他们其中有近半数的人根本没有任何音乐基础，为此园田将他们分为两组，有基础的士兵和新手互帮互助。学习的过程十分痛苦，对音乐一窍不通的佐久间（佐野周二 饰）更时常和他的“老师”须磨发生争吵……
日本二战期间的国策电影，李香兰亦在片中出演角色。

1951 film

插話式的故事，講述的是一對中年夫婦日久生厭的故事。

An affluent medical professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokio, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Setsuko is a liberated woman who does what she wants, including smoking, even though she is a minor. On Saturday, the professor does not feel like going to his weekend golf game, but his wife packs him off anyway. So he leaves his bag at the apartment of his student Okada, and goes to a bar with a friend. Setsuko traces him there, and insists that he take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada to take her home, while he sleeps at Okada's. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home, and also of her husband when she discovers that he did not go golfing.

1942 film by Yasujirō Ozu

A 28-year-old single woman is pressured to marry.