When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion overlooking Osaka, she finds a bizarre collection of characters already living there. The unlikely leader of this menagerie is Yoda Goro, who speaks four languages fluently, is an expert in cabbage rolls, and has written how-to books encompassing every aspect of human existence.

It chronicles the experiences of a neighbourhood doctor, whose taste for tonkatsu (a popular Japanese dish, similar to a pork schnitzel) earns him the nickname ‘the pork cutlet prince’ (‘Tonkatsu Taisho’, the film’s Japanese title) from the affectionate residents of the tenement in which he lives. When a local hospital, run by a female doctor, plans to expand, the future of the tenement is called into question.

1957年に封切られた、鬼才・川島雄三監督の代表作である映画「幕末太陽傳」。「居残り佐平次」を中心に、「品川心中」、「三枚起請」、「お見立て」他の古典落語を組み合わせ、実在した品川の遊廓・相模屋を舞台に起こる様々な人間模様を軽妙なタッチで描いた、日本映画史に燦然と輝く名作です。
幕末の品川宿。一文無しのまま相模屋を訪れ、女郎おそめを揚げて大尽遊びに興じた佐平次は、翌朝飄々と居残りを決め込んでしまう。そして番頭まがいの仕事を始め、次々と起きる騒ぎを持前の度胸と機転で解決しては、お礼の金をちゃっかり貯めこんでいた。相模屋で攘夷の計画を練る高杉晋作らとも交友を深め、いつしか佐平次は、廓の人気者となるのだが…。生への活力が漲る中に憂いを漂わせる人情喜劇に、早霧せいなを中心とした雪組が挑みます。

Haruki Murakami is a successful family man and the head of a camera company. Unbeknownst to Murakami, his arrogant son oscillates between a mistress and a new lover who sings at a nightclub. When Murakami’s daughter befriends the mistress, the affair throws the family into turmoil.

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself “already dead.”

The female members of the family of the Minister of Health and Welfare, who has just proposed a program of birth control, become pregnant one after the other. - Nikkatsu

靖國神社太鼓之音穿越花街，在妓院的和室間迴盪。戰後孤兒小圓修練聲色藝，殷勤接待各式各樣的恩客：儒雅建築師、耿直壽司師傅，少不了也有猥瑣老頭；安身立命，當上建築師妾侍亦甘之如飴。男人在身邊離離去去，她的身與心彷彿也逐漸得到解放，發現不曾認識的自己。首個鏡頭已先聲奪人，川島雄三以切割構圖、顛覆鏡頭及黑色幽默，為日本戰後的頹敗社會顯影，亦為女性雕琢出自主輪廓。若尾文子綻放艷麗無垢的光芒，三十五襲華衣美服目不暇給，細膩演繹「那個她」到「這個我」的微妙蛻變；最後獨自佇望登山索道，竟散發點點安東尼奧尼鏡頭下蒙妮卡維蒂的味道。 （香港夏日電影節）
電影旬報最佳女演員
東京記者協會藍絲帶獎最佳女演員

1962 film by Yuzo Kawashima

Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.