Humanity and Paper Balloons

Humanity and Paper Balloons 1937

7.80

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.

1937

Enoken's The Millionaire, Part 1

Enoken's The Millionaire, Part 1 1936

1

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.

1936

Akireta renchû

Akireta renchû 1936

1

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.

1936

Enoken's The Millionaire, Part 2

Enoken's The Millionaire, Part 2 1936

1

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.

1936

Wife! Be Like a Rose!

Wife! Be Like a Rose! 1935

7.00

Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs her absent father to act as the go-between and negotiate the marriage. Kimiko travels and finds her father living with a second family.

1935

Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts

Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts 1935

6.80

Three sisters earn money for their bossy mother by being samisen street musicians. This means mainly playing a banjo type instrument for tips in bars...

1935

Enoken’s Kinta the Pickpocket

Enoken’s Kinta the Pickpocket 1937

6.00

A comedic tale told in four parts, this film follows the antics of the pickpocket Kinta as he is pursued by a low ranking deputy named Kurakichi. The two get into all manner of peccadilloes and encounter a range of peculiar characters as their game of cat and mouse moves across the countryside in the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

1937

Man of the House

Man of the House 1936

6.00

This film is based on a real Meiji era performer -- and tells of Tochuken's partnership with his wife (played by Chikako Hosokawa) who played shamisen for his songs/recitations), his affair with a geisha (Sachiko Chiba), and the deterioration of his partnership and marriage.

1936

Avalanche

Avalanche 1937

6.50

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.

1937

Enoken's The Magician

Enoken's The Magician 1934

1

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!

1934

The Girl in the Rumor

The Girl in the Rumor 1935

5.90

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.

1935

The Actress and the Poet

The Actress and the Poet 1935

6.20

Among the tight-knit neighbours are a poet, his actress wife, a bachelor budding author, a tobacco shop owner-cum-landlady, an insurance salesman and his nosy and greedy wife. Enter a young and seemingly high-class couple who just so happens is open to purchasing life insurance from their swift neighbour. In the meantime, life is imitating art across the street, which may end up providing for either a happy ending or a rude split - eventually that is.

1935

Enoken's Donguri Tonbei

Enoken's Donguri Tonbei 1936

1

Enoken plays a frog-oil-hawking conman whose claims to martial prowess land him in hot water with the local samurai gentry - but not before he falls in love with exactly the wrong girl. Another musical comedy period film quick on the heels of the earlier Kondo Isami.

1936