Haruko Sugimura
Acting
Biography
Haruko Sugimura (杉村 春子 Sugimura Haruko, January 6, 1909 – April 4, 1997) was a Japanese stage and film actress, best known for her appearances in the movies of Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. In the West, her most famous role was that of Shige, the elderly couple's hairdresser daughter in Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953). After the war, she was highly praised by such masters as Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita, Yasujiro Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Shiro Toyoda, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Tadashi Imai for her natural and realistic acting. In particular, she was a regular in Yasujiro Ozu's films, appearing in nine of his films.
Born: January 7, 1909
Place of Birth: Hiroshima, Japan
Known For
Tokyo Story
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Red Beard
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Late Spring
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.
The Strange Tale of Oyuki
A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise.
An Autumn Afternoon
Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Early Summer
A 28-year-old single woman is pressured to marry.
Kwaidan
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.
Good Morning
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.
Tokyo Twilight
Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.
Repast
Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and clean for her husband.
Filmography
as Self
as Yoko Morimoto
as Kafu's Mother
as Self
as Itsuki's stepmother
as Aki Ueno (the four sisters' mother)
as Ine's Mother
as Kin, the madam
as Otoko's Mother
as Madame (segment "In a Cup of Tea")
as Tsuru
as Hatsu Mimura
as Taromaru
as Yoshie
as Ayako
as Tomoko Sakuma
as School master's wife
as Aki
as Vaidehi
as Katou Shige
as Oroku
as Pickpocket Haruko
as Kayo Tani
as Okuma
as Fukunaga's mother Yuki
as Oyoshi
as Narrator
as Fusa Yoshino
as Kikue Haraguchi
as Mother
as Ikegami Rie
as Shigeko Takeuchi
as Otome, the mother
as Someka
as Tamako Tamura
as Masao's mother
as Princess Yen-chun
as Moyo Sugita
as Kin
as Shige Kaneko
as Chikako
as Matsu Murata
as Kono Kujirai
as Tami Yabe
as Koyabu
as Suga Ono
as Osone
as Masa Taguchi
as Oshin
as Oshin
as Taka
as Tokie
as Madame Noge
as Fusako Osone
as Setsu
as Midwife Yae
as Marieda Matsushima