Noriko Sengoku
Acting
Biography
Reiko Mori (April 29, 1922 – December 27, 2012), known by her stage name Noriko Sengoku, was a Japanese film and television actress active primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. She made her film debut in 1947 and starred in several of Akira Kurosawa's early films such as Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, Scandal, The Idiot and Seven Samurai. During the war, she was a member of the traveling theater troupe Sakura-tai , which was wiped out in the Hiroshima atomic bombing . However, she escaped the atomic bombing because she was away from Hiroshima giving birth She was highly praised as a great supporting actress, and excelled in the role of a spiteful landlady. She believed that "a supporting role is like a 'screw in each corner'; if even one screw comes loose, the whole thing falls apart."
Born: May 29, 1922
Place of Birth: Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Known For
Dr. Coto's Clinic
Dr. Goto Kensuke transfers to a remote island clinic after an incident at his Tokyo hospital. His first task: winning over the wary locals.
Seven Samurai
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.
Ken
Kokubu, captain of his university's kendo team, is a mystery to those who know him: An ascetic dedicated to a point of obsession with the simplicity and beauty of the sword arts. Kagawa, a promising but arrogant kendo student, is attracted to Kokubu's devout leadership but kept at a distance by his standoffish nature. With the national championships fast approaching, the pair clash as Kokubu drives his students with increasingly rigorous training and Kagawa tests Kokubu's grip on the class.
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.
Floating Clouds
A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.
Drunken Angel
In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.
Stray Dog
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Sweet Sweat
This film by Toyoda depicts the hard life of an unmarried mother in Tokyo. Umeko (Machiko Kyo), at 36, is working in a bar, struggling valiantly to keep her family together. Her 17-year-old daughter Takeko becomes increasingly upset by her mother's constant drinking and yakuza boyfriend, and runs away from home. Kyo's performance was highly praised.
I Live in Fear
An aging foundry patriarch, gripped by terror of nuclear annihilation, tries to uproot his family to Brazil. When they petition to have him declared incompetent, a family-court counselor witnesses his obsession slide into ruin—and asks whether ignoring the atomic threat is any saner.
Filmography
as Old Woman at the Inn
as 内つる子
as Chiyoko Azuma
as Shinako
as Asa
as Kinoe Yoshino
as Hirose Tatsu
as Landlord
as Old Woman
as Nishino Kiku
as Manager
as Koji's Grandmother
as Toku (Housekeeper)
as Yuki's mother
as Tobacco Shop Owner
as Shino
as Female Delegate
as Village Woman (segment "The Woman of the Snow")
as Okesa's owner
as Kiuchi
as Sayo Iida
as Shizuka
as Toru's mother
as Fortune Teller
as Chie (Proprietress)
as Wife Tomi
as Osen Miyoshi
as Okura
as Masseuse
as Hisako
as Osaku
as Kumi
as Tenko Takahashi, prisoner
as Kimie Nakajima
as Sei
as Wife of Gono Family
as Chie Sasaki
as Wife Ohana
as Personnel Chief's wife
as Maid in the Ono house
as Takako
as Ochika
as Sumie
as Dancer-style woman
as Tsukiyo
as Girl
as Apprentice Nurse
as Gin
as daughter Kuniko