YÛZÔ KAWASHIMA

In a fitting tale of today's entrepreneurial fever, an ambitious businessman builds one company from the ground up, only to start all over again from rock bottom. ~ from Ticketing Booklet of HKIFF36 (2012)

Jozaburo Araki is the head of a famous family-owned wholesale pharmaceutical store with a well-established history. At present he is the Minister of Health and Welfare, and is considering submission of a Bill to hold population increase in check, in an attempt to easily deal with Opposition accusations regarding the population problem. However, just when he is in the Diet giving a major policy speech to the Welfare Ministry Committee about decreasing the population, Ranko, his 48-year-old wife, heads to a maternity clinic and discovers that she is pregnant. To make matters worse, he finds out that his eldest son, Jotaro, had been secretly having an affair with his own secretary, Saeko Godai, and it seems that she is also expecting a little 'Burden of Love.' Also, the Araki family's young daughter, Sakura, has become pregnant with her fiancé before their upcoming marriage, and even the retired patron of the family, Jozo, 2 presents yet another possibility of a pregnancy with his much younger mistress. Furthermore, Jozaburo visits Kyoto on an election campaign and is astounded to learn of the existence of his own love-child with his former lover, Some Kaida! As if that's not enough trouble, the Araki family finds that even their maid, Oteru, and their business manager, Yamaguchi, have somehow also ended up with their own 'Burden of Love.' And that is how the population explosion in the household of the Minister of Health and Welfare somehow becomes a factor in the future of Japan...

Sonejiro sacrifices all comfort to devote himself to research. Young housewife Yachiyo is disappointed with her husband Kappei, who is more attracted to mountain climbing and another girl. When Yachiyo's father is introduced to Sonejiro, good will turns evil, and all happiness is at stake.

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 disabled daughter befriends the mistress, the affair throws the family into turmoil.

A couple stand indecisively on a bridge in Asakusa. Tsutae and Yoshiji have lost confidence and passion for their future as they get on the bus for Tsukishima and get off at Suzaki. Across the bridge they see the sign for Suzaki Paradise, a red-light district where Tsutae once worked as a prostitute. Tsutae spots an ad for a waitress at a bar near the bridge and she rushes in to get the job. The kind hearted madam, Tokuko, helps them out by hiring Tsutae and finding work for Yoshiji delivering noodles. But the wanton Tsutae is soon attracted to Ochiai, a rich, generous man who owns an electrical shop specializing in radios.

In 1906, a man returns to Japan after finishing a job in the Philippines, only to discover that his lover is dying, leaving him a baby girl.

Two women start relationships with men who are considered wrong to them.

The conclusion to Yûzô Kawashima's Hungry Soul.

In the last days of the Shogunate, a resourceful grifter seeks to outwit competing prostitutes, rebellious samurai and other inhabitants of a brothel in order to survive the hardened times.

Married for a decade, a couple have no child. He is a lawyer, however, and as a result of one of his cases has the daughter of an imprisoned man living with them. The girl, who is understated, has a boyfriend, but otherwise only ventures out to meet her jailed father. The family is visited by the daughter of a friend from Osaka who has made the journey without informing her parents. That her personality is the opposite of the girl who lives in the house is obvious. At the same time, the wife runs into her own ex and the husband faints at work due to exhaustion. The live-in girl tends to the husband in a way that leaves the latter's wife concerned.

The story of three soldiers, two female reporters, six prostitutes and the wife of an officer - all stranded on a South Seas island at the end of World War II.

The story follows the various tenants living in a multi-room tenement on a hill overlooking the city of Osaka.

A drummer falls for a pawnbroker's daughter.

After a car accident in downtown Tokyo, a boxing champion is photographed as he is giving mouth-to-mouth to Mieko, a high-school girl who has fainted. The photo shocks the city.

Aya is the Madame who runs a restaurant where Geishas meet with their customers to eat, drink, listen to music and sing.