Kumeko Urabe
Birthday: 1902-10-05
Place of Birth: Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Biography: Kumeko Urabe (Japanese: 浦辺粂子), born Kimura Kume ((木村 くめ)), (October 5, 1902 – October 26, 1989) was a Japanese movie actress, one of the first in the country. She worked on stage and in film and television. Urabe was born in a rural part of the Shizuoka Prefecture. She lived in several homes while growing up, as she relocated with her father, a Buddhist priest, among the temples to which he was assigned. Urabe completed her education in Numazu, and left school in 1919 to join a theatre company, touring under various stage names as an actor and dancer. In 1923, Urabe auditioned at the film studio Nikkatsu, and adopted the name Kumeko Urabe, by which she was known for the rest of her life. She appeared in her first film the following year, and continued to act until 1987. She worked with such directors as Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse, and performed in over 320 films, including Ikiru, Older Brother, Younger Sister, Portrait of Madame Yuki, She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum, and Street of Shame. She also starred in television dramas, including thirteen episodes of Toshiba Sunday Theatre between 1958 and 1980. In the following decade, she carved a niche as a Grandma idol, until her death in 1989.
Movies
Early Spring
A young Tokyo salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship...
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Hachiko
The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even...
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Scarred Yosaburo
The film depicts the scarring of Yosaburo at the hands of yakuza thugs who catch him with mistress o...
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Sarari man donto bushi - Kiraku na kagyô to kita monda
The salaryman is the object of admiration in the world. Because there is no more carefree job than t...
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Yaji and Kita: Yasuda's Rescue
Yaji and Kita: Yasuda's Rescue is a 1927 black and white Japanese silent film directed by Tomiyasu I...
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Street of Shame
The lives of five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passag...
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Victory and Defeat
After the boxing champion retires, the head of a powerful gym, Minegishi (So Yamamura), recommends Y...
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The Song Lantern
The title of the film reflects the custom of writing poems and lyrics on paper lanterns. The film t...
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Bridge of Japan
Ichikawa's 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then ...
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Floating Weeds
When a theater troupe's master visits his old flame, he unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpect...
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The 26 Martyrs of Japan
Jesuit priests in Japan during the 17th century are persecuted by the shogunate to for trying to spr...
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Women of the Night
In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea...
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Aru yo no seppun
The romantic struggles of three close friends who came back from the war....
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The Broken Commandment
Ushimatsu's father told him never to reveal his lower-caste heritage; years later, he now contemplat...
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Yearning
War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years ...
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She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum
On the way back to his childhood home, a septuagenarian man recalls his childhood and adolescence, i...
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The Wild Geese
A young woman, who must support her father as a middle-aged man's mistress, finds herself falling in...
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The Body
The sexual experiences of the passionate Sakiko, from her fling with her boss in her first job to he...
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Before Spring
Out of the blue, a bourgeois family on the Sea of Japan finds an unconscious woman on the beach and ...
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Being Two Isn't Easy
The days leading up to a toddler's second birthday are seen alternately from the child's point of vi...
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The Straits of Love and Hate
A story of a servant girl whose life is upturned by her doomed love for a spineless young man....
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Hibari no komoriuta
Hibari no komoriuta (ひばりの子守唄, literally "Hibari's Lullaby") is a 1951 black-and-white Japanese film ...
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Moken no himitsu
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, Sherlock Holmes is hi...
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18 Roughs
Experienced shipyard worker Shimazaki gets an offer of free lodging from his employer in the company...
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The Story of Shunkin
Based on the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. Story of the beautiful blind daughter of a wealthy busines...
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Shi no machi wo nogarete
Group of women escape Chinese controlled area for Japanese occupied lands during Pacific War....
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When a Woman Loves
Story of a romance between a middle-aged journalist and a young woman....
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Sound in the Mist
In the heart of the Japanese Alps, in Kamikochi, Nagano Prefecture, botany professor Kazuhiko Onuma ...
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Mistress of a Foreigner
Tōjin Okichi is a 1930 film by Kenji Mizoguchi based on the novel by Gisaburo Juichiya. Only 4 minu...
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The Man From Chungking
Mysterious incident at a secret factory! Important documents lost! What is the true identity of the ...
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Koyoi Tsuma to Narinu
A hospital melodrama where the conflict between love and friendship rules the faith of the protagoni...
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The Precipice
Kosaka drops to death while ice climbing with his friend Uozu to see the sunrise on the New Year’s D...
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Confronting Fear
Former boxer Goro Kawasaki was attacked by the organizer of the fights for knocking out his opponent...
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Onna Ikitemasu: Sakariba Wataridori
Akane Kawasaki, known for her aversion to physical contact with men, possesses some unfavorable habi...
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喜劇 右向けェ左！
Mamoru Hirayama, the sales manager of Clover Shoji, a women's underwear manufacturer, was selected b...
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An Heir's Place
This film stars Tanaka Kinuyo as the mother of the heir to the Hosho name, a famous lineage of Noh a...
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(Street of Wandering Pigeons) When Will the Birds Come Home
Yoshida Denkichi does loses sight of his wife Chiyoko and daughter Toyoko during the war, and is tak...
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Ikiru
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for ...
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Four and A Half Mats
Fukazawa Shino is a prostitute in the late Meiji period. Shino was deceived by Tatsukichi and sold. ...
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Repast
Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and ...
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Lightning
The story of Kiyoko, a young woman who has successfully managed to make a break with her dysfunction...
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Brother and Sister
The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a co...
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Ginza Cancan Girls
Shizuko Kasagi and Hideko Takamine star as young women who try to raise money for a needy old friend...
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Where Chimneys Are Seen
Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-midd...
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A Face Glowing at Night
Ex-war financier Kuraishi Kinnosuke is visited by a ghostly face in the middle of the night telling ...
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Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky
This drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the c...
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The Makioka Sisters
Based on the famous novel by Junichiro Tanizaki, this is a story of the four sisters of the ancient ...
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A Mother's Love
A bar girl tries to pass her three children, each from a different father, to rural relatives....
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Women of the Night
In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea...
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The Song of the Cart
A lifetime story of a woman who stubbornly lives in a poor mountain village in post-war Japan....
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Training Ship of Yearning
A youthful film filled with youth and passion, set against the backdrop of the ocean and filled with...
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Stakeout
Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect wi...
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Miss Lonely
Lonely and love-stricken high-school student Hiroki pursues a girl, but another one mysteriously app...
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An Innocent Witch
Ayako, a young woman from a rural fishing village, is sold by her family into a brothel when her fat...
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Moment of Terror
When an only child is struck by a car and dies, the child's mother seeks vengeance against the drive...
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The Golden Demon
Tokyo, 1890. Through avarice, a series of misunderstandings, and failures of courage, the engagement...
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Kanpai! Tokyo Musume
Romantic comedy about a love triangle between two girls who fall in love with a reliable young docto...
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The Woman Who Touched Legs
Detective Katahachi meets a young and beautiful pickpocket and doesn’t arrest her because she was no...
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The Life of a Horse Trader
The tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka "The Shark," a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan's northernmo...
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Elegy of the North
A sensitive young woman aged 22 fell in love with a middle aged man who was troubled by his unfaithf...
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Two in the Shadow
A man is involved in a fatal car accident, and though he is blameless, his company transfers him to ...
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The Feast of Gion
A sad love film where the action takes place in Kyoto, in a trading house. Considered a lost film....
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Jakoman and Tetsu
In a village subsisting on its herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inh...
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Portrait of Madame Yuki
A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath...
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Snow Country
It's a man's world. Shimamura, an artist, comes to this snowbound town to rejuvenate himself. He con...
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Stray Dog
When his pistol is stolen, police detective Murakami is humiliated, especially when the gun is later...
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Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with ...
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Adults Games
The girl students of rival junior high schools stage duels and show a curious interest in sexual pas...
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And Yet They Go On
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Released in 2 parts. His only release of 1931. Considered a lost film....
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Refresher Course for Wives
One night, three wives, Matsuyo, Keiko and Mari, receive a mysterious telephone call. The voice tell...
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Tokyo Omnibus
The story tells of Tsuchiya, a university professor and a widower who is in love with a widow who ru...
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Typhoon Over Nagasaki
Pierre Marsac, a French engineer working for the Nagasaki shipbuilding yards, has fallen in love bot...
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Eyes, the Sea and a Ball
A teacher in a poor island community tries to improve his students' spirits by entering them in a vo...
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Nippon no obaachan
Two obaachans become fast friends listening to music in front of a record store. They both boast abo...
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A Ripple in a Morning
Atsuko is an office secretary who is also her family's primary source of income and caretaker in pos...
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Game of Chance
Bungo becomes a single parent when his wife leaves him because of his drinking and gambling. Decidin...
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Young Lovers
The story of a young couple deeply in love with each other but, because of complications and misunde...
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A Woman's Testament
The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. Her plan for a so...
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The Tiger of Malaya
A band of guerrillas fight against occupying British forces in Malaya....
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Tokyo Twilight
Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot accept the fact...
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Ghost Story of Devil's Fire Swamp
Nishina Saburouta is powerful but corrupted priest. One night, an old samurai who couldn't bear him ...
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Twenty-Four Eyes
From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village ...
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The Passionate Spinster
She'd watched them go one by one. Friend after friend. White dress after another. Yet again, Shimako...
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The Rainbow Man
When a young woman is named as the prime suspect in a murder, her girlfriend and her girlfriend's bo...
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Tora-san's Pure Love
When Tora-san's infatuation with his nephew's school teacher causes family turmoil, he leaves on his...
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The Water Magician
Taki no Shiraito is a very independent young woman with a famous water juggling act in a travelling ...
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Itohan Monogatari
Based on the original work by Shuji Hojo, Itohan Monogatari depicts the fate of a clumsy and kind-he...
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Gateway to Glory
A young man leaves his widowed mother on her improverished farm and makes his career in the Japanese...
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Twice on a Certain Night
Poor social conditions badly affect the relationship between a married couple, when the husband, who...
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A Woman's Life
The film adaptation of Yuzo Yamamoto's novel tells the story of the difficult fate of a single mothe...
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A Man Among Men
Gangsters Ken and Maki are rivals in the ticket-scalping game. They make an uneasy truce, but Ken wr...
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Destroyer Yukikaze
Yutaro Kida, a worker at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, volunteers for the navy but finds himself a cook'...
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Flower Cards Chivalry
A wandering gambler runs into a young swindler woman working with an old man. They are both arrested...
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Yanagase Blues
Jiro, a smooth-talking, womanizing bartender, flees from a Yakuza boss to Yanagase....
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New Snow
Minowada, a young teacher at a National People's School, has his own theory of education and the dau...
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Children Seeking a Mother
While working in an education center for lonely children, a mother seeks her missing son....
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Goodbye, Hello
Kazuko and Umeko have been friends since college. They are modern businesswomen who have many obliga...
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A Grain of Wheat
The film depicts a group of boys and girls who graduate from a local junior high school and head to ...
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Chained Bitch
Japanese prison exploitation movie. Part 1 of the 'Onna bangaichi' series...
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The Cold-Hearted Sea
A film adaptation of the novel of the same title written by Hiroshi Hatayama (畑山博)....
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The Refugee
A Chinese medical student named Gan Shosho finds himself cut off from his homeland as he is studying...
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Tokyo Eyes
A beautiful older sister and her younger brother, both designers who paint the dreams of young hope,...
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Love and the Shop Curtain
Otami and daughter Yuri run the Matsuoka, a 150-year-old Japanese-style inn in Tokyo which they plan...
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Hibi no haishin
Hiroyuki, a married executive, falls madly in love with Ikuko, the mistress of a ruthless jeweler. T...
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Irohanihoheto
The anonymous partnership Investment Economic Association, led by its president Ryuichi Amano, colle...
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We Are Salarymen
Eiichiro, a talented young salesman, grows disillusioned with office politics and returns to his fam...
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Flower's Yearning
Domoto Kozue, a gifted young ikebana artist, shoulders the legacy of her late father’s school while ...
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Yurakucho 0 Street
A satirical comedy set in Tokyo's new landmark food center in Yurakucho....
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