Yōko Minamida
Birthday: 1933-03-01
Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan
Biography: Yōko Minamida (南田 洋子, Minamida Yōko, March 1, 1933 – October 21, 2009) was a Japanese actress. Born in Tokyo, Minamida made her screen debut in 1953 for the Daiei studio and quickly rose to stardom, working with Kenji Mizoguchi on two films: “A Story from Chikamatsu” and “Princess Yang Kwei-fei.” In 1955, she moved to the Nikkatsu studio, where she starred in Takumi Furukawa’s “Season of the Sun” (1956), a smash hit that launched the so-called “Sun Tribe” boom for films about rebellious youth looking for sex and kicks on Shonan Beach — Japan’s nearest equivalent to Malibu. Minamida acted in dozens of movies for Nikkatsu, working with Shohei Imamura, Seijun Suzuki, and other directors. In 1961 she married her co-star on “Season of the Sun,” Hiroyuki Nagato. As she acted in fewer movies after the mid-1960s, Minamida made a smooth and successful transition to TV as both an actress and MC. She also continued to appear occasionally in movies, with the last being Nobuhiko Obayashi’s “Song of Goodbye” in 2006. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in November 2008, and a TV documentary was made about her condition and the efforts of her husband to care for her. She died in Tokyo.
Movies
Pigs and Battleships
In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occup...
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A Modern Samurai Village
Tajima Yumi, in grade school, is overjoyed when her father says they are moving to an apartment in a...
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Tale of the Last Japanese Yakuza
Yakuza drama with Meiko Kaji directed by Masahiro Makino...
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Chikamatsu Monogatari
When the wife of a 17th century Kyoto scroll-maker is falsely accused of having an affair with his b...
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Salaryman Senka
Based on the manga by Sadao Jouji which has been running in the magazine Shukan Gendai since 1969....
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Princess Yang Kwei-fei
In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants t...
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A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era
Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes th...
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Ankoku gai jingi
A big American boss landed in Japan in search of funding sources. A lone wolf trying to stop it ends...
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Sun and Stars
It's a thrilling, action-packed entertainer with sparks of men versus villains in an up-and-down tal...
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He Killed Dad
The lives of two brothers, Kunio and Akira Kasahara, are changed forever when their father is murder...
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Streetlights
A sophisticated comedy about love games between men and women that arise from an intentionally dropp...
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The Soundless Cry
Shinichi is not only poor, he is also deaf, and leads a joyless life with his sick mother. His one h...
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Yellow Fangs
Based on actual events that occurred in Hokkaido, Japan, 1915. Rimeinzu: Utsukushiki yuusha-tachi te...
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The Wild Daisy
Teenage cousins Masao and Tamiko fall in love when she comes to his riverside brewery house to take ...
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Season of the Sun
The film tells the story of a group of high school boxing team members who spend their days drinking...
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The Crimson Plains
The action takes place in the highlands of the Chugoku region. While the owner of the Yazaki ranch i...
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The Doctor
This movie attempts to present the reality of doctorless villages to society at large, while focusin...
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Return of the Vagabond
The 3rd film of the famous "Wataridori" (The Rambler) series from Nikkatsu. The young rambler, Shinj...
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The Guys Who Put Money on Me
An unofficial sequel to Million Dollar Match (1961) which also starred Koji Wada as a young energeti...
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The Rambler Rides Again
In this fifth episode of the "Wataridori" series, Taki Shinji (Kobayashi Akira) drifts north to Hokk...
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Voice Without a Shadow
Asako, a former telephone operator once heard the voice of a murder suspect which has continued to h...
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Love Comes with Youth
During his idle journey on the Izu Peninsula, a university student, Kawasaki, encounters a group of ...
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Wind and waves of the South
Little dark-eyed boy Kazuo. Yes, he dreamed of the sea. However, like everyone here in the village. ...
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I Have the Sun in My Back
Shigeru is a young man who works as a window cleaner. His older brother Kenzo has just returned from...
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The Happy Dancers
Japanese "kayo" film centered around the song "Tokyo baka odori" by Haruo Oka and Chiyoko Shimakura....
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Our Town
In 1906, after finishing a tough migrant job in the Philippines, Takichi has returned to Japan. He s...
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An Outlaw
Assassin Nanjo goes on a solitary mission to take revenge on the man who trapped him into a complica...
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Time of First Love
3 senior highschool girls help make a hot air balloon for a boy during their summer holidays and too...
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Beyond the Green Hills
Shinko Terasawa was always considered to be the odd ball of the bunch. At a time when romance was ag...
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Glorious Fights
A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He f...
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The Barefoot Girl
A beautiful and healthy young girl growing up in poverty overcomes hardships and grows into a woman ...
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The Poem of the Blue Star
Might Guy Akira's unique action drama depicts the bizarre fate of a young doctor who vows to avenge ...
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Glass-Hearted Johnny
Joe Shishido is an ambitious bike racetrack tout who becomes inadvertently involved in a triangle wi...
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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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Tokyo Knights
A college student takes over the family business in the field of organised crime....
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The Domain
The feud between two rival delivery companies, Kibamasa and Okiyama, heats up as the head of Kibamas...
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The Kanto Scarlet Cherry Gang
The Ni Family is the most well know and respected group of firefighters in the Kanto region. When t...
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Portrait of Chieko
Takamura, a poet and sculptor, marries a budding artist named Chieko who dreams of becoming an oil p...
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House
Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to v...
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The Champion
Eikichi Yamashiro, who is a former contender for the boxing title, works as a manager at a Club Cham...
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The Man with a Shotgun
Ryoji, a wanderer, arrives in a remote mountain town, carrying a shotgun and claiming to be a hunter...
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A Turning to Hell
Maki, a porter at the Sakura Hotel, finds a body in Room No. 2 and picks up a piece of paper on whic...
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Stolen Desire
A rambunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki t...
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At Noon
Tadao decides to comes back from Tokyo to live in his home town, in the countryside. He stays at his...
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Quick Draw Joe
One day, a lone horseman rides into town with a wounded man strapped behind him. Joe, the Ace, had c...
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But the Flesh is Weak
A woman who grew up in a prestigious household, begins to have an affair outside the marriage....
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Hungry Soul
Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a man 23 years her senior, is friends with Mayumi, a b...
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The Domain: Kanto Legends of Chivalry
Third part of Nihon Kyokakuden series is set in Kanto in 1924. Ken Takakura playing a ship's mate be...
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Farewell to Southern Tosa
Story of an ex-con trying to go straight, but of course the old ways die hard....
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Jungle Block
A young doctor falls into a despair of developments. He plans to revenge the disgrace inflicted upon...
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Dancing Sisters
It’s been five years since her husband had passed away. Fuyuko lives in the quiet suburbs, in a smal...
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Karafuto 1945 Summer
The film is set in Karafuto after the radio broadcast of the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of...
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Song of Goodbye
It is the second work of the Oita trilogy of Obayashi . Following " Nigori Snow ", Ise Masazo draws ...
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Hungry Soul, Part II
A continuation of Hungry Soul, from the same year. Reiko, who tolerates abuse in her marriage to a m...
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The Gambling Monk
One summer day, the chief monk of the Hojuin Temple dies. Harumichi rushes back to town hearing abou...
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Zero
Two young men are recruited into the Japanese air force just before outbreak of WW2 by the test pilo...
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The Domain: The Naniwa Story
Second film of Makino's Nihon Kyokakuden series set in Osaka's harbor. The series also known as "The...
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A Girl Isn't Allowed to Love
A Girl isn't Allowed to Love is a 1955 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa....
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Prison Gambler
A film about the confrontation between two yakuza groups in the brutal Miike prison, which contained...
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Gambler
The main character Tachibana Isaburo is released from prison and discovers that his boss is dead. He...
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The Law's Bloody Wounds
An action masterpiece depicting the brotherhood of a younger brother (a student yakuza who breaks th...
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Wounded Beast
A tense action game that skillfully intertwines the human love between a criminal, his sister and hi...
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Joe of Aces: Gambling for a Living
A marine security officer stranded on the ocean in a small boat is rescued by a crew of buccaneers....
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To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2
Based on Muneta Hiroshi's military novel. The main character, Yamaguchi Zensuke, is a military dog s...
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The Motive
Four people are discovered brutally murdered in an up-scale high-rise apartment. All the victims app...
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Take Me Away!
Kyoko met Tetsu during her trip to San Francisco. Soon they fell in love but getting married was not...
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Tales of a Gunman: The Man Without Tomorrow
The fourth film in the Tales of a Gunman series. When Ryuji throws his pistol into the sea, he is at...
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Elegy to Youth
A fresh graduate from a university in Tokyo takes a job as an English teacher at a prestigious high ...
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The Awakening
A unique literary work that describes the end of a married woman who rebelled against her husband's ...
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Kamen no Onna
A touching literary and artistic story about the sadness and pathos of a woman's love, crying in ago...
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We Live Today
In a fictional mining city in northern Kanto, a Tokyo drifter named Shiro (Ishihara Yūjirō), caught ...
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Japanese Humanity and Justice
When a mob boss retires under political pressure, his successor and yakuza family are tested to thei...
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Kiriko's Tango
A story of the conflicting friendship and love between two young men over a young girl from a workin...
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Zurari oretacha yōjinbō
A trio of the best of the best! They beat up the bad guys with no mercy! The three main drug traffic...
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Aishū no sono
Tatsuya Hayami, an employee of Nitto Wool Textile, will soon leave the company. His girlfriend, Miyu...
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