Chikage Awashima
Birthday: 1924-02-24
Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan
Biography: Chikage Awashima (淡島 千景, Awashima Chikage, born Keiko Nakagawa, 24 February 1924 – 16 February 2012) was a Japanese film and stage actress. Her stage name drew inspiration from Japanese poetry, and her legacy continues to resonate within the world of entertainment. A graduate from Takarazuka Music and Dance School and member of the Takarazuka Revue, Chikage Awashima entered the Shochiku film studios and made her film debut in 1950. She appeared in films of numerous prominent directors like Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita, Tadashi Imai and Heinosuke Gosho. She received the Blue Ribbon Award twice and the Mainichi Film Award twice for her performances. Awashima retired from stage in 2009. She died on 16 February 2012, aged 87, from cancer.
Movies
An Urban Affair
Follow-up to "Ekimae Ryokan." Set around the Yurigaoka and Nishi-Ikuta stations on the Odakyu-Odawar...
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Early Spring
A young Tokyo salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship...
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The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of la...
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The King
The film takes place at the junction of the two eras of Meiji and Taisho. Sakata Sankichi, an uneduc...
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The Akasaka Sisters: Soft Touch of Night
Set in the postwar turmoil, Akasaka no shimai paints a vivit portrait of the life of three sisters w...
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The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet and rustic man ...
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Zokuzoku Ôban: Dotô hen
Ushinosuke returns to his hometown to become a farmer. Part three (of four) of the film adaptation ...
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Oban kanketsu hen
Ushinosuke returns to Tokyo with new ambitions. Fourth and final part of the film adaptation of Bun...
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Ôban
A young country boy leaves his village for Tokyo, where he begins to work as a stock trader. First p...
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The Mask and Destiny
Shuzenji Monogatari (The Mask and Destiny) is based on a 12th-century Japanese legend. An abortive r...
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Zoku Ôban: Fûun hen
Ushinosuke returns broke to his hometown, where everyone believes he's rich and successful. Part tw...
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Haru's Journey
Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a t...
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I Lived, But...
An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of f...
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The Friends
A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interes...
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Summer Clouds
A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to i...
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Flower Shop Curtain
The movie depicts the strength and resilience of a woman who spent her entire life as a merchant in ...
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Children of Nagasaki
August 9, 1945. An atomic bomb drops on Urakami, Nagasaki at 11:02am. The story of Dr. Nagai and h...
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The Good Fairy
The wife of an elite government official left her husband, and a young journalist is sent to investi...
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The Other Woman
In "The Other Woman" the children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to...
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Girls of the Night
In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Jap...
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Evening Calm
A girl rebels against her mother, who runs a brothel in Yokohama, and attempts to find freedom on he...
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A Comedy in Front of the Station: Onsen
Fourth entry in the Ekimae series, focusing on the restoration of a Fukushima hot spring inn....
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武蔵と小次郎
As the reputation of Sasaki Kojiro, who traveled through various provinces with his long sword seeki...
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武蔵と小次郎
As the reputation of Sasaki Kojiro, who traveled through various provinces with his long sword seeki...
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Hana no shôgai
In 1842, in the Umemoku Mansion within Hikone Castle, Naosuke Ii, despite the tumultuous times, was ...
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Edo no yubae
In the fourth year of Keio (1868), defeated retainers sought to restore the Tokugawa shogunate with ...
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A Comedy in Front of the Station: Lunchbox
Third film in the "Ekimae" series, this time set in Hamamatsu. A widow named Keiko and her brother J...
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八州遊侠伝 白鷺三味線
Hatamoto Ooka Gentaro was deeply committed to a future with a beautiful girl named Omachi, a relatio...
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Ejima and Ikushima
This period film is inspired by one of the most notorious scandals to have taken place in Edo-period...
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Aces Wild
Keisuke Morita, a man with dark glasses standing on the Shibaura pier, a descendant of an illegitima...
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Marital Relations
The story of a couple, a spoiled son and a down-to-earth girl, in Osaka in the early Showa era. The ...
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Yellow Crow
Ichiro Yoshida, the father of the boy Kiyoshi, who has been repatriated from China, returns home aft...
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Carmen's Innocent Love
Strip dancer Carmen falls in love with Hajime, who is engaged to the daughter of a right-wing politi...
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An Inlet of Muddy Water
A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about th...
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Utamaro, Painter of the Woman
Kitagawa Utamaro is a famous ukiyo-e artist known for his paintings of beautiful women. The courtesa...
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A Comedy in Front of the Station: Chinese Restaurant
The fifth "Ekimae" film set in a Chinese restaurant in Yokohama's Chinatown....
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Doctor's Day Off
Having completed the first year at his new medical practice, a doctor plans to relax on his day off....
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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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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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Freedom School
Minamimura, who had always wanted to be free, suddenly quits his job. His hardworking wife is surpri...
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Between Yesterday and Tomorrow
A young man hands in his notice at work and breaks up with his girlfriend in order to pursue his tru...
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Roadside Stone
The Wayside Pebble is an effective drama about the hardships of a childhood spent with a brusque, co...
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Always in My Heart Part 3
Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Machiko is not allowed to see Haruki. They finally meet again,...
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Always in My Heart Part 2
Machiko and Haruki’s drama continues. Two meet again in Hokkaido only to be separated again....
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Always in My Heart
Machiko Ujiie and Haruki Atomiya first meet and fall in love on Ginza’s Sukiyabashi Bridge during th...
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Firefly Light
Set in the 1860s, the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, The Fireflies focuses on Tose (Awashima...
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Secret of Naruto
From the pen of Yoshikawa Eiji comes this exciting story. The Naruto Strait separates Tokushima from...
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An Actor's Revenge
Nakamura Yukinojo gains popularity in Edo's kabuki scene as a handsome onnagata (a male actor who pl...
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Runway to Hell
When Kaneko Ichinosuke aims to avenge his father who was wrongly accused of embezzlement, the samura...
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The Master Spearman
This subversive period film features a hotheaded young samurai, Kurodo, who threatens to commit hara...
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The Loyal 47 Ronin
Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaul...
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The Foster Mother
A human drama about the bond between parents and a child and family love. The daughter leaves her fo...
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Edo Purebreed
Action and adventure abound in this story of friendship between two rival firefighters, Kichigoro an...
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The Unbalanced Wheel
A study of uneasy relationships among the inhabitants of a tiny rural community....
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Four Sisters
A story about the lives of four sisters and their manipulative mother who must come to terms with ea...
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Room for Let
When Yumiko Tsuyama, a potter by profession, comes inquiring about a room for rent in an old mansion...
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Nichiren and the Great Mongol Invasion
During the 1200's, legendary Buddhist monk Nichiren returns from his studies to lead Japan out of mo...
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Born in Sin
A dark family secret sends a 21-year-old French student (Hoshi) on a journey of self-discovery....
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Honno-Ji in Flames
The plot is based on the novel "Akechi Samanosuke no Koi," the final work in a trilogy by Hiroshi Ka...
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The Maid Story
Nine maids serve the household of a writer and his wife. The couple treat their maids like daughters...
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Dancing Girl
In Asakusa, Tokyo, a couple of a violinist Yamano and a revue dancer Hanae lives in poverty. One day...
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Tange Sazen
Drama about a famous one-eyed, one-armed samurai swordsman of the middle of the Tokugawa period by t...
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The Hotelman's Holiday
Based on the novel "Ekimae Ryokan" by Masuji Ibuse, a longtime hotel employee struggles to bring his...
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Love and Duty
Each one of us lives differently. So, there are many tragedies and comedies in our lives. She feels ...
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A Comedy in Front of the Station: University
#13 in the Ekimae series of films. Set at Todai University, Professor Sakai (played by Frankie Sakai...
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Pilgrimage at Night
Adapted by Yasumi Toshio and directed by Toyoda Shiro, this is a literary work based on a full-lengt...
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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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Restoration Fire
Megastar Kataoka Chiezo is Vice-commander Hijikata Toshizo of the Shinsengumi in this realistic tale...
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Image of a Mother
The young boy Michio struggles with the loss of his mother while his widowed father, Sadao remarries...
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Metamorphosis
A sensuous movie based on a literary work. Hitomi Kuroki stars as the film’s heroine....
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Tales of the Inner Chamber
Love-hate drama of three beautiful sisters in Ooku in Edo Castle....
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The Last Judgment
Based on a crime novel called Heaven Ran Last, by American pulp fiction writer William P. McGivern....
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Zangiku monogatari
Based on the novel by Shofu Muramatsu, the film is dedicated to the actors of the renowned Japanese ...
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Until the Lights Come Back
A Christmas Eve power outage provides a collection of troubled Tokyo denizens the opportunity to com...
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A Good Man, A Good Day
The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his sur...
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Merry Migratory Birds
Midori (Misora), the adopted daughter of Kinnosuke (Kawamura), a ship carpenter in a port town, was ...
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A Comedy in Front of the Station: Teapot
Sixth entry in the Ekimae series, loosely based on the folktale of the tanuki and the tea kettle....
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A Hundred-Years' Comedy in Front of the Station
The 21st film in the Ekimae series, commemorating the 35th anniversary of Toho. The film is a loose ...
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Hot Spring Ghost
Eighth in the Ekimae series, portraying competition between two hot spring resort owners in Yamanash...
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Going West: to the West
Sakuma Ryu, who runs a liquor store alone in downtown Tokyo, ends up living with his eldest son and ...
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Hometown
Tokiko Haebaru, a 76-year-old grandmother living in Nago, Okinawa. She soon embarks on a marathon ac...
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The Brass General
Ammo scavengers make a living gathering the unexploded bombs and shell casings from the U.S. militar...
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Devices Stronger Than Women
An ad campaign for a TV show called the “Male Training Contest” stirs chaos at a major electronics c...
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Bringing Up Husbands
Three wives launch a sex strike to put their domineering husbands in their place!...
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Rakuten fujin
In a corner of Tokyo, an old apartment housed the couple Sakaguchi Koyasu, a construction engineer, ...
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Mr. Giant's Victory Flag
Apparently a baseball drama starring real-life stars Nagashima (The Babe Ruth of Japanese Baseball) ...
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