Blue Ribbon Award 1950-1959
Movies to watch awarded or nominated in the Blue Ribbon Awards in the '50s
List activity
16 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
47 titles
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsYoshiko KugaEiji OkadaOsamu TakizawaThe hero Saburo (Okada Eiji) is obstructed by a series of events from meeting Keiko (Kuga Yoshiko), his fiancee.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsKen UeharaSetsuko HaraYukiko ShimazakiMichiyo lives in a small home in Osaka and is not happy with her marriage; all she does is cook and clean for her husband.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsHideko TakamineMitsuko MiuraKyôko KagawaPoor, pathetic mother Ose has four children, three daughters and a son, by four different men.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsAkiko TamuraYatsuko Tan'amiKen MitsudaStory 1 : "The Thirteenth Night". Seki turns up at her parents' house in the dead of night, where she breaks down and says she cannot continue to live with her husband, a rich man to whom the family is indebted. After a tearful and long discussion, they convince her to return. On the way home, the rickshaw driver turns out to be an old school friend, and they reminisce about the old days. .... Story 2 : "The Last Day Of The Year". Mine is a hard-working maid in the house of a miserly, slave-driving old woman who is burdened by a wastrel son, who pesters the old woman and her new husband for money to pay off gambling debts. Mine's uncle is her only surviving relative, and the man who raised her, who is very ill and needs money to repay a loanshark. Mine promises to borrow the money from her employer but, although the old woman initially agrees, she breaks that promise on the due date, New Year's Eve. Can honest Mine resist the temptation to steal ? ..... Story 3: "An Inlet of Muddy Water". The trials and tribulations of a group of young to middle-aged whores. All the women in this particular bawdy house look up to and admire the stunning O-Riki. But O-Riki is nevertheless troubled. Gen, a shabby coolie, hangs around and pesters her, despite having a long-suffering wife and a young son, who calls O-Riki "The Demon". One night, desperate for clients, several of the girls lunge at and literally drag some passers-by inside. One of these men is cultured and gentlemanly, and becomes O-Riki's regular client. She looks forward to his visits and hopes he will marry her. Meanwhile, Gen's wife alternates between solicitousness and harassment, and home life becomes tough.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsHideko TakamineItsuo WatanabeMakoto MiyagawaSchoolteacher Hisako Oishi forms an emotional bond with her pupils and teaches them various virtues, while at the same time worrying about their future.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsHideko TakamineMasayuki MoriMariko OkadaA tragic social drama set in post war Japan and concerns a lonely woman trying to find purpose and stability in a devastated Tokyo.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsKôjirô KusanagiSachiko HidariTaketoshi NaitôWhen an elderly couple is murdered, the police pick up the most likely suspect, a young loner. The authorities force a confession out of the suspect, who then insists that he had a pair of accomplices.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsShinjirô EbaraEijirô TônoYûko MochizukiThe heroes and heroines are all rice farmers, struggling to eke out an existence in an unfriendly world.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMisa UeharaMinoru ChiakiLured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsEmiko TakahashiTanie KitabayashiGeorge OkunoyamaImmediately after the Second World War, sister Kiku and brother Isamu, whose mother was a prostitute and the father was a GI, live with their grandmother in the country. Because their colour, hair is different from Japanese, they'd have a hard time, being bullied or treated like unusual creatures. Unfortunately, racism and some other issues such as being different still exist in Japan but the way Kiku portrayed was quite refreshing as she's so strong and fighting against all those stupidity and cliché.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKinuyo TanakaHideko TakamineKen UeharaSetsuko is unhappily married to Mimura, an engineer with no job and a drinking habit. She's always been in love with Hiroshi, but he left for France years ago without proposing. Now he is back and Mariko (Setsuko's sister) tries to reunite them, although secretly she loves him too.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsKeiji SadaKeiko KishiMinoru ÔkiA talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising athlete to his team.
- DirectorKeigo KimuraStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôTakashi ShimuraYone (Toshiro Mifune) is a horse trader who lives in a small village on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido. He is a rough-and-tumble type who is prone to getting roaring drunk, starting bar brawls, and losing all his money at dice. The only problem is that he has a sickly wife, Haruno, and an infant son, Daihei.
- DirectorShirô ToyodaStarsHisaya MorishigeChikage AwashimaYôko TsukasaDespite paternal disapproval, the heir of a wealthy family embarks on a relationship with a Geisha.
- DirectorYûzô KawashimaStarsFurankî SakaiSachiko HidariYôko MinamidaIn 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.
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsRaizô IchikawaGanjirô NakamuraTatsuya NakadaiGoichi Mizoguchi, an aspiring Buddhist monk who became involved in the temple that was owned by his father, through a series of flashbacks, framed as a police interrogation, Mizoguchi unravels the story of his obsession with the temple beginning with his childhood.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraChishû RyûChikage AwashimaA family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.
- DirectorKaneto ShindôStarsNobuko OtowaSumiko HidakaIsuzu YamadaShusei Tokuda's starkly realistic novel about a poor girl pressed into becoming a geisha was forcefully adapted by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba). When Ginko (Nobuko Otowa, Shindo's wife) falls in love with one of her clients, she is handily rebuffed by the young man's wealthy family, and left to wander from geisha house to geisha house.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsMieko TakamineHideko TakamineKeiko KishiA student at a woman's university takes a controversial action against the school's old-fashioned doctrines.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsKinuyo TanakaIsuzu YamadaHideko TakamineOtsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.
- DirectorTeinosuke KinugasaStarsFujiko YamamotoKeizô KawasakiYosuke IrieThe story follows Oshino, a geisha who is trying to start a new life with a lover who is a painter. However, her past filled with debts and pimps catches up to her.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsShin SaburiKinuyo TanakaIneko ArimaA businessman clashes with his elder daughter over her choice of a husband.
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsEiji FunakoshiMantarô UshioYoshihiro HamaguchiIn the closing days of WWII, remnants of the Japanese army in Leyte are abandoned by their command and face certain death by starvation.
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsMachiko KyôGanjirô NakamuraJunko KanôA man getting on in years sets out to find a way to resurrect his flagging virility.
- DirectorTomotaka TasakaStarsYûjirô IshiharaMie KitaharaIzumi AshikawaA college aged woman arrives in Tokyo to study while finding work at the wealthy Tashiro family home as a tutor of the daughter, while the two brothers vie for her attention.
- DirectorTadashi ImaiStarsShinjirô EbaraHitomi NakaharaEiji OkadaJunai Monogatari is about two poor youths, Mitsuko and Kando, rebelling against society in various ways, who are desperately trying to be together despite tortuous circumstances.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKazuo HasegawaKyôko KagawaEitarô ShindôIshun is a wealthy but unsympathetic master printer who has wrongly accused his wife and best employee of being lovers. To escape punishment, the accused run away together, but Ishun is certain to be ruined if word gets out.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaKokinji KatsuraAs a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaChikage AwashimaA Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsShinji TanakaYûko MochizukiTakahiro TamuraThe conflicting dreams of the members of a Japanese family are threatened by a continuing series of misfortunes.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsHaruko SugimuraKen UeharaSadako SawamuraWhat is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? Kin has saved her money, and has become a wealthy money-lender, spending her days cold-heartedly collecting debts. Even her best friends, Tomi, Nobu, and Tamae, who were her fellow Geisha, are now indebted to her. For all of them, the glamor of their young lives has passed; Tomi and Tamae have children, but their children have disappointed them. Kin has two former lovers who still pursue her; one she wants to see, and the other she doesn't. But even the one she remembers fondly, when he shows up, proves to be a disappointment.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneIsuzu YamadaKyôko KagawaIn a Japanese slum, various residents play out their lives, dreaming of better things or settling for their lot. Among them is a man who pines for a young woman but is stymied by her deceptive family.
- DirectorTomu UchidaStarsChiezô KataokaRyûnosuke TsukigataChizuru KitagawaA samurai travels to Edo with his two servants. On their way, they meet many people and encounter great injustice.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMichiyo KogureAyako WakaoSeizaburô KawazuA seasoned geisha and her apprentice maiko are forced to give in to their clients' sexual advances to survive.
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsKinuyo TanakaKyôko KagawaEiji OkadaA teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.
- DirectorKazuo MoriStarsToshirô MifuneYuriko HamadaTakashi ShimuraMataemon Araki, a renowned swordsman, helps a young man find vengeance.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsMichiyo KogureYôko KatsuragiTeruko KishiThe Kamiya family struggles to keep the town fishing association from going bankrupt as they deal with a dishonest captain and his degenerate crew.
- DirectorUmetsugu InoueStarsYûjirô IshiharaKeiji ItamiMie KitaharaIntersecting circles of obligation link a former boxer, the youth he vows to make a champion, and the ex-showgirl whose ballet training he funds, in a story balanced between the Ginza boxing ring and the highbrow world of the ballet studio.
- DirectorShôhei ImamuraStarsOsamu TakizawaShin'ichi YanagisawaHiroyuki NagatoA rumbunctious and ribald tale of a troupe of travelling actors who alternate highlights of kabuki theatre with strip shows.
- DirectorShôhei ImamuraStarsHiroyuki NagatoMisako WatanabeKô NishimuraEndless Desire is a black comedy on the spoils of war much extended and enhanced by the greed, treachery, laziness, and lust of the postwar decade.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsYûko MochizukiYôko KatsuragiMasami TauraAlternating in time, between the end of World War II and 1953, Haruko, a widow, does what she can to keep her daughter Utako and son Seiichi safe, fed, and sheltered. By 1953, it's clear that the children, as they enter adulthood, want little to do with their mother. They have a different view of their childhood and her sacrifices: in their eyes, she abandoned them to live a life of pleasure. The self-pitying Haruko is sure her life was one of pain and humiliation, for her children. As Seiichi, now a medical student, announces his plans to let a wealthy man adopt him, and as Utako considers the offer to go away with a married man who is her English teacher, what is left for Haruko?
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsKeiko AwajiMotoji FujiwaraChieko HigashiyamaA young student (Akira Inshihama) falls into a hopeless romantic attraction to an invalid girl (Keiko Awaji) whom he can only see from afar.
- DirectorShirô ToyodaStarsRyô IkebeShirley YamaguchiKaoru YachigusaLavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsNoriko AritaChishû RyûHaruko SugimuraAn old man, being rowed along a river, sees a field of daisies and thinks back to when he was fifteen. He recalls his time with, and away from, the girl cousin he grew up with and would have married, except the family and other pressures got in the way.
- DirectorHeinosuke GoshoStarsKinuyo TanakaKen UeharaHideko TakamineWhere Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo.