Machiko Kyō
Machiko Kyō (Japanese: 京 マチ子 Hepburn: Kyō Machiko, March 25, 1924 – May 12, 2019) was a Japanese actress whose film work occurred primarily during the 1950s. She rose to extraordinary domestic praise in Japan for her work in two of the greatest Japanese films of the 20th century, Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu.
Machiko trained to be a dancer before entering films in 1949. The following year, she would achieve international fame as the female lead in Akira Kurosawa's classic film Rashōmon. Kyō starred in many more Japanese productions, including Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (1953) and Street of Shame (1956), Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell (1953), Kon Ichikawa's Odd Obsession (1959), Yasujirō Ozu's Floating Weeds (1959), and Hiroshi Teshigahara's The Face of Another (1966).
Her only role in a non-Japanese film was as Lotus Blossom, a young geisha, in The Teahouse of the August Moon, starring opposite Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford.
In her eighties, Kyō continued to perform in traditional Japanese theatrical productions put on by famed producer Fukuko Ishii. Her final role was as Matsuura Shino in the NHK television drama series Haregi Koko Ichiban in 2000. Kyō was nominated for a Golden Globe for The Teahouse of the August Moon, a great feat for an Asian actress at the time, and was awarded many prizes, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Awards of the Japanese Academy.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Machiko Kyō, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 4.591 |
| Birthday | 1924-03-25 |
| Place of Birth | Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan |
| Also Known As | Machiko Kyô , |
1950
Rashomon
8.078/2227
Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justi...
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Rashomon
1958
Musume no boken
0/0
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Musume no boken
1954
A Geisha on Horseback
0/0
Based on the original work of Akutagawa Prize-winning writer Ashihei Hino, the film depicts the love of the proud geisha Nobukichi Hakata in the early...
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A Geisha on Horseback
1966
The Face of Another
7.786/250
A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality.
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The Face of Another
1956
Street of Shame
7.665/130
The lives of five prostitutes employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
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Street of Shame
1957
The Teahouse of the August Moon
6/40
In post-WWII Japan, an American captain is brought in to help build a school, but the locals want a teahouse instead.
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The Teahouse of the August Moon
1959
Odd Obsession
6.328/29
A middle-aged husband of a younger woman finds her youth intimidating to the point that he cannot become aroused. His solution involves the introducti...
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Odd Obsession
1953
Gate of Hell
7.119/84
Japan, 1159. Moritō, a brave samurai, performs a heroic act by rescuing the lovely Kesa during a violent uprising. Moritō falls in love with her, but...
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Gate of Hell
1962
Nakayoshi ondo: Nippon ichi dayo
0/0
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Nakayoshi ondo: Nippon ichi dayo
1953
Kurohyō
0/0
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Kurohyō
1954
Aizen katsura
0/0
1954 Japanese movie
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Aizen katsura
1959
Floating Weeds
7.456/183
When a theater troupe's master visits his old flame, he unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences. A remake...
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Floating Weeds
1962
The Great Wall
6/2
In 221 BC, Qin Shihuangdi conquered the rest of China. Qin's great accomplishments and also his serious faults are showed in this film. Qin adopted au...
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The Great Wall
1955
Princess Yang Kwei Fei
6.741/56
In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they...
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Princess Yang Kwei Fei
2000
Kurosawa
6.7/3
Documentary on film maker Akira Kurosawa
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Kurosawa
1953
Brother and Sister
6.6/15
The eldest daughter of a rural family Mon returns home from Tokyo pregnant after an affair with a college student Kobata, which causes a scandal that...
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Brother and Sister
1962
Black Lizard
7.1/9
The cunning detective Akeichi must foil a kidnapping plot orchestrated by the notorious jewel thief known as Black Lizard.
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Black Lizard
1949
Hanakurabe tanuki-den
0/0
Princess Oboro, the queen of the Tanuki palace and stubborn at heart, falls in love with coffeehouse worker Kurotaro at first sight.
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Hanakurabe tanuki-den
1957
Hole in One
6/1
A female reporter is fired for writing about police corruption; to make money while hiding from the press, she posts a bounty upon herself.
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Hole in One
1949
A Bullet Hole Underground
0/0
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A Bullet Hole Underground
1952
I'll Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki
0/0
A Japanese soldier who died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Hawaii entrusted Henry Gray with an unfinished score and promised to complete it.
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I'll Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki
1960
The Wandering Princess
6.7/7
Pu Zhe , the younger brother of the Emperor of Manchukuo, Pu Wen, marries Ryuko the daughter of a long-established aristocratic family - all in the in...
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The Wandering Princess
1957
Night Butterflies
6.3/3
A traditional bar mistress in Kyoto clashes with her Tokyo rival.
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Night Butterflies
1958
The Ladder of Success
0/0
A biting portrait of the world of classical Japanese dance: an ambitious young woman (Wakao Ayako) shoves aside her mentor (Kyo Machiko) on her way to...
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The Ladder of Success
1959
女と海賊
0/0
In the early Edo period, among the pirate ships that roamed the seas near Ryukyu and Korea, there was a ship called the Sueyoshi, led by a man known a...
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女と海賊
1959
女と海賊
0/0
In the early Edo period, among the pirate ships that roamed the seas near Ryukyu and Korea, there was a ship called the Sueyoshi, led by a man known a...
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女と海賊
1952
Dedication of the Great Buddha
0/0
Dedication of the Great Buddha is a 1952 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. It was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
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Dedication of the Great Buddha
1954
The Princess Sen
5/1
During the Warring States era of early 17th century Japan, teenage princess Sen is besieged with other members of her family in Osaka Castle, by a riv...
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The Princess Sen
1959
Jirocho Fuji
6.8/4
Legendary yakuza Shimizu Jirocho and his 28 henchmen travel the unruly path from a 'Fire Festival' in Akiba to a decisive battle by the Fujigawa.
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Jirocho Fuji
1976
Tora-san's Pure Love
8.5/2
When Tora-san's infatuation with his nephew's school teacher causes family turmoil, he leaves on his travels again. When he returns, he falls in love...
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Tora-san's Pure Love
1950
The Motherland Far Far Away
0/0
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The Motherland Far Far Away
1956
A Rainbow at Every Turn
0/0
Momoko and Asako are half sisters, daughters of the famous architect Tsuneo Mizuhara, who also have another half sister in Kyôto, Wakako, whom they ha...
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A Rainbow at Every Turn
1951
The Tale of Genji
5.4/5
Genji, the illegitimate offspring of a Japanese potentate, goes by the philosophy of "love 'em and leave 'em" as a matter of course. Only when his hea...
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The Tale of Genji
1954
浅草の夜
0/0
A young scriptwriter with a yakuza upbringing, an iron-fire dancer, a young painter, and a pure-hearted downtown girl fall in love in Asakusa in this...
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浅草の夜
1954
A Certain Woman
0/0
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A Certain Woman
1974
The Family
10/1
Set in the post-World War II climate of the 1960s in Kobe, the movie explores the struggle for power within the powerful Manpyo family.
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The Family
1961
Buddha
0/0
An Indian prince leaves his world of comfort and riches behind to wander and meditate for six years in search of spiritual enlightenment. Siddartha (C...
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Buddha
1959
The Makioka Sisters
8/1
1959 adaptation of Junichiro Tanizaki's novel.
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The Makioka Sisters
1954
The Story of Shunkin
5/2
Based on the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. Story of the beautiful blind daughter of a wealthy businessman who falls in love with a servant.
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The Story of Shunkin
1975
Solar Eclipse
6.8/6
When bribe money from a rigged election funnels into a dam construction project, collusion, lust, greed and even murder are on the ballot.
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Solar Eclipse
1966
The Little Runaway
1/2
During a Soviet circus tour in Japan, a small street musician, Ken, meets a clown, Yuri Nikulin. Upon learning that his sick father is being treated i...
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The Little Runaway
1976
The Possessed
0/0
Oshima, a rich girl married Shinzo, and her cousin girl Sawa has been jealous of Oshima deeply. Sawa cursed Oshima so Shinzo could not hold her and do...
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The Possessed
1955
New Women’s Dialogue
0/0
A young female president of a company who hates men and a new male employee who hates women: a one-on-one fight in which sparks fly! A cheerful youth...
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New Women’s Dialogue
1958
The Loyal 47 Ronin
6/9
Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official, who will become the target...
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The Loyal 47 Ronin
1960
Bonchi
7/2
Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give t...
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Bonchi
1960
The Woman Who Touched Legs
6/1
Detective Katahachi meets a young and beautiful pickpocket and doesn’t arrest her because she was not in the act. Instead, he listens to the story abo...
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The Woman Who Touched Legs
1951
The Life of a Horse Trader
7/3
The tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka "The Shark," a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, despite being a father and...
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The Life of a Horse Trader
1956
Three Women Around Yoshinaka
7/1
The story of Yoshinaka during the tumultuous period of warring related to us in the Heike Monogatari. Close in setting to Kinugasa’s famous Gate of He...
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Three Women Around Yoshinaka
1960
A Woman's Testament
5.8/6
The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. Her plan for a solid financial future has a double whammy. In the s...
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A Woman's Testament
1952
Beauty and the Thief
0/0
The picture belongs to the jidai gekki (historic) genre. It is a powerful story of violence and eroticism, picturing a world at once sordid and poetic...
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Beauty and the Thief
1969
Thousand Cranes
9/1
The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life.
Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasuna...
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Thousand Cranes
1975
Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
6.8/12
In 39 interviews with actors and actresses, writers, producers and staff members, interspersed with film excerpts and stills, Shindō recounts the life...
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Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director
1957
Jigoku bana
0/0
Period drama based on the novel by Saisei Murō.
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Jigoku bana
1951
Clothes of Deception
6.5/4
The story of two sisters in post-war Japan. One is a geisha and the other works for the tourist board.
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Clothes of Deception
1958
Chance Meeting
0/0
Aya successfully stages a fashion show in Osaka and in the train on her way home to Tokyo accidentally treads on a man's foot. The man whose name is R...
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Chance Meeting
1970
Born Fighter
0/0
Story about a big boss who built the foundation of an industrial city.
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Born Fighter
1960
The Last Betrayal
0/0
A crime boss gets out of prison and tries to find who from his organization betrayed him.
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The Last Betrayal
1961
Marriageable Age
0/0
Yoshimura's 48th film is the contemporary story of a well-to-do family showing the frailties and failings of the class, the egotism, and the complete...
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Marriageable Age
1957
Dancing Girl
6/1
In Asakusa, Tokyo, a couple of a violinist Yamano and a revue dancer Hanae lives in poverty. One day Hanae’s little sister rolls into their apartment...
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Dancing Girl
1964
Sweet Sweat
0/0
This film by Toyoda depicts the hard life of an unmarried mother in Tokyo. Umeko (Machiko Kyo), at 36, is working in a bar, struggling valiantly to ke...
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Sweet Sweat
1959
Goodbye, Hello
6/1
Comedy drama by Kon Ichikawa
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Goodbye, Hello
1951
The Bitch
0/0
The fall of an accountant enthralled by the sexual charms of a cabaret dancer.
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The Bitch
1952
The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa
0/0
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The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa
1949
A Fool's Love
0/0
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A Fool's Love
1966
The Daphne
0/0
Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their long-suffer...
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The Daphne
1958
Tainted Flowers
0/0
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Tainted Flowers
1963
The Third Will
8/2
A story about a wealthy family and the greed and selfishness of three daughters and relatives, after the passing of their old father
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The Third Will
1961
A Design for Dying
6/1
Shikiko Oba is nimble with her fingers and teaches dressmaking and designing. Among her pupils are Rinko, Katsumi and Tomie. Ginshiro, who is as shre...
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A Design for Dying
1953
Ugetsu
8/570
In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage'...
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Ugetsu
1957
Itohan Monogatari
0/0
Based on the original work by Shuji Hojo, Itohan Monogatari depicts the fate of a clumsy and kind-hearted woman in the Taisho era.
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Itohan Monogatari
1984
Make-Up
0/0
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Make-Up
1958
Sorrow Is Only for Women
0/0
The beauty of the Japanese family system is portrayed through the women who greet a woman who went to America thirty years ago to visit her grave.
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Sorrow Is Only for Women
1955
A Girl Isn't Allowed to Love
0/0
A Girl isn't Allowed to Love is a 1955 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa.
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A Girl Isn't Allowed to Love
1956
Tsukigata Hanpeita
7/1
During the bloody era of the Tokugawa Shogunate collapse, a man appeared capable of overthrowing a corrupt government and ending the feud between the...
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Tsukigata Hanpeita
1961
Nuregami botan
0/0
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Nuregami botan
1950
Resurrection
0/0
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Resurrection
1960
The Beloved Image
0/0
A girl marries her elderly employer but in reality is in love with his son.
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The Beloved Image
1949
The Man Who Laughs Last
0/0
The East Asian Acrobatic circus enjoys popularity after welcoming the Asuka brothers, two prestigious trapeze acrobats. One day, one of the brothers g...
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The Man Who Laughs Last
1962
A Woman's Life
0/0
One of many adaptations of "Onna no isshō", this time by Yasuzo Masumura as a starring vehicle for famed actress Machiko Kyo.
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A Woman's Life
1958
Mother
0/0
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Mother
1957
Daiei Studio is Bustling
0/0
A studio introduction version for Daiei Stars.
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Daiei Studio is Bustling
1956
Operation Teahouse
0/0
This short promotional film provides a behind-the-scenes look at "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1956).
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