Yoshiko Kuga
Yoshiko Kuga (久我 美子, Kuga Yoshiko, 21 January 1931 – 9 June 2024) was a Japanese actress. Kuga was born in Tokyo, Japan. In 1946, while still attending Gakushuin Junior High School, she became an actress for Toho studios. In 1947, she made her debut as one of the lead actresses in the omnibus movie Four Love Stories (四つの恋の物語, Yottsu no Koi no Monogatari). In the 1950s, she started working independently and starred in many productions of the Shochiku studios under the direction of Keisuke Kinoshita. Other important directors include Kenji Mizoguchi (The Woman in the Rumor), Yasujirō Ozu (Equinox Flower), and Tadashi Imai (An Inlet of Muddy Water). Since the 1970s, she appeared mainly on television and on stage.
Kuga was married to actor Akihiko Hirata from 1961 until his death in 1984. She died from aspiration pneumonia on 9 June 2024, at the age of 93.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 6.524 |
| Birthday | 1931-01-21 |
| Place of Birth | Ushigome, Tokyo, Japan |
| Also Known As | Kuga Yoshiko, Ёсико Куга, |
1950
Oogonju
0/0
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Oogonju
1951
The Idiot
6.95/110
Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kame...
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The Idiot
1948
Drunken Angel
7.598/270
Doctor Sanada treats gangster Matsunaga after he is wounded in a gunfight, and discovers that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Sanada tries to convi...
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Drunken Angel
1958
Equinox Flower
7.44/149
Wataru Hirayama's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares that she is in love with a musician and is adaman...
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Equinox Flower
1959
Good Morning
7.708/281
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of...
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Good Morning
1955
Taira Clan Saga
7.1/26
Special Forces commander Captain Tadamori returns to Kyoto after successfully defeating the uprising of pirates in the western sea of Japan. But becau...
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Taira Clan Saga
1954
The Woman in the Rumor
7.375/37
Yukiko's fiance learns her mother runs a geisha house and ends their engagement. She despises what her mother does until one of her clients shows inte...
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The Woman in the Rumor
1950
Portrait of Madame Yuki
6.7/25
A young woman takes up her new job as the servant of a noblewoman and soon discovers that underneath her facade of luxury lies great unhappiness.
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Portrait of Madame Yuki
1988
Goryokaku
0/0
After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, there was a series of battles fought while the former supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate retreated to the...
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Goryokaku
1989
Godzilla vs. Biollante
7.4/247
After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese governm...
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Godzilla vs. Biollante
1960
Cruel Story of Youth
6.693/57
A budding gangster enthralls a freeloading young woman, soon taking advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class, middle-aged men.
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Cruel Story of Youth
1962
Umineko ga tonde
0/0
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Umineko ga tonde
1957
Yagyu Secret Scrolls
7/4
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disas...
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Yagyu Secret Scrolls
1961
Zero Focus
6.6/17
One week into newlywed Teiko Uhara's marriage, her husband, Kenichi, leaves on a short business trip and never returns. Teiko travels across Japan to...
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Zero Focus
1958
Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu - Part II
5.3/6
In the Tokugawa Era, the clan of Lord Yagyu has hidden away three scrolls containing clan secrets which, if revealed, would cause revolution and disas...
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Yagyu Secret Scrolls: Ninjitsu - Part II
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
1954
Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky
6/5
This drama of middle-class life in postwar Japan tells the story lower-middle-class workers in the city of Kawasaki, and their troubles and travails.
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Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky
1959
The Snow Flurry
6.6/8
After surviving the double suicide pact she made with her lover, a woman gives birth to their child.
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The Snow Flurry
1955
Beautiful Days
6.7/6
Masaki Kobayashi directs this romantic drama concerning a family of florists.
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Beautiful Days
1956
Farewell to Dream
6.9/8
A coming-of-age story portrayed as the loss of all youthful illusions. Sixteen-year-old Yoichi dreams of becoming a sailor. His parents are fishmonger...
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Farewell to Dream
1954
A Billionaire
5.7/3
An ethical, young tax collector new to his area encounters increasingly absurd individuals and groups coping with their post-war woes.
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A Billionaire
1958
The Eternal Rainbow
6.3/3
Two men at an ironworks encounter roadblocks: the first does not have the grades to get a job, while the other finds himself falling for a co-worker.
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The Eternal Rainbow
1954
The Garden of Women
6.6/9
A student at a woman's university takes a controversial action against the school's old-fashioned doctrines.
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The Garden of Women
1960
Spring Dreams
5.8/6
When a wealthy, selfish family decides to take care of an elderly hobo who collapsed near their home, they are beset by visits from his numerous frien...
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Spring Dreams
1959
Thus Another Day
5.6/5
A father curries favor with his bosses to further his career, but his wife has lost faith in him. She returns to her family home while they rent out t...
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Thus Another Day
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
1961
Daredevil in the Castle
7.438/8
During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyoto...
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Daredevil in the Castle
1947
Spring Awakens
6.8/5
Slice of life film centered on a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl.
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Spring Awakens
1957
Elegy of the North
5.4/7
A sensitive young woman aged 22 fell in love with a middle aged man who was troubled by his unfaithful wife.
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Elegy of the North
1969
Samurai Banners
7.417/18
Kansuke Yamamoto is a samurai who dreams of a country united, peaceful from sea to sea. He enters the service of Takeda, the lord of Kai domain. He co...
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Samurai Banners
1947
Four Love Stories
5.8/4
Omnibus of love stories from 1947 directed by famous directors, featuring big stars.
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Four Love Stories
1953
Love Letter
6.8/22
A sad and troubled man finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.
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Love Letter
1953
An Inlet of Muddy Water
6.1/7
A Japanese woman writes down three stories she has witnessed or heard of in her diary, each about the difficult situation a young woman finds herself...
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An Inlet of Muddy Water
1957
Yellow Crow
5.8/5
In this Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, director Heinosuke Gosho -- a master chronicler of Japanese middle-class life -- presents...
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Yellow Crow
1955
Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree
0/0
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Tomorrow I'll Be a Fire-Tree
1955
Mune yori mune ni
0/0
Japanese drama
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Mune yori mune ni
1997
Tokyo Fair Weather
6.8/6
This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
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Tokyo Fair Weather
1994
119
6/1
In Harari-cho, a small and quiet bayside town by the sea, the firemen have not seen a fire for nearly twenty years. Each day passes eventlessly... unt...
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119
2000
As the River Flows
0/0
2000 live-action Japanese film.
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As the River Flows
1992
Okoge
6.3/5
A straight young woman living in Tokyo becomes involved in the lives of a gay man and his married lover.
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Okoge
1952
The Paths of Two Maidens
0/0
Melodrama about two sisters with different mothers.
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The Paths of Two Maidens
1950
Guntō nanban-sen
0/0
1950 Japanese movie
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Guntō nanban-sen
1991
Nowhere Man
5.2/4
Sukezo, a former manga comic artist, takes up the art rock business by setting up a shop in a shed by the river. He tries hard to be successful, but b...
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Nowhere Man
1950
Till We Meet Again
6.333/9
Saburo and Keiko fall in love with each other but the tide of war separates them.
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Till We Meet Again
1950
The Angry Street
6.5/6
The Angry Street includes a great deal of location shooting in the rebuilt city, including downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, the campus of...
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The Angry Street
1949
Rinchi
0/0
Japanese noir.
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Rinchi
1956
The Rose on His Arm
5.8/6
Ignoring the protests of his working-class mother, a young man becomes wrapped up in the world of delinquents and yakuza.
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The Rose on His Arm
1962
Ballad of a Workman
5.7/6
A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to...
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Ballad of a Workman
1997
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
5/0
A high-school girl acquires the ability to time travel.
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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
1964
Whirlwind
6.8/8
Set at the end of the Siege of Osaka this film follows the exploits of several members of the defeated Toyotomi clan as they cope with the post battle...
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Whirlwind
1949
Akireta musumetachi
0/0
Japanese comedy film.
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Akireta musumetachi
1989
Four Days of Snow and Blood
6.9/7
Based on the "2.26 Incident", an attempted coup d'état in Japan 1936, launched by radical ultra-nationalist parts of the military. Several leading pol...
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Four Days of Snow and Blood
1958
Beyond the Seasonal Wind
0/0
Japanese drama film.
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Beyond the Seasonal Wind
1993
Sky Cannot Be This Blue
0/0
Kantarou Kobayashi is an ordinary businessman who has multiple troubles on hand. He's been having an affair with a woman working in the same company,...
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Sky Cannot Be This Blue
1958
Woman Unveiled
6/1
Story of a family torn apart when Teiji (Mori), the father, develops intimate feelings for a runaway (Kuga) the family has taken into their home.
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Woman Unveiled
1949
Delinquent Girl
0/0
A melodramatic love story, a would-be apprenticeship between the titular bad girl and the optimistic scholar returning from the big city. It is presum...
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Delinquent Girl
1951
Honoo no hada
0/0
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Honoo no hada
1952
This Way, That Way
7/1
An intellectual couple in a staid and tedious marriage are surprised when the wife’s niece, who has run away from home, turns up unexpectedly to stay...
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This Way, That Way
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
1962
Mother Country
6.5/4
In 1919, a group of Japanese immigrants arrives in Hawaii. Among them Yoshio Inoue and his wife Kishimo and Sumi, a young woman ready to get married s...
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Mother Country
1956
Women in Prison
1/1
The woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had...
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Women in Prison
1957
A Case of Honor
0/0
The obstinate black market trader Okyo lives together with her son Seitaro, who works as a mechanic for a bus company. She also looks after her son's...
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A Case of Honor
1955
Ai Sureba Koso
0/0
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Ai Sureba Koso
1961
Haitoku no mesu
0/0
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Haitoku no mesu
1949
Jakoman and Tetsu
0/0
In a village subsisting on it herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one o...
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Jakoman and Tetsu
1964
To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2
0/0
Based on Muneta Hiroshi's military novel. The main character, Yamaguchi Zensuke, is a military dog soldier. He joins the army and winds up sent overse...
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To Your Majesty, The Emperor 2
1953
Reunion
6/1
If two clouds go away, the eyes of a maiden who gets wet in tears, Tsukaman Aise who earnestly wished, and the two who cried under the harsh trials of...
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