Hideko Takamine, Lauded Japanese Actress, Dies at 86 Hideko Takamine, a Japanese actress who over the course of nearly 200 films developed from an endearing child star into a powerful representative of the Japanese woman’s search for identity and autonomy in the years after World War II, died on Dec. 28 in Tokyo. She was 86. The cause was lung cancer, a spokesman said. Ms. Takamine, who often seem

Isuzu Yamada, left, and Chiyako Okura in the 1936 film "Osaka Elegy," directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.Credit...Criterion Collection Isuzu Yamada, a towering star of the Japanese screen and stage best known in the West for her chilling portrayal of the Lady Macbeth role in Akira Kurosawa’s Shakespeare adaptation “Throne of Blood,” died on July 9 in Tokyo. She was 95. Her office confirmed her death, the

Setsuko Hara, Japanese Star of Films by Ozu and Kurosawa, Is Dead at 95 Setsuko Hara, center, in “Tokyo Story” (1953), directed by Yasujiro Ozu, with whom she had a 12-year collaboration. Ms. Hara began acting at 15 and retired from film in the early 1960s.Credit...Janus Films Setsuko Hara, one of Japan’s most beloved actresses, best known for her subtle portrayals of women torn between the demand

Yoshiko Yamaguchi and Robert Stack in “House of Bamboo,” from 1955. Ms. Yamaguchi played her major roles in Asia.Credit...20th Century Fox, via Photofest Yoshiko Yamaguchi, a singer and actress who starred in Japanese propaganda films during Japan’s brutal military occupation of China in the 1930s and ’40s and who, after narrowly escaping execution by the Chinese after the war, helped normalize re