Maria of the Ant Village ( 1958 )

Overview

Alongside Tokyo's Sumida River is a ragpickers' settlement known as Ant Village. One night, a young Catholic girl, Satoko Kitahara, who has been baptized under the name of Maria, comes to offer her services. However, Ant Village is not just an ordinary vagrants' community but a fine autonomous organization, and as the municipal authorities have long been demanding that the people of Ant Village leave the site, Satoko is utilized to publicize the Village and win public sympathy. While being utilized in this manner, Satoko is nevertheless glad to be able to help the people of Ant Village, especially the children, and when the summer vacation comes she decides to take the children on an excursion to Hakone. To raise funds for this purpose she becomes a rag-picker herself.

Top Cast

Kakuko Chino

Satoko Kitahara

Kōji Nanbara

Shūji Sano

Kōji Mitsui

Jun Tatara

Fujio Suga

Akihiro Miwa

Fumio Watanabe

Machiko Mizuhara

Shizue Natsukawa

Mutsuko Sakura

Mitsuko Yoshikawa

Chōko Iida

Tatsuo Saitō

Zeko Nakamura

Hikaru Hoshi

Yasushi Nagata

Itoko Wakaura

Kaneko Iwasaki

William Ross

Elise Richter

Takeshi Sakamoto

Tokuji Kobayashi