
I Want to Be a Shellfish
Television production of I Want to Be a Shellfish. On a post-war peaceful day in Japan, Toyomatsu Shimizu, a barber as well as a good father and husband, is suddenly arrested by the Prefectural Police as a war criminal and sued for murder. According to the accusation by GHQ, Toyomatsu "attemped to kill a US prisoner", which was nothing but an order by his superior and failed after all with hurting the prisoner by weak Toyomatsu. Also, Toyomatsu was driven to corner at the trial by the fact that he fed the US prisoner some burdock roots to nourish him. Toyomatsu believes nothing but being not guilty, but he is sentenced to death by hanging. Prior to the execution, Toyomatsu writes a long farewell letter to his family, the wife and the only son: "If I ever incarnate, I hate to be a human being any more.... Oh yes, I would like to be...a shellfish living on the rock-bottom of the sea."
Where to Watch
Availability: United States
No regional provider information is available for United States.
Streaming availability data provided by JustWatch.
Top Cast

Frankie Sakai
Shimizu Toyomatsu

Mutsuko Sakura
Shimizu Fusae

Toshie Takada
Toshiko

Shin Saburi
Lieutenant-General Yano
Yoshio Ōmori
Staff Officer

Yasumi Hara

Kōji Nanbara
Koji Kiyomura

Kazuo Kumakura

Hōsei Komatsu

Taketoshi Naitō

Seijirô Onda
Shinjirō Asano
Junji Masuda

Takeshi Sakamoto

Hisao Toake

Gorō Tarumi

Akitake Kōno
Akio Tanaka
George Furness
Crew
More Like This

Shark Tale
2004 · ★ 6.0

Fisherman's Friends
2019 · ★ 6.8

The Pornographers
1966 · ★ 7.3

Cold Fish
2011 · ★ 6.9

Weekend at Bernie's
1989 · ★ 6.4

Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
2002 · ★ 6.2

Sharkwater Extinction
2018 · ★ 7.0

The Pout-Pout Fish
2026 · ★ 6.7

I Know What You Did Last Summer
1997 · ★ 6.0

Rip Girls
2000 · ★ 6.3

Fletch Lives
1989 · ★ 6.0

Moana
2016 · ★ 7.6

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
1972 · ★ 7.0

True Grit
1969 · ★ 7.3

Finding Dory
2016 · ★ 7.0

Above & Below
2026 · ★ 5.9

Irezumi
1966 · ★ 6.8

The Manxman
1929 · ★ 6.0

Pompo the Cinephile
2021 · ★ 7.2

The Onion Field
1979 · ★ 6.0
More Featuring Frankie Sakai

Vengeance Is Mine
1979 · ★ 7.5

Mothra
1961 · ★ 7.2

Chûshingura
1962 · ★ 7.1

Edo Porn
1981 · ★ 5.9

Sharaku
1995 · ★ 7.0

A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era
1957 · ★ 7.0

The Last War
1961 · ★ 6.8

新・与太郎戦記
1969

Room for Let
1959 · ★ 7.0

Shogun
1980 · ★ 5.8

Westward Desperado
1960 · ★ 6.1

The Walking Major
1970 · ★ 6.0

Travel Stories of a Company President Part II
1963 · ★ 9.0

It's The Drifters! Steal, steal, steal as much as you can!
1968 · ★ 10.0

An Urban Affair
1961 · ★ 7.0
