Yoji Yamada - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

Yoji Yamada - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Writer, Director.

Born September 13, 1931 in Osaka, Japan - Japanese screenwriter and director.

In Manchuria, the childhood of the future filmmaker passed. After the surrender of Japan, the Yamada family repatriated and settled in Yamaguchi Prefecture (southwest of Honshu Island, Japan), where the boy graduated from high school. Young Yamada had to work hard from an early age in order to earn money for education, first in high school and then at university. In 1954, after graduating from the University of Tokyo School of Law, he will take part in a competition announced by the Shochiku Film Company for those wishing to be employed by the company. In that year, about two thousand young people applied, including Yamada. At that time, life was especially difficult for young Yamada, since he had the whole family on his shoulders that needed to be fed, and there was always not enough money. He, modest and shy, did not pass the competition the first time, however, after several young filmmakers left Shochiku that year, with additional recruitment, Yamada will finally get a place in the film company. In the same year, the future world-famous film director Nagisa Oshima brilliantly passed the test, who, while still an assistant director, immediately gained authority and respect in the studio, while Yamada was not paid attention for a long time. Oshima has always had a personality and confidence in his abilities. Yamada was constantly tormented by doubts whether he had the ability to direct his own film.
who, while still an assistant director, immediately gained authority and respect in the studio, while Yamada was not paid attention to for a long time. Oshima has always had a character and confidence in his abilities. Yamada was constantly tormented by doubts whether he had the ability to direct his own film.
who, while still an assistant director, immediately gained authority and respect in the studio, while Yamada was not paid attention to for a long time. Oshima has always had a personality and confidence in his abilities. Yamada was constantly tormented by doubts whether he had the ability to direct his own film.

Because of modesty, gentleness and indecision, Yamada had to hold on as assistant director longer than others. At first, he was an assistant to Yuzo Kawashima, a solid professional, the author of comedies from common life. For several years, Yamada worked with director Yoshitaro Nomura. In collaboration with the latter, he wrote five scripts. These scripts created a good reputation for him, and Nomura himself gave him a good recommendation, and in 1961 Yamada made his film directorial debut with The Stranger from the Second Floor, which lasted only 56 minutes. This comedy tells the story of a young couple who have taken on a tenant who is not too concerned about rent.

In his next work, in the film "Sun of Sitamachi" (1963), he directly came into contact with that environment and with those characters that would later become the object of his constant creative interest. The first performer of the popular song "Shitamachi Sun", performed in this film, was the young soloist of the revue Chieko Baisho, invited by Yamada to play the title role in this film, and subsequently starred in most of his works. In this film, you can feel the influence of the ancient genre of Japanese literature "rakugo", the material for which served as incidents in the entertainment districts, the heroes of which were courtesans and visitors to fun houses. Yamada carefully studied the structure and nature of these stories, his specific humor. It was in the world of "rakugo" that Yamada found his hero. Together with actor Hajime Hana, the director created a "series about fools" - a series of films connected by a single hero ("Round Fool", "Moderate Fool", "Fool Who Arrived in a Tank").

Yamada showed himself brightly and talentedly in the production of the films Avoid Luck and Sweet Tramp (both 1966), in which, as in the films of the series "About Fools," in a humorous form, problems are shown that touch on really serious issues being. Film critics of Japan awarded these films one of their highest awards - the Blue Ribbon (for 1966 and 1967).

"Dear Tramp" was the preparatory work that predetermined the appearance of the serial film series "A Man's Life is Difficult", numbering to this day 48 films. The impetus for the creation of this film series was television, for which Yamada began to write scripts back in 1961. In 1968, Yamada created for the Fuji terebi company the script for the serial series "A Man's Life Is Difficult", the main character of which was Tora-san, Torajiro Kuruma, an absurd, good-natured eccentric, always ready to help his fellowmen. Torajiro performed by Kiyoshi Atsumi became a favorite of the TV audience, and after the death of the hero in the 26th episode, many letters from indignant viewers arrived on TV. It was after the huge number of letters from viewers that the management of the Shochiku film company decided to continue the hero's life on the big screen.
Yamada had no idea then, in 1969, that he begins one of the most beloved, most popular series of Japanese cinema. In turn, the Shochiku film company, which had by then gone through another crisis in its history, did not think that this film would be so successful that it would save the company from bankruptcy. Having started to shoot the sequel to the film "Life is Difficult for a Man," the director did not imagine that this work would stretch for many, many years. Therefore, he did not try to name the next film in a special way, but titled it simply: “Life is difficult for a man. Continuation "(1969). The third and fourth films about Tora-san were directed by Yamada's co-authors on the television series, directed by Azuma Morisaki and Shinichi Kobayashi. But starting with the fifth film, Yamada is the sole author of the entire series, which currently has 48 films. The movie series was discontinued in 1995 after the death of the lead actor Kiyoshi Atsumi. The series "A Man's Life is Hard" is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest film series in the history of world cinema.
including Best Film, Screenplay and Directing, 6 Mainichi Film Awards, including Best Film, Screenplay and Directing), Call of the Distant Mountains (1980, in the Soviet box office - Echo of Distant Mountains, - 4 awards Japanese Film Academy, including Best Screenplay and Special Jury Prize at the Montreal IFF directed by Youji Yamada).

In the 2000s, one of the oldest representatives of Japanese filmmaking, Yoji Yamada, has a kind of second wind, and to the surprise of everyone, being already at an advanced age, he creates his film masterpieces marked with the stamp of novelty and inimitable style. These are films of the so-called "samurai trilogy": "Twilight Samurai", 2002; Hidden Blade, 2004; "Love and Honor", 2006, which became popular both in the festival orbits and in the world film distribution.

In 2013, in a tribute to his colleague and teacher, filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, who was at the origin of the Semin Geki genre, Yamada directed Tokyo Family, a remake of Ozu's masterpiece Tokyo Story (1951).

All Information About: Yoji Yamada - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography.
Author: Jane Watson