Sadao Yamanaka
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese
film director
and writer
who directed 24 films during a seven-year period in the 1930s. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu
, Mikio Naruse
and Kenji Mizoguchi
and one of the primary figures in the development of the jidaigeki
, or historical film. Yamanaka died of dysentary in Manchuria
after being drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army
. He is the uncle of the Japanese film director Tai Kato
, who once penned a book about Yamanaka, Eiga kantoku Yamanaka Sadao.
Only three of his films survive in nearly complete form. While long considered a master filmmaker in his native Japan, interest in Yamanaka's work redeveloped after the recent restoration and Japan
ese DVD
release of the three surviving films. His most internationally discussed film, Humanity and Paper Balloons
(1937), was given its first non-Japanese DVD release in the UK
as a Masters of Cinema
release.
for the Makino company.
In 1932, he began working for Kanjuro Productions, a small, independent film company similar to many others founded during the same period as it was centered around a popular jidaigeki film star, this time Kanjuro Arashi
. Here, he began directing his first films, all of which were jidaigeki. During his first year at Kanjuro, he made six films. He was "discovered" by the critic Matsuo Kishi
and gained a reputation for creating films that escaped clichés and focused on social injustices.
During the 1930s he moved between several film companies, eventually settling in Kyoto
and working for the Nikkatsu
Company. Most of his films were silent film
s as sound did not gain a prominence in Japan until 1935-36. He worked twice with the Japanese theatre troupe Zenshin-za: first on The Village Tattooed Man (Machi no Irezumi-mono, 1935) and on his final film, Humanity and Paper Balloons
.
Humanity and Paper Balloons premiered the same day that Yamanaka was drafted into the Japanese army. He later died in a field hospital in the then-Japanese ruled Manchukuo
, known today as Manchuria
. The cause of death was inflammation of the intestines.
and Tadao Sato
in pioneering studies of Japanese cinema
) note in his surviving films the genesis of ideas later explored by the internationally successful Akira Kurosawa
, Kenji Mizoguchi
, Yasujirō Ozu
and Seijun Suzuki
.
Yamanaka has been characterized as a minimalist, one whose style would favour elegance and rhythm. In fact, he was close friend of Ozu, whom is often noted as a minimalist too.
Director Kazuo Kuroki once said of Yamanaka, "Every film he made wonderfully depicted human purity and chastity with a tender, delicate gaze. I was astonished that a young man in his twenties accomplished such perfection."
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who directed 24 films during a seven-year period in the 1930s. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu
was a prominent Japanese film director and script writer. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work...
, Mikio Naruse
Mikio Naruse
was a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967.Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook...
and Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
and one of the primary figures in the development of the jidaigeki
Jidaigeki
is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...
, or historical film. Yamanaka died of dysentary in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
after being drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
. He is the uncle of the Japanese film director Tai Kato
Tai Kato
was a Japanese film director and writer, most famous for making jidaigeki and yakuza films at the Toei Company. He directed films from the 1950s to the 1980s....
, who once penned a book about Yamanaka, Eiga kantoku Yamanaka Sadao.
Only three of his films survive in nearly complete form. While long considered a master filmmaker in his native Japan, interest in Yamanaka's work redeveloped after the recent restoration and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of the three surviving films. His most internationally discussed film, Humanity and Paper Balloons
Humanity and Paper Balloons
is 1937 black-and-white film directed by Sadao Yamanaka. It is his last film. Largely unknown outside of Japan until recent years, the film has been hailed by critics , and a number of other Japanese filmmakers as one of the most influential examples of jidaigeki, or Japanese period films...
(1937), was given its first non-Japanese DVD release in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as a Masters of Cinema
Masters of Cinema
The Masters of Cinema organization began as a website dedicated to the most well-regarded film directors in the world. Founded by a diverse international group of like-minded film enthusiasts: Jan Bielawski, a mathematician; Doug Cummings, a graphic artist and freelance critic; Trond Trondsen, a Ph.D...
release.
Career
Yamanaka began his career in the Japanese film industry at the age of 20 as a writer and assistant directorAssistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
for the Makino company.
In 1932, he began working for Kanjuro Productions, a small, independent film company similar to many others founded during the same period as it was centered around a popular jidaigeki film star, this time Kanjuro Arashi
Kanjūrō Arashi
was a Japanese film actor. He entered the film industry in 1927 and came to fame playing Kurama Tengu, a character in the Bakumatsu era created by Jirō Osaragi in his novels. In the 1950s he portrayed the Emperor Meiji in several hit films and appeared in yakuza films in the 1960s...
. Here, he began directing his first films, all of which were jidaigeki. During his first year at Kanjuro, he made six films. He was "discovered" by the critic Matsuo Kishi
Matsuo Kishi
was a Japanese film critic, director, screenwriter, producer, and biographer. His real name was Aji Shūichirō. Born in Tokyo, he became interested in film from his days in high school and, continuing on to Keio University, began submitting reviews to magazines such as Kinema Junpo and editing...
and gained a reputation for creating films that escaped clichés and focused on social injustices.
During the 1930s he moved between several film companies, eventually settling in Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
and working for the Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...
Company. Most of his films were silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s as sound did not gain a prominence in Japan until 1935-36. He worked twice with the Japanese theatre troupe Zenshin-za: first on The Village Tattooed Man (Machi no Irezumi-mono, 1935) and on his final film, Humanity and Paper Balloons
Humanity and Paper Balloons
is 1937 black-and-white film directed by Sadao Yamanaka. It is his last film. Largely unknown outside of Japan until recent years, the film has been hailed by critics , and a number of other Japanese filmmakers as one of the most influential examples of jidaigeki, or Japanese period films...
.
Humanity and Paper Balloons premiered the same day that Yamanaka was drafted into the Japanese army. He later died in a field hospital in the then-Japanese ruled Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
, known today as Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
. The cause of death was inflammation of the intestines.
Style
Early on, Yamanaka had stated an interest in blurring the lines between several genres: comedy, historical epics, and shomingeki, or comedy-dramas focusing on average people. Viewers and critics (notably, Donald RichieDonald Richie
Donald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17...
and Tadao Sato
Tadao Sato
is a prominent Japanese film critic and film theorist. Satō has published more than 30 books on film, and is one of the foremost scholars and historians addressing Japanese film, though little of his work has been translated for publication abroad....
in pioneering studies of Japanese cinema
Cinema of Japan
The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...
) note in his surviving films the genesis of ideas later explored by the internationally successful Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
, Yasujirō Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu
was a prominent Japanese film director and script writer. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work...
and Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...
.
Yamanaka has been characterized as a minimalist, one whose style would favour elegance and rhythm. In fact, he was close friend of Ozu, whom is often noted as a minimalist too.
Director Kazuo Kuroki once said of Yamanaka, "Every film he made wonderfully depicted human purity and chastity with a tender, delicate gaze. I was astonished that a young man in his twenties accomplished such perfection."
Partial filmography (surviving films)
- 1935: The Million Ryo PotThe Million Ryo Potis a 1935 black and white Japanese film comedy directed by Sadao Yamanaka and starring Denjirō Ōkōchi....
(Tange sazen yowa: Hyakuman ryo no tsubo) - 1936: Kōchiyama Sōshun (1936 film)Kochiyama Soshun (1936 film)is a 1936 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Sadao Yamanaka.It is one of three surviving films by Sadao Yamanaka.- Cast :* Chojuro Kawarasaki* Kanemon Nakamura* Shizue Yamagishi* Setsuko Hara as Onami- See also :* Kōchiyama Sōshun...
- 1937: Humanity and Paper BalloonsHumanity and Paper Balloonsis 1937 black-and-white film directed by Sadao Yamanaka. It is his last film. Largely unknown outside of Japan until recent years, the film has been hailed by critics , and a number of other Japanese filmmakers as one of the most influential examples of jidaigeki, or Japanese period films...
(Ninjo kamifusen)
External links
- Sadao Yamanaka at strictly film school Look at Sadao Yamanaka!!, a tribute site
- Sadao Yamanaka's grave