Sadao Yamanaka

Sadao Yamanaka ?? ?? Yamanaka Sadao November 7 1909 September 17 1938 was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed 26 films between 1932 and 1938 He was a contemporary of Yasujir? Ozu Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi and one of the primary figures in the development of the jidaigeki or historical film Yamanaka began his career in the Japanese film industry at the age of 20 as a writer and assistant director 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 Early on he had stated an interest in blurring the lines between several genres comedy historical epics and comedydramas focusing on average people Viewers and critics note in his surviving films the genesis of ideas later explored by the internationally successful Akira Kurosawa Kenji Mizoguchi Yasujir? Ozu and Seijun Suzuki He formed the Narutakigumi with his friends and they wrote under the pseudonym Kimpachi Kajiwara Yamanaka has been characterized as a minimalist one whose style favoured elegance and rhythm 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 films as sound did not gain a prominence in Japan until 193536 He worked twice with the Japanese theatre troupe Zenshinza first on The Village Tattooed Man Machi no Irezumimono 1935 and on his final film Humanity and Paper Balloons Yamanaka died of dysentery in Manchuria after being drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army He is the uncle of the Japanese film director Tai Kato who wrote a book about Yamanaka Eiga kantoku Yamanaka Sadao Only three of his films survive in nearly complete form Description from the Wikipedia article Sadao Yamanaka licensed under CCBYSA