Motoyoshi Oda

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Motoyoshi Oda July 21 1910 Moji City Fukuoka October 21 1973 Tokyo was a Japanese film director An English major who graduated from Waseda University one of Japans most prestigious in 1935 Motoyoshi Oda was promptly accepted into the directors program at Tokyos PCL Photo Chemical Laboratories a film company later incorporated into Toho Studios He studied under director Satsuo Yamamoto as did Akira Kurosawa Ishir? Honda and Senkichi Taniguchi When the latter two trainees were drafted into Japans war in China Oda found his career accelerated He was promoted to director in 1940 with Song of Kunya after a relatively scant few years of training Perhaps because of this relative lack of training and certainly because Oda was not drafted into the army PCL and Toho kept Oda going as a maker of programmers trivial pictures that had to be made in order to keep product flowing into the theaters but which offered little time or room for artistic achievement Probably his most distinguished credits are Lady From Hell 1949 based on a Kurosawa script Tomei Ningen a 1954 Japanese horror classic inspired by The Invisible Man a followup to his earlier 1954 film Ghost Man The only film he made ever to be shown outside Japan was the second Godzilla film Godzilla Raids Again 1955 released in the United States as Gigantis the Fire Monster Toho insisted that Oda direct as many as seven movies a year knowing that he could be trusted to deliver them on time Over his entire career Motoyoshi Oda directed fifty movies not to mention his work as assistant director and secondunit direction on Ishiro Hondas Eagle of the Pacific 1953 No credits are available for Oda during the last 15 years of his life after 1958 Description above from the Wikipedia article Motoyoshi Oda licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia