Yamada Yoji

Yamada Yoji

The Last Survivor from the Shochiku Studio System

Kido and Shochiku Studios

• Kido Shiro (1884-1977) - the adopted son of the president of Shochiku Co., Otani Takejiro.

• The head of Shochiku Kamata Studios and then Shochiku Ofuna Studios (since 1936)

• The president of Shochiku Co., from 1954


• Kido’s production policy - Shochiku’s • “Shochiku Cho” (Shochiku Style), “Ofuna Ch

o” (Ofuna Style), “Kido Cho” (Kido Style)① The film must move the mass audience and

be loved by them.


② The film must have sympathy towards middle- and lower-middle-class people. ③ The film should target the youth, particularly those who has just began to be conscious of their lives.


④ The film’s main subject matter ought to be love, particularly, love between parents and children. ⑤ Characterization is the most important in the film script.

⑥ The film must give the audience hope.

Conservative humanism

Yamada and Shochiku Studios• “The history of filmmaking at Kamata and O

funa has the longest in Japan. I grew up as a director in their studios. Though we occasionally criticize directors like Ozu and rebel against directors like Kinoshita, all of us are tremendously influenced by them, whether we like it or not. It is

because we have been looking at the ways in which they actually work.” Yamada Yoji

Yamada and Shochiku Studios

• Yamada Yoji (1931 - )• Entered Shochiku in 195

4 as assistant director - to Nomura Yoshitaro

• His script was made into a film for the first time in 1958

• His directorial debut in 1961

Yamada and Shochiku Studios• Nagisa Oshima (1932 - )• Entered Shochiku in 195

4 as assistant director - to Oba Hideo and Inoue Kazuo

• Credited as a script writer for Senbazuru by Yoshimura Kozaburo in 1954.

• Debuted as director in 1959

• Left Shochiku in 1961


• Baka Marudashi (Fool All over, 1964) - the first film of some distinction. Parody-comedy on ninkyo. Having won in gambling and being regarded by villagers as a man of stature, a drifter misconceives that he too could be a ninkyo.

• Comedy of self-delusion


• Baka ga Tank de Yattekuru (1964) - a sequel to Baka Marudashi. Sabu, a former tank operator, returns to his native village only to be shunned and ostracized by villagers because of his violent nature. He terrifies villagers by running over the village with a tank when a village councilor tries to rob him of his land.

Yamada and Otokowa Tsuraiyo• Otokowa Tsuraiyo (It’s to

ugh being a man) was first made in 1968.

• Its success lead to 47 more sequels, all of which starred Atsumi Kiyoshi. Best loved and best known films in Japan.

Yamada and Otokowa Tsuraiyo• Formulaic narrative str

ucture • Tora, film’s hero and it

inerant salesman, travels the country and occasionally returns home where his half-sister and uncle and aunt are waiting for him. He helps out people while travelling or at his home town.

Yamada and Otokowa Tsuraiyo• In every film, Tora falls in love

with a beautiful woman and almost always fail in love.

• Tora comes from Shibamata, Tokyo, an old part of Tokyo, which develops round a famous temple, Taishakuten. The Tora-san film depicts Shibamata and the parts of Japan that Tora visits nostalgically.

Yamada and Otokowa Tsuraiyo• Tora’s fortune does not see

m to change for better, but he is happy with his freewheeling lifestyle. He does neither have a good look nor wealth; neither education nor special talent. However, he is happier than those who have them.

• Happiness of ordinary working class lives.

Yamada’s Serious Films

• While making two Otokowa Tsuraiyo films per year, Yamada made movies with social consciousness.

Yamada’s Serious Films

• Kazoku (Family, 1970) When a coalmine in Kyushu closes down, an entire family leaves their home for Hokkaido to start dairy farming. The film follows their 10,000 mile journey showing a gaping gap between those who benefit from economic prosperity and those who do not.

Yamada’s Other Films

• Gakko (A Class to Remember, 1993) - film about a night school for working people, some of whom are not Japanese and for various reasons could not finish their compulsory education.


• Gakko II (A Class to Remember II, 1996) - the film is about a special high school for learning impaired. Then two students suddenly disappear from school and are found flying in a balloon after a long search.


• Jugosai: Gakko IV (Fifteen, 2000) - A high-school student sets out on a lone hitch-hike journey to Yakushima Island to see a 7,000 year old cedar tree. On the way, he meets a variety of characters and comes across more than a natural wonder.

Yamada’s Historical Drama• Tasogare Seibei (Twighlig

ht Samurai, 2002) - the firs historical drama by Yamada, follows the life of Seibei, a low-ranking samurai employed as a bureaucrat. His otherwise relatively peaceful life is disturbed when he is ordered to kill a samurai who is disowned by his clan and refuses to commit seppuku.

Yamada’s Historical Drama

• Kakushiken, Oni no Tsume (The Hidden Blade, 2004) - A samurai is arrested for treason while serving in Edo. His wife begged the warden of the clan to let him escape. The warden agrees in return for providing him with sexual service…


• When his friend from childhood killed him by the order of the clan, he discovered that the wife of the man who just killed is betrayed by the clan chief. He pledges the revenge.


• Bushi no Ichibun (Love and Honour, 2007) A food taster is food poisoned eating fish out-of-season and consequently becomes blind. Further tragedy befalls on him when his wife is betrayed.

Yamada as Auteur

• Making films of a limited genres - comedy, social drama, family drama, and samurai film, Yamada always pursue humanitarian and humanist themes.

• His films centre on those who are socially in low status but morally good and decent.

• No directors stick to Shochiku production policy better than Yamada.

Yamada as Auteur• Inherited and purified class

ical visual style in Japanese film cinema.

• Well-lit, balanced composition, harmonious colour, no extreme angles, quiet camera work, rhythmical editing, and perfectly continuous editing

Capturing ‘Japanese’ landscape through location shooting

Documents

Yamada Yoji