Yôji Yamada

From japantimes.co.jp

With 48 feature installments from 1969 to 1995, the “Tora-san” series not only set a Guinness World Record, but kept its Shochiku production studio afloat for decades. While it was drawing fans as reliably as the sunrise, the series was derided by some critics as formulaic: In every episode the titlular peddler hero, played by Kiyoshi Atsumi, returns from his wanderings to his home in Shibamata, a neighborhood in Tokyo’s shitamachi (old downtown), where he reunites with his half-sister Sakura (Chieko Baisho) and other familiar faces. Also, in every episode a new woman comes into his life and, since Tora-san is a bumbler at love, soon leaves it.Read More »

Saotome is a white-collar worker and he was neglected by his wife and children at home. He met Gen, a blue-collar worker and they became good friends.Read More »

Before Yoji Yamada started work on the gargantuan Tora-san (男はつらいよ) franchise, he did a couple of comedies with a comedian called Hajime Hana. Most notably are the “Baka” and “Ippatsu” trilogies. “Vagabond Schemer” is the third entry of the latter, which was the last movie Yamada did before the very first Tora-san in the same year. It’s also the third Yamada movie I’ve worked on, and I think it’s my favorite. Where “The Lovable Tramp” was essentially a proto Tora-san, this couldn’t be more removed from that concept. It’s a very black comedy about a boorish man (Hana) who comes back from Borneo one day to find his best friend’s been hurriedly cremated by his fellow tenement dwellers, so he basically starts pestering them and maybe taking things a bit too far in the end. Chieko Baisho who would play Tora-san’s sister Sakura continues to be Yamada’s muse of choice, but she’s not quite as typecast yet in these earlier movies of his, so that’s always nice to see.Read More »

Sabu and his gang members pick up the young girl, Hanako, at an Osaka train station. Sabu’s gang attempts to fool Hanako into starring in a pornographic movie, but Sabu feels badly for Hanako and decides to leave the gang with her. Sabu and Hanako both grew up without mothers and the similarity of their circumstances draws them close to each other.Read More »

Plot / Synopsis
Yoji Yamada’s torchy Japanese drama Love and Honor follows the heartbreaking plight of Shinnojo, a young man employed as a “food taster” for the imperial family. Shinnojo’s position comes to a sudden and tragic end when he consumes poisoned fish intended for the clan leader and is forever robbed of his sight. Forced to give up his job, Shinnojo thus heads home and sinks into a deep and seemingly inescapable depression. Contemplating suicide, Shinnojo is only stopped by the love of his wife, Kayo, who insists that she will also commit seppuku if he proceeds. Begrudgingly, he agrees to relinquish his self-destructive thoughts, but financial problems from his unemployment linger on. With no other recourse, Shinnojo must send Kayo off to the clan bursar to appeal for monetary assistance. Nothing, however, can prepare him for the bursar’s demand for his wife’s body in exchange for monetary help — or for his wife’s sudden complicity in this arrangement. ~ Nathan Southern, RoviRead More »

Quote:
Tora-san, the näive and romantic peddler, returns once more to his home in Hokkaido where, as usual, he falls in love with a lovely young lady. The girl this time is Rinko Ueno, who has come home in an attempt to repair her relationship with her gruff veterinarian father, Junkichi ‘Jun’ Ueno. Tora-san gets caught up in the entanglements not only between Rinko and her father but between Dr. Ueno and Etsuko, a restauranteur with amorous plans for the ornery veterinarianRead More »

Synopsis:
Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai, leads a life without glory as a bureaucrat in the mid-XIX century Japan. A widower, he has charge of two daughters (whom he adores) and a senile mother; he must therefore work in the fields and accept piecework to make ends meet. New prospects seem to open up when Tomoe, his long-time love, divorces a brutal husband. However, even as the Japanese feudal system is unraveling, Seibei remains bound by the code of honour of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedences. The consequences are cruel.Read More »

Quote:
On a ship en route to the Sado Islands, Tora-san enjoys the company of a beautiful woman (Miyako Harumi), unaware that she’s a famous enka singer traveling incognito. In this variation on Roman Holiday (1953), the enka star enjoys Tora-san’s company when her boyfriend left her. Eventually, she returns to her glamorous life, but not before surprising everyone in Shibamata by showing up to give Tora-san a ticket to her latest concert. Tora-san thought that this could be a good start, but she finally tells him that… her boyfriend is back.Read More »

Quote:
Based on Nogami Teruyo’s memoirs, Kaibei follows a normal, loving family as their innocent, bustling lives are forever transformed by the war. Veteran actress Yoshinaga Sayuri is the picture of dignity and grace as a strong and elegant woman who holds her family together in her husband’s absence, while acclaimed actor Asano Tadanobu disappears into the role of an awkward, affable writer who becomes the unlikely hero for a struggling family.Read More »