EizÅ Tanaka (ç"°ä¸ æ „ä¸‰, Tanaka EizÅ , 3 November 1886 - 13 June
1968) was an early Japanese film director, screenwriter, and
actor.Tanaka initially trained as a stage actor in the shingeki
movement under Kaoru Osanai, but eventually joined the Nikkatsu film
studio in 1917. He debuted as a director in 1918 but mostly had to
work with shinpa stories, not the shingeki techniques he was used to
although two early films, The Living Corpse (Ikeru shikabane) and The
Cherry Orchard (Sakura no sono) were based on Tolstoy and Chekhov
respectively. Working in parallel with the Pure Film Movement, Tanaka
made two films, KyÅ ya eirimise (1922) and Dokuro no mai (1923), based
on his own screenplays, that were highly praised for their cinematic
technique. He remained a rather conservative filmmaker and still used
oyama (male actors) in female roles, including in his masterpiece
KyÅ ya eirimise, a melodrama about a merchant's destructive love for a
geisha. He used actresses for the first time in Dokuro no mai, a story
of a monk reminiscing about his youth and early loves.His career as a
director came to an end in 1923 aside from two minor sound films in
the 1930s but he also penned screenplays for such directors as Kenji
Mizoguchi and Yutaka Abe and concentrated on acting, appearing in
films by Tadashi Imai and ShirÅ Toyoda. In later life, Tanaka was
also active as an educator, teaching at the Nihon Eiga HaiyÅ« GakkÅ
and at Nihon University helping the careers of such actors as KÅ ji
Shima, Isamu Kosugi, and Shin Saburi. He also wrote several books,
including a history of shingeki.All produced by Nikkatsu unless
otherwise noted.
1968) was an early Japanese film director, screenwriter, and
actor.Tanaka initially trained as a stage actor in the shingeki
movement under Kaoru Osanai, but eventually joined the Nikkatsu film
studio in 1917. He debuted as a director in 1918 but mostly had to
work with shinpa stories, not the shingeki techniques he was used to
although two early films, The Living Corpse (Ikeru shikabane) and The
Cherry Orchard (Sakura no sono) were based on Tolstoy and Chekhov
respectively. Working in parallel with the Pure Film Movement, Tanaka
made two films, KyÅ ya eirimise (1922) and Dokuro no mai (1923), based
on his own screenplays, that were highly praised for their cinematic
technique. He remained a rather conservative filmmaker and still used
oyama (male actors) in female roles, including in his masterpiece
KyÅ ya eirimise, a melodrama about a merchant's destructive love for a
geisha. He used actresses for the first time in Dokuro no mai, a story
of a monk reminiscing about his youth and early loves.His career as a
director came to an end in 1923 aside from two minor sound films in
the 1930s but he also penned screenplays for such directors as Kenji
Mizoguchi and Yutaka Abe and concentrated on acting, appearing in
films by Tadashi Imai and ShirÅ Toyoda. In later life, Tanaka was
also active as an educator, teaching at the Nihon Eiga HaiyÅ« GakkÅ
and at Nihon University helping the careers of such actors as KÅ ji
Shima, Isamu Kosugi, and Shin Saburi. He also wrote several books,
including a history of shingeki.All produced by Nikkatsu unless
otherwise noted.
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