Noboru Tanaka (ç"°ä¸ ç™», Tanaka Noboru, August 15, 1937 â€" October
4, 2006) was a Japanese film director known for his Roman Porno films,
including three critically respected films known as the Showa trilogy:
A Woman Called Sada Abe (aka Sada Abe: Docu-Drama) (1975), Watcher in
the Attic (1976), and Beauty's Exotic Dance: Torture! (1977), all
three starring Nikkatsu Roman porno queen Junko Miyashita. The first
film in this trilogy recounted the story of Sada Abe a year before
Nagisa Oshima's internationally released In the Realm of the Senses
(1976), which told the same story. Though at the time he was working,
his career was overshadowed by directors such as Tatsumi Kumashiro and
Chūsei Sone, many critics today judge Tanaka the best of Nikkatsu's
Roman porno directors.Tanaka was born in Hakuba in Nagano prefecture
on August 15, 1937. He majored in French literature at Meiji
University in Tokyo. Tanaka said that his interest in the cinema came
about through a circuitous route. Early in life he wanted to be a
novelist. His interest in writing shifted to poetry. Tanaka
remembered, "I wrote a lot of poems. Each expression in a poem may
contain countless meanings, otherwise it wouldn't be a good poem. In
other words, each expression provides a lot of imagery. Then I thought
that in reverse, I could use images to express my poetic world. I
thought the image world of film-making might be what I should
explore."While working on his thesis, dealing with this interest in
the relationship between imagery and literature, Tanaka took a
part-time job at a movie studio to gain first-hand knowledge of film
production. He served as a production assistant on Kurosawa's Yojimbo
(1961), an experience which created Tanaka's enthusiasm for the film
industry. After graduation, he applied to Nikkatsu studios for a job
as an assistant director and passed their entrance exam. In this
capacity, he worked under some of the studio's best directors of the
time, including Seijun Suzuki and ShÅ hei Imamura. Among the films on
which Tanaka worked at this time was Imamura's The Pornographers.In
the late 1960s, Nikkatsu began having severe financial trouble due to
audiences lost to television and an influx of Western films. In order
to avoid bankruptcy, Takashi Itamochi, president of Nikkatsu, made the
decision to put the company's high production values and professional
talent into the adult, or pink film industry as a way of attracting a
new audience. Nikkatsu called its line of pink films "Roman Porno",
and started the series in November 1971. Rather than work in sex
films, many directors left the studio at this time, opening up
positions for younger directors in their wake. Tanaka remembers his
attitude about Nikkatsu's decision, "I was excited and positive about
the changes, and was very eager to work in this new genre as a
director."
4, 2006) was a Japanese film director known for his Roman Porno films,
including three critically respected films known as the Showa trilogy:
A Woman Called Sada Abe (aka Sada Abe: Docu-Drama) (1975), Watcher in
the Attic (1976), and Beauty's Exotic Dance: Torture! (1977), all
three starring Nikkatsu Roman porno queen Junko Miyashita. The first
film in this trilogy recounted the story of Sada Abe a year before
Nagisa Oshima's internationally released In the Realm of the Senses
(1976), which told the same story. Though at the time he was working,
his career was overshadowed by directors such as Tatsumi Kumashiro and
Chūsei Sone, many critics today judge Tanaka the best of Nikkatsu's
Roman porno directors.Tanaka was born in Hakuba in Nagano prefecture
on August 15, 1937. He majored in French literature at Meiji
University in Tokyo. Tanaka said that his interest in the cinema came
about through a circuitous route. Early in life he wanted to be a
novelist. His interest in writing shifted to poetry. Tanaka
remembered, "I wrote a lot of poems. Each expression in a poem may
contain countless meanings, otherwise it wouldn't be a good poem. In
other words, each expression provides a lot of imagery. Then I thought
that in reverse, I could use images to express my poetic world. I
thought the image world of film-making might be what I should
explore."While working on his thesis, dealing with this interest in
the relationship between imagery and literature, Tanaka took a
part-time job at a movie studio to gain first-hand knowledge of film
production. He served as a production assistant on Kurosawa's Yojimbo
(1961), an experience which created Tanaka's enthusiasm for the film
industry. After graduation, he applied to Nikkatsu studios for a job
as an assistant director and passed their entrance exam. In this
capacity, he worked under some of the studio's best directors of the
time, including Seijun Suzuki and ShÅ hei Imamura. Among the films on
which Tanaka worked at this time was Imamura's The Pornographers.In
the late 1960s, Nikkatsu began having severe financial trouble due to
audiences lost to television and an influx of Western films. In order
to avoid bankruptcy, Takashi Itamochi, president of Nikkatsu, made the
decision to put the company's high production values and professional
talent into the adult, or pink film industry as a way of attracting a
new audience. Nikkatsu called its line of pink films "Roman Porno",
and started the series in November 1971. Rather than work in sex
films, many directors left the studio at this time, opening up
positions for younger directors in their wake. Tanaka remembers his
attitude about Nikkatsu's decision, "I was excited and positive about
the changes, and was very eager to work in this new genre as a
director."
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