Yoji Yamada (å±±ç"° 洋次, Yamada YÅ ji, born 13 September 1931,
Toyonaka, Osaka) is a Japanese film director best known for his Otoko
wa Tsurai yo series of films and his Samurai Trilogy (The Twilight
Samurai, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor).He was born in Osaka,
but due to his father's job as an engineer for the South Manchuria
Railway, he was brought up in Dalian, China. from the age of two.
Following the end of World War II, he returned to Japan and
subsequently lived in Yamagata Prefecture. After receiving his degree
from Tokyo University in 1954, he entered Shochiku and worked under
Yoshitaro Nomura as a scriptwriter or as an assistant director.He won
many awards throughout his lengthy career and is well respected in
Japan and by critics throughout the world. He wrote his first
screenplay in 1958, and directed his first movie in 1961. Yamada
continues to make movies to this day. He once served as president of
the Directors Guild of Japan, and is currently a guest professor of
Ritsumeikan University.Known in Japan under the title Otoko wa Tsurai
yo, his Tora-san series features traveling merchant TorajirÅ , who is
always unlucky in love. Since the lead role in every Tora-san movie
was played by Kiyoshi Atsumi, his death in 1996 put an end to the
series and Yamada moved on to other movies. Although Yamada is known
for his long-running series of moviesâ€"four films in the A Class to
Remember series, 13 in the Free and Easy (Tsuribaka Nisshi)
seriesâ€"none has reached the prolific numbers of the Tora-san series.
Over a period of about 25 years, 48 Tora-san films were made, all of
them starring Atsumi, and the majority written and directed by Yamada.
Toyonaka, Osaka) is a Japanese film director best known for his Otoko
wa Tsurai yo series of films and his Samurai Trilogy (The Twilight
Samurai, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor).He was born in Osaka,
but due to his father's job as an engineer for the South Manchuria
Railway, he was brought up in Dalian, China. from the age of two.
Following the end of World War II, he returned to Japan and
subsequently lived in Yamagata Prefecture. After receiving his degree
from Tokyo University in 1954, he entered Shochiku and worked under
Yoshitaro Nomura as a scriptwriter or as an assistant director.He won
many awards throughout his lengthy career and is well respected in
Japan and by critics throughout the world. He wrote his first
screenplay in 1958, and directed his first movie in 1961. Yamada
continues to make movies to this day. He once served as president of
the Directors Guild of Japan, and is currently a guest professor of
Ritsumeikan University.Known in Japan under the title Otoko wa Tsurai
yo, his Tora-san series features traveling merchant TorajirÅ , who is
always unlucky in love. Since the lead role in every Tora-san movie
was played by Kiyoshi Atsumi, his death in 1996 put an end to the
series and Yamada moved on to other movies. Although Yamada is known
for his long-running series of moviesâ€"four films in the A Class to
Remember series, 13 in the Free and Easy (Tsuribaka Nisshi)
seriesâ€"none has reached the prolific numbers of the Tora-san series.
Over a period of about 25 years, 48 Tora-san films were made, all of
them starring Atsumi, and the majority written and directed by Yamada.
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