Yoji Yamada

Yoji Yamada is the epitome of the understatement: his films usually combine a respect for the traditions and values of a by-gone Japan with an acknowledgement that nothing has really changed. Familial ties, love, honour and beauty are timeless. His recent films are also timeless and take the audience back to a time and place where everything is the same, just the context is different. Born on 13th September, 1931 Yamada graduated Tokyo University in 1954 and started work for Shochiku straight from college as an assistant director. Founded in 1895 Shochiku is Japan's leading motion picture/theatre producer, distributor, and exhibitor.

Yamada’s recent samurai trilogy (The Hidden Blade, Love and Honour and Twilight Samurai) represent a new era in modern cinema. They are martial arts films where the death toll can be measured in ones and twos, rather than in thousands. These films each have a compelling story and a script with a plot! There are few fight scenes, but when the hero is pressed to draw his sword, the honour and restraint demonstrated by the ‘way of the samurai’ puts us all to shame. Samurai were literate, artistic and able to kill someone in the blink of an eye.

Twilight Samurai was presented in competition at the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival and was also nominated for the 76th Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. This was Yamada’s 77th film, as well as his 41st year as a director since his first film in 1961: Nikai no Tanin (Stranger Upstairs). The Hidden Blade and Love and Honour have also been presented at numerous international film festivals and have received many accolades. For instance, The Hidden Blade was nominated for sixteen awards and won three.

Yamada has had an illustrious career stretching back many decades. In 1969 he launched the popular "Tora-san" series which ran for 25 years, the world's longest theatrical film series. The 48 films were mostly written and directed by Yamada and only stopped because the leading man died in 1996.

Yamada has won many awards and is one of Japan's most highly respected and talented directors and writers. His movies have won the Best Picture award at the Japanese Academy Awards four times: in 1977 for THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF, in 1991 for MY SONS, in 1993 for A CLASS TO REMEMBER, and in 2002 for Twilight Samurai. He most notably won the Lifetime Achievement Award from Asian Film Awards in 2008. Hopefully, there is still more to come.







Filmography

Yoji Yamada - filmography

5 most recent films

About Her Brother - 3.0 stars
Love and Honour - 3.5 stars
Twilight Samurai - 3.5 stars
The Hidden Blade - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

Twilight Samurai - 3.5 stars
The Hidden Blade - 3.5 stars
Love and Honour - 3.5 stars
About Her Brother - 3.0 stars

5 lowest-rated films

About Her Brother - 3.0 stars
Love and Honour - 3.5 stars
The Hidden Blade - 3.5 stars
Twilight Samurai - 3.5 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Nenji Kobayashi - 3 times - show films
Masatoshi Nagase - 2 times - show films
Takashi Sasano - 2 times - show films
Rie Miyazawa - 2 times - show films
Hiroyuki Sanada - 2 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Yôji Yamada - 1 times - show films