Satsuo Yamamoto
{{short description|Japanese film director}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Satsuo Yamamoto
| image = Satsuo Yamamoto.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Satsuo Yamamoto in 1950.
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|7|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = Kagoshima City, Japan
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|8|11|1910|7|15|df=y}}
| death_place = Tokyo
| nationality =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| occupation = Film director
| relatives = Kei Yamamoto (nephew)
}}
{{nihongo|Satsuo Yamamoto|山本 薩夫|Yamamoto Satsuo|10 July 1910 – 11 August 1983}} was a Japanese film director.{{cite book|last=Jacoby |first=Alexander |date=2008 |title=Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day |location=Berkeley |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |isbn=978-1-933330-53-2}}
Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worked as an assistant director to Mikio Naruse.{{cite web|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B1%B1%E6%9C%AC%E8%96%A9%E5%A4%AB-144338 |title=山本 薩夫 (Satsuo Yamamoto) |website=Kotobank |language=ja |access-date=17 July 2021}}{{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/person.aspx?person_id=86611 |title=山本 薩夫 (Satsuo Yamamoto) |website=Kinenote |language=ja |access-date=17 July 2021}} He followed Naruse when the latter moved to P.C.L. film studios (later Toho) and debuted as a director in 1937 with Ojōsan. During World War II he directed the propaganda films Winged Victory and Hot Winds{{cite book|last1=Anderson |first1=Joseph L. |last2=Richie |first2=Donald |date=1959 |title=The Japanese Film – Art & Industry |location=Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo |publisher=Charles E. Tuttle Company }} before being drafted and sent to China.
After returning to Japan, Yamamoto's first film was War and Peace,{{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=26865 |title=戦争と平和 (War and Peace) |website=Kinenote |language=ja |access-date=17 July 2021}} co-directed with Fumio Kamei. Being a communist and an active supporter of the union during the Toho strikes, he left the studio in 1948 after the strikes' forced ending and turned to independent filmmaking.{{cite book|last=Hirano |first=Kyoko |date=1992 |title=Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945–1952 |location=Washington and London |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=978-1-56098157-2}} The commercially successful Street of Violence (1950) was produced by a committee named after the film's original title Bōryoku no machi,{{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=27224 |title=暴力の街 (Street of Violence) |website=Kinenote |language=ja |access-date=11 October 2021}} while the left-wing production company Shinsei Eiga-sha ("New star films"), formed by former Toho unionists, produced the anti-war film Vacuum Zone (1953), which film historian Donald Richie called "the strongest anti-military film ever made in Japan" in 1959. The 1959 Ballad of the Cart was produced by the National Rural Film Association and won him the Mainichi Film Award for Best Director.{{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/014.html |title=14th Mainichi Film Awards 1959 |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja}}
In the 1960s, Yamamoto again worked for major companies like Daiei and Nikkatsu, directing films like Band of Assassins (1962), The Ivory Tower (1966) and Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967).{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/person/p0150230.htm |title=山本 薩夫 (Satsuo Yamamoto) |website=Japanese Movie Database |language=ja |access-date=17 July 2021}} He died in Tokyo on 11 August 1983, at the age of 73.
Selected filmography
=Films=
| class="wikitable"
!style="background:#FFE4B5;"|TitleFilmography from {{cite web |url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/person.aspx?person_id=86611|title=satsuo Yamamoto|language=ja|access-date=12 November 2021|publisher=kinenote}} !style="background:#FFE4B5;"|Studio !style="background:#FFE4B5;"|Release date |
| Ojosan {{nihongo2|お嬢さん}} |PCL |1937 |
| War and Peace {{nihongo2|戦争と平和}} |Toho |22 July 1947 |
| Konna Onnani Daregashita {{nihongo2|こんな女に誰がした}} |Toyoko Film (Distributed by Daiei Film) |4 July 1949 |
| Street of Violence {{nihongo2|暴力の街}} Boryoku no Machi |Bōryoku no machi production committee (Distributed by Daiei Film) |26 February 1950 |
| Hakone Fūunroku {{nihongo2|箱根風雲録}} |Shinsei Film, Zenshin Za |14 March 1952 |
| Vacuum Zone {{nihongo2|真空地帯}} Shinkūchitai |Hokuto Film |15 December 1952 |
| Hi no Hate {{nihongo2|日の果て}} |Yagi Pro/Sehai (Distributed by Shochiku Film) |3 February 1954 |
| Taiyō no nai Machi {{nihongo2|太陽のない街}} |Shinsei Film |24 June 1954 |
| Taifu Sodoki {{nihongo2|台風騒動記}} |Yamamoto Production |19 December 1956 |
| Ballad of the Cart {{nihongo2|荷車の歌}} Niguruma no Uta |Zenkoku Noson Eiga Kyokai |11 February 1959 |
| Ningen no Kabe {{nihongo2|人間の壁}} |Yamamoto Production (Distributed by Shintoho) |27 January 1961 |
| Matsukawa Jiken {{nihongo2|松川事件}} |Matsukawa Jikengeki Eiga Seisakuiinkai |27 January 1961 |
| Shinobi no Mono {{nihongo2|忍びの者}} |Daiei Film |1 December 1962 |
| Zoku Shinobi no Mono {{nihongo2|続・忍びの者}} |Daiei Film |10 August 1963 |
| Nippon Dorobō Monogatari {{nihongo2|にっぽん泥棒物語}} |Daiei Film |1 May 1965 |
| Ivory Tower {{nihongo2|白い巨塔}} |Daiei Film |15 October 1966 |
| Men and War {{nihongo2|戦争と人間}} Senso to Ningen |14 August 1970 {{small|(I)}} |
| Karei-naru Ichizoku {{nihongo2|華麗なる一族}} |Geiensha (Distributed by Toho) |26 January 1974 |
| Kinkanshoku {{nihongo2|金環蝕}} |Daiei (Distributed by Toho) |6 September 1975 |
| Barren Land {{nihongo2|不毛地帯}} |Geiensha (Distributed by Toho) |14 August 1976 |
| Kōtei no Inai Hachigatsu {{nihongo2|皇帝のいない八月}} |Shochiku |23 September 1978 |
| Nomugi Pass {{nihongo2|あゝ野麦峠}} Ah Nomugi Toge |Shin Nihon Eiga (Distributed by Toho) |30 June 1979 |
| Nomugi Pass Shinryokuhen {{nihongo2|あゝ野麦峠 新緑篇}} Ah Nomugi Toge Shinrokuhen |Toho |6 February 1982 |
Awards
;Kinema Junpo Awards
Yamamoto received the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Director for Ivory Tower, which was also awarded Best Film.{{fact|date=October 2024}}
;Blue Ribbon Awards
Yamamoto won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Director for Shōnin no isu and Nippon dorobō monogatari (both 1965).{{Cite web|url=http://cinemahochi.yomiuri.co.jp/b_award/1966/ |title= ブルーリボン賞ヒストリー (Blue Ribbon Award) |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja |publisher=Cinema Hochi |url-status= dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023025530/http://cinemahochi.yomiuri.co.jp/b_award/1966/ |archive-date=23 October 2008}} Ivory Tower was awarded Best Film the following year.{{fact|date=October 2024}}
;Mainichi Fim Awards
Yamamoto was awarded Best Director at the Mainichi Film Awards for Ballad of the Cart and Ningen no kane (both 1959),{{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/014.html |title=14th Mainichi Film Awards 1959 |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja}} Ivory Tower,{{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/021.html |title=21st Mainichi Film Awards 1966 |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja}} Men and War{{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/025.html |title=25th Mainichi Film Awards 1970 |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja}} and Barren Land.{{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/025.html |title=31st Mainichi Film Awards 1976 |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja}} Ivory Tower, Barren Land and Nomugi Pass{{cite web|url=http://mainichi.jp/mfa/history/034.html |title=34th Mainichi Film Awards 1979 |access-date=17 July 2021 |language=ja}} were winners in the Best Film category.
;Festival prizes
Ivory Tower was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival where it was awarded the Silver Prize.{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1967 |title=5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967) |access-date=17 July 2021 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194759/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1967 |archive-date=16 January 2013}}
Books
- Yamamoto Satsuo: My Life as a Filmmaker (私の映画人生, Watakushi no eiga jinsei), published in English in 2017 by University of Michigan Press, translated by Chia-ning Chang.{{cite journal|last=Kitamura|first=Hiroshi|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/jjs/article-abstract/44/2/457/202318/Review-My-Life-as-a-Filmmaker-by-Yamamoto-Satsuo?redirectedFrom=fulltext|title=Review: My Life as a Filmmaker, by Yamamoto Satsuo; translated by Chia-ning Chang|journal=The Journal of Japanese Studies|year=2018|volume=44|issue=2|pages=457–460|doi=10.1525/jjs.2018.44.2.457|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }} - [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/44/article/700046/pdf Also at] Project MUSE. - It is an autobiography that was first published after Yamamoto died.{{cite book|url=https://press.umich.edu/Books/M/My-Life-as-a-Filmmaker2|title=My Life as a Filmmaker|publisher=University of Michigan Press|access-date=2024-09-17}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0945481}}
- {{cite web|url=https://filmex.jp/2007/sp_yamamoto-e.htm |title=Satsuo Yamamoto Special Program |website=Tokyo Filmex |access-date=23 August 2011}}
- {{cite news|last=Kato |first=Mariko |title=SATSUO YAMAMOTO: Classic director remembered |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/01/25/events/events-outside-tokyo/classic-director-remembered/ |newspaper=The Japan Times |date=31 January 2008 |access-date=17 July 2021}}
- {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/12/obituaries/satsuo-yamamoto-director-made-antiwar-films-in-japan.html |title=Satsuo Yamamoto, Director; Made Antiwar Films in Japan |date=12 August 1983 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=17 July 2021}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|title=My life as a filmmaker |last=Yamamoto |first=Satsuo |date=2017 |publisher=Project Muse |others=Chang, Chia-ning |isbn=9780472122493 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |oclc=990075123}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Satsuo Yamamoto}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamamoto, Satsuo}}