Sadao Yamanaka

山中貞雄　/　不明

American film director

November 7, 1909 – September 17, 1938　・　Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Kyoto Prefecture
film director
screenwriter

My Take

Sadao Yamanaka is one of those filmmakers who makes you feel the pure cruelty of history — the guy directed around 24 jidaigeki films before his 29th birthday, and only three of them survive today. What we do have, though, is enough to see how extraordinary he was: a warm, humanist touch that set him apart from the grander, more theatrical period-film tradition of his era. There's something almost unbearably poignant about watching Humanity and Paper Balloons knowing he was drafted into the Second Sino-Japanese War and died in Manchuria just months after finishing it, in September 1938. Twenty-nine years old. The films we lost to that are films we'll never know how to mourn properly. I keep thinking about what a full career from him would have looked like, and I genuinely can't picture it — which might be the best tribute of all.

Overview

Sadao Yamanaka (山中貞雄, Yamanaka Sadao; November 7, 1909 – September 17, 1938) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed about 24 films between 1932 and 1937, all in the jidaigeki genre, of which only three survive in nearly complete form (all of them sound films).

1. Profile

Name (English): Sadao Yamanaka
Name (Japanese): 山中貞雄
Reading: 不明
Born: November 7, 1909 – September 17, 1938
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Scorpio / Rooster
Origin: Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Blood type: Private
Height: Private
Agency: Private
Occupation: film director / screenwriter

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Private
University: Private

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

6. Links

Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E4%B8%AD%E8%B2%9E%E9%9B%84