The Japanese director Sadao Yamanaka made 26 films between 1932 and 1937 when he was drafted. He died on the Manchurian front in 1938, at the age of 29. Today, only three of his films remain but they testify to an exceptional talent and at the same time to an immeasurable and double loss - of films that have disappeared and those that he was no longer able to make. Yamanaka, who was working at a time of innovation in Japanese cinema, can be credited with modernizing the Jidaigeki genre - period dramas set in the Edo period - and freeing it of cliches. He found his material in Japan's folk culture, transforming proud samurais and heroes into vulnerable, multi-faceted characters. He neither glorified nor romanticized the past, but depicted it realistically and from a critical standpoint. He saw his protagonists' conflicts and problems as being contemporary and pilloried the poverty and injustice of feudalism. The style of his action-packed films, which featured acting ensembles, is reminiscent of the poetic realism of French cinema of the 1930s and 40s. Created with deep focus, elegance and ease, the imagery is pervaded by a bleak and melancholy view of the world and humanity.
