Yasutaro Yagi

Writing

Yasutaro Yagi

Born — Died

1903-02-03 — 1987-09-08

Place of birth

Gunma, Japan

Known for

Writing

Credits

42 titles

Yasutarō Yagi (3 February 1903 – 8 September 1987) was a Japanese screenwriter, mostly famous for his adaptations of literary works for the director Tomu Uchida in the 1930s, such as Jinsei gekijō and Kagirinaki zenshin, and for his collaborations with leftist filmmakers such as Kaneto Shindo and Tadashi Imai in the postwar period. He served as president of the Japan Screenwriters Guild. Wikipedia contributors. "Yasutarō Yagi." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 24 Jan. 2021. Web. 3 Nov. 2021.

Known for

Hiroshima poster
7.4

Historical fiction about the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945, and its effects on various civilians, especially children, of that city.

Hiroshima

1953

Rice poster
6.8

A touching story depicting the harsh lives of farmers in Kasumigaura. An attempt to start a fishery business to revive an ailing farming community creates friction amongst the proud residents.

Rice

1957

Kanto Wanderer poster
6.6

Handsome young Katsuta tries to follow the yakuza code, but even his boss doesn't believe in it. Diamond Fuyu is less ethical, and allows the idiotic Tetsu to trick a schoolgirl he fancies, Hanako, into a type of bonded prostitution. Because of gang conflict, the Izu family (to whom Katsuta belongs) has their last gambling den taken over, and he seeks revenge. This brings him back into contact with a former lover who is also a card trickster - she is also Diamond Fuyu's sister, and is now married to Okaru-Hachi, who has mastered a clever card cheating trick called Okaru, which involves the deft use of mirrors.

Kanto Wanderer

1963

Unending Advance poster
10.0

One of Uchida’s early sound films, Unending Advance is based on a curious story by Yasujiro Ozu, in which an examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into an idyllic dream of an implausible future. The surviving print, although incomplete, offers an essential glimpse into Uchida’s prewar period, when he was associated more with realist dramas than with the period films that dominated his work after the war.

Unending Advance

1937

Platform at Night poster
NR

A realistic film that sharply portrays a cross-section of postwar society.

Platform at Night

1948

A Story from Echigo poster
7.2

A sake factory worker on holiday returns to his home town, where he rapes the wife of one of his co-workers in the forest. The other man returns home to find his wife changed and suspects that she has been unfaithful.

A Story from Echigo

1964

Film credits

Behind the camera

Hiroshima poster
7.4

Historical fiction about the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945, and its effects on various civilians, especially children, of that city.

Hiroshima

1953

Rice poster
6.8

A touching story depicting the harsh lives of farmers in Kasumigaura. An attempt to start a fishery business to revive an ailing farming community creates friction amongst the proud residents.

Rice

1957

Kanto Wanderer poster
6.6

Handsome young Katsuta tries to follow the yakuza code, but even his boss doesn't believe in it. Diamond Fuyu is less ethical, and allows the idiotic Tetsu to trick a schoolgirl he fancies, Hanako, into a type of bonded prostitution. Because of gang conflict, the Izu family (to whom Katsuta belongs) has their last gambling den taken over, and he seeks revenge. This brings him back into contact with a former lover who is also a card trickster - she is also Diamond Fuyu's sister, and is now married to Okaru-Hachi, who has mastered a clever card cheating trick called Okaru, which involves the deft use of mirrors.

Kanto Wanderer

1963

Unending Advance poster
10.0

One of Uchida’s early sound films, Unending Advance is based on a curious story by Yasujiro Ozu, in which an examination of the quotidian problems of a middle-aged salaryman and his family segues into an idyllic dream of an implausible future. The surviving print, although incomplete, offers an essential glimpse into Uchida’s prewar period, when he was associated more with realist dramas than with the period films that dominated his work after the war.

Unending Advance

1937

Platform at Night poster
NR

A realistic film that sharply portrays a cross-section of postwar society.

Platform at Night

1948

A Story from Echigo poster
7.2

A sake factory worker on holiday returns to his home town, where he rapes the wife of one of his co-workers in the forest. The other man returns home to find his wife changed and suspects that she has been unfaithful.

A Story from Echigo

1964

Toki no teizo: Sōshūban poster
NR

A silk mill worker living through a dark and twisted youth… What is chastity? A powerful work that speaks to society through the anguished expression of a woman twisted by torment.

Toki no teizo: Sōshūban

1952

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu poster
NR

Part one of Shin Saburi's Theater of Life adaptation.

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu

1952

Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka poster
6.9

Three humorous love stories set in rural Japan.

Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka

1950

Theater of Life: Youth Version poster
10.0

During the 20s in Japan, a romantic student at Tokyo's Waseda University is filled with noble sentiments absorbed from literature but his naive illusions will be shattered by the ruthless realities of money and power.

Theater of Life: Youth Version

1936

Monument to the Girl's Corps poster
10.0

In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the fiery breaths of war hadn't yet reached Okinawa Normal School for women. Nothing seemed the least bit out of the ordinary, as Kazuko and her friends enjoyed a day of sports. A year later the war takes a devastating turn, as US forces plan an amphibious attack known as "Operation Iceberg" on the Ryukyu island.

Monument to the Girl's Corps

1968

Town of Violence poster
6.5

An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses.

Town of Violence

1950

The Rainbow-Colored Flower poster
1.0

Ebihara is a budding novelist entangled in a complicated web of relationships with three women from three different generations: Kazue, a coquettish teenage war orphan who tries to offer herself for money but is instead taken in by Ebihara, Koyabu, a middle-aged woman who has spent much of her life as the kept woman of a wealthy man, and Teruko, the modest daughter of Ebihara's former teacher who comes to rely on him after the death of her father.

The Rainbow-Colored Flower

1950

A Hole of My Own Making poster
8.0

Nobuko is a widow who lives with her stepchild Tamiko and her brother Junjiro. The family's gatekeeper, Komatsu, is attracted to Tamiko, but she is encouraged to marry a doctor and he is afraid to tell her his feelings.

A Hole of My Own Making

1955

Gazing at Love and Death poster
7.0

A young girl knows that she is going to die and in this she is supported by the devotion of the boy who loves her. They originally met at the hospital. There it transpired that the only way to save her life was to sacrifice an eye and part of her face. The operation seems a success. Later, however, her other eye becomes affected. She feels she must let the boy go, and yet she depends so much upon his devotion.

Gazing at Love and Death

1964

Suicide Troops of the Watchtower poster
6.8

Stalwart soldiers of the Japanese Empire – Japanese and Korean alike – stand in defense of a military outpost threatened by "bandits."

Suicide Troops of the Watchtower

1943

The End of a Day poster
7.5

Military doctor Leutenant Hanada deserts during the war in the Philippines with a local girl. The officer in command orders Lieutenant Uji to shoot Hanada. Uji takes a sharpshooter called Takagi and tracks him. At first Uji cannot forgive Hanada but as Uji is isolated from the main force he too starts to think of desertion.

The End of a Day

1954

Lucky Dragon No. 5 poster
7.5

An ageing fishing boat, Dai-go Fukuryu Maru ("Lucky Dragon No. 5") sets out from the port of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It travels around the Pacific line fishing. While the ship is near Bikini Atoll, the ship's navigator sees a flash. All the crew come up to watch. They realize it is an atomic explosion, but take time to clear their fishing gear. A short time later, grey ash starts to fall on the ship. When the ship returns to port the sailors have been burned brown. They unload the fish, which are then transported away. They visit the local doctor and then go to Tokyo for an examination. It turns out they are all highly radioactive. Their symptoms become worse, and the contaminated fish causes a panic.

Lucky Dragon No. 5

1959

Ujō poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Ujō

1957

Farm Girls poster
10.0

As Japan's economic growth policies intensify, small-scale farmers embark on a first-ever communal dairy farming initiative in their village. They are joined by Riki, a young man who thinks communal farming will give him some leisure time.

Farm Girls

1962

The Crown of Life poster
NR

Two brothers run a factory canning crabs. The elder brother Kotaro is righteous and insists on honesty. The younger brother is fixated on money. They are polar opposites. When a boat sails out looking for crab and does not return one day the brothers begin to argue over how to run their facility. They had just received a large order from a foreign country and had obtained a loan from a lender that needed to be repaid.

The Crown of Life

1936

At the End of the Clouds poster
NR

A movie that depicts the tragic fate of many Yokaren flight-academy pilots.

At the End of the Clouds

1953

The Human Wall poster
6.2

Drama which shows the struggle of Fumiko, a female teacher, at work and at home.

The Human Wall

1959

The Last Women poster
NR

The events of the film are based on the real facts of the Pacific War, when in June 1944 the American troops began landing on the Saipan island. On July 7, an order comes that everyone must die in order not to be captured by the enemy.

The Last Women

1954

Earth poster
7.5

Kanji is a poor peasant widower who struggles to earn a living for his daughter and himself and to pay off his father-in-law's debts.

Earth

1939

River Without a Bridge poster
7.5

Brothers Koji and Seitaro Hatana, belong to the "outcast" caste. Despite their personal qualities—intelligence and fairness—they encounter numerous obstacles due to their caste affiliation. Together with other "outcasts," the brothers take up the fight for their human rights.

River Without a Bridge

1969

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ni bu poster
NR

Part two of Shin Saburi's Theater of Life adaptation.

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ni bu

1953

The Yamabiko School poster
NR

A story of a passionate teacher and his great effort for the children in a poor village.

The Yamabiko School

1952

Utako's Story poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Utako's Story

1949

A Second Life poster
7.0

1948 Japanese drama film.

A Second Life

1948

Song of the Underworld poster
NR

A conflict between two yakuza families in Tokyo, the Izus and the Yoshidas, has recently broken out. When an Izu underling starts a fight with a Yoshida man, Fuyu, the Izu family sends Tsuruta, a senior member of the clan, to make a personal apology to Fuyu. Tsuruta discovers that the woman he is in love with is Fuyu's sister, Tatsuko. Tsuruta ends up gambling with a swindler, who is in fact Tatsuko's husband. (The general plot of the film was re-used for Seijun Suzuki's Kanto Wanderer).

Song of the Underworld

1956

Million Dollar Smash-and-Grab poster
10.0

A boxing melodrama. Two friends become boxers and begin training for the championship. These two boys eventually face each other in the ring.

Million Dollar Smash-and-Grab

1961

No artwork available
10.0

Japanese film.

Blood Festival of Akagi

1955

Streetlights poster
NR

A sophisticated comedy about love games between men and women that arise from an intentionally dropped train ticket.

Streetlights

1957

Hakuchō wa kanashikarazuya poster
NR

Reiko Nishida, though she had both parents, felt lonely because she couldn’t fit in with the cold atmosphere at home. A student at Wakaba Academy in Osaka, she eventually succumbed to the allure of a superficial lifestyle and joined a group of delinquents, but Kimiko Kimizuka, a student council member, tried desperately to save her friend from the path of crime.

Hakuchō wa kanashikarazuya

1949

No artwork available
NR

Born into a poor farming family, Yukie left home with her only son Ryokichi, leaving her grandfather Heisaku behind, to search for her husband Ryohei, who had run away. Ryohei was working in a coal mine in Hokkaido, but he was already living with a woman named Otami, who was pregnant with his child. With no time to wallow in despair, Yukie resolved to work single-handedly to support Ryokichi, but no matter how hard she worked, she could not provide for him adequately. Yet, thinking of Ryokichi’s future, she could not bring herself to die, so she took a job as a barmaid at Yamagataya, living on the premises.

Wagakoyue ni

1949

Isho: Shiroi shōjo poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Isho: Shiroi shōjo

1976

Spring on Leper's Island poster
7.2

A female doctor's story of her life in an isolated leper colony.

Spring on Leper's Island

1940

The Tragic General: Yamashita Tomoyuki poster
NR

When Japan entered into the great tragedy that was unforgettable, the general general of the history of the Ming Dynasty, hokudai Yamashita, left the Malay front and occupied Singapore at once, and was praised as a "Malay tiger." However, the situation in Japan changed steadily by the failure of Sai pan from the GA Talca translation.

The Tragic General: Yamashita Tomoyuki

1953

The Burning Sky poster
NR

The film was produced during Second Sino-Japanese War, before the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941. The film mainly concerns the training of newly-recruited pilots and their daily life, then their subsequent fighting experiences in China. Army supported the production, providing all the authentic airplanes, training and actual actions. They even provided the older biplanes disguised as Chinese fighter planes. Obinata plays the trainer-turned-combat-leader, who is passionate and cool at the same time. All his boys love him, of course. The film is not as intense, full of sugar-coated camaraderie, until young pilots are killed in action one by one. Last twenty minutes are fairly grim, as the message of self-sacrifice is heard loud and clear.

The Burning Sky

1940