Yasutaro Yagi

Writing

Yasutaro Yagi

Born 1903-02-03 · Gunma, Japan

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.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Streetlights poster
NR

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

Streetlights

1957

Blood and Sea poster
NR

The Nami family lives in a quiet fishing village at the tip of the Shima Peninsula overlooking Ago Bay. The family of four consists of her grandmother, Tom, who is in her sixties, her mother, Kura, and older sister, Saki, all women. Toma, despite her advanced age, is still the best diver in the village, Nami has grown up to be an excellent diver too. However, her older sister Saki was born with a mental disorder and no one in the village wants to do business with her. Nami, on the other hand, is very popular among the boys of the village, she is healthy and beautiful. The fisherman Shosaku is crazy about Nami, and day and night he asks her on dates. However, Nami has a crush on her cousin Yuji, who works for the fishermen's union, and casually rejects Shosaku's advances.

Blood and Sea

1965

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

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

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ni bu poster
NR

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

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ni bu

1953

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

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

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

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

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

August 15, 1945, New Dawn For Japan poster
NR

July 1945. War‑exhausted Japan groans under the heel of a brutal military regime. Young journalist Saeki struggles to cling to a fading sense of justice. Writer Yoshida slowly loses his convictions to the darkness of unquestioning orders. Kimiko, a young woman, bears the scars of cruelty from the cold‑hearted military police. Private Yamada has deserted the army. His wife, Ryōko, is branded a traitor's wife and relentlessly hunted. When Yamada finally reaches home, he finds his sick child Toshiko lying in bed. The military police drag him away in front of his family; a struggle ensues, and Yamada is shot dead before his wife's eyes. Hiroshima is annihilated by an atomic bomb. Rumors spread of a final decisive battle on the mainland. The people clutch bamboo spears with gaunt hands. Then August 15th arrives: Japan's defeat is laid bare before the stunned populace.

August 15, 1945, New Dawn For Japan

1952

Utako's Story poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Utako's Story

1949

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

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

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

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

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

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

No artwork available
10.0

Japanese film.

Blood Festival of Akagi

1955

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

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu poster
NR

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

Jinsei Gekijo: dai ichi bu

1952

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

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