Directing

Yutaka Abe

Born 1895-02-02 · Miyagi Prefecture, Japan

Acting credits

The Cheat poster
6.0

A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.

The Cheat

1915

Locked Lips poster
7.0

Upon returning home from school one day, Lotus Blossom, a Japanese orphan who lives on the island of Hilo in Hawaii and teaches at a native school, discovers Parker, nearly dead from hunger. Believing his story of a shipwreck, Lotus nurses him back to health and then, mistaking loneliness for love, agrees to marry her patient. Soon tiring of her, Parker deserts her and assumes a new identity.

Locked Lips

1920

The Tong Man poster
6.1

An opium smuggler is marked for murder in this story of the Chinese Mafia.

The Tong Man

1919

The Willow Tree poster
8.0

After Ned Hamilton is rejected by his girlfriend, he travels to Japan where he hears an old legend about the Willow Tree Princess, who kills herself so that her lover will go off to battle. When he makes a purchase from Tomotada, an image maker, he meets his pretty daughter O-Riu, and they recreate the events of the legend.

The Willow Tree

1920

No artwork available
NR

Charmed by the bright smile of Taro San, a Japanese rickshaw boy, Grant Barton takes the young man to the United States as his valet. Grant marries Marion Craig, but when she departs for California to visit her sick mother, he becomes enamored of Tonia Marsh, a vamp. Marion discovers them together and leaves Grant, whereupon Taro resolves to help his kind employer out of his difficulties. Persuading Tonia that he is a member of the imperial family of Japan, Taro pays court to the adventuress, and when Grant finds them in each other's arms, he immediately fires Taro. Grant and Marion are reconciled, while Taro sadly returns to Japan.

Who Is to Blame?

1918

The Pagan God poster
9.0

Bruce Winthrop, disguised as a clerk in the American consulate near the Mongolian border, is actually a secret United States government operative sent to quell a Chinese rebellion led by Tai Chen.

The Pagan God

1919

Her American Husband poster
10.0

The son of a wealthy imported goods dealer, Herbert Franklyn refuses to curb his appetite for gaiety and women after his engagement, with the result that his fiancee, Miriam Faversham, breaks off their relationship. On the firm's annual trip to Japan, Herbert meets Cherry Blossom, whose father Tokimasa wishes her to marry a Westerner.

Her American Husband

1918

Lotus Blossom poster
7.0

The film is perhaps the only remaining example of silent era cinema from a Chinese-American production company, and was co-written, co-directed (with Francis J. Grandon) and produced by James B. Leong, who changed his name from Leong But-jung after emigrating from Shanghai in 1913. Of the seven reels that originally comprised 'Lotus Blossom,' only one (the fifth, running for 12 minutes at 20fps) is known to survive. This remaining reel of film is now available on Disc 2 of the DVD Collection "More Treasures from the American Film Archives," and was preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Lotus Blossom

1921

A Tale of Two Worlds poster
6.3

A white child is adopted and raised by a Chinese citizen and brought to San Francisco, where no one surmises that she is actually not Chinese.

A Tale of Two Worlds

1921

Mystic Faces poster
NR

Yano is a small delivery boy for his uncle, who keeps a curio shop in Chinatown. His loves are Tama, his sweetheart, and Bengi, his dog. Bengi is seized by dog catchers, but is rescued by Letty Stanford, for which Yano promises his fealty. Later Letty is kidnapped by Germans because of her war activities, and it is Yano who goes to her rescue and gets her free in spite of his diminutive size. The Little Japanese has paid his debt.

Mystic Faces

1918

The Oath of the Sword poster
5.0

A three-reel silent drama about an ambitious young man leaving behind his beloved in Japan to study abroad at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Oath of the Sword

1914

Behind the camera

No artwork available
NR

Directed by Yutaka Abe (as Jack Abe).

A Mermaid on Land

1926

Five Women Around Him poster
NR

Directed by Yutaka Abe.

Five Women Around Him

1927

The Woman Who Touched The Legs poster
9.0

A twice-remade ironic comedy about a writer's encounter with a female thief.

The Woman Who Touched The Legs

1926

Confession poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Confession

1956

Hanamazu poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hanamazu

1955

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

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

Snow-Flake poster
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

Snow-Flake

1950

The Barefoot Girl poster
NR

A beautiful and healthy young girl growing up in poverty overcomes hardships and grows into a woman in this deeply moving literary epic.

The Barefoot Girl

1957

Hanran poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hanran

1954

The Battleship Yamato poster
NR

The film is about the Yamato's suicide mission to Okinawa in March 1945 to defend the homeland threatened by U.S. bombers. Adapted from Mitsuru Yoshida's 1952 book "Requiem for the Battleship Yamato".

The Battleship Yamato

1953

日本敗れず poster
7.0

In May 1945, Japan's defeat was imminent after the attacks on Saipan, Iwo Jima, and the Philippines, and Tokyo was reduced to a sea of ​​fire by another massive air raid. However, within the Ministry of the Army, there were still officers who were enthusiastic about a decisive battle on the mainland. Eventually, the Okinawa garrison was annihilated, and the US military was approaching the mainland, but on July 27th, the Potsdam Conference between the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union broadcast the Triple Joint Declaration, which set out the final terms of surrender for Japan.

日本敗れず

1954

Tsuki yori no haha poster
NR

Japanese drama film.

Tsuki yori no haha

1951

Dai shusse monogatari poster
NR

1961 Japanese movie

Dai shusse monogatari

1961

The Dawn of Freedom poster
NR

This film was made by the Japanese occupation authorities in the Philippines as a propaganda film to show the Philippine people the "benefits" of the Japanese invasion and takeover of their country.

The Dawn of Freedom

1944

Bouquet of the South Seas poster
6.3

No synopsis available yet.

Bouquet of the South Seas

1942

Bouquet of the South Seas poster
6.3

No synopsis available yet.

Bouquet of the South Seas

1942

Season of Affairs poster
NR

Shozo, a personnel manager nearing retirement, had three daughters around their age. The eldest daughter, Naoko, is the brilliant type, the second daughter, Maki, is the manly type, and the third daughter, Momoko, is the tomboyish type.

Season of Affairs

1959

Uta e! Taiyō poster
NR

1945 Japanese movie

Uta e! Taiyō

1945

Dawn of a Canvas poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Dawn of a Canvas

1961

Masked Woman poster
NR

A touching literary and artistic story about the sadness and pathos of a woman's love, crying in agony over her hidden past.

Masked Woman

1959

Flesh Smuggling poster
NR

A true semi-documentary drama depicting a record of a sheriff's challenge to the vivid evil of a sailor who embarked on a single underworld to uncover the crime of an inhumane international prostitution organization called "Japanese women's smuggling."

Flesh Smuggling

1956

The Law's Bloody Wounds poster
NR

An action masterpiece depicting the brotherhood of a younger brother (a student yakuza who breaks the gang rules and the law), and an older brother who prays for his brother's happiness while becoming a gangster to the old yakuza.

The Law's Bloody Wounds

1960

Unga poster
NR

Canal - A river created by cutting through nature for the sake of human life that flows silently, encompassing good, evil, sorrow, and joy, just like daily life. A stream of passion that the youth, untainted by dirt, suddenly glimpses.

Unga

1958