Senkichi Taniguchi

Directing

Senkichi Taniguchi

Born 1912-02-19 · Tokyo, Japan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Senkichi Taniguchi (February 19, 1912 – October 29, 2007) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Born in Tokyo, Japan, he attended Waseda University but left before graduating due to his involvement in a left-wing theater troupe. He joined P.C.L. (a precursor to Toho) in 1933 and began working as an assistant director to Kajirō Yamaguchi alongside his longtime friend, acclaimed Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa. He made his feature film directing debut in 1947 with Snow Trail, which was written by Kurosawa. Snow Trial starred Toshirō Mifune in his film debut and actress Setsuko Wakayama. It helped establish Taniguchi's reputation for action film. Taniguchi and Wakayama married in 1949 (he had earlier been married to the screenwriter Yōko Mizuki), but the couple divorced in 1956. Taniguchi married his second wife, actress Kaoru Yachigusa, in 1957. Yachigusa and Taniguchi remained together for over fifty years until his death in 2007. Taniguchi was the screenwriter for the 1949 film, The Quiet Duel, which Kurosawa directed and which also starred Mifune. His most acclaimed film as a director was Escape at Dawn, a controversial anti-war work from 1950 about a Japanese soldier and a "comfort woman" that got into trouble with Occupation era censors. Taniguchi continued to direct movies throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but the quality of his work declined. His films from the time period include Man Against Man, The Gambling Samurai, Man In The Storm and The Lost World of Sinbad. His 1965 film International Secret Police: Key of Keys has been famously re-dubbed and re-released as What's Up, Tiger Lily? by Woody Allen. He was chosen as the supervising director of the official documentary of Expo '70. Senkichi Taniguchi died of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo, Japan, on October 29, 2007, at the age of 95. Description above from the Wikipedia article Senkichi Taniguchi, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Blood on the Sea poster
NR

Four fishermen friends are caught up in a piracy plot.

Blood on the Sea

1961

The Quiet Duel poster
7.3

A young army surgeon, Kyoji Fujisaki, accidentally contracts syphilis during a WWII field operation. Back at his father’s clinic, he treats himself in secret and breaks off his engagement rather than risk his fiancée’s future, even as he confronts the irresponsible patient who infected him—testing his ethics, pride, and capacity for sacrifice.

The Quiet Duel

1949

Snow Trail poster
7.0

Three bank robbers, Eijima, Nojiri, and Takasugi, flee the police and escape into the mountains. At an inn high in the Japanese Alps, Eijima and Nojiri encounter a young woman and her father, as well as Honda, a mountaineer. The inn folk do not realize their guests are wanted criminals and the visitors are treated with great kindness. Honda volunteers to lead them over the mountains, but Eijima's paranoia endangers all of them as they make the perilous trip.

Snow Trail

1947

What's Up, Tiger Lily? poster
5.4

In comic Woody Allen's film debut, he took the Japanese action film "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" and re-dubbed it, changing the plot to make it revolve around a secret egg salad recipe.

What's Up, Tiger Lily?

1966

Foghorn poster
10.0

A Japanese woman, the mistress of an American, falls in love with her servant.

Foghorn

1952

Foghorn poster
10.0

A Japanese woman, the mistress of an American, falls in love with her servant.

Foghorn

1952

Adventure in Kigan Castle poster
6.2

Osami, a soldier-of-fortune from Japan, joins with priest Ensai in a quest for the ashes of the great Buddha. Their journey takes them to a kingdom in the Middle East, where they find intrigue and romance in the court of an evil king.

Adventure in Kigan Castle

1966

Samurai Pirate poster
5.9

An adventurous and daring sailor sets sail to the castle of an ailing king to stop an evil premier, hungry for power and wealth, from succeeding the throne and marrying the king's beautiful daughter. Along the way, with the help of some courageous rebels and a lustful wizard, he must overcome the powers of a bewitching witch, a band of ruthless pirates, and the castle's Imperial guards. He must also free those kidnapped into slavery and restore the king's reputation.

Samurai Pirate

1963

Who Will Judge Me? poster
8.0

Directed by Senkichi Taniguchi

Who Will Judge Me?

1951

Man Against Man poster
7.0

Kikumori runs a cabaret on the docks, while his friend Kaji operates transport boats. When a gang of drug dealers tries to force the pair to cooperate in a smuggling scheme, conflict arises between the two friends. Falsely blamed for murder, Kikumori is blackmailed into an attempt to sabotage Kaji's boats and kill him. But the friendship between the two men proves an obstacle to the gangleader's plans.

Man Against Man

1960

Escape at Dawn poster
6.0

Mikami, a Japanese soldier, is captured by Chinese forces. Although able to escape, he is treated with contempt by his peers. After falling in love with a prostitute named Harumi, she convinces him to desert the army and live with her.

Escape at Dawn

1950

Escape at Dawn poster
6.0

Mikami, a Japanese soldier, is captured by Chinese forces. Although able to escape, he is treated with contempt by his peers. After falling in love with a prostitute named Harumi, she convinces him to desert the army and live with her.

Escape at Dawn

1950

Jakoman and Tetsu poster
7.5

In a village subsisting on its herring fishery, a one-eyed criminal named Jakoman terrorizes the inhabitants. One of them, the son of the head of one of the fish companies by the name of Tetsu, decides to overthrow Jakoman and his cohorts.

Jakoman and Tetsu

1964

A Man in the Storm poster
7.0

Judo expert Saburô Watari fights his judo master, Tsujido, while simultaneously in conflict with a karate expert.

A Man in the Storm

1957

A Man in the Storm poster
7.0

Judo expert Saburô Watari fights his judo master, Tsujido, while simultaneously in conflict with a karate expert.

A Man in the Storm

1957

Operation Enemy Fort poster
7.0

Soldiers on the front lines in China during World War II are besieged by guerrilla attacks and attempt to destroy an enemy fort.

Operation Enemy Fort

1962

The Killing Bottle poster
8.2

In Hong Kong an International Secret Police (ISP) Agent is murdered while investigating ZZZ, a group bent on assassinating the Prime Minister of Buddhabal. ISP Agents Carter and Kitami are assigned to the case. When the Prime Minister arrives in Tokyo for a friendship visit, Carter and Kitami are on hand to protect him. On hand, too, are assorted ZZZ blackguards. Several attempts on the Prime Minister's life fail, until finally the ZZZ introduces a new device designed to eliminate not only the Prime Minister but the ISP Agents as well: THE KILLING BOTTLE, then, is a pocket-sized container filled with a substance that can expand to thousands of times its size and throttle its victim, then disappear leaving only the corpse.

The Killing Bottle

1967

Faraway Man poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Faraway Man

1957

Sports poster
NR

The film is about a protest provoked when the university decided to restrict access to sports facilities to athletes, cutting out all other students. This is, strictly speaking, not a Prokino film. It was produced by the Waseda University Film Circle, which was organized by Kawazoe Shiro. Feature film directors Yamamoto Satsuo and Taniguchi Senkichi were apparently students at Waseda at the time and participated in the production.

Sports

1932

Outpost of Hell poster
7.0

The fifth film of the desperado outpost series directed by Senkichi Taniguchi

Outpost of Hell

1963

The Last Escape poster
NR

A group of Japanese nursing students and their instructor is serving at an army camp in China. When Japan loses the war the group sets out to depart China, but on the way back to Japan is captured by the Chinese and coerced to instead treat the Chinese army at a clinic. Caught with the group is also a Japanese doctor. When the Chinese army faction itself loses in battle the Japanese plan their escape.

The Last Escape

1957

The Gambling Samurai poster
6.9

Chuji Kunisada returns to his home village to find that Jubei Matsui, the corrupt magistrate, has been responsible for virtually destroying Kunisada's family. A final tragedy leads Kunisada to join with a band of rogues living in the forest in robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, always with an eye toward avenging himself on Magistrate Matsui.

The Gambling Samurai

1960

The Wicked Boy poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Wicked Boy

1956

The Red Light Military Base poster
9.0

Story about a poor Japanese woman living near an American army base who resorts to prostitution.

The Red Light Military Base

1953