Background
Tanaka was born on 29 November, 1909 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan.
1953
Screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda, Actress-Director Kinuyo Tanaka, and Director Kenji Mizoguchi visit Paris
(Ginza Cosmetics (銀座化粧 Ginza Keshō) is a 1951 black-and-wh...)
Ginza Cosmetics (銀座化粧 Ginza Keshō) is a 1951 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Mikio Naruse. It follows the life of a quiet geisha, single mother of a young boy, in the lively Tokyo quarter of Ginza. The film is based on a novel by Tomoichiro Igami and also on screenwriter Matsuo Kishi and director Mikio Naruse's personal knowledge of Tokyo's Ginza district.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/7885726665/?tag=2022091-20
1951
(The Life of Oharu (西鶴一代女 Saikaku Ichidai Onna) is a 1952 ...)
The Life of Oharu (西鶴一代女 Saikaku Ichidai Onna) is a 1952 historical fiction black-and-white film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Kinuyo Tanaka as Oharu. The Life of Oharu is based on various stories from Ihara Saikaku's The Life of an Amorous Woman.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6304391854/?tag=2022091-20
1952
(Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassan...)
Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss--with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real - is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BLGZSO0/?tag=2022091-20
1953
(When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal ...)
When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi's dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema's greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VU9ACFS/?tag=2022091-20
1954
(When townsfolk reach the age of 70 in Tatsuhei's village,...)
When townsfolk reach the age of 70 in Tatsuhei's village, it is customary to bring them to the top of the nearby mountain to die. When it is his own mother's turn, Tatsuhei begins to question the tradition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BB8PR12/?tag=2022091-20
1958
(Equinox Flower (彼岸花 Higanbana) is a 1958 color Japanese f...)
Equinox Flower (彼岸花 Higanbana) is a 1958 color Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. The film is based on a novel by Ton Satomi. The film won the 1958 Blue Ribbon Award for Fujiko Yamamoto's performance as Best Actress.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CZ6HBU/?tag=2022091-20
1958
(Mizoguchi was fascinated by painting and had trained as a...)
Mizoguchi was fascinated by painting and had trained as a painter as a young man. Kitagawa Utamaro (1756-1806) was 'possibly the greatest of all the portraitists of the floating world' - he painted also idyllic outdoor scenes, Yoshiwara festivals and drinking bouts, bathers and shell-divers, as well as erotica. The film dramatically presents this sense of range, and openness to life's variety, and contrasts the old official court-approved style of painting, called kano with the new, dynamic form of painting known as ukiyo-e (literally:paintings of the floating world).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6302906660/?tag=2022091-20
絹代 田中
Tanaka was born on 29 November, 1909 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan.
She was immersed in the world of film having received her start in the world of entertainment at age fourteen, being a filmmaker herself, being the cousin of director Kobayashi Masaki and, very much like Hara Setsuko and Ozu Yasujiro.
She became a leading actress at an early age, appearing in Yasujirō Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929. The following year she played the lead in Aiyoku no ki, and in 1931 she appeared in Japan's first talkie, The Neighbor's Wife and Mine, directed by Heinosuke Gosho.
In the 1930s, she became so popular that the titles of her films used her name, as in "The Kinuyo Story" (Kinuyo Monogatari) in 1930, "Doctor Kinuyo" (Joi Kinuyo sensei) in 1937 and "Kinuyo’s First Love" (Kinuyo no hatsukoi) in 1940.
In 1938, she starred in Hiromasa Nomura’s Flower in Storm (愛染かつら Aizen-Katsura) with Ken Uehara, which was the highest-grossing movie of the prewar period. In 1940, she worked for the first time with Kenji Mizoguchi, starring in "A Woman of Osaka" (Naniwa Onna), which has not survived. It marked the start of her transition to more challenging roles.
Tanaka made a three-month trip to the United States starting in October 1949 as one of Japan’s first post-war cultural envoys. On her return, she resigned from Shochiku, and announced her intention of going freelance, which would give her more scope to choose which directors she wished to work with. She worked on several movies with Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, and also Keisuke Kinoshita. She had a close working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi, having parts in 15 of his films, including leading roles in The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954).
Tanaka was the second Japanese woman who worked as a film director, after Sakane Tazuko (1904‐1975). Her first directing job was on the film Love Letter in 1953, scripted by Kinoshita, was entered as a contestant in the Cannes Film Festival in 1954. She directed five further films between 1953 and 1962. The "Moon Has Risen" (Tsuki wa noborinu) in 1955 was scripted by Yasujirō Ozu and the "Wandering Princess" (Ruten no onna) starring Machiko Kyō, was scripted by the wife of Kon Ichikawa. During the 1960s, she moved increasingly towards television.
Tanaka died of a brain tumor on 21 March 1977.
(Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassan...)
1953(When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal ...)
1954(The Life of Oharu (西鶴一代女 Saikaku Ichidai Onna) is a 1952 ...)
1952(When townsfolk reach the age of 70 in Tatsuhei's village,...)
1958(Ginza Cosmetics (銀座化粧 Ginza Keshō) is a 1951 black-and-wh...)
1951(Equinox Flower (彼岸花 Higanbana) is a 1958 color Japanese f...)
1958(Mizoguchi was fascinated by painting and had trained as a...)
She married director Hiroshi Shimizu in 1929 after appearing in a number of his films in the 1920s. Although they divorced after less than a year, she later played in a number of films directed by her ex-husband.