Background
Tomu Uchida (born Tsunejirō Uchida) was born on April 26, 1898 in Okayama, Japan.
(The samurai Sakawa Kojūrō is on the road to Edo with his ...)
The samurai Sakawa Kojūrō is on the road to Edo with his two servants Genta and Genpachi. Kojūrō is a kindly master, but his character totally changes when he consumes alcohol.
https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Spear-Mount-Fuji-Blu-ray/dp/B07DM4GGJY/?tag=2022091-20
1955
吐夢 内田
Tomu Uchida (born Tsunejirō Uchida) was born on April 26, 1898 in Okayama, Japan.
Tomu Uchida became an actor after finishing middle school course.
Uchida started out at the Taikatsu studio in the early 1920s, but came to prominence at Nikkatsu, adapting literary works with the screenwriter Yasutarō Yagi in a realist style. His 1929 film A Living Puppet (Ikeru ningyo) was selected as the fourth best film of the year by the film journal, Kinema Junpo. Many of his 1930s films featured the actor Isamu Kosugi. His work from the 1920 and 1930s possess a leftist social commentary and were often some of the most critically acclaimed films of the time.
In 1941, Uchida quit the Nikkatsu studio, and after failing to start his own production company, in 1943 began to work with the Manchukuo Film Association, although he never completed a film there. In 1945 he was taken prisoner and held in Manchuria until 1954, when he returned to Japan.
Upon he return, he joined the Toei studio. His post-war movies reveal a strong genre stylist with no immediately discernible themes, much like many golden-age Hollywood directors.
His first film after returning, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (Chiyari Fuji) (1955), was an adventure about a samurai and his servant on a trip to Edo. In Twilight Saloon (Tasogare Sakaba) (1955), Uchida views a cross-section of Japanese life over the course of one night in a tavern. In The Master Spearman (Sake To Onna To Yari) (1960) a shogun kills himself, and rituals dictate that his samurai must also commit seppuku; however one young ronin refuses to follow this code and retreats to the country, only to be lured back into the service of the spear. Uchida gently tweaks audience expectations, as a character bemoans a crowd’s blood-lust, only to reward them with a violent ending.
Many of Uchida's postwar works were engaged less in social realism than in cinematic experimentation. The Mad Fox (Koi Ya Koi Nasuna Koi) (1962) was a full-on avant-garde classic that mixed kabuki and animation with location and studio work. A man tormented by the death of his wife meets her twin sister and a fox spirit who takes the form of his beloved. The story was just an excuse for Uchida to challenge the form and function of cinema in a tribute to Japanese folk tales.
Uchida died in 1970 of cancer.
A Hole of My Own Making
(Amidst endless construction and aircraft noise, a family ...)
1955A Fugitive from the Past
(Three robbers escape with loot from a heist, but during t...)
1965Tsuchi
(The majority of the plot of Tsuchi focuses on a family of...)
1939(The samurai Sakawa Kojūrō is on the road to Edo with his ...)
1955Hero of the Red-Light District
(A successful provincial merchant cannot find a wife becau...)
1960Kagirinaki Zenshin
(The protagonist, Tokumaru, is laid off from his corporate...)
1937