Yoji Yamada has had one of the longest careers in the history of film. Starting out at the Shochiku studio, where he was hired as an assistant director after graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1954, he made his debut as a director seven years later with “The Strangers Upstairs.” Since then, Yamada has gone on to make close to 100 films, his latest being the family-friendly drama “Mom, Is That You?!” (He celebrated his 92nd birthday on Sept. 13.)
He may not yet match the late Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, whose filmography stretches from 1931 to 2015, but Yamada’s “Tora-san” series, which ran from 1969 to 1995, is a Guinness World Record holder, with comic genius Kiyoshi Atsumi starring in all 48 episodes as the titular wandering peddler. Forever falling in love but never getting the girl, Torajiro “Tora” Kuruma became a nationally and even internationally beloved character. The mayor of Vienna was such a fan that he invited Yamada to shoot an episode in the city: “Tora-san Goes to Vienna” (1989).
When the series ended with Atsumi’s death in 1996, Yamada’s future was in doubt. He was then in his mid-60s and his days as a studio workhorse seemed to be over, though Shochiku might not have survived had it not been for Yamada’s hits.