I've never met a Yoji Yamada film I didn't like. Yamada, the now very old but still working Japanese director, made himself a central figure in Japanese cinema history by creating and directing the Tora-san series. Tora-san is a staple of Japanese culture, or at least was for many decades, and for good reason: spanning the years 1969 to 1995, the Tora-san films constitute (more or less officially depending on the definition) the longest film series in history. There were forty eight movies made - two movies released during most years. The movies themselves followed a tried and true formula: Tora-san returns home to reunite with his family, Tora-san meddles in their affairs with (usually) the best intentions, Tora-san falls in love with a woman and in the end finds his affections to be unrequited, returning to the road once more. The character was beloved by audiences, and the movies became a reliably heart-warming routine. There was always a Tora-san movie to look forward to. Only when the principal actor died did the series end.
After dedicating most of his career to Tora-san, Yoji Yamada began to work on other projects. Finally, in 2002, Yamada found truly international acclaim with the first film of his jidaigeki trilogy, The Twilight Samurai. He followed it with two more samurai tales, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor. All three were based on stories by the 20th century author Shuhei Fujisawa. I first noticed The Twilight Samurai when it was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004. The clip they showed, of a samurai leaping over the head of another and clocking his opponent on the head with a wooden sword, made me sit up and ask "what was that?" Eventually I rented and watched all three.
The jidaigeki trilogy are really only samurai movies in the loosest sense. That is, they are about samurai. But if you're looking for sword fights, blood, and shouts of righteous vengeance, look elsewhere. Yamada's films are straight up dramas, and tearjerkers at that. All of Yamada's films - from Tora-san, to the jidaigeki, to his most recent period dramas - share a warmth and depth of feeling that is hard to find in cinema. His characters are truly good people, with good intentions, and the drama of their stories comes more often from circumstances than it does from villains (although villains do exist). Yamada is a living legend among Japanese directors and I look forward to what he still has to offer.
I have searched unsuccessfully for music from the Tora-san series. However, I was very happy to find a soundtrack release that compiled music from all three of Yamada's samurai movies. The composer of the soundtracks is Isao Tomita, a part of Japanese musical history himself. Tomita gained fame by pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and '70s (he also composed the soundtrack to my favorite Japanese disaster film, The Prophecies of Nostradamus). His recent soundtracks use some synth, but have shifted mostly towards orchestral compositions. Today's song is "Seeking a New Life" from The Hidden Blade. Although I probably liked Twilight Samurai and Love and Honor slightly more as movies, The Hidden Blade contains some of the best music from the trilogy. "Seeking a New Life" is the final song from that movie and showcases both its love theme, which plays at 0:56 and 3:24, and its main theme, which kicks in at 2:20. The love theme is particularly stirring and is my favorite piece from the film, and second favorite from the entire trilogy (only narrowly beaten by the theme to Love and Honor). I will certainly post more music of Tomita's in the future. Enjoy!
Album info: http://www.game-ost.com/albums/15303/yoji_yamada_jidaigeki_trilogy_best_selection/
