Biography
Tanaka initially trained as a stage actor in the shingeki movement under Kaoru Osanai, but eventually ed the Nikkatsu film studio in 1917. He debuted as a director in 1918 but mostly had to work with shinpa stories, not the shingeki techniques he was used to although two early films, The Living Corpse (Ikeru shikabane) and The Cherry Orchard (Sakura no sono) were based on Tolstoy and Chekhov respectively. Working in parallel with the Pure Film Movement, Tanaka made two films, Kyōya eirimise (1922) and Dokuro no mai (1923), based on his own screenplays, that were highly praised for their cinematic technique. He remained a rather conservative filmmaker and still used oyama (male actors) in female roles, including in his masterpiece Kyōya eirimise, a melodrama about a merchant's destructive love for a geisha. He used actresses for the first time in Dokuro no mai, a story of a monk reminiscing about his youth and early loves.
Filmography
all 17
Movies 17
Director 8
Screenplay 2

The Wild Geese (1953)

Street of Violence (1950)

Stray Dog (1949)

The Blue Mountains: Part I (1949)

Namiko (1932)

Five Women Around Him (1927)

Skull Dance (1923)

The Lapel Shop (1922)

Woman in the Stream (1921)

Scent of the White Lily (1921)

The Living Corpse (1918)

Akatsuki (1918)
Information
Known For
Directing
Gender
Male
Birthday
1886-11-03
Deathday
1968-06-13 (81 years old)
Birth Place
Chūō, Tokyo, Japan
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Eizo Tanaka
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