Japan auteur Yamada sticks to exploring the human condition after 90 films

By YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Yoji Yamada has directed 90 films, including “Tora-san,” which tops the Guinness World Records for the longest-running movie series starring the same actor. He has just finished directing a Kabuki play, a Japanese musical theater form dating back four centuries, but it has been re-scripted and directed Yamada-style. The piece, which runs at Tokyo’s Kabukiza theater until the end of October, is stamped with his characteristic voice of compassion for the underdog, a theme that has never wavered throughout his seven-decade career. Yamada says all his works explore what it means to be human.