Yutaka Abe
1895 - 1977
燃ゆる大空
Yutaka Abe
Susumu Fujita, Taizō Fukami
The film was produced during Second Sino-Japanese War, before the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941. The film mainly concerns the training of newly-recruited pilots and their daily life, then their subsequent fighting experiences in China. Army supported the production, providing all the authentic airplanes, training and actual actions. They even provided the older biplanes disguised as Chinese fighter planes. Obinata plays the trainer-turned-combat-leader, who is passionate and cool at the same time. All his boys love him, of course. The film is not as intense, full of sugar-coated camaraderie, until young pilots are killed in action one by one. Last twenty minutes are fairly grim, as the message of self-sacrifice is heard loud and clear.
The Burning Sky
Lotus Blossom
James B. Leong, Francis J. Grandon
Lady Tsen Mei, Tully Marshall
The film is perhaps the only remaining example of silent era cinema from a Chinese-American production company, and was co-written, co-directed (with Francis J. Grandon) and produced by James B. Leong, who changed his name from Leong But-jung after emigrating from Shanghai in 1913. Of the seven reels that originally comprised 'Lotus Blossom,' only one (the fifth, running for 12 minutes at 20fps) is known to survive. This remaining reel of film is now available on Disc 2 of the DVD Collection "More Treasures from the American Film Archives," and was preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Lotus Blossom
あの旗を撃て
Gerardo de Leon, Yutaka Abe
Denjirō Ōkōchi, Seizaburō Kawazu
This film was made by the Japanese occupation authorities in the Philippines as a propaganda film to show the Philippine people the "benefits" of the Japanese invasion and takeover of their country.
The Dawn of Freedom
The Willow Tree
Henry Otto
Viola Dana, Edward Connelly
After Ned Hamilton is rejected by his girlfriend, he travels to Japan where he hears an old legend about the Willow Tree Princess, who kills herself so that her lover will go off to battle. When he makes a purchase from Tomotada, an image maker, he meets his pretty daughter O-Riu, and they recreate the events of the legend.
The Willow Tree
