Born in Nara Prefecture in 1910, So Yamamura was a towering figure of postwar Japanese cinema, remembered as a director-actor of unusual dignity. He directed the acclaimed The Crab-Canning Ship (1953), and as an actor worked with Yasujiro Ozu in Tokyo Story (1953), Mikio Naruse and many of the era s masters. Western audiences know him for playing Admiral Yamamoto in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). He continued to work into old age and died in 2000. Yamamura is regarded as one of the great humanist presences of Japan s classical studio era. Read more