Torajiro Saito - Torajiro Saito

Japanese: 斎藤寅二郎 - さいとうとらじろう

1905‐82 (Meiji 38‐Showa 57)
A film director. Also known as Torajiro. Born in Akita Prefecture. A unique director who excelled in comedy and continued to film only comedies throughout his life. He made over 200 nonsense comedies, ranging from the depression-era satirical comedy "The Child Riot" (1935, silent), which climaxes with a "crazy action gag" in which unemployed men chase a piglet and fight over it, turning it into a rugby match, to the Chaplin-esque slapstick human comedy "If You Don't Abandon This Child" (1935, sound version), in which an unemployed man goes to abandon his child because of financial difficulties, but ends up picking up many children instead, to the comedy of Entatsu and Achako "The Haunted House of the Newlyweds" (1939), and "Ajapa Heaven" (1953) with "Banjun", and created a unique "Tora-san comedy" based on slapstick, especially Chaplin films.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

1905‐82(明治38‐昭和57)
映画監督。寅次郎とも。秋田県生れ。喜劇を得意とし，生涯喜劇のみを撮り続けた異色の作家。失業者たちが子豚を追いかけて奪い合っているうちにそのままラグビーの試合になってしまうという，〈狂気沙汰のアクションギャグ〉でクライマックスを迎える不況時代の風刺喜劇《子宝騒動》(1935，サイレント)，失業者が生活苦のため子を捨てにいくが逆にたくさんの子を拾ってしまうというチャップリン的どたばた人情喜劇《この子捨てざれば》(1935，サウンド版)から，エンタツ，アチャコの喜劇《新婚お化け屋敷》(1939)，〈伴淳〉の《アジャパー天国》(1953)等々に至るまで200本以上のナンセンス喜劇をつくり，スラプスティック，とくにチャップリン映画をねたに独特の〈寅次郎喜劇〉を創造した。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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