Heinosuke Gosho (1902-1981) was one of Japan's most important film directors for several decades of the twentieth century. He directed the first "talking" picture in Japan in 1931 and came to excel in what film historians classify as Japan's "shomingeki" genre, or movies that depict the lives of the lower and middle classes with both realism and humor. An essay in International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers noted that "throughout his career, Gosho expressed his basic belief in humanistic values," and commended "the warm, subtle, and sentimental depiction of likable people" in his films.

Rags to Riches Tale

Gosho's own life seemed fodder for a Cinderella-style plot: he was born in Tokyo on February 1, 1902, to a mother who was a geisha and renowned beauty. His father was a well-to-do tobacco merchant who refused to marry her, and thus Gosho spent the first years of his life in Tokyo's old...