Kinuyo Tanaka Directs: Married to Cinema (opens in new tab)

As the 1950s began, Kinuyo Tanaka found herself at a turning point. She had been acting in films since she was fourteen, becoming one of Japan’s most beloved, admired, and prolific women stars. Now in her early forties, she saw that leading roles were slipping away from her and faced predictably sexist criticism over her age. Boldly, she set her sights on directing, though there was not a single female director then working in the Japanese film industry—and only one woman, Tazuko Sakane, had ...