NEW YOJI YAMADA FILM

Shochiku has announced the next Yoji Yamada film and - surprise! - it's a period piece. But what's genuinely surprising is that it's set not in the distant past like TWILIGHT SAMURAI or THE HIDDEN BLADE, but in the 1940's.

KABEI is based on a nonfiction account of a mother living through hard times in the 1940's called Chichi Eno Requiem. It stars Sayuri Yoshinaga who last worked with Yamada 35 years ago in two of the Tora-san films, TORA-SAN'S LOVESICK and TORA-SAN'S DEAR OLD HOME. It's her 112th film.

The movie is set for a 2008 release and currently in the planning stages. Yamada has this to say about it:

"I would like to make this film with homage to all of the tender mothers who held her family in her arms and lived through hard time like a raging roller storm."

Expect to cry.