was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was best known for making

yakuza film is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of ''yakuza'', Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of ''bakuto'' (precursors to modern yakuza) as sympathetic Robin Hood-li ...

s at the

Toei Company () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by i ...

in 1960s.

Biography

Born in

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Kato was the nephew of the film director

Sadao Yamanaka was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed 26 films between 1932 and 1938. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi and one of the primary figures in the development of the ''jidaigeki'', or historic ...

. He entered the

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

studio in 1937 and first began by working on

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

. He worked as an assistant director to

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

in ''

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and ...

''. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he switched to making

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—''Portrait of Hel ...

Style and influences

Kevin Thomas of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' noted that Kato has been compared with

Budd Boetticher Oscar "Budd" Boetticher Jr. ( ; July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001) was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott. Early life Boetticher was born in ...

and

Samuel Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget B movie, genre movies with controversial themes, often ...

Selected filmography

* ''

Brave Records of the Sanada Clan is a Japanese film directed by Tai Kato in 1963. It is a jidaigeki musical film, musical about Sasuke Sarutobi and the Sanada Ten Braves who, under the leadership of Yukimura Sanada, try to defend Toyotomi Hideyori during the Siege of Osaka, si ...

'' (1963) * ''

Kaze no Bushi is a 1961 jidaigeki novel by Ryōtarō Shiba (the author of ''Fukurō no Shiro''). It has been adapted into a 1960-1961 TV series and a Toei Company 1964 color chanbara film under the same title, directed by Tai Kato. Story The film tells th ...

'' (1964) * ''Bakumatsu zankoku monogatari (AKA Cruel Story of the Shogunate's Downfall)'' (1964) * ''Meiji Kyokyakuden: Sandaime Shumei'' (1965) * ''Kutsukake Tokijiro: Yukyo Ippiki'' (1966) * ''By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him'' (1966) * ''I, the Executioner'' (1968) * ''Red Peony Gambler: Hanafuda Shobu'' (1969) * ''Red Peony Gambler: Oryu Sanjo'' (1970) * ''Miyamoto Musashi'' (1973) * ''Ondekoza'' (1981)

References

External links

* * 1916 births 1985 deaths Japanese film directors Samurai film directors {{Japan-film-director-stub