Noriaki Yuasa (湯浅 憲明, Yuasa Noriaki) (28 September 1933 – 14 June 2004) was a Japanesedirector. Yuasa was the main director of the Japanese film series Gamera, about a giant flying turtle that befriends small boys and battles giant monsters; he directed seven of the first eight films in the series while also providing special effects for one of them.[1] The series was created by Daiei Film Studios after the box office success of the TohoGodzilla series.[1] Yuasa's career for television dramas marks him as one of the best hitmakers for domestic television industries during 1970s.[2]
Noriaki Yuasa was born 28 September 1933 in Tokyo, Japan.[1] Yuasa was the son of a stage actor Hikaru Hoshi (jp). Additionally. his paternal grandmother was a shinpa actress Hideko Azuma, and his uncle Koji Shima was a movie director.[2] Yuaasa began work at a young age as a child actor,[1] while some of his careers were cancelled due to the World War II.[2][3] Yuasa's childhood experiences to witness adults, including his own teachers, to manipulate children for war and political affairs influenced his direction to make Gamera as the faithful protector of children.[4] Regarding war issues, he was vocally critical of the 1954 film Godzilla for its depictions of war aftermaths, which he deemed incorrect.[4]
After graduating university, he began to seek work on the production of films.[1] Yuasa joined Daiei Studios in 1955 and became director in 1964 with the musical comedy film If You're Happy, Clap Your Hands (jp).[1] He also participated in the 1956 tokusatsu film Warning from Space by his uncle Koji Shima as an extra.[3]
Yuasa's next project was a film tentatively tiled Giant Horde Beast Nezura which would involve real rats crawling over miniatures of cities.[1] The rats received for the film had fleas, which halted production on Nezura.[1] As the miniatures for the film were already built, Masaichi Nagata had to develop a giant monster to attack the city and had the idea for a giant flying turtle.[1] Yuasa, with his screenwriter Niisan Takahashi, developed the idea into the 1965 film Gamera the Giant Monster.[1]
Yuasa continued work directing films in the series except Gamera vs. Barugon, where he was only the special effects director. Yuasa's personal favorite of his Gamera films was Gamera vs. Viras.[1] Following the collapse of Daiei in 1971, he predominantly directed work for television, such as Electroid Zaborger, Iron King, and Ultraman-related productions; Princess Comet, Ultraman 80, and Anime-chan (jp) where Ultraman 80 instead influenced the production of the Heisei Gamera trilogy by Tokuma Shoten although Yuasa was critical of the trilogy.[1][5][2][6] His last full film was Gamera, Super Monster, which included extensive stock footage from the previous seven Gamera films.[1][5] At the bankruptcy of Daiei Film, Yuasa allegedly destroyed suits and models of Gamera productions due to frustration and distress.[7]
He later worked on smaller V-Cinema videos such as Kosupure senshi kyūtī naito 2 teikoku-ya no gyakushū (transl. Cosplay Warrior Cutie ・ Night 2 Counterattack of Imperial Shop) where he had appeared as the character "Dr. Yuasa",[8] and also directed the acting of Gamera by Hurricane Ryu who has also written the 1994 comic Giant Monster Gamera.[9][10]
Yuasa died of a stroke in Japan on 14 June 2004.[11]
Kiyoshi Kawamura published a novel titled The Flute of Gomera in 1971 after the bankruptcy of Daiei Film, which featured Daiei Film's tokusatsu crews facing hardships regards Gamera and other productions; its protagonist was based on Yonesaburo Tsukiji while characters based on Yuasa and others also appeared.[2]
