Yutaka Abe

(1895-1977)

Japanese film director

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Yutaka Abe (阿部豊, Abe Yutaka, February 2, 1895 in Yamoto, Miyagi – January 3, 1977 in Kyoto) was a Japanese film director and actor. He went to America along with a younger brother to visit an uncle living in Los Angeles. There he enrolled in an acting school and upon hearing that Thomas H. Ince was looking for Japanese extras to work in his studios he applied and was accepted in 1914. He appeared in such films as The Wrath of the Gods and The Cheat with Sessue Hayakawa. He was often billed as "Jack Abbe" or "Jack Yutake Abbe." He returned to Japan in 1925, finding work at the Nikkatsu studio, and soon made his debut as a director. Among his early works was the 1926 silent film The Woman Who Touched the Legs (Ashi ni sawatta onna), a comedy about a writer and a woman thief. This film, along with most of Abe's early work, is now lost. Before and during World War II, Abe directed a number of nationalistic propaganda films including Moyuru ōzora (Flaming Sky) and Ano hata o ute (Fire on That Flag).