Senkichi Taniguchi

**Senkichi Taniguchi** (谷口 千吉, *Taniguchi Senkichi,* February 19, 1912 – October 29, 2007) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.

## Senkichi Taniguchi

### Occupation

Director
Writer
Producer

### Spouse(s)

Yoko Mizuki (1938-39)
Setsuko Wakayama (1949-1956)
Kaoru Yachigusa (1957-2007)

Born in Tokyo, Japan, he attended Waseda University but left before graduating due to his involvement in a left-wing theater troupe. He joined P.C.L. (a precursor to Toho) in 1933 and began working as an assistant director to Kajirō Yamamoto alongside his longtime friend, acclaimed Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa.

He made his feature film directing debut in 1947 with Snow Trail, which was written by Kurosawa. Snow Trail starred Toshirō Mifune in his film debut and actress Setsuko Wakayama. It helped establish Taniguchi's reputation for action film.

Taniguchi and Wakayama married in 1949 (he had earlier been married to the screenwriter Yōko Mizuki), but the couple divorced in 1956.Taniguchi married his third wife, actress Kaoru Yachigusa, in 1957. Yachigusa and Taniguchi remained together for over fifty years until his death in 2007.

Taniguchi was the screenwriter for the 1949 film, The Quiet Duel, which Kurosawa directed and which also starred Mifune. His most acclaimed film as a director was Escape at Dawn, a controversial anti-war work from 1950 about a Japanese soldier and a "comfort woman" that got into trouble with Occupation era censors. Taniguchi continued to direct movies throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but the quality of his work declined. His films from the time period include Man Against Man, The Gambling Samurai, Man In The Storm and The Lost World of Sinbad.

His 1965 film International Secret Police: Key of Keys has been famously re-dubbed and re-released as What's Up, Tiger Lily? by Woody Allen. He was chosen as the supervising director of the official documentary of Expo '70.

Senkichi Taniguchi died of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo, Japan, on October 29, 2007, at the age of 95.

## Career

Prolific director of action and fantasy films. He joined PCL in 1933 and served under Kajiro Yamamoto as an assistant director, alongside Akira Kurosawa and Ishiro Honda. The three would remain lifelong friends. Taniguchi made his directorial debut in 1947 with the film Snow Trail; this film also had the distinction of being the first film for famed actor Toshiro Mifune and composer Akira Ifukube. He would go on to continue directing films that blended genres like action, comedy, and sometimes fantasy.

Taniguchi’s most famous work was a spy film in the International Secret Police series, Key of Keys (1965) & The Killing Bottle (1967). Key of Keys was this film that would be redubbed and recut into Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily?. He also directed two [very similar] fantasy films in the 60s with Toshiro Mifune: Samurai Pirate (1963) and The Adventure of Taklamakan (1966). His output dwindled towards the end of the 60s, and by the 70s he was more or less retired from filmmaking.

Taniguchi was married 3 times; first to playwright Yoko Mizuki, second to actress Setsuko Wakayama (of Godzilla Raids Again fame), and finally to actress Kaoru Yachigusa. Taniguchi and Yachigusa would remain married until his death in 2007.