Yodogawa Nagaharu

[Aaron Gerow]

Yodogawa Nagaharu, probably Japan's most beloved film critic, died 
yesterday of heart failure at the age of 89.  Yodogawa had been active as 
a film critic and editor (_Eigo no tomo_) from before the war, but it was 
his energetic but simple, rhythmic and precise commentaries on radio and 
then on television, where he would introduce the evening movie, that made 
him a household name.  Except for supporting such Japanese directors as 
Kurosawa and Kitano, Yodogawa was almost exclusively a critic of foreign 
films, professing love for Chaplin, Ford, and many other foreign 
filmmakers.  Yet his autobiographies of his early filmgoing days in Kobe 
reveal an almost photographic memory for details about Japanese films 
long since lost, and thus are essential material for any film historian.  
Yodogawa never married, always saying that his only love in life was the 
cinema.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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