1 Francisco J. López Rodríguez holds a PhD in Communication Studies (University of Seville, Spain) and an MSc in Film Studies (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom). He is currently researching about Japanese cinema in Nagoya University. Kenta Kato is a Tokyo-based film scholar, film critic, festival programmer. He is currently working on a Master's degree in Film Studies from the point of view of Queer Theory at Waseda University. Karen Severns is a writer, filmmaker and educator who specializes in architecture and film. She teaches at Waseda University and Tokyo University of the Arts. The Twilight of an Era of Filmmaking. Yōji Yamada and Jidaigeki. Jose Montaño Film director Yamada YŇji is among the elder of Japanese cinema, with more than 80 films in his long service record. Yamaōa’s Ōareer path is inextricably bound to ShŇŌhiku, one of the most important production companies in Japanese film history, which he joined right after graduation from the Tokyo University, in 1954. Following the usual path he gradually ascended from the bottom tier of the organigram to the top positions of responsibility in film production. His apprenticeship was conducted in the unit of famed director Nomura YoshitarŇ, to whom started screenwriting a few years later and get to become his assistant director. In 1961 he was entrusted to direct his first film feature and started a prolific filmography. A career path like that was the usual in the industrialized production system that for a long time ruled Japanese Cinema. The major film producers, included Shochiku with other well-known brands seals like those of TŇhŇ, TŇei, Daiei and Nikkatsu, –the so called big 5–, all with their own production studios, staff and stars. This form of organization favoured the conformation of solidly consolidated work teams. Also, each company relied on themes, genres and approaches proven successful for its audience and therefore guaranteed returns. Both factors combined, each studio developed its own recognizable set up style. In the case of Shochiku, its studio in ņfuna, in the outskirts of Yokohama, was specialized in films about ordinary low-middle class people in contemporary urban settings, with director Ozu as its prime example. When the social and economic changes in the 1960s threatened their business model and the majors started worrying at their sustained loss of spectators, one common response was to keep on producing once and again sequels of their successful productions. Serialization became one of the treats of Japanese cinema from the late 60s. Yamaōa’s profile fits perfeŌtly in the described pattern. He has been working for decades with a usual group of collaborators, labelled as the Yamada-gumi, the group of Yamada, which has been working together from the ņfuna Stuōio age. Yamaōa anō his group have a long experienŌe on delivering comedies about ordinary people in domestic settings, labelled by critics as ninjo kigeki or humanist comedy, displaying the so called naki warai –literally tears and laughs– style, that bring his comedy close to melodrama.