Tizuka Yamasaki

Tizuka Yamasaki (born May 12, 1949) is a Brazilian film director.^[1]

Early life and work

Born in Porto Alegre, at the age of 2, Tizuka moved back with her Japanese immigrants parents to the city of Atibaia, in the state of São Paulo. In her teenage years, Yamasaki moved to São Paulo city for an undergraduate course in architecture, though she changed her mind before her admission and moved to Brasília to study cinema instead. Yamasaki finished college in Rio de Janeiro, where she started her professional career.

Yamasaki worked as director assistant with Nelson Pereira dos Santos and Glauber Rocha. She's also a director of telenovelas and TV series.

Tizuka gained some critical acclaim with her film 1980 Gaijin, Os Caminhos da Liberdade, a story about Japanese immigration to Brazil.^[2] She has, however, been criticized for directing overly commercial movies with the children TV show hostess Xuxa. In 2003, she completed Gaijin 2 as a sequel to her debut film.

Television productions

• Metamorphoses (2004) - telenovela
• A madona de cedro (1994) - miniseries
• Amazônia (1992) - telenovela
• Kananga do Japão (1989) - telenovela
• O pagador de promessas (1988) - miniseries

Filmography as director

• Gaijin - Os Caminhos da Liberdade (1980)
• Parahyba, Mulher-Macho (1983)
• Patriamada (1984)
• kananga do japao (1989)
• Lua de Cristal (1990)
• Fica Comigo (1996)
• O Noviço Rebelde (1997)
• Xuxa Requebra (1999)
• Xuxa Popstar (2000)
• Gaijin - Ama-me Como Sou (2005)

References

1. Pick, Zuzana M. (1993). The new Latin American cinema: a continental project. University of Texas Press. p. 150.
2. Fitch, Melissa A. (2009). Side dishes: Latina American women, sex, and cultural production. Rutgers University Press. p. 118. ISBN 0-8135-4525-0.