Yasuzō Masumura | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 23 November 1986 Japan | (aged 62)
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
Yasuzō Masumura (増村 保造, Masumura Yasuzō, 25 August 1924 – 23 November 1986) was a Japanese film director.[1][2]
Biography
Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi.[1][2] After graduating from the law department at the University of Tokyo, he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio.[1] He later returned to university to study philosophy and graduated in 1951.[1] The following year, he won a scholarship allowing him to study film in Italy at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.[3]
Masumura returned to Japan in 1953. From 1955, he worked as a second-unit director on films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa and Daisuke Ito.[4] In 1957, he directed his own first film Kisses,[4] which caused film critic (and future director) Nagisa Ōshima to note, "a powerful irresistible force has arrived in Japanese Cinema."[5] Over the next three decades, he directed 58 films in a variety of genres.[6]
Legacy
According to film critic Shigehiko Hasumi, filmmaker Shinji Aoyama had declared Masumura "the most important filmmaker in the history of postwar Japanese cinema."[7]
Filmography
Title | Year | Credited as | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Director | Screenwriter | Assistant director | ||
Princess Yang Kwei Fei | 1955 | Yes | ||
Street of Shame | 1956 | Yes | ||
Punishment Room | 1956 | Yes | ||
Nihonbashi | 1956 | Yes | ||
The Crowded Streetcar | 1957 | Yes | ||
Kisses | 1957 | Yes | ||
The Blue Sky Maiden | 1957 | Yes | ||
Warm Current | 1957 | Yes | ||
The Precipice | 1958 | Yes | ||
Giants and Toys | 1958 | Yes | ||
The Lowest Man | 1958 | Yes | ||
Undutiful Street | 1958 | Yes | ||
The Most Valuable Madam | 1959 | Yes | ||
The Cast-Off | 1959 | Yes | ||
Beauty the Enemy | 1959 | Yes | ||
Across Darkness | 1959 | Yes | ||
A Woman's Testament (first segment) | 1960 | Yes | ||
Afraid to Die | 1960 | Yes | ||
The Woman Who Touched the Legs | 1960 | Yes | ||
A False Student | 1960 | Yes | ||
Desperate to Love | 1961 | Yes | ||
A Lustful Man | 1961 | Yes | ||
A Wife Confesses | 1961 | Yes | ||
The Burdened Sisters | 1961 | Yes | ||
Stolen Pleasure | 1962 | Yes | ||
Black Test Car | 1962 | Yes | ||
Life of a Woman | 1962 | Yes | ||
The Black Report | 1963 | Yes | ||
When Women Lie | 1963 | Yes | ||
Band of Pure-Hearted Hoodlums | 1963 | Yes | ||
Modern Fraud Story: Cheat | 1964 | Yes | ||
With My Husband's Consent | 1964 | Yes | ||
Seventeen-year-old Wolf | 1964 | Yes | ||
Manji | 1964 | Yes | ||
Super-Express | 1964 | Yes | ||
Hoodlum Soldier | 1965 | Yes | ||
Seisaku's Wife | 1965 | Yes | ||
Irezumi | 1966 | Yes | ||
Nakano Spy School | 1966 | Yes | ||
Red Angel (Movie) | 1966 | Yes | ||
Two Wives | 1967 | Yes | ||
A Certain Killer | 1967 | Yes | ||
Just for You | 1967 | Yes | ||
A Fool's Love | 1967 | Yes | ||
The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka | 1967 | Yes | ||
Evil Trio | 1968 | Yes | ||
The Sex Check | 1968 | Yes | ||
The House of Wooden Blocks | 1968 | Yes | ||
One Day at Summer's End | 1968 | Yes | ||
Blind Beast | 1969 | Yes | ||
A Thousand Cranes | 1969 | Yes | ||
Vixen | 1969 | Yes | ||
Electric Jellyfish | 1970 | Yes | ||
Ode to the Yakuza | 1970 | Yes | ||
The Hot Little Girl | 1970 | Yes | ||
Games | 1971 | Yes | ||
New Hoodlum Soldier Story: Firing Line | 1972 | Yes | ||
Music | 1972 | Yes | ||
Hanzo the Razor:The Snare | 1973 | Yes | ||
Hanzo the Razor: Who's Got the Gold? | 1974 | Yes | ||
Akumyo: Notorious Dragon | 1974 | Yes | ||
Mainline to Terror | 1975 | Yes | ||
Lullaby of the Earth | 1976 | Yes | ||
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki | 1978 | Yes | ||
The Garden of Eden | 1980 | Yes | ||
For My Daughter's 7th Birthday | 1982 | Yes |
References
- ^ a b c d "増村保造 (Masumura Yasuzō)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 31 January 2021.
- ^ a b "増村保造". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (30 April 1998). "Tales of Ordinary Madness: Films by Yasuzo Masumura". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ a b Mes, Tom (1 June 2010). "Yasuzo Masumura: Passion and Excess". Midnight Eye. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ "Kisses". Independent Cinema Offices. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ Parkinson, David (28 February 2006). "Yasuzo Masumura 2005". BBC. Archived from the original on 17 January 2006. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (3 October 2021). "Dialogue Between Shigehiko Hasumi and Jonathan Rosenbaum on Howard Hawks and Yasuzo Masumura". JonathanRosenbaum.net. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
Further reading
- "Yasuzo Masumura Filmography". Blind Beast (Booklet). Arrow Films. 2021. AV373.
External links
- Yasuzō Masumura at IMDb
- Yasuzō Masumura at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)