Shōhei Imamura
Shōhei Imamura (Tokyo, 15 September 1926 – 30 May, 2006; Japanese: 今村 昌平, Imamura Shōhei) was a Japanese film director. He graduated from Waseda University in 1951 and worked at Nikkatsu Corporation from 1954, where he made his first film in 1958. Imamura was the first Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards, and is regarded as one of the most important Japanese film makers since Akira Kurosawa. His oldest son Dengan Daisuke is also a script writer and film director, and worked on the screenplays to Imamura's films, The Eel (1997), Dr. Akagi (1998), Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001) and 9'11''01 September 11 (2002).
Career
Though born to a comfortably upper-middle-class doctor's family in Tokyo, with Japan left in a devastated condition after the war, Imamura was given a different view of society early in life. He participated for a short time in the thriving black market selling cigarettes and liquor. Reflecting this period of his life, Imamura's interests as a filmmaker were usually focused on the lower strata of Japanese society. He studied Western history at Waseda University, but spent more time participating in theatrical and political activities.[1] He cited a viewing of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (羅生門, Rashômon) in 1950 as an early inspiration, and said he saw it as an indication of the new freedom of expression possible in Japan in the post-war era.
Upon graduation in 1951, Imamura began his film career working as an assistant to Yasujiro Ozu at Shochiku Studios on the films Early Summer (麦秋, Bakushû) (1951), The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (お茶漬の味, Ochazuke no aji) (1952) and Tokyo Story (東京物語, Tokyo monogatari) (1953). Imamura, however, found himself uncomfortable with the highly refined and restrained way Ozu was portraying Japanese society in his films of this period, and left Shochiku in 1954 for a better salary at Nikkatsu. While their styles were quite different, Imamura, like Ozu, focused on what he saw as particularly Japanese elements of society in his films. "I've always wanted to ask questions about the Japanese, because it's the only people I'm qualified to describe," he said. He sometimes expressed surprise that his films were appreciated overseas. [2]
His films Pigs and Battleships (豚と軍艦, Buta to gunkan) (1961), The Insect Woman (にっぽん昆虫記, Nippon konchuki) (1963) and Unholy Desire or Intentions of Murder (赤い殺意, Akai satsui) (1964) earned him a reputation as a director with a strong and unique vision, and one of the leading figures of the Japanese New Wave. Seeing himself as a cultural anthropologist, Imamura stated, "I like to make messy films," [3] and "I am interested in the relationship of the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure... I ask myself what differentiates humans from other animals. What is a human being? I look for the answer by continuing to make films." [4]
In order to more freely explore themes like these without studio interference, he established his own production company, Imamura Productions, in 1965. His first independent feature was a free adaptation of Akiyuki Nozaka's 1963 novel about life on the fringes of Osaka society, Erogotoshi-Tachi (The Pornographers). Indicative of his interests, Imamura added a subtitle to the film: An Introduction to Anthropology through The Pornographers (エロ事師たちより 人類学入門, Erogotoshitachi yori Jinruigaku nyumon).
His 1968 film The Profound Desire of the Gods (神々の深き欲望, Kamigami no Fukaki Yokubo) is an investigation of the clash between modern and traditional societies on a southern Japanese island.
Primarily interested in documentary-like films in the 1970s, Imamura returned to more traditional fictional narrative forms with 1979's Vengeance Is Mine (復讐するは我にあり, Fukushû suruwa wareniari), though even this story about a serial killer is based on actual actual events of 1963.
Imamura founded the Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Yokohama Hoso Eiga Senmon Gakko) in 1975. While a student at this school, director Takashi Miike was given his first film credit, as assistant director on Imamura's 1987 film Zegen. [5] Another graduate of Imamura's film school is new Korean director, Hwang Byung-Guk [6]
Filmography
- Stolen Desire (1958)
- Nishi Ginza Station (1958)
- Endless Desire (1958)
- My Second Brother (1959)
- Pigs and Battleships (1961)
- The Insect Woman (1963)
- Unholy Desire (1964)
- The Pornographers (1966)
- A Man Vanishes (1967)
- The Profound Desire of the Gods or Kuragejima - Legends from a Southern Island (1968)
- History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970)
- Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute (1975)
- Vengeance is Mine (1979)
- Ee ja nai ka or Why Not? (1981)
- The Ballad of Narayama (1982, Palme d'Or)
- Zegen (1987)
- Black Rain (1989)
- The Eel (1998, Palme d'Or)
- Dr. Akagi (1998)
- Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)
- 9'11''01 September 11 (2002)
See also
Further reading
- Notes for a study on Shōhei Imamura by Donald Richie
- Shohei Imamura (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 1) by James Quandt, ed.