Shōhei Imamura

Template:Nihongo was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society.<ref name="soc">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Jacoby">Template:Cite book</ref> A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from Japan to win two Palme d'Or awards.

Biography

Early life

Imamura was born to an upper-middle-class doctor's family in Tokyo in 1926. For a short time following the end of the war, Imamura participated in the black market selling cigarettes and liquor. He studied Western history at Waseda University, but spent more time participating in theatrical and political activities.<ref name="soc" /> He cited a viewing of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon 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.<ref name="guardian" />

Upon graduation from Waseda in 1951, Imamura began his film career working as an assistant to Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku Studios on films like Early Summer and Tokyo Story.<ref name="soc" /> Imamura was uncomfortable with the image of Japanese society portrayed in Ozu's films,<ref name="guardian" /> as well as with his rigid directing of actors,<ref name="soc" /> although he later admitted that he profited from his apprenticeship for Ozu in terms of gaining technical knowledge.<ref name="Toronto58">Template:Cite book</ref> While Imamura's films were to have a quite different style from Ozu's, Imamura, like Ozu, was to focus 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 expressed surprise that his films were appreciated overseas, even doubting that they could be understood.<ref name="guardian">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Studio director

Imamura left Shochiku in 1954 to join the Nikkatsu studios, where he worked as an assistant director to Yūzō Kawashima. According to Donald Richie, Imamura shared with Kawashima an interest in depicting the "real" Japan with its "uncivilized", amoral protagonists, in opposition to the "official" version as depicted in the films of Ozu, Mizoguchi Kenji, and late career Kurosawa.<ref name="Richie_100">Template:Cite book</ref> He also co-wrote the screenplay to Kawashima's Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate, and much later edited a book about Kawashima, entitled Sayonara dake ga jinsei da.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1958, Imamura made his directorial debut at Nikkatsu, Stolen Desire, about a travelling theater troupe which combines kabuki with striptease, a film which, according to Jonathan Rosenbaum, "characteristically finds some vitality in vulgarity".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He continued to direct films the studio had assigned him to, including Nishi Ginza Station, a comedy based on a Frankie Nagai pop song, and the black comedy Endless Desire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> My Second Brother, which portrayed a community of zainichi in a poor mining town, was described by Alexander Jacoby as an "uncharacteristically tender film".<ref name="Jacoby" />

His 1961 satire Pigs and Battleships, of which Imamura later said that it was the kind of film he always had wanted to make,<ref name="Toronto58" /> depicted black market trades between the U.S. military and the local underworld at Yokosuka. Due to the film's controversial nature<ref name="ES">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Imamura's overrunning production time and costs,<ref name="Criterion">Template:Cite AV media</ref> Nikkatsu did not allow Imamura to direct another project for two years, forcing him to concentrate on screenwriting.<ref name="Criterion" /> He followed this hiatus with the 1963 The Insect Woman, which was shown in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the 1964 Unholy Desire. All three films presented female protagonists who were survivors, persevering despite misfortunes. Imamura disliked the self-sacrificing women portrayed in films like Mizoguchi's The Life of Oharu and Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds, arguing that "they don't really exist...My heroines are true to life".<ref name="Richie_100" />

Independent filmmaker

In 1965, Imamura established his own production company, Imamura Productions. His first independent feature was a free adaptation of a novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, The Pornographers (1966), which is nowadays regarded as one of his best-known films in the West.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1967, he followed with the pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes,<ref name="Jacoby" /> which, while following a woman searching for her missing fiancé, increasingly blurred the line between non-fiction and fiction. His 1968 film Profound Desires of the Gods investigated the clash between modern and traditional societies on a southern Japanese island. One of Imamura's more ambitious and costly projects, this film's poor box-office performance led to a retreat back into smaller productions, causing him to direct a series of documentaries over the next decade, often for Japanese television.<ref name="kac-cinema">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess and Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute were two of these projects, both focusing on one of his favorite themes: Strong women who survive on the periphery of Japanese society. Two others followed Japanese ex-soldiers in Malaysia and Thailand reluctant to returning home, and speaking openly about their past war crimes on camera.<ref name="kac-cinema" />

Imamura returned to fiction with the 1979 Vengeance Is Mine, based on the true story of serial killer Akira Nishiguchi. Two large-scale remakes followed, Eijanaika (1981), a re-imagining of Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate, and The Ballad of Narayama (1983), a re-telling of Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 The Ballad of Narayama. For the latter, Imamura received his first Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Black Rain (1989) portrayed the effect of the bombing of Hiroshima on a family years after the incident. Film scholar Alexander Jacoby discovered an uncommon, "almost Ozu-like quietism" in this film.<ref name="Jacoby" /> The Eel (1997) again secured Imamura a Palme d'Or, this time shared with Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry.

Starting with The Eel, Imamura's eldest son Daisuke Tengan worked on the screenplays of his films, including Imamura's contribution to the anthology film 11'09"01 September 11 (2002), his last directorial effort. In 2002, Imamura played the role of a historian in the South Korean film 2009: Lost Memories.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Imamura died on 30 May 2006, aged 79.

Themes

Seeing himself as a cultural anthropologist, Imamura stated, "I like to make messy films",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Legacy

Imamura founded the Japan Institute of the Moving Image (Template:Nihongo2) as the Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Yokohama Hōsō Eiga Senmon Gakkō) in 1975.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While a student at this school, director Takashi Miike was given his first film credit as assistant director on Imamura's 1987 film Zegen.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Filmography (selected)

All films are as director except where otherwise noted.

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1956	The Balloon	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Also second assistant director
1957	Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Also assistant director
1958	Stolen Desire	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
	Nishi Ginza Station	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Endless Desire	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1959	My Second Brother	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1961	Pigs and Battleships	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
1962	Foundry Town	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
1963	Samurai no ko	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Keirin shônin gyôjyôki	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	The Insect Woman	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1964	Unholy Desire	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1966	The Pornographers	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1967	A Man Vanishes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
1968	Neon taheiki	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Higashi Shinakai	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Profound Desires of the Gods	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
	East China Sea	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
1970	History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Television documentary
1971	In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Malaysia	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Television documentary
	In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Thailand	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Television documentary
1972	The Pirates of Bubuan	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Television documentary
1973	Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Television documentary
1975	Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Television documentary
1976	The Youth Killer	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
1979	Vengeance Is Mine	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year Japan Academy Film Prize for Director of the Year
1981	Eijanaika	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1983	The Ballad of Narayama	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Palme d'Or Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year
1986	Have You Seen the Barefoot God?	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
1987	The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Documentary
	Zegen	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1989	Black Rain	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year Japan Academy Film Prize for Director of the Year Technical Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival
1997	The Eel	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Palme d'Or Japan Academy Film Prize for Director of the Year
1998	Dr. Akagi	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2001	Warm Water Under a Red Bridge	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2002	11'09"01 September 11	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Anthology film episode "Japan"

External links

• Template:Imdb name
• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}