Kihachi Okamoto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kihachi Okamoto (岡本喜八 Okamoto Kihachi, 17 February 1923 – 19 February 2005) was a Japanese film director who has worked in several different genres, including jidaigeki. He was born in Yonago. He graduated from the Meiji University. He directed almost 40 films and wrote at least 24 films.

One of his most notable works is Samurai Assassin (1965) starring Toshiro Mifune, about a group of 19th Century political agitators planning to kill an important government official. The Japanese title is simply Samurai. Other works by Okamoto include The Sword of Doom (1966), Kill! (Japanese title: Kiru) (1968), and the anti-war film, The Human Bullet (1968).

Alongside Masaki Kobayashi, Okamoto was also a candidate for directing the Japanese sequences for Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) but instead Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda were chosen.

[edit] External links

• Kihachi Okamoto at the Internet Movie Database
• JMDb profile (in Japanese)