Shōhei Imamura

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Director Shōhei Imamura
Director Shōhei Imamura

Shōhei Imamura (今村 昌平 Imamura Shōhei?, Tokyo, 15 September 1926 – 30 May 2006) was a Japanese film director. Imamura was the first Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards, and is regarded as one of the most important and idiosyncratic filmmakers in the history of Japanese cinema. However, despite being one of the greatest Asian directors, he was never Oscar nominated in any category.

His eldest son Daisuke Tengan 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 11'9''01 September 11 (2002).

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[edit] Early life

Though born to a comfortably upper-middle-class doctor's family in Tokyo, Imamura was introduced to another part of post-war Japanese society early in life. For a short time after 1945, when Japan was in a devastated condition following the war, Imamura participated 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 Rashōmon?) 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.

[edit] Early career

Upon graduation from Waseda in 1951, Imamura began his film career working as an assistant to Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku Studios on the films Early Summer (麦秋 Bakushū?) (1951), The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (お茶漬の味 Ochazuke no aji?) (1952) and Tokyo Story (東京物語 Tōkyō 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. While Imamura's films were to have a quite different style from that of Ozu, like Ozu, Imamura 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 sometimes expressed surprise that his films were appreciated overseas ([2]).

[edit] Nikkatsu

Imamura left Shochiku in 1954 for a better salary at Nikkatsu, where he made his first film-- Stolen Desire (盗まれた欲情 Nusumareta yokujō?)-- in 1958. With this early tale of traveling actors, Imamura was able to indulge in some of the controversial and eccentric themes that were to mark his career as a filmmaker. Nikkatsu, however, was not enthusiastic about his more radical tendencies, and forced him to make a series of lighter films with which he was not happy. Nishi Ginza Station (西銀座駅前 Nishi Ginza ekimae?) was a comedy based on a pop-song. Endless Desire (果てしなき欲望 Hateshinaki yokubō?) and My Second Brother (にあんちゃん Nianchan?) were similar light fare that did not satisfy Imamura.

With his 1961 film, Pigs and Battleships (豚と軍艦 Buta to gunkan?), Imamura was able to fully indulge his interests in a wild and energetic story about the U.S. military base at Yokosuka and its relationship with lower elements of Japanese society. Shocked by the film and what they perceived as anti-American sentiments, Nikkatsu did not allow Imamura another project for two years. His next films, 1963's The Insect Woman (にっぽん昆虫記 Nippon konchūki?) and 1964's Unholy Desire or Intentions of Murder (赤い殺意 Akai satsui?) showed no toning down of his style. With these three films, Imamura had established himself 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]).

[edit] Imamura Productions

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 nyūmon?).

He next made his first venture into the documentary genre with 1967's A Man Vanishes (人間蒸発 Ningen Jōhatsu?). His 1968 film The Profound Desire of the Gods (神々の深き欲望 Kamigami no Fukaki Yokubō?) is an investigation of 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, documentary-like films for the next decade.

[edit] 1970s documentaries

History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (にっぽん戦後史　マダムおんぼろの生活 Nippon Sengoshi - Madamu onboro no Seikatsu?) 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. Imamura returned to more traditional fictional narrative forms with 1979's Vengeance Is Mine (復讐するは我にあり Fukushū suruwa wareniari?), though even this story about a serial killer is based on actual events of 1963.

Imamura founded the Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Yokohama Hōsō Eiga Senmon Gakkō) 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]

[edit] 1980s

Two large-scale remakes followed: Eijanaika (ええじゃないか ee ja nai ka?) (a re-imagining of the 1957 Yuzo Kawashima film, Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (幕末太陽傳 Bakumatsu taiyōden?), which Imamura helped write) and The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考 Narayama bushikō?), a re-telling of Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 The Ballad of Narayama.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Notes for a study on Shōhei Imamura by Donald Richie
  • Shohei Imamura (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 1) by James Quandt, ed.

[edit] External references