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Shōhei Imamura

{{Short description|Japanese film director (1926–2006)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Shōhei Imamura

| native_name = 今村昌平

| native_name_lang = ja

| image = Shōhei Imamura.jpg

| image_size = 211px

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1926|9|15}}

| birth_place = Tokyo, Empire of Japan

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2006|5|30|1926|9|15}}

| death_place = Tokyo, Japan

| nationality = Japanese

| years_active = 1951–2002

| movement = Japanese New Wave

| awards = Palme d'Or (1983, 1997)

| alma_mater = Waseda University

| occupation = Film director, screenwriter, producer

}}

{{nihongo|Shōhei Imamura|今村昌平|Imamura Shōhei|15 September 1926 – 30 May 2006}} was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society.{{cite journal|last=Kim |first=Nelson |date=July 2013 |title=Shohei Imamura |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/imamura/ |journal=Senses of Cinema |issue=27 |pages=3–10 |access-date=18 July 2015}}{{cite book|last=Jacoby |first=Alexander |date=2008 |title=Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day |location=Berkeley |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |pages=65–68 |isbn=978-1-933330-53-2}} 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. 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.

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. Imamura was uncomfortable with the image of Japanese society portrayed in Ozu's films, as well as with his rigid directing of actors, although he later admitted that he profited from his apprenticeship for Ozu in terms of gaining technical knowledge.{{cite book|title=Shohei Imamura |last=Tessier |first=Max |chapter=Shohei Imamura interview |editor-last=Quandt |editor-first=James |publisher=Toronto International Film Festival Group |year=1999 |page=58}} 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.{{cite web|author=Nigel Kendall |url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,667028,00.html |title=All you need is sex. Japanese director Shohei Imamura tells Nigel Kendall the secret of life |website=The Guardian |date=2002-03-14 |access-date=3 August 2021}}

=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.{{cite book|last=Richie |first=Donald |date=2005 |title=A Hundred Years of Japanese Film |location=Tokyo, New York, London |publisher=Kodansha International |pages=183–191 |isbn=978-4-7700-2995-9 |edition=Revised}} 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.{{cite book|last=Imamura |first=Shōhei |title=Sayonara dake ga jinsei da: eiga kantoku Kawashima Yūzō no shōgai |year=1991 |publisher=Nōberu Shobō |location=Tokyo |oclc=37241487}}

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".{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/stolen-desire/Film?oid=1060281 |title=Stolen Desire |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=Jonathan |date=3 January 2008 |publisher=Chicago Reader |access-date=4 August 2021}} 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.{{cite book|title=Shohei Imamura |last=Kehr |first=Dave |chapter=The Last Rising Sun |editor-last=Quandt |editor-first=James |publisher=Toronto International Film Festival Group |year=1999 |pages=71–73}}{{cite web|url=https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/lights-of-night-2007-12 |title=Lights of Night, My Second Brother |website=Harvard Film Archive|date=9 December 2007 }} My Second Brother, which portrayed a community of zainichi in a poor mining town, was described by Alexander Jacoby as an "uncharacteristically tender film".

His 1961 satire Pigs and Battleships, of which Imamura later said that it was the kind of film he always had wanted to make, depicted black market trades between the U.S. military and the local underworld at Yokosuka. Due to the film's controversial nature{{cite web|url=http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/reviews/2011/07/05/pigs-and-battleships/ |title=Pigs and Battleships |last1=Berra |first1=John |date=July 5, 2011 |website=www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk |publisher=Electric Sheep |access-date=July 15, 2015}} and Imamura's overrunning production time and costs,{{cite AV media|people= |date=2009 |title=Conversations between Shohei Imamura and critic Tadao Sato about The Insect Woman and Intentions of Murder, in: Pigs, Pimps, & Prostitutes: 3 Films by Shohei Imamura |trans-title= |medium=DVD |publisher=The Criterion Collection}} Nikkatsu did not allow Imamura to direct another project for two years, forcing him to concentrate on screenwriting. 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".

=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.{{cite book|last=Sklar |first=Robert |year=2002 |title=Film: An International History of the Medium |edition=2nd |publisher=Prentice Hall |location=New York |isbn=978-0-130340498 |page=365}}{{cite book|title=Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past |last2=Lynch |first2=Deidre |last1=Keirstead |first1=Thomas |chapter=Eijanaika: Japanese Modernization and the Carnival of Time |editor-first=Robert A. |editor-last=Rosenstone |page=226 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=1995}} In 1967, he followed with the pseudo-documentary A Man Vanishes, 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.{{cite web|url=https://kac-cinema.jp/theater/detail.php?id=001084 |title=今村昌平TVドキュメンタリー傑作集 (Shohei Imamura TV documentary masterpiece collection) |website=Kawasaki Art Center |language=ja |access-date=30 July 2021}}

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.

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. 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/person/p0122340.htm|title=今村昌平 (Imamura Shōhei) |access-date=2008-07-03 |language=ja |publisher=Japanese Movie Database}}

Imamura died on 30 May 2006, aged 79.

Themes

Seeing himself as a cultural anthropologist, Imamura stated, "I like to make messy films",{{cite web|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/1999-10-29/screens_feature7.html |access-date=June 1, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510061815/http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/1999-10-29/screens_feature7.html |archive-date=May 10, 2006 |title=Pigs, Pimps, and Pornographers. Austin Film Society Free Cinema Series: Shohei Imamura |first=Salvatore |last=Botti |date=29 October 1999}} 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".{{cite web|url=http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/imamura_shohei.shtml |title=Modern Japan - Famous Japanese - Imamura Shohei |publisher=Japan-zone.com |date=2006-11-16 |access-date=2012-12-31}}

Legacy

Imamura founded the Japan Institute of the Moving Image ({{nihongo2|日本映画大学}}) as the Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Yokohama Hōsō Eiga Senmon Gakkō) in 1975.{{cite web|url=http://www.eiga.ac.jp/about/history|script-title=ja:歴史と沿革|trans-title=History and Development|access-date=31 December 2012|language=ja|publisher=Japan Academy of the Moving Image|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121228155810/http://www.eiga.ac.jp/about/history|archive-date=28 December 2012}} While a student at this school, director Takashi Miike was given his first film credit as assistant director on Imamura's 1987 film Zegen.{{cite web|url=http://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/017.htm |title=Catalogue | The Masters of Cinema Series |publisher=Eurekavideo.co.uk |access-date=2012-12-31}}

Filmography (selected)

All films are as director except where otherwise noted.

class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"

! scope="col" | Year

! scope="col" | Title

! scope="col" width="65" | Director

! scope="col" width="65" | Writer

! scope="col" width="65" | Producer

! scope="col" | Notes

scope="row" | 1956

| The Balloon

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| Also second assistant director

scope="row" | 1957

| Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| Also assistant director

scope="row" rowspan="3" | 1958

| Stolen Desire

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

|

Nishi Ginza Station

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

Endless Desire

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1959

| My Second Brother

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1961

| Pigs and Battleships

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1962

| Foundry Town

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" rowspan="3" | 1963

| Samurai no ko

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

Keirin shônin gyôjyôki

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

The Insect Woman

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1964

| Unholy Desire

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1966

| The Pornographers

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

|

scope="row" | 1967

| A Man Vanishes

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

|

scope="row" rowspan="4" | 1968

| Neon taheiki

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

Higashi Shinakai

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

|

Profound Desires of the Gods

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

East China Sea

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1970

| History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| Television documentary

scope="row" rowspan="2" | 1971

| In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Malaysia

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| Television documentary

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers in Thailand

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| Television documentary

scope="row" | 1972

| The Pirates of Bubuan

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| Television documentary

scope="row" | 1973

| Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| Television documentary

scope="row" | 1975

| Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| Television documentary

scope="row" | 1976

| The Youth Killer

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

|

scope="row" | 1979

| Vengeance Is Mine

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year
Japan Academy Film Prize for Director of the Year

scope="row" | 1981

| Eijanaika

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

|

scope="row" | 1983

| The Ballad of Narayama

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| Palme d'Or
Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year

scope="row" | 1986

| Have You Seen the Barefoot God?

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

|

scope="row" rowspan="2" | 1987

| The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes|Associate}}

| Documentary

Zegen

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 1989

| Black Rain

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Partial|Executive}}

| 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

scope="row" | 1997

| The Eel

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|Palme d'Or
Japan Academy Film Prize for Director of the Year

scope="row" | 1998

| Dr. Akagi

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 2001

| Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

|

scope="row" | 2002

| 11'09"01 September 11

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| Anthology film episode "Japan"

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{imdb name|id=0408076}}
  • {{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/person.aspx?person_id=86251 |title=今村昌平 (Shōhei Imamura) |language=ja |website=Kinenote |access-date=4 August 2021}}
  • {{cite web|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%8A%E6%9D%91%E6%98%8C%E5%B9%B3-32249 |title=今村昌平 (Shōhei Imamura) |language=ja |website=Kotobank |access-date=4 August 2021}}

{{Shōhei Imamura}}

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for Shōhei Imamura

|list =

{{Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year}}

{{Blue Ribbon Award for Best Director}}

{{Blue Ribbon Award for Best Screenplay}}

{{Blue Ribbon Award for Best Newcomer}}

{{Mainichi Film Award for Best Director}}

{{Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay}}

{{Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Director}}

}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Imamura, Shohei}}

Category:1926 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:Deaths from liver cancer in Japan

Category:Directors of Palme d'Or winners

Category:Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year winners

Category:Japanese film directors

Category:Japanese comedy film directors

Category:Japanese satirists

Category:Japanese satirical film directors

Category:Film people from Tokyo

Category:Waseda University alumni