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Yasuzō Masumura

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Yasuzō Masumura
Born(1924-08-25)25 August 1924
Died23 November 1986(1986-11-23) (aged 62)
Japan
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter

Yasuzō Masumura (増村 保造, Masumura Yasuzō, 25 August 1924 – 23 November 1986) was a Japanese film director.[1][2]

Biography

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Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi.[1][2] After graduating from the law department at the University of Tokyo, he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio.[1] He later returned to university to study philosophy and graduated in 1951.[1] The following year, he won a scholarship allowing him to study film in Italy at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.[3]

Masumura returned to Japan in 1953. From 1955, he worked as a second-unit director on films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa and Daisuke Ito.[4] In 1957, he directed his own first film Kisses,[4] which caused film critic (and future director) Nagisa Ōshima to note, "a powerful irresistible force has arrived in Japanese Cinema."[5] Over the next three decades, he directed 58 films in a variety of genres.[6]

Legacy

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According to film critic Shigehiko Hasumi, filmmaker Shinji Aoyama had declared Masumura "the most important filmmaker in the history of postwar Japanese cinema."[7]

Filmography

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Title Year Credited as
Director Screenwriter Assistant director
Princess Yang Kwei Fei 1955 Yes
Street of Shame 1956 Yes
Punishment Room 1956 Yes
Nihonbashi 1956 Yes
The Crowded Streetcar 1957 Yes
Kisses 1957 Yes
The Blue Sky Maiden 1957 Yes
Warm Current 1957 Yes
The Precipice 1958 Yes
Giants and Toys 1958 Yes
The Lowest Man 1958 Yes
Undutiful Street 1958 Yes
The Most Valuable Madam 1959 Yes
The Cast-Off 1959 Yes
Beauty the Enemy 1959 Yes
Across Darkness 1959 Yes
A Woman's Testament (first segment) 1960 Yes
Afraid to Die 1960 Yes
The Woman Who Touched the Legs 1960 Yes
A False Student 1960 Yes
Desperate to Love 1961 Yes
A Lustful Man 1961 Yes
A Wife Confesses 1961 Yes
The Burdened Sisters 1961 Yes
Stolen Pleasure 1962 Yes
Black Test Car 1962 Yes
Life of a Woman 1962 Yes
The Black Report 1963 Yes
When Women Lie 1963 Yes
Band of Pure-Hearted Hoodlums 1963 Yes
Modern Fraud Story: Cheat 1964 Yes
With My Husband's Consent 1964 Yes
Seventeen-year-old Wolf 1964 Yes
Manji 1964 Yes
Super-Express 1964 Yes
Hoodlum Soldier 1965 Yes
Seisaku's Wife 1965 Yes
Irezumi 1966 Yes
Nakano Spy School 1966 Yes
Red Angel (Movie) 1966 Yes
Two Wives 1967 Yes
A Certain Killer 1967 Yes
Just for You 1967 Yes
A Fool's Love 1967 Yes
The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka 1967 Yes
Evil Trio 1968 Yes
The Sex Check 1968 Yes
The House of Wooden Blocks 1968 Yes
One Day at Summer's End 1968 Yes
Blind Beast 1969 Yes
A Thousand Cranes 1969 Yes
'Vixen 1969 Yes
Electric Jellyfish 1970 Yes
Ode to the Yakuza 1970 Yes
The Hot Little Girl 1970 Yes
Games 1971 Yes
New Hoodlum Soldier Story: Firing Line 1972 Yes
Music 1972 Yes
Hanzo the Razor:The Snare 1973 Yes
Hanzo the Razor: Who's Got the Gold? 1974 Yes
Akumyo: Notorious Dragon 1974 Yes
Mainline to Terror 1975 Yes
Lullaby of the Earth 1976 Yes
The Love Suicides at Sonezaki 1978 Yes
The Garden of Eden 1980 Yes
For My Daughter's 7th Birthday 1982 Yes

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "増村保造 (Masumura Yasuzō)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b "増村保造". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  3. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (30 April 1998). "Tales of Ordinary Madness: Films by Yasuzo Masumura". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b Mes, Tom (1 June 2010). "Yasuzo Masumura: Passion and Excess". Midnight Eye. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Kisses". Independent Cinema Offices. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  6. ^ Parkinson, David (28 February 2006). "Yasuzo Masumura 2005". BBC. Archived from the original on 17 January 2006. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  7. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (3 October 2021). "Dialogue Between Shigehiko Hasumi and Jonathan Rosenbaum on Howard Hawks and Yasuzo Masumura". JonathanRosenbaum.net. Retrieved 19 June 2023.

Further reading

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  • "Yasuzo Masumura Filmography". Blind Beast (Booklet). Arrow Films. 2021. AV373.
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