Tribute to Kenji Mizoguchi 2017 / Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai / Japan 1975
This documentary (shot over two years) recounts the master’s life and career across some 36 interviews with actors, producers and crew members from the films. It describes the trajectory of Mizoguchi’s long career clearly and accurately, and provides a lot of anecdotal testimony about his aims and working methods.
The late Shindo Kaneto worked on several Mizoguchi films, as everything from assistant art director to co-writer, and this documentary (shot over two years) recounts the master’s life and career across some 36 interviews with actors, producers and crew members from the films. It describes the trajectory of Mizoguchi’s long career clearly and accurately, and provides a lot of anecdotal testimony about his aims and working methods. It also explores the various locales where Mizoguchi worked and gives a useful sense of what else was happening in the film industry at the time. The left-leaning Shindo was one of the first directors in Japan to start his own production company and several of his films (Children of Hiroshima, 1952; The Island, 1960; Onibaba, 1964) reached international distribution. His tabloid-journalist instincts are sometimes intrusive here, but the film as a whole is valuable as a source of first-hand information.
Tony Rayns
132 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Kaneto Shindo
/ Screenplay Kaneto Shindo
/ Dir. of Photography Yoshiyuki Miyake
/ Editor Mitsuo Kondo, Keiko Fujita
/ Production Kindai Eiga Kyokai
/ Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshikata Yoda, Ayako Wakao, Masashige Narusawa, Shigeru Miki
/ Contact Kindai Eiga Kyokai Co., Ltd.
Kaneto Shindo (1912, Hiroshima – 2012, Tokyo) became the family breadwinner at the age of 15 when his parents went bankrupt. Influenced both politically and aesthetically by the left-wing director of samurai films Yamanaka Sadao, he moved to Kyoto at the age of 25 and found a menial job as a production assistant with the company Shinko Kinema. There he became friendly with the similarly self-taught Mizoguchi, and went on to work on several Mizoguchi films. Drafted, he served as a soldier only in the final year of WWII. After writing scripts for several other directors, he founded Kindai Eiga productions and turned director himself in 1951. Although he continued writing scripts for others, he directed nearly 50 films before dying in 2012, just after his 100th birthday. His grand-daughter Shindo Kaze is an independent filmmaker in her own right.
Kindai Eiga Kyokai Co., Ltd.
Scenario Bldg., 4-16-5 Chome, 107-0052, Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 335 824 904
Fax: +81 335 824 959
E-mail: [email protected]
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