Minoru Murata 村田 實 | |
|---|---|
 Minoru Murata in 1929 | |
| Born | 2 March 1894 |
| Died | 26 June 1937 (aged 43) |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, actor |
Minoru Murata (村田 實, Murata Minoru, 2 March 1894 – 26 June 1937) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was one of the major directors of the silent era in Japan.
Born in Tokyo, Murata started out as a shingeki actor on the stage. [1] Murata's troupe appeared in the first "pure films" directed by Norimasa Kaeriyama at Tenkatsu in 1918. On the recommendation of the playwright Kaoru Osanai, he then joined Shochiku in 1920 and participated in the actors school Osanai ran there. [1] He ended up directing Souls on the Road (1921), a ground breaking reformist film that is one of the few films surviving from that era. Murata later moved to Nikkatsu, where he directed such critical hits as Seisaku's Wife (1924) and The Street Juggler (1925) which were "important in establishing the form of Japanese films about contemporary life." [2] He later worked at Shinkō Kinema. He started up the important journal, Eiga kagaku kenkyū, in 1928 with Kiyohiko Ushihara, and helped found the Directors Guild of Japan in 1936, becoming its first president. [3] Often battling illness, he died suddenly in 1937.
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953), and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), with the latter three all being awarded at the Venice International Film Festival. A recurring theme of his films was the oppression of women in historical and contemporary Japan. Together with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu, Mizoguchi is seen as a representative of the "golden age" of Japanese cinema.
Shochiku Co., Ltd. is a Japanese entertainment company. It started its business in 1895 by managing kabuki theaters in Kyoto, and in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and established the Kamata Film Studio. Currently, it is considered one of Japan's Big Four film studios and is the oldest among the Big Four. Shochiku is a member of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ).
Masahiro Makino was a Japanese film director. He directed more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza genres. His real name was Masatada (正唯), but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times.
Koji Shima was a Japanese film director, actor, and screenwriter.
Shingeki was a leading form of theatre in Japan that was based on modern realism. Born in the early years of the 20th century, it sought to be similar to modern Western theatre, putting on the works of the ancient Greek classics, William Shakespeare, Molière, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, Tennessee Williams, and so forth. As it appropriated Western realism, it also introduced women back onto the Japanese stage.
Denmei Suzuki was a Japanese film actor most famous for starring roles in gendaigeki of the silent era.
Kiyohiko Ushihara was a Japanese film director most famous for his gendaigeki of the silent era.
Norimasa Kaeriyama was a pioneering Japanese film director and film theorist.
Kaoru Osanai was a Japanese theater director, playwright, and actor central in the development of modern Japanese theater.
The Directors Guild of Japan is a trade union created to represent the interests of film directors in the film industry in Japan. It was founded in 1936, with Minoru Murata serving as the first president, and has continued to this day apart from a period between 1943 and 1949 when it was disbanded at first on orders from the government. It is particularly concerned with protecting the copyright and other rights the director has over the work, defending freedom of expression, and promoting the economic interests of its members. For instance, it has issued protests against efforts to prevent screenings of such films as Yasukuni and The Cove. The Guild also produced the film Eiga kantoku tte nan da on the occasion of its 70th anniversary to promote its view that the director possesses the copyright of a film.
Eizō Tanaka was an early Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Yasujirō Shimazu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, and a pioneer of the shōshimin-eiga genre at the Shōchiku studios in pre-World War II Japan.
The Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award is given annually by the Directors Guild of Japan to a new director of a film released that year who is considered the most "suitable" for the award. The winner is selected by a committee formed of DGJ members. All formats—feature film, documentary, television, video, etc.—are eligible for consideration. In some years when there was no apparent winner, the Guild only issued a "citation" or did not give out the award. Multiple awards have been given in other years. With a long history, many of Japan's major postwar directors have received the award, including Nagisa Ōshima, Susumu Hani, Yoshimitsu Morita, Masayuki Suo, Takeshi Kitano, and Shunji Iwai.
Sadao Nakajima was a Japanese film director and screenwriter known for his work in yakuza films and jidaigeki.
Sumiko Kurishima was a Japanese actress and master of traditional Japanese dance. She is often considered Japan's first female movie star.
Isamu Kosugi was a Japanese actor and film director.
Kajirō Yamamoto was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was known for his war films and comedies and as the mentor of Akira Kurosawa. The combined list of his efforts as a director for documentaries, silent, and sound films includes over 90 film titles during his lifetime.
Shinkō Kinema (新興キネマ) was a Japanese film studio active in the 1930s.
The Glow of Life is a Japanese film directed by Norimasa Kaeriyama made in 1918 and released in 1919 by Tenkatsu. It is considered the first in a series of films aimed at reforming and modernizing Japanese cinema.
Kumeko Urabe was a Japanese movie actress, and one of the first in the country. Born Kimura Kume, she also adopted the stage names Kumeko Ichijo, Toyama Midori, Chidori Shizuura and Chidori Toyama. She worked on stage and in film and television. Urabe was born in a rural part of the Shizuoka Prefecture. She lived in several homes while growing up, as she relocated with her father, a Buddhist priest, among the temples to which he was assigned. Urabe completed her education in Numazu, and left school in 1919 to join a theatre company, touring under various stage names as an actor and dancer.
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