|
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures". Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%). History Founding in 1912 Nikkatsu was founded on September 10, 1912, when several production companies and theater chains, Yoshizawa Shōten, Yokota Shōkai, Fukuhōdō and M. Pathe, consolidated under the name Nippon Katsudō Shashin. The company enjoyed its share of success. It employed such notable film directors as Shozo Makino and his son Masahiro Makino. During World War II, the government ordered the ten film companies that had formed by 1941 to consolidate into two. Masaichi Nagata, founder of Daiei Film and a former Nikkatsu employee, counter-proposed that three companies be formed and the suggestion was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seijun Suzuki
, born (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017), was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility. He made 40 predominately B-movies for the Nikkatsu Company between 1956 and 1967, working most prolifically in the yakuza genre. His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded as his magnum opus, '' Branded to Kill'' (1967), starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal, but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that. As an independent filmmaker, he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for his ''Taishō'' trilogy, ''Zigeunerweisen'' (1980), ''Kagero-za'' (1981) and '' Yumeji'' (1991). His films remained widely unknown outside Japan until a series of theatrical retrospectives beginning in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branded To Kill
is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Annu Mari and Mariko Ogawa. The story follows contract killer Goro Hanada as he is recruited by a mysterious woman named Misako for a seemingly impossible mission. When the mission fails, he is hunted by the phantom Number One Killer, whose methods threaten his life and sanity. ''Branded to Kill'' was designated by its production company and distributor, Nikkatsu, as a low-budget B movie. Dissatisfied with the original script, the studio called in Suzuki to rewrite and direct the film shortly prior to the start of production. Suzuki came up with many of his ideas for the project the night before or on the set while filming, and welcomed ideas from his colleagues; the screenplay is credited to Hachiro Guryu, a writing collective that consisted of Suzuki and seven other writers, including his frequent collaborators Takeo Kimura and Atsushi Yamatoya. Suzuki gave the film a satirical, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shochiku
() is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all, anime films produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks). Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada. It has also produced films by highly regarded independent and "loner" directors such as Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Taiwanese New Wave director Hou Hsiao-hsien. Shochiku is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and the oldest of Japan's "Big Four" film studios. History As Shochiku Kinema The company was founded in 1895 as a kabuki production company and later began producing films in 1920. Shochiku is considered the oldest company in Japan involved in present-day film product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shōhei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. 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 Pacific War, 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 (film), 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 University, Waseda in 1951, Imamura began his film career working as an assistant to Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku, Shochiku St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daiei Film
Daiei Film Co. Ltd. ( Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ''Daiei Eiga Kabushiki Kaisha'') was a Japanese film studio. Founded in 1942 as Dai Nippon Film Co., Ltd., it was one of the major studios during the postwar Golden Age of Japanese cinema, producing not only artistic masterpieces, such as Akira Kurosawa's '' Rashomon'' (1950) and Kenji Mizoguchi's ''Ugetsu'' (1953), but also launching several film series, such as ''Gamera'', ''Zatoichi'' and ''Yokai Monsters'', and making the three ''Daimajin'' films (1966). It declared bankruptcy in 1971 and was acquired by Kadokawa Pictures. History Origin Daiei Film was the product of government efforts to reorganize the film industry during World War II in order to rationalize use of resources and increase control over the medium. Against a government plan to combine all the film studios into two companies, Masaichi Nagata, an executive at Shinkō Kinema, pressed hard for an alternative plan to create three studios. His efforts won out and Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masaichi Nagata
was a Japanese businessman and served as president of Daiei Film. The self-proclaimed creator of Gamera, he produced the kaiju's second film '' Gamera vs. Barugon'', with the remainder of the Showa ''Gamera'' films produced instead by his son Hidemasa Nagata. Film career Born in Kyoto, Nagata attended the Ōkura Kōtō Shōgyō Gakkō (now Tokyo Keizai University), but left before graduating. He joined the Nikkatsu studio in 1925 and, after working as a location manager, rose to become head of production at the Kyoto studio. Experiencing conflicts with the Nikkatsu president, he left the company in 1934, taking many Nikkatsu stars with him, to form Daiichi Eiga. While short-lived, that studio created such masterpieces as Kenji Mizoguchi's ''Sisters of the Gion'' (1936) and ''Osaka Elegy'' (1936). When Daiichi Eiga folded, Nagata became head of the Kyoto studio of Shinkō Kinema until the government reorganized the industry during World War Two. Against a government plan to co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shinkō Kinema
was a Japanese film studio active in the 1930s. Background Shinkō was established in September 1931 out of the remnants of the Teikoku Kinema studio with the help of Shōchiku capital. The historian Jun'ichirō Tanaka writes that the studio was part of Shōchiku's effort to monopolize the Japanese film industry, using Shinkō to control some of the independent production companies by distributing their films, and absorb rebellious talent who left rivals like Nikkatsu or Fuji Eiga. And in fact, Shinkō did distribute the films of jidaigeki stars like Tsumasaburō Bandō and Kanjūrō Arashi or gendaigeki stars such as Takako Irie. For a time, such directors as Kenji Mizoguchi, Tomu Uchida, Minoru Murata, Shigeyoshi Suzuki, and Yutaka Abe, as well as such stars as Tokihiko Okada, Isamu Kosugi, Eiji Nakano, Fumiko Yamaji and Mitsuko Mori made movies there. Masaichi Nagata became studio head at one point. Its main offices were located in Hatchōbori in Tokyo, and its studios in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fukuhōdō
was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Background Fukuhōdō was founded in 1910 when Kenzō Tabata built a chain of modern, concrete movie theaters in Tokyo. To supply these eight theaters, Tabata started a production arm, with a studio located in Nippori. The company also enjoyed a huge success importing the French film '' Zigomar'', which "had a major impact on Japanese film culture". Merger Fukuhōdō was one of Japan's major motion picture companies until 1912, when it merged with Yoshizawa Shōten, Yokota Shōkai, and M. Pathe to form Nikkatsu. Some employees of Fukuhōdō who did not take part in the merger, such as Kisaburō Kobayashi, later formed Tenkatsu, exploiting the Kinemacolor color motion picture system that was acquired before the merger but which was hidden from Nikkatsu. The National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting modern Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yokota Shōkai
was a Japanese film studio active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Its origins can be traced back to when Einosuke Yokota received one of the first Lumiere cinematograph machines in Japan from Inabata Katsutarō to conduct traveling exhibitions of the device. In 1901, Yokota founded Yokota Shōkai and concentrated on film importing and exhibition. Around 1908, the company began contracting with Shōzō Makino and his Senbonza theater to begin creating jidaigeki (called ''kyūgeki'' at the time), which eventually made a star out of Matsunosuke Onoe. Its first studio was the Nijō Castle Studio, the second the Hokkendō Studio. In 1912, Yokota Shōkai merged with Yoshizawa Shōten, Fukuhōdō, and M. Pathe to form Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoshizawa Shōten
was a film studio and importer active in the early years of cinema in Japan. Originally involved in the magic lantern business, Yoshizawa bought a cinématographe camera off a visiting Italian and began exhibiting motion pictures in 1897. Run by Ken'ichi Kawaura, and having an office in London, Yoshizawa soon became the most prosperous and stable of the early film companies. It was the first to manufacture motion picture equipment domestically in 1900 and it established the first permanent movie theater, the Denkikan, in Asakusa in Tokyo in 1903. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, Yoshizawa Shōten sent off a camera team to follow the Japanese troops. The public interest aroused by this media event allowed the studio to build more theatres around Asakusa and to build Japan's first movie studio in Meguro in Tokyo in 1909.Standish, pp. 18 It was even successful enough to print its own magazine, ''Katsudō shashinkai'', and build an amusement park in Asakusa named after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords and ''Kiri-sute gomen'' (right to kill anyone of a lower class in certain situations). They cultivated the '' bushido'' codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. Though they had predecessors in earlier military and administrative officers, the samurai truly emerged during the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1185 to 1333. They became the ruling political class, with significant power but also significant responsibility. During the 13th century, the samurai proved themselves as adept warriors against the invading Mongols. During the peaceful Edo period (1603 to 1868), they became the stewards and chamberlains of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jidaigeki
is a genre of film, television, video game, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", they are most often set during the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—'' Portrait of Hell'', for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular setting. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants of their time. ''Jidaigeki'' films are sometimes referred to as chambara movies, a word meaning "sword fight", though chambara is more accurately a subgenre of ''jidaigeki''. ''Jidaigeki'' rely on an established set of dramatic conventions including the use of makeup, language, catchphrases, and plotlines. Types Many ''jidaigeki'' take place in Edo, the military capital. Others show the adventures of people wandering from place to place. The long-running television series '' Zenigata Heiji'' and '' Abarenbō Shōgun'' typify the Edo ''jidaigeki''. '' Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
