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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 fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shochiku Studio
is a Japanese film and production studio company of Shochiku Group, which has been producing movies and dramas for roughly a century, being the second-oldest motion picture company in Japan. The company has production bases in Kyoto and Tokyo since its inception in the 1920s, and the long-established is equipped with a studio facility that is deeply rooted in tradition. It has also worked on the production of Hollywood films such as "The Last Samurai". Shochiku Studio is known for productions of many Japanese period dramas, movies, TV and commercials. History Studios and Owners Shochiku Studio based in Tokyo and Kanagawa Shochiku Studio based in Shimogamo, Kyoto Shochiku Studio based in Uzumasa, Kyoto 1920s - 1930s Shochiku built as its main studio at Kamata, Tokyo in 1920. In 1923, Shochiku Kamata studio was heavily damaged by 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Great Kantō earthquake, forcing a temporary relocation to Kyoto, in which the predecessor of current Sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shochiku Geino
is a Japanese talent agency headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka. It was founded in 1958 under the conglomerate Shochiku Co., Ltd and focuses on talent management for comedians and ''tarento''. The agency mainly associates itself with acts and entertainment under the ''Kamigata'' culture. Notable talents Comedians Groups *America Zarigani (Tetsuya Yanagihara, Yoshiyuki Hirai) * Masuda Okada (Hidehiko Masuda, Keisuke Okada) * TKO (Takehiro Kimoto, Takayuki Kinoshita) *Yasuda Dai Circus (Yasuda Dancho, Kuro-chan, HIRO) *Yoiko ( Masaru Hamaguchi, Shinya Arino) Solo * Kintalo * Buruma Konno * Kenji Moriwaki *Shōfukutei Tsurube II Other tarento *Chiemi Hori (singer, actress) * Atsushi Oyagi (former rugby player) *Masakatsu Funaki (actor, wrestler) Former talents *Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasujirō Ozu
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. The most prominent themes of Ozu's work are marriage and family, especially the relationships between generations. His most widely beloved films include '' Late Spring'' (1949), '' Tokyo Story'' (1953), and '' An Autumn Afternoon'' (1962). Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest and most influential filmmakers, Ozu's work has continued to receive acclaim since his death. In the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' poll, Ozu's ''Tokyo Story'' was voted the third-greatest film of all time by critics world-wide. In the same poll, ''Tokyo Story'' was voted the greatest film of all time by 358 directors and film-makers world-wide. Biography Early life Ozu was born in the Fukagawa, Tokyo, the second son of merchant Toranosuke Ozu and his wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keisuke Kinoshita
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirō Ozu, he was a household figure in his home country, beloved by both critics and audiences from the 1940s to the 1960s. Among his best known films are ''Carmen Comes Home'' (1951), Japan's first colour feature, ''Tragedy of Japan'' (1953), '' Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954), '' You Were Like a Wild Chrysanthemum'' (1955), '' Times of Joy and Sorrow'' (1957), '' The Ballad of Narayama'' (1958), and '' The River Fuefuki'' (1960). Biography Early years Keisuke Kinoshita was born Masakichi Kinoshita on 5 December 1912, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, as the fourth of eight children of merchant Shūkichi Kinoshita and his wife Tama. His family manufactured pickles and owned a grocery store. A film fan already in early years, he vowed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikio Naruse
was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, portrayed by actresses such as Hideko Takamine, Kinuyo Tanaka, and Setsuko Hara. Because of his focus on family drama and the intersection of traditional and modern Japanese culture, his films have been compared with the works of Yasujirō Ozu. Many of his films in his later career were adaptations of the works of acknowledged Japanese writers. Titled a "major figure of Japan's golden age" and "supremely intelligent dramatist", he remains lesser known than his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Ozu. Among his most noted films are ''Sound of the Mountain'', ''Late Chrysanthemums'', ''Floating Clouds'' and ''When A Woman Ascends The Stairs''. Biography Early years Mikio Naruse was born in Tokyo in 1905 and raised by his brot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabuki-za
in Ginza is the principal theater in Tokyo for the traditional ''kabuki'' drama form. History The Kabuki-za was originally opened by a Meiji era journalist, Fukuchi Gen'ichirō. Fukuchi wrote kabuki dramas in which Ichikawa Danjūrō IX and others starred; upon Danjūrō's death in 1903, Fukuchi retired from the management of the theater. The theater is now run by the Shochiku Corporation which took over in 1914. The original Kabuki-za was a wooden structure, built in 1889 on land which had been either the Tokyo residence of the Hosokawa clan of Kumamoto, or that of Matsudaira clan of Izu. The building was destroyed on October 30, 1921, by an electrical fire. The reconstruction, which commenced in 1922, was designed to "be fireproof, yet carry traditional Japanese architectural styles", while using Western building materials and lighting equipment. Reconstruction had not been completed when it again burned down during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Rebuilding was finall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenji Mizoguchi
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about 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. Biography Early years Mizoguchi was born in Hongō, Tokyo, as the second of three children, to Zentaro Miguchi, a roofing carpenter, and his wife Masa. The family's background was relatively humble until the father's failed business venture of selling raincoats to the Japanese troops during the Russo-Japanese War. The family was forced to move to the downtown district of Asakusa and gav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style, strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film '' Sanshiro Sugata''. After the war, the critically acclaimed '' Drunken Angel'' (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. '' Rashomon'' (1950), which pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoji Yamada
is a Japanese film director best known for his '' Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series of films and his Samurai Trilogy ('' The Twilight Samurai'', '' The Hidden Blade'' and '' Love and Honor''). Biography He was born in Osaka, but due to his father's job as an engineer for the South Manchuria Railway, he was brought up in Dalian, China. from the age of two. Following the end of World War II, he returned to Japan and subsequently lived in Yamagata Prefecture. After receiving his degree from Tokyo University in 1954, he entered Shochiku and worked under Yoshitaro Nomura as a scriptwriter or as an assistant director. He won many awards throughout his lengthy career and is well respected in Japan and by critics throughout the world. He wrote his first screenplay in 1958, and directed his first movie in 1961. Yamada continues to make movies to this day. He once served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan, and is currently a guest professor of Ritsumeikan University. Tora-san seri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsukiji
Tsukiji (築地) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan. Literally meaning "reclaimed land", it lies near the Sumida River on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay in the 18th century during the Edo period. The eponymous Tsukiji fish market opened in 1935 and closed in 2018 when its operations were moved to the new Toyosu Market. There are also districts named ''Tsukiji'' in Kobe and Amagasaki, cities in Hyōgo Prefecture, although neither is as well known as the district in Tokyo. History Tsukiji is built on reclaimed land out of what were once lowland marshes along the Sumida River delta. Throughout the Tokugawa period, earth from the shogunate's extensive moat and canal excavations was systematically used to fill in the marshes along the river, creating new commercial districts and waterfront housing. The land was then named Tsukiji (築地), meaning "constructed land" or "reclaimed land". The Great Fire of Meireki of 1657 destroyed over two-thirds of Edo's buildings, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabuki
is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to have originated in the very early Edo period, when founder Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe who performed dances and light sketches in Kyoto. The art form later developed into its present all-male theatrical form after women were banned from performing in kabuki theatre in 1629. Kabuki developed throughout the late 17th century and reached its zenith in the mid-18th century. In 2005, kabuki theatre was proclaimed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage possessing outstanding universal value. In 2008, it was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Etymology The individual kanji that make up the word ''kabuki'' can be read as , , and . ''Kabuki'' is therefore sometimes tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takashi Miike
is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent and bizarre to dramatic and family-friendly movies. He is a controversial figure in the contemporary Japanese cinema industry, with several of his films being criticised for their extreme graphic violence. Some of his best known films are ''Audition'', ''Ichi the Killer'', ''Gozu'', ''One Missed Call'', the ''Dead or Alive'' trilogy, and various remakes: ''Graveyard of Honor'', '' Hara-kiri'' and ''13 Assassins''. Early life Miike was born in Yao, Osaka Prefecture, to a ''Nikkei'' family originally from the Kumamoto Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu. During World War II, his grandfather was stationed in China and Korea, and his father was born in Seoul in today's South Korea. His father worked as a welder and his mother as a sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
