(18 November 1903 – 16 September 1981) was a prominent left-wing Japanese

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

, and producer. Born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, he became interested in

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

from his student days at

Tokyo University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. Early on, he helped introduce

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and was instrumental in getting

Teinosuke Kinugasa was a Japanese filmmaker. He was born in Kameyama, Mie Prefecture and died in Kyoto. Kinugasa won the 1954 Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival for '' Gate of Hell''. Biography Kinugasa began his career as an onnagata (actor specializing in f ...

's masterpiece '' A Page of Madness'' screened in Tokyo. Afterward, he became involved in

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

politics and established a career promoting progressive cinema and criticism. He wrote or edited over thirty books of film criticism, history, theory and biography during his career. He was also involved in film production, first serving from the late 1920s as a central member of the Proletarian Film League of Japan ( Prokino), where he acted as not only the theoretical brain of the movement alongside

Genjū Sasa (14 January 1900 – 7 July 1959) was a left-wing Japanese film director and film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalis ...

, but also as a filmmaker. When Prokino was effectively eliminated by police oppression under the Peace Preservation Law, Iwasaki continued his critical activities, becoming involved in the Yuibutsuron Kenkyūkai with such thinkers as

Jun Tosaka was a Shōwa era Kyoto-trained Japanese intellectual, and teacher. Some identify strands of Marxism in his later philosophy. His criticisms of governments and their war policies caused him to end up in prison on various occasions. Life Jun To ...

, but was eventually arrested in 1940, in part for his opposition to the Film Law, which authorized increased government control of the film industry. He was the only film critic arrested by the ideological police during the war. After his release, he worked for a time at the Tokyo office of the

Manchukuo Film Association or (Chinese: 株式會社滿洲映畫協會) was a Japanese film studio in Manchukuo during the 1930s and 1940s. Background Man'ei was established by the Kwantung Army in the occupied northeast part of China in 1937. Man'ei controlled the en ...

thanks to the help of Kan'ichi Negishi. After Japan's defeat in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Iwasaki was active in criticizing those who participated in the war effort. He joined Nihon Eigasha (Nichiei), primarily a documentary film company, and helped produce two important, but ill-fated documentaries: '' The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki'', which was confiscated by

Occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

authorities, and '' The Japanese Tragedy'', directed by

Fumio Kamei (1 April 1908 – 27 February 1987) was a left-wing Japanese documentary and fiction film director. Biography Kamei went to the Soviet Union in 1928 to study filmmaking, but had to return home because of an illness. He eventually began working ...

, which was banned for its critical depiction of

Emperor Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

.Hirano, pp. 104–145. While continuing to work as a film critic from the 1950s on, including pursuing a vigorous debate on the nature of cinematic

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

with

Taihei Imamura was a Japanese film critic and film theorist. Born in Saitama Prefecture, he attended the Kobe University of Commerce (the precursor to Kobe University , also known in the Kansai region as , is a leading Japanese national university located in ...

, Iwasaki helped produce some of the independent films made by

Tadashi Imai was a Japanese film director known for Social realism, social realist filmmaking informed by a Left-wing politics, left-wing perspective. His most noted films include ''An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and ''Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life ...

and

Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director. Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worked as an assistant director to ...

after many left-wingers were expelled from the major studios in the

Red Purge The Red Purge (Japanese: レッドパージ; ''reddo pāji'') was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.: "From 1947, the Japanese government, supported by MacArthur, unleashed a Red Purge that targeted ...

. In 1974, he was a member of the jury at the 24th Berlin International Film Festival.

References

Bibliography

* * * *
Prewar Proletarian Film Movements Collection
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. Full text of many Prokino publications, including some of Iwasaki's articles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Iwasaki, Akira Japanese film critics Japanese film producers 1903 births 1981 deaths Japanese documentary filmmakers