was a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
known for his critically acclaimed, award-winning ''
Roman Porno
in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equi ...
'' films, such as ''
Ichijo's Wet Lust
''aka'' ''Ichijo's Wet Desire'', ''Drenched Passion'', ''Sayuri Ichijo: Moist Desire'', ''Following Desire'' ''and'' ''Sayuri Ichijō: Wet Lust'' is a 1972 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and sta ...
'' (1972) and ''
The Woman with Red Hair
The Nikkatsu ''Roman Porno'' films were a series of theatrical Japanese softcore pornographic films produced by the movie studio Nikkatsu from November, 1971, until May, 1988. The Japanese word 'roman' refers to novels, and derives from the Latin ...
'' (1979). He was the most highly acclaimed director of the early Nikkatsu Roman Porno era, with many box-office successes, and films regularly appearing on the yearly Best Ten lists of the mainstream ''
Kinema Junpo
, commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...
'' and ''
Eiga Geijutsu'' film journals.
Kumashiro has been called, "the most consistently successful director in Japan's cinematic history,"
[Weisser, p.204.] and
Allmovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
calls him, "arguably the most important Japanese director to emerge during the 1970s."
Life and career
Early life
Tatsumi Kumashiro was born on April 24, 1927 in
Saga
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...
, on
Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
—the southernmost of Japan's four main islands.
His father was a pharmaceuticals merchant and
judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
master descended from the ''
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 h ...
'' class.
A strict disciplinarian, Kumashiro's father believed in the warrior philosophy of
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
, Buddhist monastic name Yamamoto Jōchō (June 11, 1659 – November 30, 1719), was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. He became a Zen Buddhist priest and relayed his experiences, memories, ...
as written in ''
Hagakure
''Hagakure'' (Kyūjitai: ; Shinjitai: ; meaning ''Hidden by the Leaves'' or ''Hidden Leaves''), or , is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the clerk Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nab ...
'' and supported Japan's military exploits of the 1930s and 1940s.
Early in life Kumashiro rebelled against this upbringing by immersing himself 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 ...
and
Western literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian, an ...
.
During
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 ...
, Kumashiro entered medical school as a means of avoiding the draft, but dropped out as soon as the war ended in Japan's defeat.
He studied
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
at
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.
The university has numerou ...
, but, deciding he could not make a living writing novels, entered
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 ...
studio as an assistant director in 1952, and moved to
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 ...
in 1955.
Kumashiro worked as an
assistant director
The role of an assistant director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have to tak ...
and
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
until he was finally given a chance to direct in
1968. His debut film, ''
Front Row Life
''Fan Life'', ''Front Row'', ''A Thirsty Life'' and ''Life of a Striptease Love'' is a 1968 Japanese film directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro. The ''Roman Porno'' director's first film, it was a box-office failure, and stalled his directing career un ...
'', told the story of a
stripper
A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event.
M ...
and her daughter who wished to join her mother's profession. The star of the movie, Hatsue Tonooka, became Kumashiro's wife later in the year, though the marriage ended in divorce within a few months.
[Weisser, p.137-138.] ''Front Row Life'' anticipated Kumashiro's later career in its focus on striptease performers.
The film was a critical success, but because it failed at the box-office Nikkatsu put Kumashiro's directing career on hold again.
Directorial success
"My films are about people not biology."
-- Tatsumi Kumashiro
In 1971, facing bankruptcy due to a loss of their audience to television, Nikkatsu decided to devote its facilities almost exclusively to theatrical soft-core pornography. Several directors, not wishing to work in pornography, left the studio, opening up vacant positions.
Nikkatsu gave its ''Roman porno'' directors a great deal of artistic freedom in their films, as long as they met the official minimum quota of four nude or sex scenes per hour.
In this environment, at the age of 44, Kumashiro was given his second chance to direct. Though his later films took full advantage of Nikkatsu's lenient policies by experimenting with cinematic time and space in an almost surreal manner, his first ''Roman porno'', ''Wet Lips'' (''Nureta Kuchibiru'') (
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
), was fairly simplistic. However, this story of a prostitute and her lover on the run after killing her pimp proved to be a major critical and box-office success, and established Kumashiro's directorial career. ''Wet Lips'' was also the first of Kumashiro's many films to use the word "Wet" (''nureta'') in the title.
His next film, ''
Ichijo's Wet Lust
''aka'' ''Ichijo's Wet Desire'', ''Drenched Passion'', ''Sayuri Ichijo: Moist Desire'', ''Following Desire'' ''and'' ''Sayuri Ichijō: Wet Lust'' is a 1972 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and sta ...
'' (1972) was another hit with the critics and the public. Japan's most famous sex performer of the time,
Sayuri Ichijō, played the title role for which she won the important ''
Kinema Jumpo
, commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...
'' prize for best actress.
Accepting the best director and best script awards at the same ceremony, Kumashiro commented, "If I can shoot what I like without the pressure of how it will turn out, I am motivated."
Mid career
For the next 20 years, Kumashiro directed a string of financial and critical hits unprecedented in Japanese cinematic history, completing ten films in 1972 and 1973 alone.
His prolific and successful career during these years earned him the title, "King of Nikkatsu ''Roman porno''"
Contrasting him with more mainstream filmmakers like
Nagisa Oshima
NaGISA (Natural Geography in Shore Areas or Natural Geography of In-Shore Areas) is an international collaborative effort aimed at inventorying, cataloguing, and monitoring biodiversity of the in-shore area. So named for the Japanese word "nagisa ...
, who sometimes make use of pornographic elements in their films, ''
Film Quarterly
''Film Quarterly'', a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, is published by University of California Press. It publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including d ...
''’s New York editor, William Johnson calls Kumashiro, "an indisputable maker of screen porn whose films also deserve 'serious' interest." Kumashiro's work was noted for its
humanistic
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
themes and for its sympathetic treatment of its characters.
[Sharp, p. 139.] Stylistically, his films were experimental, using a variety of ''
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
'' cinematic devices, and complex
narrative structure
Narrative structure is a literary element generally described as the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. The narrative text structures are the plot and the ...
.
''
Woods are Wet: Woman Hell'' (1973) was an adaptation of the
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...
's ''
Justine'' (1791). Jasper Sharp writes that Kumashiro uses de Sade's story as a platform for criticizing morality imposed by power, with particular relevance to the censorship trial Nikkatsu was undergoing at the time with the prosecution of ''
Love Hunter
is a 1972 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by Seiichirō Yamaguchi and starring Hidemi Hara, Mari Tanaka, and Sumiko Minami. The film was banned for obscenity, and director Yamaguchi arrested. The resulting trials wer ...
'' (1972). Underlying this theme, common in Kumashiro's work, Kumashiro has one of his characters say, "What you accept as ethical is contrived by those in authority so they can control people." Kumashiro also employs censorship as one of the stylistic devices of the film, exaggerating the
fogging required by Japanese law by placing black blocks over large areas of the screen.
[Sharp, p. 138.]
''
Lovers Are Wet'' and ''
The World of Geisha
a.k.a. ''A Man and a Woman Behind the Fusuma Screen'' is a 1973 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and starring Junko Miyashita. The mainstream film journal ''Kinema Junpo'' included it in their ch ...
'' (both 1973) were two more films in which Kumashiro similarly used the censor's tools to make an anti-censorship statement.
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
called ''The World of Geisha'' (
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
) a "great movie," adding, "The acting is perfect, and the film is humorous. In its praise for female beauty and derision for male stupidity lies the generous spirit of
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...
." ''Street of Joy'' a.k.a. ''Red Light District: Gonna Get Out'' (1974), employing the same setting as
Mizoguchi's ''
Street of Shame
is a 1956 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is the personal tales of several Japanese women of different backgrounds who work together in a brothel. It was Mizoguchi's last film.
The film is based on the novel '' Su ...
'' (1956), illustrates Kumashiro's common use of devices such as internal animated sequences to situate characters, and ''
enka
is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...
'' songs to comment on the action.
Kumashiro's 1974 film, ''Man and Woman Behind the Fusuma Screen: Enduring Skin'' (''Yojo-han Fusuma No Urabari: Shinobi Hada'') starred Nikkatsu's reigning ''Roman porno'' Queen,
Junko Miyashita
is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.
Career
Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to wor ...
. Movie critic
Tadao Sato
was a Japanese film critic, theorist and historian. His real name was .
Overviews
Born in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, He published more than a hundred books on film, and was one of Japan's foremost scholars and historians addressing ...
called the film "a masterful porno film rich in emotion, anarchy, and nihilism." Junko Miyashita won the Hochi News award for best actress of 1979 after starring in Kumashiro's ''
Woman with Red Hair
The Nikkatsu ''Roman Porno'' films were a series of theatrical Japanese softcore pornographic films produced by the movie studio Nikkatsu from November, 1971, until May, 1988. The Japanese word 'roman' refers to novels, and derives from the Latin/ ...
'' (''Akai Kami No Onna'') (1979), which the Weissers, in their ''Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films'' call "one of the very best Nikkatsu pink films." Uncharacteristically for Kumashiro, ''Woman with Red Hair'' has a straightforward narrative structure, but Jasper Sharp writes that it is still a "difficult" film for viewers who are not familiar with Kumashiro's work. The story, in which a sexually voracious woman comes to live with a construction worker, can be read either as a male fantasy, or as a story of a woman's search for sexual satisfaction.
Roughly one-third of the film takes place in the bedroom, with the claustrophobic atmosphere heightened by such exterior sounds as moaning from neighboring drug addicts, and non-stop rain.
Sharp writes that it is perhaps best interpreted as "out-and-out fantasy".
Kumashiro also took breaks from the Roman Porno genre to direct mainstream films, beginning with ''Bitterness of Youth'' (1974), a story of student radicalism with similarities to
Dreiser's ''
An American Tragedy
''An American Tragedy'' is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of ...
'' (1925).
Other such films include ''Light of Africa'' (1975) for
Toho
is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...
and ''Jigoku'' (1979), a remake of
Nobuo Nakagawa
was a Japanese film director, most famous for the stylized, folk tale-influenced horror films he made in the 1950s and 1960s.
Career
Born in Kyoto, Nakagawa was early on influenced by proletarian literature and wrote amateur film reviews to th ...
's 1960 film ''
Jigoku'', for
Toei.
For the German-Japanese co-production, ''The Woman with the Red Hat'' (1982), Kumashiro worked with Pink Film producer-director
Kōji Wakamatsu
was a Japanese film director who directed such ''pinku eiga'' films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film ...
. The production was an unsuccessful attempt on Wakamatsu's part to emulate the success he had had in collaborating with the French in
Nagisa Ōshima
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. One of the foremost directors within the Japanese New Wave, his films include ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan, and ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' ...
's ''
In the Realm of the Senses
''In the Realm of the Senses'' (french: link=no, L'Empire des sens, Japanese: , ''Ai no Korīda'', "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic art film written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of a ...
'' (1976).
[Sharp, p. 199.] The story, dealing with a Japanese man in Germany and his obsessive sexual relationship with a German woman during Hitler's rise to power, also seemed to echo Ōshima's film.
Jasper Sharp notes with surprise that Kumashiro, who had long been an opponent of Japanese censorship, did not take advantage of the more liberal European laws. Instead he followed the Japanese practice of obscuring genital areas with props.
Death
Throughout his life Kumashiro was a frail and sickly man.
In the 1980s, as the rising AV (Adult Video) industry took away most of the audience for the theatrical ''Roman pornos'', Kumashiro's health began failing.
He suffered from a collapsed lung in 1983, but, in spite of his poor health, he continued making films until his death.
He directed his last two films, ''Like a Rolling Stone'' (''Bo no Kanashimi'') (1994) and ''Immoral: Indecent Relations'' (
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
) while using an oxygen tank.
He died of heart and lung failure on February 24, 1995.
Kumashiro is remembered with affection by those who worked with him, and is considered one of the best directors to have worked in the Roman Porno series.
When interviewed for the British television program, ''
Mondo Macabro'', actress
Kazuko Shirakawa
(born September 30, 1947) is a Japanese actress who is best known for her appearances in Nikkatsu's '' Roman Porno'' films during the 1970s. She appeared in Nikkatsu's first film in the ''Roman Porno'' series, ''Apartment Wife'' (1971), and is c ...
observed that it may have been Kumashiro's poor physical condition which helped him to portray the fragility of human existence.
The Japanese film critic and filmmaker Chiseko Tanaka summarized his career with, "Kumashiro was not a great poet like
Mizoguchi,
Imamura and
Oshima. He was a little poet, but he was unique. He devoted himself to his works as a true artist."
Filmography
* (1968-04-13)
[Filmography from "FILMOGRAPHY: Director Tatsumi Kumashiro (1927–1995)" in '' A Woman with Red Hair'': A film by Tatsumi Kumashiro. (2003) Kimstim Collection DVD; Nikkatsu, Kino Video, Kimstim, Inc. KS2012; ; ; and ]
* (1972-01-29)
* (1972-10-07)
* (1973-03-24)
* (1973-05-23)
* (1973-07-14)
* (1973-11-03)
* (1974-01-03)
* (1974-02-16)
* (1974-05-04)
* (1974-06-29)
* (1974-09-21)
* 宵待草 (''Yoimachigusa'', 1974-12-28)
* 櫛の火 (''Kushi no Hi'', 1975-04-05)
* (1975-06-21)
* (1975-08-09)
* (1975-12-24)
* (1977-02-01)
* (1977-04-23)
* (1979-02-17)
* (1979-06-03)
* (1979-11-03)
* (1980-03-29)
* (1980-11-21)
* (1980-12-20)
* (1981-10-23)
* (1982-10-16)
* (1983-06-18)
* (1984-04-20)
* (1985-10-05)
* (1986-10-25)
* (1987-04-25)
* (1988-07-01)
* (1994-10-01)
* (1995-04-25)
See also
*
List of Nikkatsu Roman Porno films
The Nikkatsu ''Roman Porno'' films were a series of theatrical Japanese softcore pornographic films produced by the movie studio Nikkatsu from November, 1971, until May, 1988. The Japanese word 'roman' refers to novels, and derives from the Lati ...
Notes
Sources
*
* "FILMOGRAPHY: Director Tatsumi Kumashiro (1927–1995)" in ''A Woman with Red Hair'': A film by Tatsumi Kumashiro. (2003) Kimstim Collection DVD; Nikkatsu, Kino Video, Kimstim, Inc. KS2012.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
* (Notes on "A Tatsumi Kumashiro Retrospective" in New York, presented by the Japan Society, January 19 - March 28, 2001
** (2nd page)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumashiro, Tatsumi
1927 births
1995 deaths
Japanese film directors
Pink film directors
People from Saga Prefecture