Stuart Eugene Galbraith IV (born December 29, 1965) is an American film historian, film critic, essayist, and audio commentator.

Early life and education

Raised in

Livonia, Michigan Livonia is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 95,535 at the 2020 census, which ranked it as Michigan's ninth most-populated municipality. Livonia is a part of Metro Detroit and is located about west of th ...

, Galbraith first worked professionally as a film reviewer and long-running home video columnist for '' The Ann Arbor News''. In 1993, Galbraith moved to Los Angeles, California, where he eventually earned an M.A. from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television.

Career

After graduation, Galbraith worked as an archivist for the USC-Warner Bros. Archives, and later worked at the Warner Bros. Corporate Archives before writing ''The Emperor and the Wolf'', a joint biography of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune, and the first biography of either man published outside Japan. As with ''Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!'', the 800-page book featured original interviews with collaborators including Shinobu Hashimoto, Kyoko Kagawa, Takeshi Kato, Yoshiro Muraki, Masaru Sato, and Senkichi Taniguchi. After that book's publication, Galbraith returned to archive work, as a "film detective" for MGM, tracking down the original camera negatives to more than three dozen "lost" films. Galbraith's ''Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films'', the first English-language book about the genre, was published in 1994, and was soon followed by ''The Japanese Filmography''. Galbraith's 1998 book ''Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films'' was an oral history of the genre, told by such filmmakers as Kinji Fukasaku, Jun Fukuda, Kihachi Okamoto, and

Noriaki Yuasa (28 September 1933 – 14 June 2004) was a Japanese director. Yuasa is the main director of the Japanese film series ''Gamera'', about a giant flying turtle that befriends small boys and battles giant monsters. The series was created by Daiei ...

, and actors Mie Hama, Kumi Mizuno, and

Akira Takarada was a Japanese film actor best known for his roles in the ''Godzilla'' film series. Life and career Akira Takarada was born in Korea under Japanese rule, and lived for a time in Manchuria, China. His father worked as an engineer on the South ...

. On DVD, Galbraith's essays have accompanied Criterion's three-disc '' Seven Samurai'', Optimum's ''

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/ crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as v ...

'', and BCI Eclipse's ''

The Quiet Duel is a 1949 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Plot The film centers on Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young, idealistic doctor who, during his service as an army physician during World War II, contracted syphilis from the blood of a patient when he ...

''. He was an associate producer for the DVDs of the classic poolroom drama '' The Hustler'' and Sidney Lumet's '' The Verdict''. He provided audio commentary (with director

Richard Fleischer Richard O. Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director whose career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. Though h ...

) for the Special Edition DVD of ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji ...

'', and interviewed Oscar-winning cinematographer

Vilmos Zsigmond Vilmos Zsigmond ASC (; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work in cinematography helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wav ...

for his audio commentary track for ''

The Sadist ''The Sadist'' (German: "Der Sadist") is a book published by psychiatrist Karl Berg, following the confessions of Peter Kürten, a notorious German serial killer known as both The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster who committed ...

''. Galbraith's audio commentary for Classic Media's ''

Invasion of Astro-Monster is a 1965 ''kaiju'' film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the sixth film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise and Shōwa period. The film was a Japanese-American co-production; it was the second collaboration ...

'' was released in 2007 and nominated for a

Rondo Hatton Award The rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period. Etymology The English word ''rondo'' comes from the Italian form of the French ''rondeau'', which means "a little round". Despite the common etymological root, rond ...

. Since August 2003, Galbraith has been a reviewer for the website DVD Talk, where he has published more than 1,900 reviews. Galbraith has been selected as a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

Career in Japan

In 2003 Galbraith moved to Kyoto, Japan, with his wife, Yukiyo Nishi. Their daughter, Sadie, was born in 2007. In addition to his work as a cinema scholar, until 2009 Galbraith published a monthly home video column for the English-language edition of the Daily Yomiuri. He also records narration and voice-over for industrial and educational films. Galbraith's ''The Toho Studios Story'' was published in 2008, and ''Japanese Cinema'', edited by Paul Duncan, was published by

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, ...

in 2009. Also in 2009 he recorded a commentary track for AnimEigo's '' Tora-san, Our Loveable Tramp''. Galbraith is not directly related to Kilimanjaro Live music promoter

Stuart Galbraith Stuart Galbraith is a British live music event promoter. He is the founder of Kilimanjaro Live Group, one of the United Kingdom's largest event promoters. History Starting his career as Events Booker at Leeds University and then at independent pr ...

or former Ballyclare Comrades midfielder Stuart Galbraith.

Bibliography

* ''Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films'' (hardback). McFarland; 1994; * ''Motor City Marquees'' (hardback). McFarland; 1994; * ''The Japanese Filmography'' (hardback). McFarland; 1996; * ''Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films'' (softcover). Feral House; 1998; * ''The Emperor and the Wolf – The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune'' (hardback). Faber; 2002; * ''The Toho Studios Story'' (hardback). Scarecrow Press; 2008; * ''Japanese Cinema'' (hardback). Taschen; 2009; * ''Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa'' (2017) - Special thanks

Screenplays

* ''Mifune: The Last Samurai'' (co-written with

Steven Okazaki Steven Toll Okazaki (born March 12, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker known for his raw, cinéma vérité-style documentaries that frequently show ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. He has received a Peabody Award ...

)

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Galbraith, Stuart IV 1965 births American film critics American Japanologists Living people Online Film Critics Society People from Livonia, Michigan USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni