was a Japanese

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, actor, and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Career

Born as Takehiko Kagoshima in Nagasaki, Shima left for Tokyo after graduating from high school. He was in the first class of the Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō and joined the

Nikkatsu is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō. 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%). ...

studio as an actor in 1925. Playing mostly romantic leads, he appeared in films directed by such masters as

Tomu Uchida , born Tsunejirō Uchida, was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Uchida chose the stage name Tomu, a transliteration of the English Tom, written in Kanji characters meaning "to spit out dreams". Biography Early career After leaving junio ...

and

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese filmmaker who directed roughly 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 ' ...

. He turned to directing in 1939, and quickly came to prominence with films such as ''

Kaze no Matasaburō is a video game industry developer headquartered in Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan. Founded on February 2, 1987, KAZe is well known for developing various pachinko and pinball video games. Their services include the development of Web sites, system ...

'', an adaption of a

Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social ...

story, and ''

Jirō Monogatari is a stand-alone Japanese given name along with " Tarō", and a common name suffix for males. Written forms Jirō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: * 次郎, "next, son" * 次朗, "next, melodious" * 二郎, "sec ...

''. After the war, he directed such films as ''

Ginza Kankan Musume (translation: ''Ginza Kankan Girl'') is a 1949 black and white Japanese film directed by Koji Shima. Cast * Shizuko Kasagi * Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spa ...

'' and '' Jūdai no Seiten'' at

Shintoho was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big six film studios (which also included Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Toei Company, and Toho) during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Toho company ...

and Daiei Studios. He won a prize at the 1st Moscow International Film Festival for '' Unforgettable Trail''. Some of his last films were made in Hong Kong for

Shaw Brothers Shaw Brothers (HK) Limited () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, operating from 1925 to 2011. In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...

. He directed over 90 films as a director and appeared in over 90 films as an actor. He was once married to the actress

Yukiko Todoroki Yukiko Todoroki ( ''Todoroki Yukiko''; September 11, 1917 – May 11, 1967) was a Japanese people, Japanese actress. Her real name was Tsuruko Nishiyama. She participated in the Takarazuka Revue. At Takarazuka, she was known not by her real name ...

Noriaki Yuasa (28 September 1933 – 14 June 2004) was a Japanese director. Yuasa was the main director of the Japanese film series ''Gamera'', about a giant flying turtle that befriends small boys and battles giant monsters; he directed seven of the first e ...

, specially known for the ''

Gamera is a fictional giant monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the Gamera, the Giant Monster, eponymous 1965 Japanese film. The character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' ...

'' franchise, is Shima's nephew.Steven Sloss, 2021
The Invincible Noriaki Yuasa

Arrow Films Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. As Arrow Video, it sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online; it also operates its own subscript ...

Selected filmography

Director

* ''

'' (風の又三郎) (1940) * ' (次郎物語) (1941) * ''

'' (1949) * '' Hibari no komoriuta'' (1951) * '' The Phantom Horse'' (1955) * '' Warning from Space'' (1956) * '' Zangiku monogatari'' (1956) * '' Unforgettable Trail'' (1959)

Actor

*''

Jōnetsu no Shijin Takuboku is a Japanese word and may refer to: * "Jōnetsu" (Kinki Kids song), a 2001 single by Japanese singing duo Kinki Kids * "Jōnetsu" (Miliyah Kato song), a 2005 single by Japanese singer Miliyah Kato (born June 22, 1988), better known by her st ...

'' (情熱の詩人啄木) (1936) *'' '' (裸の町) (1937)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shima, Koji 1901 births 1986 deaths Japanese film directors Japanese male film actors People from Nagasaki 20th-century Japanese male actors 20th-century Japanese screenwriters