was a prolific 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 ...

, film producer, 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 ...

. His first accredited film, , was released in 1952; his last, , in 1985. He received several awards during his career, including the Japanese Academy Award for "Best Director" for his 1978 film '' The Demon''.

Biography

Nomura was the son of Hotei Nomura, a contract film director at the

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

film studio. He entered

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

to study art in 1936, graduated in 1941, and then joined the Shochiku studios as well. He was first hired as an

assistant director The role of an assistant director (AD) 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 ...

but before being assigned any projects he was drafted into the army before being discharged in July 1946. In the fall of the same year, he returned to Shochiku and spent his entire film career working there. During his years as an assistant director, he worked under the helm of film directors such as Keisuke Sasaki, Yuzo Kawashima, and

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

, whom he worked with in 1951 on the filming of ''

The Idiot ''The Idiot'' (Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–1869. The titl ...

'', based on the

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

. In 1952, Nomura was promoted to director and made his directorial debut in 1953 with the film , which was such a success that the studio gave him five more films to direct the following year. He is considered one of the pioneers of Japanese

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

and frequently collaborated with mystery writer Seichō Matsumoto, adapting eight of his works into films. Nomura directed 89 films in total. He worked in several different genres, including

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

s and ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

'' (period dramas), but was considered most proficient within the thriller genre. Nomura's films frequently contain veiled criticism of Japanese society. His 1974 thriller '' Castle of Sand'', for which he won a diploma at the 9th Moscow International Film Festival in 1975, is considered by many critics as his best work. Nomura retired from directing in 1985, after which he worked as a TV producer and as consultant to other Japanese directors. In 1995, he was decorated by the Japanese Government with the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese honors system, Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge feat ...

, the second highest order of Japan. He died of pneumonia on 8 April 2005 in

Shinjuku, Tokyo , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

Retrospective

In 2014, the

National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...

in the UK organised a programme of five Nomura films, all of which were adaptations of Seichō Matsumoto stories.

Filmography as assistant director

* ''

'' (1951) * (1951) * (1952) * (1952) * (1952) * (1953)

Filmography as Director

1950s

* (1952) * (1952) * (1953) * (1953) * (1953) * (1953) * (1953) * '' Izu no Odoriko'' (1954) * (1954) * (1954) * (1954) * (1955) * (1955) * (1955) * (1955) * (1955) * (1955) * (1956) * (1956) * (1956) * (1956) * (1956) * (1956) * (1957) * (1958) * (1958) * (1958) * (1958) * (1959)

1960s

* (1960) * (1960) * (1960) * (1960) * (1961) * (1961) * (1961) * (1962) * (1962) * (1962) * (1962) * (1963) * (1963) * (1963) * (1964) * (1964) * (1964) * (1965) * (1966) * (1966) * (1966) * (1966) * (1966) * (1967) * (1967) * (1967) * (1967) * (1968) * (1968) * (1968) * (1969) * (1969) * (1969) * (1969)

1970s

* (1970) * (1970) * (1970) * (1970) * (1970) * (1971) * (1971) * (1971) * (1972) * (1973) * (1973) * '' Castle of Sand'' (1974) * (1974) * (1975) * (1977) * '' The Incident'' (1978) * '' The Demon'' (1978) * (1979) based on a novel by

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...

1980s

* (1980) * (1980) * (1981) * '' Suspicion'' (1982) * (1983) * (1984) * (1985)

References

External links

*
JMDb Yoshitaro Nomura listing

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nomura, Yoshitaro 1919 births 2005 deaths Japanese film directors Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year winners Film people from Tokyo People from Taitō Keio University alumni