Film director Nagisa Oshima: full filmography, biography and interesting facts

Nagisa Oshima is a director, film actor, screenwriter from Japan. He won the main prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 1978. Erotic drama "Empire of the senses" Nagisa Oshima 1976 release - the most ambiguous work in the career of the director.

Biography

Nagisa was born on March 31, 1932 in the Japanese city of Kyoto. His father was an ordinary civil servant, an engineer. Oshima's father died early, leaving the guy without means of subsistence.

After graduation from the school, Nagisa entered Kyoto University with a degree in Political History. In the student years, director Nagisa Oshima participated in the student movement opposing the Japanese government. Because of this, after graduating in 1954, the university, the guy could not get a job.

In a desperate attempt to somehow make a living for Nagys, an entrance test is taking place at the Shochiku film studio. He is recruited as an assistant director. This fateful event determined the whole future life of Oshima.

Carier start

Already since 1956 Oshima actively conquers the film industry. Now he is not only an assistant director, but also a film critic and editor of the magazine about the cinema Eiga hihyo, which he founded along with the Japanese critic Tadao Sato. His first film the director shoots in 1959.

This picture is "The Street of Love and Hope". The opportunity to make a film of his own was presented to the guy because the film company had suffered a financial crisis, and she could not pay for expensive films of famous directors.

Already in the first half of the 1960s Nagisa became the founder and leader of the "new wave" of Japanese cinema. In his films, he often revealed the topic of youth and criticized the society that was formed in Japan after the Second World War.

One of the films of this period, The History of a Cruel Youth, was released in 1960.

The fourth film in the director's career "Night and Fog in Japan" was released in the same 1960 year. The picture telling the audience about the Japanese opposition movement was withdrawn from the show three days after its release. Such an unjust decision forced Oshima to leave the studio where he worked, and to found his own film company. The new film company was called Sozosha.

The first director's work is the picture "The Street of Love and Hope"

The film was released in 1959. The tape lasting only 62 minutes tells about a boy named Masao, who lives with his sick mother and younger sister. The family has a hard time. Masao is trying to find a job to help her mother somehow, but she wants the boy to continue his education. The family receives money from the sale of pigeons, who, after having lived a little with customers, return to the boy. A girl from a wealthy family is trying to somehow help a poor family.

The film featured actors: Hiroshi Fujikawa, Yuko Motizuki, Yuki Tominaga, Mitio Ito, Kakuko Tino, Fumio Watanabe, Fujio Suga.

Independent film studio Sozosha

At his own film studio, the director could make films about everything he wanted. The first film he shot here, "Cattle", sharply criticized racism and cruelty in society. The plot of the picture was based on the story of Kenzaburo Oe.

The theme of racism and cruelty of society was interesting to the director throughout the next decade.

Another vivid work of the master on the same theme is the film "The Death Penalty Hanging". The picture was released in 1968. The critic's view of the director and the dramatic nature of the work attracted spectators from other countries this time. The film participated in the program of the Cannes Film Festival outside the competition. This was Oshima's first step toward world fame.

In 1973, Oshima decided to close his studio and dismiss the workers.

The picture of racism "Cattle"

The drama film "Cattle" was released in 1961. The plot is based on the story of a dark-skinned pilot from America, whose plane was shot down by the Japanese. The action takes place in the summer of 1945. The pilot is wounded. The Japanese authorities do not want to care for the prisoner, and his fate is forced to solve the local peasants. Even without that, the peasants find it difficult. The pilot is left to live in the stable. Despite the fact that his health improves over time, his life can not be called pleasant. Local people make an alien black American come to scapegoat and blame him for all their troubles.

Critics characterized this film as a tape full of abuse, hatred and despair. Roles in the film were performed by: Rantaro Mikuni, Toshiro Isido, Hugh Hurd, Esi Kato, Akiko Koyama, Taruko Kishi, Eko Mihara and other actors.

Work on television, literary creation

In 1973, Oshima accepts the offer to become a TV presenter about the difficulties that arise in the life of women, about all sorts of family troubles with which they have to fight. The talk show "School of Wives" enjoyed considerable popularity among the audience. Closing his own film studio, Nagisa begins to write books.

Oshima Film Studio

Without the cinema, Nagisa survived only two years. Already in 1975 he founded a new film studio, which was named Oshima. In 1976, Oshima's most famous film, The Empress of Senses, was released. Nagisa Oshima, 1976 for whom was difficult but interesting, decided to provoke the viewer with his new creation. The painting "The Empire of the Senses" is a mixture of drama and frank pornography. The tape touches on the relationship between sex and politics, which Nagis was interested in in previous years.

Since 1978, the director has participated in several international projects. His films such as "The Empire of Passion" in 1978, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" in 1983, "Max, my love" in 1986

The picture "Max, my love" received very bad reviews in the press. The director has always tolerated criticism badly, so after such a reaction to his film, he left work for many years at the cinema and started television projects.

Erotic drama "Empire of the senses"

The film co-produced by France and Japan was released in 1976. The action takes place in the 1930s in the city of Tokyo. The owner of the rich mansion of Kitigio feels a passion for his maid Abe.

Kitiosis more and more away from his wife and rented an apartment for a mistress. The inhabitants of the city call the rich man and his servant perverts, passion draws the lover more and more. They start using suffocation to get more pleasure from sex. One day Abe accidentally strangles his master too much, and he dies. Then the woman cuts off her lover's genitals and goes with them to wander around the city. The film is based on real events.

Roles in the film were performed by: Tatsuya Fuji, Aoi Nakajima, Eiko Matsuda, Akiko Koyama, Taiji Tonoyama and other actors.

Documentaries

Known and as a documentary Nagisa Oshima. This time the films were liked by critics and spectators. He shot only two works. This is "Kyoto, the birthplace of my mother", released on television in 1991, and "One Hundred Years of Japanese Cinema", released in 1994.

Personal life

The wife of Nagisa Oshima is the Japanese actress Akiko Koyama.

Results of life

For forty years of his creative activity, the director has shot only 28 films. They not only show us how they saw the Nagys world, what feelings they experienced in their lives, but also introduce the evolution of Japanese cinema to the audience.

Actually, the history of Japanese cinema from Nagisa Oshima is fully reflected in the documentary film "100 years of Japanese cinema", published in 1994. In it, Oshima sums up not only the entire Japanese cinema as a whole, but also his creative activity.

Death

On the set in 1995, the director was struck by a stroke. Despite the serious illness, the director decides to make another film. The picture of "Taboo" Nagisa will finish only in 1999, being in a wheelchair.

Died director in a hospital in the city of Fujisawa from pneumonia on January 15, 2013 at the age of 80 years.

Nagisa Oshima: the complete filmography

What films did the director make during the years of his career? It:

• In 1959 the film "Street of Love and Hope".
• In 1960, the drama "The Cemetery of the Sun", "The History of a Cruel Youth" and "The Cemetery of the Sun".
• In 1961, the picture "Cattle".
• In 1962 the film "The Rise of Christians".
• In 1963 the film "The First Adventure of a Child".
• In 1965, the pictures "Pleasure of the Flesh" and "The Diary of Yunbogi".
• In 1966, the tape "Violence at noon."
• In 1967, the films "Military Art of the Ninja Album," "Summer in Japan: Double Suicide" and "Study of Indecent Japanese Songs."
• In 1968, the sensational film "The Death Penalty Hanging" and "Return of the Three Drunkards".
• In 1969, the paintings: "Boy" - the first colored film by Nagisa, "Diary of a thief from Shinjuku".
• In 1970, the tape "The story told after the Tokyo War."
• In 1971 the film "Ceremony".
• In 1972 the drama "The Summer Sister".
• In 1975, the painting "Battle of Tsushima."
• In 1976, the film "The Empire of Senses."
• In 1978, the band "Empire of Passion".
• In 1983, the film "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence."
• In 1986, the picture "Max, my love."
• In 1991, the documentary film "Kyoto, the birthplace of my mother."
• In 1994, the documentary tape "100 years of Japanese cinema."
• In 1999 the film "Taboo".