Shōhei Imamura facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shōhei Imamura
今村 昌平
Born	(1926-09-15)15 September 1926 Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died	30 May 2006(2006-05-30) (aged 79) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	Waseda University
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1951–2002
Movement	Japanese New Wave
Awards	Palme d'Or (1983, 1997)

Shōhei Imamura (今村 昌平, Imamura Shōhei, 15 September 1926 – 30 May 2006) was a famous Japanese film director. He was very interested in showing the lives of ordinary people and those who faced tough challenges in Japan.

Imamura was an important director in a new style of Japanese filmmaking called the Japanese New Wave. He kept making movies into the 21st century. He is also the only Japanese director to win the important Palme d'Or award twice.

Shōhei Imamura's Life Story

Growing Up and Early Career

Shōhei Imamura was born in Tokyo in 1926. His family was quite well-off, as his father was a doctor. After World War II ended, Imamura briefly sold things like cigarettes and drinks on the black market.

He studied Western history at Waseda University. But he spent more time involved in theater and political groups. He said that watching Akira Kurosawa's movie Rashomon in 1950 really inspired him. He felt it showed the new freedom of expression in Japan after the war.

After finishing university in 1951, Imamura started working in movies. He became an assistant to director Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku Studios. He helped with famous films like Early Summer and Tokyo Story.

Imamura didn't always agree with how Ozu showed Japanese society in his films. He also found Ozu's way of directing actors too strict. However, Imamura later said he learned a lot about filmmaking techniques from Ozu. Even though Imamura's movies had a very different style, he, like Ozu, focused on things that were uniquely Japanese. He once said, "I've always wanted to ask questions about the Japanese, because it's the only people I'm qualified to describe." He was even surprised that his films were liked overseas, wondering if people outside Japan could truly understand them.

Working as a Studio Director

In 1954, Imamura left Shochiku and joined Nikkatsu studios. There, he worked as an assistant director for Yūzō Kawashima. Imamura and Kawashima both wanted to show the "real" Japan. They focused on characters who were not always perfect or "proper." This was different from the "official" view of Japan often seen in films by directors like Ozu. Imamura also helped write the movie Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate.

Imamura directed his first movie at Nikkatsu in 1958. He continued to direct films that the studio gave him. These included Nishi Ginza Station, a comedy, and the dark comedy Endless Desire. His 1959 film My Second Brother was a gentle story. It showed a community of Koreans living in Japan in a poor mining town.

His 1961 movie Pigs and Battleships was a satire, which means it used humor to criticize something. Imamura later said this was the kind of film he always wanted to make. It showed black market deals between the U.S. military and criminals in Yokosuka. Because the film was controversial and cost too much, Nikkatsu stopped Imamura from directing for two years. During this time, he focused on writing screenplays.

After this break, he directed The Insect Woman in 1963. This film was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival. He then made Unholy Desire in 1964. All three of these films featured strong female characters. These women were survivors who kept going despite many problems. Imamura didn't like the idea of women who always sacrificed themselves in movies. He felt his heroines were more like real people.

Becoming an Independent Filmmaker

In 1965, Imamura started his own film company called Imamura Productions. His 1968 film Profound Desires of the Gods explored how modern and traditional ways of life clashed on a southern Japanese island. This was a big and expensive project for Imamura. But the movie didn't do well at the box office. This led him to make smaller films, including a series of documentaries for Japanese television over the next ten years.

Imamura returned to making fiction films with Vengeance Is Mine in 1979. He then made two large remakes. The first was Eijanaika (1981), which was a new version of Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate. The second was The Ballad of Narayama (1983). This was a new telling of Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 film of the same name. For The Ballad of Narayama, Imamura won his first Palme d'Or award at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Black Rain (1989) showed how the bombing of Hiroshima affected a family years later. One film expert noted that this movie had a very calm and quiet feeling. The Eel (1997) earned Imamura another Palme d'Or. He shared this award with Abbas Kiarostami's film Taste of Cherry.

From The Eel onwards, Imamura's oldest son, Daisuke Tengan, helped write the screenplays for his films. This included Imamura's part in the movie 11'09"01 September 11 (2002), which was his last film as a director. In 2002, Imamura also acted in a South Korean film called 2009: Lost Memories, playing a historian.

Shōhei Imamura passed away on May 30, 2006, at the age of 79.

Imamura's Lasting Impact

In 1975, Imamura started a film school called the Japan Institute of the Moving Image. It was first known as the Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film. While studying there, director Takashi Miike got his first film credit. He worked as an assistant director on Imamura's 1987 film Zegen.

Selected Films Directed by Shōhei Imamura

See also

In Spanish: Shōhei Imamura para niños