Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi ( Japanese 小林 正 樹 , Kobayashi Masaki ; born February 14, 1916 in Otaru , Hokkaidō ; † October 4, 1996 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter . Kobayashi was considered one of the best and most precise directors in Japan, he became known for films such as " Barefoot Through Hell " and " Kwaidan ".

Career

Kobayashi grew up in his native city in northern Hokkaido. From 1933 to 1941 he studied philosophy at Waseda University in Tokyo. He then started working as an assistant director at the production company Shochiku . In 1942 Kobayashi was drafted and transferred to Manchuria. There he refused not only to take part in combat operations, but also to refuse any military promotion . Kobayashi was first captured by the Soviets and later by the Americans, and in 1946 he returned to Japan. There he worked for Shochiku as a screenwriter and as an assistant director for Keisuke Kinoshita . In 1952 Kobayashi made his first film as a director. In his third feature film “Kabe atsuki heya” he first addressed the Japanese war crimes of World War II. Because of the very sensitive subject for Japan, the film did not make it to the cinema until 1956; Kobayashi was awarded the Peace Culture Prize. His breakthrough to international fame came with the three films in the series "Barefoot Through Hell", which in a total of ten hours (in the uncut original) show the story of a young Japanese, portrayed by Tatsuya Nakadai , who became famous as a result , who shows the horror of war lived through in all its facets. Kobayashi completely renounced heroization and thus went against all narrative conventions of the time.

In his later works Kobayashi was based in part on Kurosawa's samurai films, with Kobayashi's samurais acting far less heroically than Kurosawas, but in a much more cruel environment. Kobayashi achieved his greatest commercial success with his first color film "Kwaidan", which is based on the ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn . In 1967 he made another very successful film, "Rebellion", in which Toshirō Mifune can be seen. In 1975 Kobayashi brought a cut of eight to three and a half hours of his television series "Kaseki" to the cinema. After his documentary "Tokyo saiban", which recreates the war crimes trials in Tokyo, Kobayashi made his last film in 1985, in which he describes a confrontation between terrorists and the police.

Kobayashi was represented three times at the Cannes Film Festival , 1963 with " Harakiri ", 1965 with "Kwaidan" and 1969 with "Nippon no seishun"; In 1963 and 1965 his films were awarded the special jury prize. In 1967 Kobayashi won a FIPRESCI award at the Venice Film Festival for “Rebellion” . He also received a FIPRESCI Prize in 1985 for his documentary play "Tokio saiban" at the Berlin Film Festival .

Filmography (selection)

• 1952: Musuko no Seishun
• 1953: Magokoro
• 1954: Kabe Atsuki Heya
• 1959–61: Trilogy Barefoot Through Hell (Ningen no Jōken)
• 1962: Harakiri (Seppuku)
• 1964: Kwaidan
• 1966: Rebellion (Jōiuchi)
• 1968: Nippon no Seishun
• 1971: Inochi Bō ni Furō
• 1975: Kaseki
• 1983: Tōkyō Saiban
• 1985: Shokutaku no nai Ie

literature

• Hans-Michael Bock (Hrsg.): Lexicon directors and cameramen. RoRoRo, Reinbek 1999 ISBN 3-499-60651-8 .
• Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 .
• Stephen Prince: A dream of resistance: the cinema of Kobayashi Masaki , New Brunswick; Camden; Newark: Rutgers University Press, [2018], ISBN 978-0-8135-9235-0

Web links

• Masaki Kobayashi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Text about Masaki Kobayashi