Masayuki Suo

Masayuki Suo

Masayuki Suo ( Japanese周 防 正 行Suo Masayuki ; born October 29, 1956 in Tokyo , Japan ) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter .

biography

Masayuki Suo studied French literature at Rikkyō University . It was at this time that he began to read texts by the writer and film critic Shigehiko Hazumi , who had a great influence on him.

After graduating, he turned to film. His first directorial work, the 1983 erotic comedy Hentai kazoku: Aniki no yomesan , is about the sexual escapades of a family when the eldest son gets married and his wife moves into the house. Until 1988 he worked on smaller productions that were not shown in the cinema but published directly on VHS. In 1989 he was responsible for the film Fancy Dance . This is based on the manga of the same name by Reiko Okano and tells about a student who plays in a punk rock band and has to spend a year in a Zen temple.

The director achieved his first success in 1992 with a desire for sumo . The film about a student practicing sumo won many awards. Masayuki Suo won the Japanese Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director and Best Screenplay , and the film itself won in the Best Picture category .

After establishing himself as a director with a desire for sumo , the dance film Shall we dance? his break-through. The film was very successful in both film awards, box office and critics. 2004 was written in the USA under the title May I ask? a remake with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere in the lead roles . After Shall we dance? and a role as an actor in Naoto Takenaka's film Tokyo Biyori , Masayuki Suo took a creative break and went to the United States.

In 2007 the film Soredemo boku wa yattenai was released , which is about a salaryman who is arrested and accused of molesting a woman on the train. Ryo Kase , Asaka Seto and Kōji Yakusho star in Suo's first film in eleven years. The film, whose English-language distribution title is I Just Didn't Do It , was selected as the official Japanese entry for the nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Academy Awards.

Masayuki Suo is married to the dancer Tamiyo Kusakari , who starred in Shall we dance? the dance teacher Mai played.

Suo's films provide insightful insight into parts of Japanese culture, such as: B. life in a Buddhist temple in fancy dance , the Japanese university system and the importance of university sports in lust for sumo , the roles of western ballroom dance in Shall we dance? and Japanese law in I Just Didn't Do It .

Filmography

• 1983: Hentai kazoku: Aniki no yomesan (変 態 家族 兄 貴 の 嫁 さ ん)
• 1987: Marusa no Onna wo Marusa Suru (マ ル サ の 女 を マ ル サ す る)
• 1988: Marusa no Onna wo Marusa Suru 2 (マ ル サ の 女 を マ ル サ す る 2)
• 1989: Fancy Dance (フ ァ ン シ イ ダ ン スfanshī dansu )
• 1992: Lust for Sumo (シ コ ふ ん じ ゃ っ た。shiko funjatta. )
• 1993: Ijō no hitobito: Densetsuno nijino sankyōdai (異常 の 人 々: 伝 説 の 虹 の 三 兄弟)
• 1996: Shall we dance? (Shall We ダ ン ス? Shall We dansu? )
• 2007: Soredemo boku wa yattenai (そ れ で も ボ ク は や っ て な い)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oscar welcoming foreign contenders . In: Daily Variety, September 21, 2007, News, p. 4

Web links

• Masayuki Suo in the Internet Movie Database (English)