Shinji Sōmai
Shinji Sōmai ( Japanese相 米 慎 二Sōmai Shinji ; born January 13, 1948 in Morioka , Iwate , Japan ; † September 9, 2001 in Isehara , Kanagawa , Japan) was a Japanese director .
biography
He studied at the law faculty of Chūō University and was involved as an activist with the communist Kakumeiteki Kyōsanshugisha Dōmei (革命 的 共産主義者 同盟) during his studies . He dropped out and joined the Nikkatsu film company , where he assisted directors such as Chūsei Sone , Kazuhiko Hasegawa and Shūji Terayama .
His first feature film was Tonda Couple, based on a manga by Kimio Yanagisawa . The work, published in July 1980, is about a high school student who is expected to go to a prestigious university and become a lawyer. The film, which stars Shingo Tsurumi and Hiroko Yakushimaru , won the Japanese Academy Awards in 1981 as the Most Popular Film and won Sōmai the award for best young director at the Yokohama Film Festival . Sailor-fuku to kikanju , the director's next film, was a commercial success with grossing approximately 2.3 billion yen in Japanese cinemas. The Yakuza satire, again with Hiroko Yakushimaru in the lead role, marked the first film adaptation of Sōmais based on a script by Yōzō Tanaka , with whom he would work four more times in the course of his career.
In 1983 two films came out under his direction - Shonben Rider and Gyoei no mure -, in 1985 three films , Yuki no dansho - jonetsu , Love Hotel and Taifun Club ; for the latter two he was awarded the Director's Prize at the Yokohama Film Festival. While Love Hotel is an erotic drama based on Takashi Ishii , Taifun Club is about teenagers who have their first experiences with the opposite sex during a typhoon . Taifun Club won the Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival , one of the most important film festivals in the world.
His work Ohikkoshi , published in 1993, is a drama about a young girl (played by Tomoko Tabata , who has won multiple awards for this role ), whose parents are divorcing and who, after realizing this, wants to reconcile the two. With the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlinale 1999, Sōmai was awarded for the film Ah haru , which is about a married salaryman who never met his father and only meets him as a grown man.
In Kaze-hana , a man and a woman (played by Tadanobu Asano and Kyōko Koizumi ), who hardly know each other, decide to go to Hokkaidō together so that the man can see the mountains and the woman can visit her family. The road movie was Sōmai's last work, as he died of lung cancer in 2001. In 2002 he was posthumously awarded a special lifetime achievement award at the Japanese Academy Awards.
Filmography (selection)
- 1980: Tonda Couple
- 1981: Sailor-fuku to kikanju
- 1983: Shonben Rider
- 1983: Gyoei no mure
- 1985: Love Hotel
- 1985: Taifun Club ( Taifū kurabu )
- 1985: Yuki no dansho - jonetsu
- 1987: Hikaru onna
- 1990: Tōkyō jōkū irasshaimase
- 1993: Ohikkoshi
- 1994: Natsu no niwa
- 1998: Ah haru
- 2000: Kaze-hana
Web links
- Shinji Sōmai in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Entry in the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)
swell
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sōmai, Shinji |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 相 米 慎 二 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 13, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Morioka , Iwate, Japan |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 9, 2001 |
| Place of death | Isehara , Kanagawa, Japan |