Masaki Kobayashi
| Masaki Kobayashi | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 14, 1916 Otaru, Japan |
| Died | October 4, 1996 (aged 80) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, writer |
Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹 Kobayashi Masaki?, February 14, 1916 – October 4, 1996) was a Japanese film director, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai film Seppuku (1962), and Ghost Stories (1964).
Kobayashi was a second cousin of the actress and director Kinuyo Tanaka.
Kobayashi studied ancient oriental arts and philosophy. Kobayashi embarked on a career in film in 1941 when he entered Shochiku Studios as an apprentice director, but his career was almost immediately interrupted when he was drafted into the army and sent to Manchuria.
Kobayashi regarded himself as a pacifist. His way of resisting was to refuse promotion to a rank higher than private. He spent time as a prisoner of war in an Okinawa camp. After his release, in 1946, he returned to Shochiku as assistant to the director Keisuke Kinoshita.
Kobayashi's directorial debut was in 1952 when he made Musuko no Seishun (My Son's Youth).
From 1959 to 1961, Kobayashi directed The Human Condition (1959–1961), a trilogy on the effects of World War II on a Japanese pacifist and socialist. The total length of the films is almost ten hours, and one of the longest fiction films ever made.
In 1962 he directed Harakiri, which won the Jury Prize at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.
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