Shōhei Imamura
| Shohei Imamura | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
September 15, 1926 Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | May 30, 2006 (aged 79) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | director, screenwriter, assistant director, producer, actor |
| Years active | 1951–2002 |
| Awards |
Golden Palm Japan Academy Prize Picture of the Year 1980 Vengeance Is Mine 1984 The Ballad of Narayama 1990 Black Rain Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year 1980 Vengeance Is Mine 1990 Black Rain 1998 The Eel |
Golden Palm
1983 The Ballad of Narayama
1997 The Eel
Shohei Imamura (今村 昌平 Imamura Shōhei?, 15 September 1926 – 30 May 2006) was a Japanese film director. Imamura is the only Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards.
Imamura was born to a comfortably upper-middle-class doctor's family in Tokyo in 1926. For a short time after 1945, when Japan was in a devastated condition following the war, Imamura participated in the black market selling cigarettes and liquor. Reflecting this period of his life, Imamura's interests as a filmmaker were usually focused on the lower strata of Japanese society. He studied Western history at Waseda University, but spent more time participating in theatrical and political activities. He cited a viewing of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon in 1950 as an early inspiration, and said he saw it as an indication of the new freedom of expression possible in Japan in the post-war era.
Upon graduation from Waseda in 1951, Imamura began his film career working as an assistant to Yasujirō Ozu at Shochiku Studios on the films Early Summer (1951), The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952) and Tokyo Story (1953). Imamura, however, was uncomfortable with the way Ozu portrayed Japanese society. While Imamura's films were to have a quite different style from Ozu's, Imamura, like Ozu, was to focus on what he saw as particularly Japanese elements of society in his films. "I've always wanted to ask questions about the Japanese, because it's the only people I'm qualified to describe," he said. He expressed surprise that his films were appreciated overseas.
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