To the Japanese director Masaki kobayashi it can be located in the postwar generation.
He was born on February 14, 1916, in Otaru, Hokkaidō, Japan, and did his university studies with a degree in philosophy and history of art in the Wased University to later connect to the cinema in 1941.
However, before becoming one of the most important Japanese filmmakers in history alongside Akira Kurosawa, there is a past of Kobayashi that is worth knowing to value his work even more.
After studying, he got a job right out of school as an assistant director at Shochiku Studios in 1941, but his career was interrupted by the escalation of the war, as he joined the armed forces between 1942 and 1945.
Masaki hated the military, and as a form of protest, he rejected all promotions that were offered to him, but once he entered his military work, he was sent to combat first in Manchuria, then at Ryukyu Islands. Subsequently, was purged in Okinawa, and spent the last year of the conflict as a prisoner of the US Army.
These complicated years undeniably marked the rest of his life, and after being released in 1946, he resumed contact with him. cinema as assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita, with whom he made 15 films. Kinoshita was not only Kobayashi's supervisor, he also served as his mentor, and after their first years together, the two directors decided to write a film together in 1949.
Kobayashi made his directorial debut in November 1952 with Musoko no seishun (The youth of my children), a film that follows a middle-class family with two teenage sons who were about to go on their first dates.
Kobayashi's second effort came in 1953, with a script written by his mentor titled Magakoro (Sincerity), who received the palms from the local and international audience that was able to witness the performance.
These works were developed in a much more personal terrain for the director, so the form and modes of Masaki Kobayashi, that offered a critical look at various aspects of life political, social and cultural of his country, with some recurring themes such as the confrontations of its protagonists with the established powers and the consequences of the postwar period in Japanese society.
About a decade later, his focus shifted from realism to an interest in exploring the stylized beauty of traditional Japanese aesthetics in several of his most acclaimed works.
Next, and having understood this past so important to the director's vision, we present you 5 Kobayashi films that cannot wait any longer to be seen:
The Human Condition (1959)
This gigantic humanistic drama of Masaki kobayashi it is one of the most amazing achievements in Japanese cinema.
It was originally filmed and released in three installments of two parts each for a total of nine and a half hours. It is an adaptation of the six-volume novel by Junpei gomikawa, which recounts the journey of the well-intentioned but naive kaji, played by Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai from a labor camp supervisor to a Imperial Army a Soviet prisoner of war.
The Human Condition it feels, first and foremost, unconditionally real. His effective use of exterior locations, detailed sets, minimal use of music, and an unwavering look at the horrible effect of war force us to confront the realities of these situations.
Kwaidan (1964)
waidan is a 1965 Japanese anthology horror film. It is based on stories from the collections of Japanese folk tales from Lafcadio Hearn. The movie consists of four separate and unrelated stories.
Which makes that This film is unique is the combination of the methodical and almost maddeningly patient approach to Kobayashi's drama and his expressionist experiments with color, sound, and theatrical artifice.
waidan is an archaic transliteration of the term kaidan, which means "ghost story".
The Black Hair, The Woman of the Snow, Hoichi the Earlessy In a Cup of Tea are the stories presented in the original work.
Sincerity (1953)
It is Kobayashi's first feature film with the script by his teacher Kinoshita.
The story is about a boy who falls in love with his invalid neighbor, keeping the fact a secret from his family. Some classify it as a family comedy of customs that leads to melodrama to an edifying ending.
In this film you can see the influence of the screenwriter and his attachment to the caring characters and their sentimental tone. This early work of the director is interesting to analyze the general context of his work.
Black River (1957)
Black river it is possibly Kobayashi's most seedy and pessimistic film. Set around a North American base, the film develops the love triangle that occurs between a student, his girlfriend, and a ruffian (Tatsuya Nakadai's first major role).
With noticeable echoes of the film noir, this work by Kobayashi offers a bleak look at the Japanese society of those years and the pernicious influence of North American culture.
Seppuku (Harakiri, 1962)
His work in the 1960s was one of the best.
An essay by International Dictionary of Cinema and Directors name to Seppuku (Harakiri, 1962) y Jouchi (Rebellion, 1967) like the two best Kobayashi movies.
Both use historical settings to universalize their focus on the dissident individual. According to the essay, the films result in a masterful combination of style and content, with the uncompromising ritual of samurai convention perfectly combined with cool camera movement and elegantly geometric composition.
With excellent chamber work and a very good use of Takemitsu's music, the film, rigorous and uncompromising, with the serene determination of a ritual and with a great use of the scope, ends in the final confrontation of the protagonist with a legion of adversaries, a kind of ineluctably tragic war ballet.
Hara-kiri marks the peak of Kobayashi's art.
Honorable mentions
I Will Buy You (1956)), resulting in a critique of the ruthless business behind professional baseball in Japan with which Kobayashi gained recognition for his sensitive interpretation of social problems.
The Inheritance is the story of a dying businessman who unleashes a family scandal by announcing that his fortune will go to his illegitimate children. The film results in an ironic condemnation of postwar Japanese materialism, perfectly complemented by the jazz music of Toru Takemitsu.