Yoshishige Yoshida

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Yoshishige Yoshida
Born(1933-02-16)16 February 1933
Fukui, Japan
Died8 December 2022(2022-12-08) (aged 89)
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter, writer
Years active1960–2004

Yoshishige Yoshida (吉田 喜重, Yoshida Yoshishige, 16 February 1933 – 8 December 2022), also known as Kijū Yoshida, was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.

Life and career[edit]

Graduating from the University of Tokyo, where he studied French literature, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and worked as an assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita,[1] before debuting as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi.[2] He was a central member of what came to be called the "Shōchiku Nouvelle Vague" along with Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda,[3] and his works have been studied under the larger rubric of the Japanese New Wave,[4] a linkage which Yoshida himself disliked.[1] Like many of his New Wave cohorts, he felt restricted under the studio system. After Shōchiku's re-editing of his Escape from Japan (1964), he left the studio to start his own production company,[1] for which he directed such films as Eros + Massacre.[2]

Between 1960 and 2004, Yoshida directed more than 20 films, some of which starred his wife, actress Mariko Okada.[1] After a long absence from the screen following the 1973 Coup d'État, he returned with A Promise, which was shown in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.[5] Two years later, his film Wuthering Heights would compete for the Golden Palm at the 1988 Festival.[6] In 2002, Women in the Mirror followed after another hiatus of 14 years.[7] In addition to his theatrical films, Yoshida directed a series of documentaries for Japanese TV.

Yoshida named European cinema as a great influence on his work, most notably the directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, and pre-war French films like the works of Jean Renoir.[1] He also published a number of books on the topic of cinema, including one on his own cinematic work and an analysis of the films of Yasujirō Ozu.

Yoshida died from pneumonia at a hospital in Shibuya, on 8 December 2022, at the age of 89.[8][9]

Selected filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

  • The Cinema of Ozu According to Kiju Yoshida (1993)

Selected bibliography[edit]

  • Yoshida, Kijū (1984). Mehiko yorokobashiki inyu. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten Publishers. ISBN 978-2-918040-46-0.
  • Yoshida, Kiju (2003). Ozu's Anti-Cinema. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. ISBN 978-1-929280-27-8. OCLC 53013473.
  • Yoshida, Kijū (December 2010). "My Theory of Film: A Logic of Self-Negation". Review of Japanese Culture and Society. 22: 104–109.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Jacoby, Alexander; Amit, Rea (13 December 2010). "Midnight Eye interview: Yoshishige Yoshida". Midnight Eye. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Yoshida Yoshishige". Nihon jinmei daijiten + Plus (in Japanese). Kōdansha. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  3. ^ Domenig, Roland (28 June 2004). "The Anticipation of Freedom". Midnight Eye. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  4. ^ Desser, David (1988). Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to The Japanese New Wave Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20469-0.
  5. ^ "Festival de Cannes: A Promise". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
  6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Wuthering Heights". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
  7. ^ Schilling, Mark (27 June 2002). "Women In The Mirror (Kagami No Onnatachi) - Review - Screen". Screen International.
  8. ^ 映画監督の吉田喜重さん死去 89歳 妻は俳優の岡田茉莉子さん. Mainichi Shimbun (in Japanese). 8 December 2022. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  9. ^ 吉田喜重さんが死去 映画監督、「秋津温泉」. The Nikkei (in Japanese). 9 December 2022. Retrieved 9 December 2022.

External links[edit]

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