This year's "Tribute to the Master" section of the Shanghai International Film Festival is full of masters, including Italian soundtrack master Morricone, Hungarian film master Yang Suo and French film master Chris Mark, and today we introduce another film master from Japan, who is known as one of the "troikas" of the New Wave of Shochiku.
Masahiro Hieda (1931-)
©Mineko Orisaku
In the history of the New Wave of Japanese cinema, the "Shochiku New Wave" is undoubtedly the most famous. Nagisa Oshima, Yoshida Kishige and Masahiro Shinoda, the "troika", with a clear and free-spirited personal style, set off a new wave in the film industry, and also left a profound impact on the creation of later generations.
Born in 1931, Masahiro Shinoda quickly became one of the "standard-bearers" of the "Shochiku New Wave" after his debut at Shochiku Corporation, and later quit Shochiku to form an independent production company "Performance Society". Masahiro Shinoda's filmmaking is never limited to form, navigating between avant-garde and avant-garde independent works and entertainment masterpieces. He has shot more than thirty films in his lifetime, won numerous awards, and is a regular visitor to the three major European film festivals. Including "Skynet Island in the Heart" participating in the Venice Film Festival, "Silence", "Beimihu" and "Writing Music" participating in the Cannes Film Festival, and "Long Gun Rights III" that won awards at the Berlin Film Festival, are all his representative works.
In terms of emotional life, Masahiro Shinoda married Iwashita Shima, the "screen goddess" he met through filmmaking, and has been together for more than fifty years, and has never had a scandal or marriage change, which can be called an enviable pair of immortal couples in the film industry.
In addition to films, Masahiro Shinoda also has a high artistic and literary attainment, and has written a lot of books, and has won the "Izumi Kyohana Literature Award" for the book "The Recommendation of the Kawahara People: Memories of Death and Shura", and has been a distinguished professor at Waseda University for many years, teaching and educating people.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Shinoda Masahiro has deep ties with China. His filmed "Spy Sorge" was filmed in cooperation with the Shanghai Film Studio and went to Beijing for screening exchanges. As early as the 1970s, Masahiro Shinoda had joined the long-established non-governmental organization "Japan Chinese Exchange Association", and in 1978, he also visited China for the first time with the delegation of the association, and then once served as the vice president of the association, the representative director and other important positions, writing an important stroke in the history of Sino-Japanese film exchanges.
At the age of 90 this year, the Shanghai International Film Festival has carefully selected six masterpieces of the New Wave of Japanese cinema to display, paying tribute to this cultural ambassador who is committed to Sino-Japanese friendship.
Dry lake
Youth In Fury
-1960-
Highlights: Masahiro Shinoda, Shuji Terayama, and Teru Takemitsu join forces
In the era of security struggles, young men and women come together. Student fighter Shimojo Taku also scorned the mass movement and daydreamed of becoming a "hero" all day. In the face of the fiery demonstrations, he angrily denounced "boring to the extreme" and planned to go out with explosives to achieve his "revolution", but was caught by the police. This film is the second feature film directed by Masahiro Shinoda, and the first time that Shima Iwashita, who later became Mrs. Shinoda, starred in his directed work. The film was written by the film master Shuji Terayama, and the music ghost Takemitsu scored. These two were fledgling at the time, similar in age to Masahiro Shinoda, and the three of them worked together to create this masterpiece full of the atmosphere of the times, and also made Masahiro Shinoda one of the three masters of the "Shochiku New Wave".
assassinate
The Assassin
-1964-
Highlights: Shochiku New Wave's costumed samurai films
The Beichen sword swordsman Kiyokawa Hachiro, who was both literate and martial, was once the vanguard of the fallen curtain, but he was pardoned for forming a langshi team that banned Qin Wang Zhishi. However, when he arrived in Kyoto with the Langshi team, he revealed his true plan for the trip. This film is one of the masterpieces of Masahiro Shinoda in the Shochiku New Wave period, adapted from the original work "The Wonderful Eight Lang" by the great literary hero Sima Liaotaro, taking the turbulent period at the end of the curtain as the stage, portraying the mysterious and charming character of Haojie Kiyokawa Hachiro, who made every effort to strategize and surprise in the fierce political struggle. Starring Tetsuro Tanba and Shima Iwashita, Masahiro Shinoda uses a number of experimental techniques in the period drama, paying tribute to his beloved Citizen Kane, showing the new wave style.
Heart skynet island
Double Suicide
-1969-
Highlights: The ultimate formal beauty that combines modern audiovisual art and traditional music art
"Heart Skynet Island" is a representative work of the Japanese Edo period pure glass (koji) master Kinmatsumon Zoemon," which is based on the real social events of the martyrdom of paper shop owner Paperya Osamu and sex worker Koharu in the Daichoji Temple of Net Island at that time. Conceived for ten years, Masahiro Shinoda worked with the poet Taeko Tomioka and the music master Takeman to create a script to bring this masterpiece to the big screen. This film is a collection of The early avant-garde aesthetics of Shinoda, in which he introduced the "Kuroko" in traditional Japanese drama, and there are also very stylish sets such as large characters and ukiyo-e, which perfectly integrates modern movies with the charm of Kabuki and Jing Ruri, and won many awards such as the first place, best director, and best actress (Iwashita Shima) of the top ten films in the "Movie Shunbun" that year.
Lonely blind girl Ah Ling
Ballad of Orin
-1977-
Highlights: Shima Iwashita has won the masterpiece of Various Japanese Film Queen's Grand Slams
"Blind Girl" is a japanese word meaning blind female entertainer. They could not see the light with their eyes, and after receiving rigorous training, they traveled, performed traditional music and crafts, and lived a poor life. Adapted from the novel of the same name by the well-known writer Shui Mian, this film features "Blind Girl" as the protagonist, telling the tragic situation of the lonely and blind girl Ah Ling's life. The film is shot by kazuo Miyagawa, a master photographer, and in addition to the amazing lens expressiveness, the beautiful natural scenery of the hokuriku region in all seasons is also a major attraction. Shinoda's royal actor and wife, Shima Iwashita, also contributed delicate and moving acting skills, earning the audience's tears. In the selection of various awards at the first Japan Academy Film Awards, this film competed with "The Yellow Handkerchief of Happiness", and finally won two awards: Best Cinematography and Best Actress (Shima Iwashita).
Spear Right III
Gonza the Spearman
-1986-
Highlights: Brilliant and poignant Silver Bear Award masterpiece
Following "Skynet Island in the Heart", Masahiro Shinoda once again brought Matsumon's shimon junri work "The Triple Curtain of the Long Gun Right" to the screen. The film features Kwenzo Sasano, who is also proficient in tea ceremony, who asks his tea ceremony master, Ah Cai, for the meaning of the tea ceremony "Zhentaizi", but is framed as adultery. The two had no way to argue, so they had to embark on the road to escape. In the film, Masahiro Shinoda exerts his pursuit of formal beauty to the extreme, showing the characteristic cultures such as tea ceremony and Yuanlu, creating a brilliant and in-depth image world for the audience. The film won the Silver Bear Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Berlin Film Festival.
Writing music
Sharaku
-1995-
Highlights: The ultra-luxurious lineup shows the mysterious life of a ukiyo-e painter
Higashisu Saikura was a ukiyo-e painter in Japan in the mid-Edo period who was all the rage with his highly individualized artist's head paintings, but disappeared only a year after his debut, and his true identity remains a mystery to this day. The film is a biopic by Shuraku, directed by frank Sakai, a multi-habitat artist known for his research on writing music, who starred in the publishing world celebrity Shigezaburo Tsouya, and Shuraku was played by actor Hiroyuki Sanada. The film continues the usual formal beauty of Masahiro Shinoda's works, showing Edo styles such as kabuki and ukiyo-e, and there are also cameos by kabuki celebrities such as Tomihiro Nakamura and Ichikawa Tunzang, and the lineup is top-notch. In addition, the long-term music master Takemitsu died a year after the completion of the film, which also made the film a masterpiece of his film score.
Stay tuned to us and be the first to grasp the blockbuster list of the 2021 Shanghai International Film Festival.
Note: In case of change in the film schedule, the actual schedule shall prevail.