Author: Kihachi Toshimoto Publisher: Chikuma Shobo Vice Chairman: Dialogues with Kihachi Toshimoto Film Director Year of Publication:2012-9-10
In the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, samurai films, as a very important genre film in Japanese film history, ushered in its golden age.
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), Kenji Misumi (1921-1975), and Masaki Kobayashi (1916-1996) all left behind immortal masterpieces, including the director Kihachi Okamoto (1923-2005) introduced in this article.
Among them, "Seven Samurai / Seven People の侍" (1954), "Seppuku" (1962), "Great Bodhisattva Ridge / Great Bodhisattva Pass" (1966), "Killing Sword / Shangyi Shou Ling Wife Beginning and End" (1967) are all screenwriting works of Shinobu Hashimoto (1918-2018), whose deep understanding of bushido gives the director full space for interpretation, and has achieved several immortal masterpieces.
The film "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" (1966) Japanese DVD sleeve
If "Seven Samurai" is the pinnacle of "decent" samurai films, then "Great Bodhisattva Ridge" is a representative work of "evil school" samurai films. And "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" is Kihachi Okamoto's masterpiece.
"The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" is adapted from the historical novel of the same name by Nakazato Sukeyama, a pioneer of Japanese popular literature. Begun in 1913 and serialized in newspapers for 23 years, the work has been called "the world's longest historical novel".
A still from the movie "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" (1966), Toshiro Mifune
Before Kihachi Okamoto, the work had been put on the screen 12 times. Giants of period dramas such as Hiroshi Inagaki (1905-1980), Tosumi Uchida (1898-1970), and Kenji Misumi have all made their own versions. Kihachi Okamoto's "Great Bodhisattva Ridge" is the last remake.
Director Kihachi Okamoto, who specializes in satirical films, action films and period dramas, is a technical style, delicate in photography and acting techniques, and his works often have a sense of presence, and many of his works have been praised by later generations.
A still from the movie "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" (1966), Tatsuya Nakayo
Kihachi Okamoto was born on February 17, 1923 in Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, and his real name is Kihachiro Okamoto. In 1943, he joined Toho as an assistant director, but because of the deterioration of the war situation, he was drafted into the army, joining Matsudo's Army Engineer School and Toyohashi No. 1 Army Reserve Non-commissioned Officer School, where he was often disturbed by air raids and many of his comrades died, resulting in anti-war sentiment.
Name: Kihachi Toshimoto Author: Edited by Akihiro Yamamoto Publisher: Mizuki Shobayashi Sub-Shorin: Anti-War Techniques, Ideas of Entertainment Year of Publication:2020-9-30
In 1944, it was requisitioned by Nakajima Aircraft Works. In 1945, he became an alternate student of the A cadre and went to the Matsudo Engineering School, and was demobilized and returned to Toho after the war.
He returned to Toho as an assistant director for directors such as Inoshiro Honda (1911-1993), Chiyoshi Taniguchi (1912-2007), and Mitsuo Naruse (1905-1969), and learned from his experience in future action films, including the film "Meat Bomb / Meat Bullet" (1968) that alludes to Kihachi Okamoto's experience in the army.
The film "Meat Bomb" (1968) Japanese Blu-ray version cover
In 1958, he performed the first part of the same year, "All About Marriage / All About Marriage" (1958).
Fame was 1959's Independent Fool Company / Independent Fool Company (1959), an action comedy set in the Sino-Japanese War that likened the front-line Japanese Army Guard to a rogue organization in American Westerns.
The characters in the scene, from the way they use guns to the way they dress and ride horses, are parodies of Westerns. No matter how comical a Japanese postwar film is made, the result will become profound, but for the first time, this film has made war dramatic.
The film "Independent Fool Company" (1959) Japanese DVD cover
During his film career, he worked with well-known actors Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997), Tatsuya Nakayo, Koji Tsuruta (1924-1987), Yuzo Kayama, Katsuruki Kobayashi (1923-2010), Yoyo Sato (1934-2012), and other outstanding actors Akihiko Hirata (1927-1984), Kunie Tanaka (1932-2021), Hideyo Amamoto (1926-2003), Mori Kishida (1939-1982), Tadao Nakamaru ( 1933-2009), Kamiyama Shira (1929-2017), Etsushi Takahashi (1935-1996) and others collaborated on many works, and was known as the "Kihachi family" in the Japanese film industry.
Opening ceremony of the movie "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" (1966), from left: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakayo, Yuzo Kayama
Director Kihachi Okamoto's films are basically divided into three themes. One is his ambition to make interesting movies during the war as a movie-loving student in Tokyo's famous paintings.
The second is that he was recruited as an apprentice at the end of the war, and fortunately he was able to return alive because he was a student, and many of his friends in his student years mostly died in the war, and wanted to make films that publicized the experience of the war and the lessons learned from it.
Name: Kihachi Toho Complete Works Author: Toho Publishing Office Year of Publication: 1992
The third is an American spirit movie. His ambition to make entertainment films was learned from his masters Masahiro Makino (1908-1993) and Yasuki Chiba (1910-19858) when he was an assistant director, and after a lot of training, this ambition has been reflected since he became a full-fledged director.
Table of contents in the book "The Complete Works of Kihachi Okamoto"
"Meat Bomb" and "The Elegant Life of Mr. Efen Toshimitsu / Efen Toshimitsu の優雅な活" (1963) are such works, vividly portraying the experiences and lessons of himself and his generation, and are sincere and down-to-earth films, based on manga-like wit and humor, and making people laugh wryly and unforgettably.
Japanese video cover for the film "The Elegant Life of Mr. Efen Toshimitsu" (1963).
What made Kihachi Okamoto famous were several action movies "Independent Fool Company", "Independent Fool Company Westbound / Independent Fool Company West へ" (1960), "Groundhog Combat / どぶ鼠作戦" (1962), "Blood and Sand/Blood と沙" (1965).
At first glance, this series of war action films is the work of a director who wants to reproduce American Westerns in Japanese movies and aims to entertain the public, but it has the director's painstaking heart.
Cover of the Japanese special issue of the movie "Groundhog Operations" (1962).
Since it is impossible to portray a lost war as full of heroism, it is better to simply break through this mode and put both fun and morality into a movie.
Finally, a theme of escape from senseless war and loyalty to the country and nation is presented.
In this way, the repeated independent foolish companies no longer care about the enemy and us, but seek freedom from them and wander the battlefield in North China. Compared to Westerns, it always feels strange and suspicious, but this strange and suspicious is a vivid image of Japan after the war.
Poster for the Japanese version of the movie "Independent Fool Company Goes West" (1960).
As a director aiming for entertainment films, it is impossible to inject this element into all movies.
He was also asked to shoot commercial period dramas full of martial arts scenes such as "Sengoku Noro / 戦国野郎" (1963), "Samurai" (1965), "Great Bodhisattva Ridge" and "斩/斬る" (1968).
The film Samurai (1965) Japanese DVD sleeve
He put a lot of effort into it. The significance of these works is that each work basically completely denies the samurai morality such as bushido and loyalty, and he believes that the so-called samurai are just gangs that deceive the people, and those who give up their samurai status to become coachmen or underworld are serious people.
The film "Chop" (1968) Japanese DVD version sleeve
In particular, "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" completely separates Nakayo Tatsuya and Mifune Toshiro. Nakayo Tatsuya Wild School performance style to the realm, Toshiro Mifune has come up in this film, more calm, in short, full of a sense of justice.
An evil qi, a righteous qi. Each of them played the role portrayed by Shinobu Hashimoto, becoming two great actors who cannot be ignored in the history of Hikage sword and halberd films.
The film "Japan's Longest Day" (1967) Japanese DVD sleeve
His "Chopper", although not as famous as "The Great Bodhisattva Ridge" and "Japan's Longest Day/日本のいちばん長い日" (1967), is also a very stylized sword and halberd film.
The movie still revolves around the "samurai spirit", but Kihachi Okamoto has made a modern annotation to the "samurai spirit" here, dissolving the sanctification of the "samurai spirit" and giving it some more worldly taste and taste.
Poster for the Japanese version of the movie "The Scream" (1975).
He discusses this tendency in his original work. For example, The Scream (1975), through the depiction of the Boshin War, contrasts the samurai who played power at the expense of the people's habitat, showing the brave battle of the common people's guerrillas in Sendai.
Similarly, in the film "Red Hair" (1969), which depicts the crusade of the Restoration officers and soldiers, it is more clearly depicted how the samurai of Satsunaga deceived the people. So the author always thought that this was a scam.
Japanese DVD sleeve of the movie "Red Hair" (1969).
This kind of thinking about the samurai and the common people is postwar democracy. In addition to Kihachi Okamoto's feelings as an elder born during the war years, he was actually a writer who was not very informalized by ideas, and there are not many people like him who have based themselves on postwar democracy.
After the war, democracy took off under the guidance of the United States, and suffered many setbacks and connivance. Love, hatred and complexes for the United States have always been entangled, affecting the quality of postwar thinking.
Kihachi Okamoto
So what is Kihachi Okamoto? At first glance, Okamoto's work is full of longing for American things.
The Independent Fool Company series and Sengoku Noro contain plenty of direct references to Westerns, and Showdown on Dark Street / Dark Street (1960) and other "Dark Street" series are American tough-guy films full of comic stripic exaggerations of gangsters.
In scope, it seems that he is just devouring American things. Is this really the case?
Japanese video cover for the film Sengoku Noro (1963).
"Ah~ bomb! /ああblast (1964) was also an attempt to localize black humor in the United States and musicals, but he mobilized many Japanese performers, from Kyogen to Nanang, to compete with the gorgeous and tenacious stage performance of the United States.
This is an attempt at an era when Japan is mentioned to give the impression of poverty and weakness.
Japanese video cover for the movie The Age of Murder (1967).
A real tough guy is supposed to be that kind of killer – in Murderous Age (1967), he realistically depicts the expressions and postures of ordinary Japanese people.
But the result was negated for showing dramatic heroism. Okamoto absorbed the American stuff and quietly ran away far away.
Cover of the Japanese DVD version of the movie "Continuous Explosion" (1978).
The group of playful and handsome underworld brothers in "Continuous Explosion / ダイナマイトどんどん" (1978), because they were under the occupation of the US army after the war, so they avoided the kind of resistance of the heroes in the movie, and instead adopted the civilized way of fighting between gangs to hold baseball games, reflecting the sad image of Japanese boys under American domination.
Kihachi Okamoto conducted a group performance on location in the movie "Continuous Explosion" (1978).
Kihachi Okamoto captures emotions that have never been depicted in other movies, and draws endless laughs from them. Neither anti-American nor pro-American, but saw the true side of the postwar Japanese who were Americanized. This may be another theme of Kihachi Okamoto.
Kihachi Okamoto's films are characterized by a focus on manga-style leaps and exaggerations than realism. So Kihachi Okamoto's films have always sought actors who can perform comic stripes.
A still from the movie "Independent Fool Company" (1959), Yoon Sato
The first impression was Yoon Sato in "Independent Fool Company", a man who was aggressive and laughed happily the more dangerous, that is, Richard Wademark or Jack Parlens in American movies.
Toshiro Mifune in the next "Showdown on Dark Street" is also like an exaggerated tough guy who came out of an American comic book magazine, which really makes people laugh.
A still from the movie "Showdown in Dark Street" (1960), from left: Koji Tsuruta, Toshiro Mifune
The old faces of the Independent Fool Company series, Ichiro Nakatani and Tadao Nakamaru, are also funny characters created in this style.
The tough-guy style in Japanese movies can easily turn into a parody of Humphrey Bogart's (1899-1957) "The Sorrow of Men." Kihachi Okamoto has probably always insisted on a manga-style approach to this point.
Hideyo Amamoto
Its ultimate is Hideyo Tenmoto, who is the spokesperson of Kihachi Okamoto's works. He played an intellectually beautiful man in Keisuke Kinoshita's (1912-1998) Twenty-Four Eyes / Twenty-Four Hitomi (1954), and appeared frequently in Kihachi Okamoto's works and played a weirdo. Kishida Mori followed.
Yunosuke Ito (1919-1980), who was originally famous for their manga-like acting style, and Kunoe Tanaka both encountered a great challenge to their exaggeration in Okamoto's work.
The movie "Ah ~ Bomb! (1964) stills, Yunosuke Ito
The former's "Ah ~ Bomb! and the latter's "Continuous Explosion" are both successes. Neither of them can find prototypes in American movies.
Yunosuke Ito is a kabuki and is more of an actor rooted in traditional Japanese burlesque.
The more the Japanese tried to seriously Americanize, the more they would get caught up in the bitter battle of Japanese expression, and the fiercer the fight, the more they would cower.
Kihachi Okamoto on location in the movie "Shisanshiro" (1977).
Therefore, if you show the kindness of Japanese burlesque in front of people, you will get a more appropriate laugh.
At this point, Hideo Sunazuka became another spokesperson for Kazemoto's work, and having mastered the essence of light comedy, he played all the supporting roles in the works of Kazemoto Kihachi of the Toho period, and had the effect of lubricating the stiffness of Japanese tough guys.
Hideo Sunazuka
Yoyo Sato and Hideyo Amamoto exaggerate their sharp-angled faces that are different from the Japanese with expressions and makeup, but if this is the case, the film is not fundamentally different from the stateless action movies that live in Japan.
Kihachi Okamoto's uniqueness lies in the use of flat or old faces, which is more suitable for Japanese youth, who are clearly different from American youth, most of them have the childishness of Japanese youth, and deepen self-confirmation by comparing them with American youth.
He not only adopted the American style or completely changed it, but imitated it and fought against it, probably because he was born during the war years.
In this regard, "Meat Bomb" is the crystallization of Kihachi Okamoto's love and dedication to Japanese faces.
Nong Terada, Masao Imafuku, Sue Minobe (1924-1986), Tomozhong Kasa (1904-1993), and Naoko Otani, who debuted with purity because of this masterpiece, as well as Hiroko Isayama and Toshitaka Ito in ATG Films' "The Scream".
In many works, such as Kyumi Mizuno, Chio Sakaizai, Yasuzo Ogawa, and Tatsuyi Ehara, who have appeared in many works, it is felt from their acting skills that the more they pursue American-style expressions, the core of Japanese expressions that are endearing to Kihachi Okamoto will be clearly revealed.
In 1991, he won the Japan Academy Award for Best Director for his work "The Great Abduction/The Great Abduction" (1991).
Poster for the Japanese version of the movie "The Great Abduction" (1991).
The posthumous work "Sukeroku who Avenges for Others / Suketoya Sukeroku" (2001) was released in 2002.
With his excellent works, Kihachi Okamoto also has many fans overseas. In 2007, a special edition of Okamoto was produced at the Berlin Film Festival to pay tribute to his contributions to the film industry.
Kihachi Okamoto on location in the movie Sukeroku who Avenges Others (2001).
It is worth mentioning that he married in 1960, and his wife Minako Okamoto is his true benevolent assistant, and has been working as his producer, helping to raise funds for filming.
Kihachi Okamoto quit Toho in 1970, suffered a cerebral infarction in 1995 and had difficulty speaking, and on February 19, 2005, 81-year-old Kihachi Okamoto died of esophageal cancer in his home in Tama Ward, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Name: Between Majime and Fumajime Author: Kihachi Tomemoto Publisher: Chikuma Shobo Publication Year:2011-12-7
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