On April 30, 2019, the Heisei era in Japan will officially end, and the 31 years that used to belong to Heisei are an important period for the widespread popularity of Japanese films in the East Asian circle.
In the first part, we have already mentioned the old directors who span Showa to Heisei, the giants of the new film movement, and the "Rikkyo School", which spanned the Showa to Heisei, and this is the next part.
Related reading: The Master | 30 Years of Japanese Film, Heisei Director's Atlas (Part 1)
Given the variety of films and filmmakers in 31 years, any filmmakers who are not mentioned are welcome to add.
4
Group portrait of female directors
Not a complement, but a protagonist
Compared with the Heisei era, female directors have more opportunities and ways to express themselves. Female directors such as Naomi Kawase, Shikazu Kawakawa, Naoko Ogiue, Yukiko Mishima, Miwa Nishikawa, Momoko Ando, Miho Go, Hidehime Ryo, and Satoko Yokohama began to create in the Heisei period.
Among them, Naomi Kawase is an independent producer, Naoko Hagiue debuted from the PIA Film Festival, and Maika Kawa is also a female director as a cinematographer, and the new version of "Human Disqualification" will come from her. Follow the authorship of creator Mikazu Nishikawa under Atsuhiko Suwa kore-eda, and Momoko Ando won the Best Picture award for "0.5 mm". There are also Korean directors Wu Meibao, Liang Yingji and so on.
Ninagawa Kanka, Ando Momoko, Liang Eijo, Nishikawa Miwa, Suiho
Naomi Kawase
All things are spiritual
Since her debut film "Suzaku of Moe" won the Cannes Golden Camera Award, Naomi Kawase's creative process has been attracting worldwide attention and can be classified as a member of the Cannes family.
Although she is a female director, Naomi Kawase is not limited to female identity, and explores the confusion and consciousness of women in her works.
Her work is full of poetry and spirituality, and the images collect topics related to her experiences, such as family, life and death, and time.
Naoko Ogigami
The way of lohas, the image of the healing system
Movies can be used to relax, heal and make people feel at peace.
Although the characters in Naoko Ogiue's works are outsiders and uncomfortable, they can live in their most comfortable state, although they are too ideal, but the tone of the work and the attention to the living conditions of women are quite popular with female audiences. Her work is often carried out around the world, with the story of "Seagull Canteen" taking place in Finland and "Toilet" taking place in Canada. Jumping out of Japan gave Naoko Hagigami a chance to look at Japan more objectively.
《Seagull Canteen》
Her focus on LGBTQ community's "Life's Tight Seams" has gained new fans in China.
5
Pink movie master genre field
There is a saying in Japan that directors who can make good erotic films are potentially good at genre films. I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, there are a number of film directors who have participated in the shooting of works in daily life or other erotic film companies in the early days of their careers. The peach movie (pink film) was once a stepping stone for directors to enter the studio system.
Yojiro Koda's Masterpiece "Iriyi"
Directors such as Keihisa Sete, Yojiro Takita, Ryuichi Hiroki, and Toshi Nakahara have been involved in the production of erotic films. Of course, their more well-known works are more diverse types of manifestations. For example, Keihisa Setose, who won the best director of the movie Shunbun this year, relied on a sports-themed work "Kiku and the Guillotine", and he is more familiar with the introduction of pure love film "The Bride Spanning 8 Years".
Ryuichi Hiroki, a representative of Japanese soft pornography films, has become the main force of comic films in recent years, such as "Twinkling Love", "Wolf Girl and the Black Prince" and so on.
Suo Masayuki
A good hand at shuttling between genres
After Zhou Fang zhengxing left the pink movie, he launched the sports-themed movie "Five Sumo Teenagers". This is an inspirational youth film with a decent look. The film won the first place in the film newspaper of that year. About ten years later, Yaguchi Shijing launched a similar "Five Splashing Teenagers", and later there was a drama version of "Water Boy".
Zhou Fang Zhengxing and "Talk About Love Dancing"
Five years later, Zhou Fang Zhengxing returned to the line of sight with a light comedy color of "Talk About Love, Dance", and later the film was remade by the United States. Later, after a ten-year suspension, Zhou Fang Zhengxing filmed a high-scoring drama film that pointed to judicial loopholes, "Even this is not what I did." At almost every important juncture, there are influential and different types of works.
6
Animated film director, undefeated myth
In the Heisei era, animated films were undefeated. Of the ten highest-grossing films in Japanese film history, except for one theatrical film and five Hollywood films, the remaining four are anime. Among them, Miyazaki's works occupy three positions, Spirited Away (1st), Hal's Moving Castle (6th), and Princess Mononoke (7th).
Katsuhiro Otomo, Mori Oshii, and Toshi Imatoshi, as well as Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata, are all important animation directors.
Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki, Takahata)
One is the pillar and the other is the soul
Hayao Miyazaki (first from left) and Takahata (first from right)
The importance of Ghibli to Japanese film animation is self-evident. Its two core characters, Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata, are the pillar characters who introduced Japanese animation to the world earlier, and the soul of Ghibli.
Although Takahata has passed away, fortunately, after all kinds of entanglements, Miyazaki reopened Ghibli, and "What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live" will meet the public in 2020.
Imatoshi
He was the inspiration for many directors
Among the many high-quality and imaginative animation directors, Imatoshi was chosen because of his talent and because of his early death.
Imatoshi has created only four animated feature films since the 1990s, but there is no doubt that he can be called a master of animation. "The House of unma", "Millennium Actress", "Tokyo Godfather" and "Red Hot Chili Peppers". He specializes in the creation of stories that combine fiction and reality, all of which are adult themes, combining film genre elements in animation.
7
Unique presence of Japanese cinema:
In Japanese and Korean themes and Korean directors
Many Japanese directors have dealt with Korean subjects in Japan, such as Shuji Terayama, Yasuhei Oguri, Kazuyuki Inoburu, and so on.
Of course, Korean directors have more to say, such as Choi Yang-il's "Where the Moon Rises", which tells the story of the bitterness of a Koryo named Kang Chung-nam in Japan. Lee Sang-il also expressed the inconvenience of Koreans in Japan in his earliest short film, "Qing Chong", and he himself played a role in Shunji Sakamoto's "Kidnapping Kim Dae-jung".
Cui Yangyi and "Where the Moon Rises"
Female director Liang Yingji combined her family's real experience and filmed "Family Country". The plot is implicitly tolerant and restrained, and the plot is outside the plot that makes people cry. The work won the first prize in the film Shunbao, and Sakura Ando also won the best actress. Wu Meibao, who is also a female director, has not yet shown her identity consciousness in her works, and her masterpiece "Only Shines There" wraps tenderness and kindness in darkness, with delicate female tentacles.
"The Land of the Family" and "Only Shine There"
Unfortunately, none of the four directors have recently released new works. As far away as director Leung Young-hee has not had a work for seven years, and as recent as Lee Sang-il, he has not returned for two years.
Lee Sang-il
A fan of Shuichi Yoshida
In addition to "Fuso Flower Girl", Li Xiangri's works seem to be full of anger. I can probably feel a few points from the name of the film. "Heavenly Disqualification", "The Wicked", "Unforgivable", "Anger", these works carry the attitude of young people and the loneliness characteristic of urban people.
Lee Sang-il and "Fury"
More importantly, in addition to Yukijō, Lee Sang-il introduced the works of writer Shuichi Yoshida, "Wicked Man" and "Fury", to the big screen, and later works such as "Hard Labor Train", "Seinosuke Yokomichi", and "Goodbye Valley" were also filmed by other younger new generation directors.
8
It originated in the new generation after 2000
Lee Sang-il is definitely a new generation of directors who originated after 2000. There are many directors who can be classified at the same time, the age is concentrated in the 60s and 80s, they have shown their uniqueness in one or more films and have been creating.
Kazuya Shiraishi, Atsuhiro Yamashita, Shuichi Kuuda, Akira Miki, Tachitsugu Omori, Daihachi Yoshida
Among them are Yoshida Daihachi, who topped the Japan Academy Award for Best Director for the innovative youth film "I Heard That Kirishima Is Leaving the Ministry", and Atsuhiro Yamashita, a representative of "Boring Movies", whose "Natural Substructure" and "Tamako Who Does Not Seek Progress" capture two different states of youth. Shuichi Okita's masterpiece, Seinosuke Yokomichi, retains nostalgia for a certain beautiful disposition.
Masterpieces by six directors
Satoshi Miki is a well-known representative of the comedy director of the Deli lineage, and the main force in the works of Ritsuji Omori polishes the relationship between the characters, and in 2018, Shiraishi and Yami, who launched three works "Blood of the Lone Wolf", "Sani/32", and "Those Birds She Doesn't Know The Name", have a great passion for genre creation.
Yuya Ishii and "The Night Sky Always Has the Greatest Density of Blue"
To date, the youngest winner of the film Shunbun and the winner of best director is Yuya Ishii, born in 1983. In 2014, he won both of these awards for "The Chronicle of the Boat". Focusing on the hearts of characters after the 311 earthquake in East Japan, "The Night Sky Always Has the Greatest Density of Blue" has also been praised.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi and "Night and Day"
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, a student of director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is also a personality director who has emerged in recent years. His previous film, Happy Hour, stood out at the Locarno Film Festival, and last year's "Night and Day" entered the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival, regarded as one of the best films in Japan last year. "Night and Day" is the first commercial production of Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future.
The past of the Heisei years is marked by these directors. There is no doubt that they will continue to work in the Reiwa era. No director can be independent of the times, and there is no era of independent existence. Perhaps after the time is pulled away, we will have a different feeling when we look at the films and directors of the Heisei era.
In short, the Heisei era is going far, and we will miss it in the way of images!
-END-