Fumio Kamei
Born: 1908-04-01 in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Died: 1987-02-27
Known For: Directing
Biography
Fumio Kamei (1908–1987) was a Japanese documentary and fiction film director known for his politically charged works. Influenced by Soviet montage theory, he began his career at Photo Chemical Laboratories (PCL), making propaganda films about Japan’s war in China. His 1939 film Fighting Soldiers was banned for its unflinching portrayal of exhausted troops, and he later became the first director to lose his license under the 1939 Film Law and the only filmmaker arrested under the Peace Preservation Law. After World War II, Kamei helped reorganize Nippon Eiga-sha and directed The Japanese Tragedy (1946), a documentary critical of Japan’s imperialist past, which was ultimately censored. He continued making politically engaged documentaries and fiction films, tackling issues such as U.S. military bases in Japan, nuclear weapons, social discrimination, and environmental destruction.
Filmography
1987
1984
- All Must Live: People, Insects and Birds ... (Director)
1960
- Men Are All Brothers ... (Director)
1958
- Living in a Rough Sea ... (Director)
1957
- Record of Bloodshed: Sunagawa ... (Cinematography)
- The World Is Terrified: The Reality of the “Ash of Death” ... (Director)
1956
- It Is Good to Live ... (Director)
1955
- Wheat Will Never Fall ... (Director)
- The People of Sunagawa ... (Director)
1953
- A Lonely Woman in a Lonely Land ... (Director)
- Children of the Base ... (Director)
1952
- Become a Mother, Become a Woman ... (Director)
1949
- A Woman's Life ... (Director)
1947
- War and Peace ... (Director)
1946
- Tragedy of Japan ... (Director)
1941
- Kobayashi Issa ... (Director)
1939
- Fighting Soldiers ... (Director)
1935
- Shape without Shape ... (Director)