Yasuzō Masumura
Born: 1924-08-25 in Kōfu, Yamanashi, Japan
Died: 1986-11-23
Known For: Directing
Biography
Yasuzo Masumura (増村 保造 Masumura Yasuzō, August 25, 1924 - November 23, 1986) was a Japanese film director. Masumura was born in Kōfu on Honshū. After dropping out of a law course at the University of Tokyo he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei studio, later returning to university to study philosophy; he graduated in 1949. He then won a scholarship allowing him to study film in Italy at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. Masumura returned to Japan in 1953 and from 1955 worked as a second-unit director on films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa, before directing his own first film, Kisses, in 1957. Over the next three decades he directed around 60 films in a variety of genres. His work is noted for his dark satire and fluid style. Notable films include Red Angel, Black Test Car, Giants and Toys, Blind Beast and Hoodlum Soldier.
Filmography
2022
- The Setting Sun ... (Screenplay)
1985
- Shoujo ni Nani ga Okotta ka ... (Writer)
- Shoujo ni Nani ga Okotta ka ... (Script)
1982
- Lullaby of Death ... (Director)
1980
- Akai Shisen ... (Director)
- The Garden of Eden ... (Director)
1979
- Red Storm ... (Director)
1978
- Double Suicide of Sonezaki ... (Director)
- The primary colored butterfly was watching - the smell of death ... (Director)
1976
- Akai Shougeki ... (Director)
- Lullaby of the Earth ... (Director)
1975
- Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director as Self
- Main Line to Terror ... (Screenplay)
1974
- Hanzo the Razor: Who's Got the Gold? ... (Screenplay)
- Akumyo: Notorious Dragon ... (Director)
1973
- Hanzo the Razor: The Snare ... (Director)
1972
- シークレット部隊 ... (Writer)
- Music ... (Director)
- New Hoodlum Soldier Story: Firing Line ... (Director)
1971
- Games ... (Director)
1970
- Play It Cool ... (Director)
- The Hot Little Girl ... (Director)
- An Ode to Yakuza ... (Director)
- Just for You ... (Screenplay)
1969
- Blind Beast ... (Director)
- Vixen ... (Director)
- Thousand Cranes ... (Director)
1968
- The Sex Check ... (Director)
- The House of Wooden Blocks ... (Director)
- One Day at Summer's End ... (Director)
- The Great Villains ... (Screenplay)
1967
- Love for an Idiot ... (Director)
- A Certain Killer ... (Screenplay)
- The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka ... (Director)
- Two Wives ... (Director)
1966
- Irezumi ... (Director)
- Red Angel ... (Director)
- The School of Spies ... (Director)
1965
- Seisaku's Wife ... (Director)
- Hoodlum Soldier ... (Director)
1964
- Manji ... (Director)
- Love and Greed ... (Director)
- Superexpress ... (Director)
- Fools at Work ... (Director)
1963
- Sentimental Mobsters ... (Director)
- When Women Lie ... (Director)
- Black Report ... (Script)
1962
- Black Test Car ... (Director)
- A Woman's Life ... (Director)
- Stolen Pleasure ... (Director)
1961
- A Lustful Man ... (Director)
- A Wife Confesses ... (Director)
- Love and Life ... (Director)
- The Burdened Sisters ... (Director)
1960
- Afraid to Die ... (Director)
- The Woman Who Touched Legs ... (Director)
- The False Student ... (Director)
- A Woman's Testament ... (Director)
1959
- The Most Valuable Wife ... (Director)
- Beauty the Enemy ... (Director)
- The Cast-Off ... (Director)
- Across the Darkness ... (Director)
1958
- The Lowest Man ... (Director)
- Giants and Toys ... (Director)
- The Precipice ... (Director)
- Disobedience ... (Director)
1957
- The Blue Sky Maiden ... (Director)
- Kisses ... (Director)
- Warm Current ... (Director)
1956
- Street of Shame ... (Assistant Director)
- Punishment Room ... (Assistant Director)
- Bridge of Japan ... (Assistant Director)
1955
- Princess Yang Kwei-fei ... (Assistant Director)
1954
- Madame Butterfly ... (Assistant Director)