Masaki Kobayashi's Birthday
On February 14, 1916, Masaki Kobayashi was born in the port city of Otaru in northern Japan. Masaki Kobayashi's student years passed within the walls of Waseda University, one of the most authoritative educational institutions in Japan, whose graduates were many politicians. Kobayashi studied ancient oriental art and philosophy at the university. After graduating from university in 1941, Kobayashi went to work at the Shochiku Film Studio in Ofuna as an assistant director.
Almost immediately, Kobayashi was drafted into the army and sent to Manchuria as part of the occupation forces in Harbin. From the first days of his military service, Kobayashi demonstrated a commitment to pacifism. But pacifism did not save Kobayashi from being captured. Kobayashi spent several years in a prisoner of war camp in Okinawa. After his release from a POW camp in 1946, Masaki Kobayashi returned to work at the Shochiku Film Studio, where he was an assistant to the classic of Japanese cinema Keisuke Kinoshita ("The Legend of Narayama"). In 1952 Masaki Kobayashi directed his first independent full-length feature film "Musuko no seishun 息子の青春 (My Son's Youth)".
Masaki Kobayashi's directing activity continued until 1985. For 33 years, Kobayashi has shot 21 full-length feature films. 4 of them entered the Golden Thousand, including trilogy "Ningen no joken 人間の條件 (The Human Condition)", "Seppuku 切腹 (Harakiri)", "Kaidan 怪談 (Kwaidan (Ghost Stories))", "Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu 上意討ち 拝領妻始末 (Samurai Rebellion)". Thanks to this indicator, Masaki Kobayashi is included in the list of the 100 greatest directors of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand.
The famous British poet, playwright, translator James Kirkup described Masaki Kobayashi and the peculiarities of his work:
"Kobayashi in his greatest periods in the Forties and Fifties, now seen as the Golden Age of Japanese cinematic art, was a perfectionist who made no compromises. He chose difficult themes that the post-war public, eager to forget the horrors of invasion and occupation, found too disturbing. He was a man with a message of pacifist humanitarian convictions, and today's Japanese, especially the young, avoid like the plague what has come to be known as "the three Ds" - Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult. Koba-yashi's extremely personal idiom, his anti-violence ethos, his deliberately paced, often very long films, are at the opposite pole to the special effects catastrophes in deafening Dolbey Stereo that are today's imbecile film fare."
In honor of the birthday of the outstanding Master, as is our custom, we would like to remind fans of his work with frames from the best films included in the Golden Thousand.
