Yasuzō Masumura (増村 保造) was a Japanese film director.

Biography

Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi. After graduating from the law department at the University of Tokyo, he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio. He later returned to university to study philosophy and graduated in 1951. The following year, he 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. From 1955, he worked as a second-unit director on films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa and Daisuke Ito. In 1957, he directed his own first film Kisses, which caused film critic (and future director) Nagisa Ōshima to note, "a powerful irresistible force has arrived in Japanese Cinema." Over the next three decades, he directed 58 films in a variety of genres.

Legacy

According to film critic Shigehiko Hasumi, filmmaker Shinji Aoyama had declared Masumura "the most important filmmaker in the history of postwar Japanese cinema."

Filmography