Hideo Gosha (äº"社 英雄, Gosha Hideo, February 26, 1929 â€" August
30, 1992) was a Japanese film director.Born in Arasaka, Tokyo
Prefecture, Gosha graduated from high school and served in the
Imperial Navy during the Second World War. After earning a business
degree at Meiji University, he joined Nippon television as a reporter
in 1953. In 1957 he moved on to the newly founded Fuji Television and
rose through the ranks as a producer and director. One of his
television shows, the chambara Three Outlaw Samurai, so impressed the
heads of the Shochiku film studio that he was offered the chance to
adapt it as a feature film in 1964. Following this film's financial
success, he directed a string of equally successful chambara
productions through the end of the 1960s. His two most critical and
popular successes of the period are Goyokin and Hitokiri (also known
as Tenchu), both released in 1969 and both considered to be two of the
finest examples of the chambara genre.During the 1970s Gosha abandoned
pure chambara and turned his productive energies toward films in the
yakuza genre but he still produced period sword films such as The
Wolves (1971), Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron (1978), and Hunter in the
Dark (1979). His films Three Outlaw Samurai and Sword of the Beast
(1965) have been released by Criterion.By the early 1980s, Gosha began
making period films that featured prostitutes as protagonists that
were renowned for their realism, violence, and overt sexuality. They
were critically panned for those very reasons, but they were also all
box office successes. In 1984 he was awarded the Japan Academy Prize
for Director of the Year for The Geisha.
30, 1992) was a Japanese film director.Born in Arasaka, Tokyo
Prefecture, Gosha graduated from high school and served in the
Imperial Navy during the Second World War. After earning a business
degree at Meiji University, he joined Nippon television as a reporter
in 1953. In 1957 he moved on to the newly founded Fuji Television and
rose through the ranks as a producer and director. One of his
television shows, the chambara Three Outlaw Samurai, so impressed the
heads of the Shochiku film studio that he was offered the chance to
adapt it as a feature film in 1964. Following this film's financial
success, he directed a string of equally successful chambara
productions through the end of the 1960s. His two most critical and
popular successes of the period are Goyokin and Hitokiri (also known
as Tenchu), both released in 1969 and both considered to be two of the
finest examples of the chambara genre.During the 1970s Gosha abandoned
pure chambara and turned his productive energies toward films in the
yakuza genre but he still produced period sword films such as The
Wolves (1971), Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron (1978), and Hunter in the
Dark (1979). His films Three Outlaw Samurai and Sword of the Beast
(1965) have been released by Criterion.By the early 1980s, Gosha began
making period films that featured prostitutes as protagonists that
were renowned for their realism, violence, and overt sexuality. They
were critically panned for those very reasons, but they were also all
box office successes. In 1984 he was awarded the Japan Academy Prize
for Director of the Year for The Geisha.
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