Kihachi Okamoto (岡本 喜八, Okamoto Kihachi, February 17, 1924 â€"
February 19, 2005) was a Japanese film director who worked in several
different genres.Born in Yonago, Okamoto attended Meiji University,
but was drafted into the Air Force 1943 and entered World War II, an
experience that had a profound effect on his later film work, one
third of which dealt with war. Finally graduating after the war, he
entered the Toho studies in 1947 and worked as an assistant under such
directors as Mikio Naruse, Masahiro Makino, IshirÅ Honda, and
Senkichi Taniguchi. He made his debut as a director in 1958 with All
About Marriage.Okamoto directed almost 40 films and wrote the scripts
for at least 24, in a career that spanned almost six decades. He
worked in a variety of genres, but most memorably in action genres
such as the jidaigeki and war films. He was known for making films
with a twist. Inspired to become a filmmaker after watching John
Ford's Stagecoach, he would insert elements of the Western in war
films like Desperado Outpost (1959) and Westward Desperado (1960), and
eventually even filmed his own samurai Western in East Meets West
(1995). A fan of musicals, he made over-the-top films such as Oh Bomb
(1964), a gangster Noh musical, and Dixieland Daimyo (1986), about
jazz musicians entering Bakumatsu Japan. Over all, he took on "a very
rhythmic approach to filming and editing action sequences. Carefully
timed placement of sound effects and music combined with camera
movement and movement within the frame to form a very rhythmic, almost
musical whole." His basically critical stance towards Japanese society
led him to often pursue satire and black comedy, with his The Age of
Assassins (1967) becoming so dark and absurd, Toho initially refused
to release it.Okamoto could also be serious. His samurai films, such
as Samurai Assassin (1965), starring Toshiro Mifune, about a group of
19th century political agitators planning to kill an important
government official, The Sword of Doom (1966), or Kill! (1968), were
often critical of bushidÅ and Tokugawa period Japan. Yet he
approached this critique from his own perspective. Toho entrusted him
with the epic Japan's Longest Day (1968), a cinematic version of what
happened to official Japan at the end of the war, but the next year he
also made The Human Bullet for Art Theatre Guild, a more personal and
satirical vision of an everyman's experience of World War II. To
pursue some of his projects, Okamoto formed Okamoto Productions. His
wife, Mineko Okamoto, often worked as producer on his later works.
February 19, 2005) was a Japanese film director who worked in several
different genres.Born in Yonago, Okamoto attended Meiji University,
but was drafted into the Air Force 1943 and entered World War II, an
experience that had a profound effect on his later film work, one
third of which dealt with war. Finally graduating after the war, he
entered the Toho studies in 1947 and worked as an assistant under such
directors as Mikio Naruse, Masahiro Makino, IshirÅ Honda, and
Senkichi Taniguchi. He made his debut as a director in 1958 with All
About Marriage.Okamoto directed almost 40 films and wrote the scripts
for at least 24, in a career that spanned almost six decades. He
worked in a variety of genres, but most memorably in action genres
such as the jidaigeki and war films. He was known for making films
with a twist. Inspired to become a filmmaker after watching John
Ford's Stagecoach, he would insert elements of the Western in war
films like Desperado Outpost (1959) and Westward Desperado (1960), and
eventually even filmed his own samurai Western in East Meets West
(1995). A fan of musicals, he made over-the-top films such as Oh Bomb
(1964), a gangster Noh musical, and Dixieland Daimyo (1986), about
jazz musicians entering Bakumatsu Japan. Over all, he took on "a very
rhythmic approach to filming and editing action sequences. Carefully
timed placement of sound effects and music combined with camera
movement and movement within the frame to form a very rhythmic, almost
musical whole." His basically critical stance towards Japanese society
led him to often pursue satire and black comedy, with his The Age of
Assassins (1967) becoming so dark and absurd, Toho initially refused
to release it.Okamoto could also be serious. His samurai films, such
as Samurai Assassin (1965), starring Toshiro Mifune, about a group of
19th century political agitators planning to kill an important
government official, The Sword of Doom (1966), or Kill! (1968), were
often critical of bushidÅ and Tokugawa period Japan. Yet he
approached this critique from his own perspective. Toho entrusted him
with the epic Japan's Longest Day (1968), a cinematic version of what
happened to official Japan at the end of the war, but the next year he
also made The Human Bullet for Art Theatre Guild, a more personal and
satirical vision of an everyman's experience of World War II. To
pursue some of his projects, Okamoto formed Okamoto Productions. His
wife, Mineko Okamoto, often worked as producer on his later works.
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