YÅ«zÅ Kawashima (å· å³¶é›„ä¸‰, Kawashima YÅ«zÅ , 4 February 1918 â€"
11 June 1963) was a Japanese film director, most famous for making
tragi-comic films and satires.Kawashima was born in Mutsu, Aomori in
the Shimokita Peninsula. From his youth, he suffered from a paralysis
that affected his right leg and arm. He was educated at Meiji
University, where he was a member of the film study circle. He entered
the ShÅ chiku studios in 1938 and served as an assistant director
under Minoru Shibuya and Keisuke Kinoshita before directing his first
film, The Man Who Has Returned, in 1944. At ShÅ chiku after the war,
he made many comedies before switching to Nikkatsu in 1955, when the
studio resumed film production. There he made such notable works as
Burden of Love (1955), Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (1956), and
Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957), which was later voted
the fifth best Japanese film of all time in Kinema JunpÅ 's poll of
140 film critics and filmmakers in 1999. In his remaining years,
Kawashima worked at multiple studiosâ€"Daiei, Tokyo Eiga, and Tohoâ€"
continuing to create satirical works like Temptation on Glamour Island
(1959),Room for Let (1959), and The Graceful Brute (1962), as well as
literary adaptations like Women Are Born Twice (1961) and The Temple
of Wild Geese (1962).Like many Japanese directors of the period,
Kawashima was very prolific, completing 51 films during a career that
only lasted 19 years. He died suddenly in 1963 of cor pulmonale. His
grave in Mutsu bears one of the lines from Kashima ari: "Saying
goodbye is all life is" (Sayonara dake ga jinsei da).
11 June 1963) was a Japanese film director, most famous for making
tragi-comic films and satires.Kawashima was born in Mutsu, Aomori in
the Shimokita Peninsula. From his youth, he suffered from a paralysis
that affected his right leg and arm. He was educated at Meiji
University, where he was a member of the film study circle. He entered
the ShÅ chiku studios in 1938 and served as an assistant director
under Minoru Shibuya and Keisuke Kinoshita before directing his first
film, The Man Who Has Returned, in 1944. At ShÅ chiku after the war,
he made many comedies before switching to Nikkatsu in 1955, when the
studio resumed film production. There he made such notable works as
Burden of Love (1955), Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (1956), and
Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957), which was later voted
the fifth best Japanese film of all time in Kinema JunpÅ 's poll of
140 film critics and filmmakers in 1999. In his remaining years,
Kawashima worked at multiple studiosâ€"Daiei, Tokyo Eiga, and Tohoâ€"
continuing to create satirical works like Temptation on Glamour Island
(1959),Room for Let (1959), and The Graceful Brute (1962), as well as
literary adaptations like Women Are Born Twice (1961) and The Temple
of Wild Geese (1962).Like many Japanese directors of the period,
Kawashima was very prolific, completing 51 films during a career that
only lasted 19 years. He died suddenly in 1963 of cor pulmonale. His
grave in Mutsu bears one of the lines from Kashima ari: "Saying
goodbye is all life is" (Sayonara dake ga jinsei da).
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