Kinoshita, Keisuke

▪ 1999

      Japanese motion picture director (b. Dec. 5, 1912, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan—d. Dec. 30, 1998, Tokyo, Japan), directed nearly 50 feature films, many of them social satires that emphasized the frailty and beauty of the human condition. Kinoshita wrote the screenplays for many of his films and was thrice awarded the prestigious Kinema Jumpo Award for excellence in Japanese cinema. After graduating (1930) from Hamamatsu Technology School, he enrolled in the Oriental Photography School and later worked at the Shochiku Motion Picture Co. under director Yasujiro Shimazu, first as cameraman, then as scriptwriter, and finally as assistant director. His first film, Hanasaku minato (1943; The Blossoming Port), was followed by those framed by patriotic doctrine but also including creative—and even controversial—touches. Kinoshita was awarded the Kinema Jumpo Award for Osone-ke no asa (1946; A Morning with the Osone Family), the story of a family's wartime vicissitudes. Japan's first colour film, Karumen kokyo ni kaeru (1951; Carmen Comes Home), was a popular satire revolving around a stripper with a heart of gold and was followed by a successful sequel, Karumen junjosu (1952; Carmen's Pure Love). Kinoshita also presented tales of familial breakdown, profound sacrifice, and wrongful violence. In Nihon no higeki (1953; A Japanese Tragedy), newsreel footage is interspersed with the story of a widow who prostitutes herself in order to support her ungrateful children. Nijushi no hitomi (1954; Twenty-four Eyes), another Kinema Jumpo Award-winner, focuses on the lives of 12 students and their beloved teacher in the years leading up to World War II. His third Kinema Jumpo Award-winner, Narayama-bushi ko (1958; Ballad of Narayama), centres on an elderly woman who smashes her teeth on a grinding wheel in order to persuade her impoverished son to carry her to Mt. Narayama, where villagers customarily abandon their decrepit forebears. Later films include Kono ko o nokoshite (1983; The Children of Nagasaki) and Yorokobi mo kanashima mo ikutoshitsuki (1986; Times of Joy and Sorrow). Though Kinoshita's works were often compared to those of Akira Kurosawa (q.v.) in their technical sophistication, Kurosawa usually favoured tales of strength and action, whereas Kinoshita preferred sentimentality.

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