Toshio Masuda

Toshio Masuda (born October 5, 1927 in Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan) is a Japanese film director. He developed a reputation as a consistent box office hit-maker. Over the course of five decades, 16 of his films made the yearly top ten lists at the Japanese box office—a second place record in the industry. Between 1958 and 1968 he directed 52 films for the Nikkatsu Company. He was their top director of action films and worked with the company's top stars, including Yujiro Ishihara with whom he made 25 films. After the breakdown of the studio system, he moved on to a succession of big-budget movies including the American-Japanese co-production Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the science fiction epic Catastrophe 1999: The Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974). He worked on such anime productions as the Space Battleship Yamato series. His corporate drama Company Funeral (1989) earned him a Japanese Academy Award nomination and wins at the Blue Ribbon Awards and Mainichi Film Awards. In Japan, his films are well remembered by fans and called genre landmarks by critics. He remains little known abroad save for rare exceptions of his post-Nikkatsu work such as Tora! Tora! Tora!. However, a number of his films were screened in a 2005 Nikkatsu Action Cinema retrospective in Italy and a few have since made their way to the United States. At the age of 81, he is currently prepping to helm Uchū Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu hen (2009). Description above from the Wikipedia article Toshio Masuda, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Toshio Masuda ist ein japanischer Filmregisseur. Über fünf Jahrzehnte hinweg schafften es 16 seiner Filme in die jährlichen Top Ten der japanischen Kinocharts. Zwischen 1958 und 1968 führte er bei 52 Filmen für die Nikkatsu Company Regie. Er war deren erfolgreichster Actionregisseur und arbeitete mit den Topstars des Studios zusammen, darunter Yujiro Ishihara, mit dem er 25 Filme drehte. Nach dem Zusammenbruch des Studiosystems wandte er sich einer Reihe von Großproduktionen zu, darunter die amerikanisch-japanische Koproduktion „Tora! Tora! Tora!“ (1970) und das Science-Fiction-Epos „Weltkatastrophe 1999? – Die Prophezeiung des Nostradamus“ (1974). Er wirkte auch an Anime-Produktionen wie der Serie „Space Battleship Yamato“ mit. Sein Firmendrama „Company Funeral“ (1989) brachte ihm eine Nominierung für den Japanischen Filmpreis sowie Auszeichnungen bei den Blue Ribbon Awards und den Mainichi Film Awards ein.

大阪外国語大（現大阪大）でロシア文学を学び映画を志して上京。当時の新東宝に入った後、日活に移り「心と肉体の旅」（1958年）で監督デビューした。人気絶頂の石原裕次郎との名コンビで「錆びたナイフ」「赤いハンカチ」など"日活ムードアクション"を量産。小林旭や渡哲也らの主演作も手がけた。吉永小百合主演「あゝひめゆりの塔」（68年）の後、黒沢明監督が降板した米映画「トラ・トラ・トラ!」の日本側監督を、深作欣二と共同で担当した。その後も戦争映画「二百三高地」「零戦燃ゆ」、アイドル映画「ハイティーン・ブギ」、アニメ「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」、現代劇「社葬」など、多彩なジャンルで良質の娯楽映画を送り出した。90年代には「動天」「江戸城大乱」などの時代劇や、テレビドラマ演出で腕のさえを見せ、自由で洒脱な人柄は、晩年まで映画人たちから慕われた。93年紫綬褒章、99年勲四等旭日小綬章。