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Yoshimitsu Morita

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Yoshimitsu Morita
Born25 January 1950
Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
Died20 December 2011(2011-12-20) (aged 61)[1]
Tokyo, Japan
OccupationFilm director
Years active1981–2011
SpouseMisao Morita
AwardsBest Director, Japanese Academy Awards 2004

Yoshimitsu Morita (森田 芳光, Morita Yoshimitsu, 25 January 1950 – 20 December 2011) was a Japanese film director. He was known for his versatility, having directed satires, melodramas, crime thrillers, and pinku films. His most acclaimed films include The Family Game (1983), Sorekara (1985), Haru (1996), and Lost Paradise (1997).

Career

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Self-taught, first making shorts on 8 mm film during the 1970s, he made his feature film debut with No Yōna Mono (Something Like It, 1981).[2]

In 1983 he won acclaim for his movie Kazoku Gēmu (The Family Game), which was voted the best film of the year by Japanese critics in the Kinema Junpo magazine poll.[3] The magazine went on to vote it as the best Japanese film of the 1980s (in 2018) and as the 10th best Japanese film of all time (in 2009).[4][5] This black comedy dealt with then-recent changes in the structure of Japanese home life. It also earned Morita the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award.[6]

The director has been nominated for eight Japanese Academy Awards, winning the 2004 Best Director award for Ashura no Gotoku (Like Asura, 2003). He also won the award for best director at the 21st Yokohama Film Festival for 39 keihō dai sanjūkyū jō (Keiho, 2003)[7] and the award for best screenplay at the 18th Yokohama Film Festival for Haru (1996).[8] His 2007 film Sanjuro is a remake of the Kurosawa film.

Themes

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According to film critic Saburō Kawamoto in 1985, Morita’s early features presented a new cinema and sensibility that represented “the new human species” of postmodern Japan. Morita’s aesthetic was minimalistic, transparent, and featured empty landscapes with light and abstract characters. This was in direct contrast to the youth films of 1960s and 1970s in which the directors would aim for a fullness of sensuality, emotion, and physicality.[9]

Death and legacy

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Yoshimitsu Morita died from acute liver failure in Tokyo in December 2011.[3] His last film Bokutachi kyūkō: A ressha de ikō (Take the "A" Train, 2011), a romantic comedy about two male train enthusiasts, was released in Japan in March 2012.[2][10]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "Award-winning Japanese director Morita dies at 61 - Wire Entertainment - Movie News". The Sacramento Bee. Associated Press. 21 December 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  2. ^ a b Mark Schilling "Director Yoshimitsu Morita dies", Chicago Tribune, 21 December 2011
  3. ^ a b Roger Macy "Yoshimitsu Morita: Director best known for 'The Family Game'", The Independent, 3 January 2012
  4. ^ "キネマ旬報が選ぶ1980年代日本映画ベストテン、第1位は「家族ゲーム」" [Kinema Junpo's 1980s Japan Best Ten Movies, No. 1 is "Family Game"] (in Japanese). 19 December 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  5. ^ "「オールタイム・ベスト 映画遺産200」全ランキング公開". Archived from the original on 15 December 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  6. ^ "Nihon Eiga Kantoku Kyōkai Shinjinshō" (in Japanese). Directors Guild of Japan. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
  7. ^ 第２１回ヨコハマ映画祭 １９９９年日本映画個人賞 (in Japanese). Yokohama Film Festival. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  8. ^ 第１８回ヨコハマ映画祭 １９９６年日本映画個人賞 (in Japanese). Yokohama Film Festival. Retrieved 11 April 2010.
  9. ^ Gerow, Aaron (20 December 2007). "Playing With Postmodernism: Morita Yoshimitsu's The Family Game (1983)". In Phillips, Alastair; Stringer, Julian (eds.). Japanese Cinema, Texts and Contexts. Routledge. p. 241. ISBN 9780415328487.
  10. ^ "僕達急行 A列車で行こう" (in Japanese). MovieWalker. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  11. ^ Elley, Derek (24 September 2002). "Copycat Killer". Variety. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
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