Kudo Eiichi

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

The papers reported that the film director, Kudo Eiichi, died on the 23rd 
of an anyeurism.  He was 71.  Kudo was born in Hokkaido and entered Toei 
in 1952.  He began directing in 1959, and particularly made a mark in the 
early 1960s with the "group action" period film (shudan koso), his 
_Jusannin no shikaku_ (The Thirteen Assassins, 1963) being counted as one 
of the great samurai films of all time.  As Toei shifted its emphasis to 
yakuza films, he also directed a lot of those films, but increasingly 
worked on such TV period dramas as the "Hissatsu" series.

In recent years, the respect he had earned had prompted invitations to 
jury for film festivals.  He was a member of the jury of the Yamagata 
International Documentary Film Festival in 1995 and also of the Pia Film 
Festival.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
For list commands: send "information kinejapan" to 
listserver at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Kinema Club: http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/Markus/Welcome.html