Film director arrested

[Aaron Gerow]

> Good question.  Does Shintaro Katsu count (he had at
> least one film under his belt)?  I seem to recall he
> had some trouble with the law, but don't remember if
> he was arrrested or not.  Perhaps those involved in
> the student movements during the late '60s or early
> '70s?  Maybe Koji Wakamatsu?  Hmmmmmmmmm...

That's right, there is Katsushin, was was arrested in 1990 for 
possession of marijuana. He actually directed 3 films, so that should 
count. There probably were some student filmmakers arrested in the 
1960s, but the cameraman Otsu Koshiro is the only big name I remember. 
(Of course, much later Adachi Masao got arrested in Lebanon and was put 
on probation after a trail in Japan.)

I don't think Wakamatsu was ever arrested, but that does remind me that 
there were some directors indicted for obscenity, particularly 
Yamaguchi Seiichiro (of the Nikkatsu Roman Porno case) and Takechi 
Tetsuji (of the Kuroi yuki case).

One could also include some of the members of Prokino in the early 
1930s. Kimura Sotoji got in trouble for his strike activities in the 
1930s, and was in a labor camp for a time after the war in China, but I 
don't think he ever got arrested in Japan.

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu