Sad news: Kuroki Kazuo dead

[Mark Nornes]

This is really too bad. Kuroki was a regular participant at Yamagata  
and many other film-related events. He was very smart, and I must say  
I learned a lot from him. It is curious that a figure so important in  
the history of post-war Japanese film---important for both his  
fantastic films and his activism behind the scenes---never really got  
the attention that his colleagues did.

Yasui Yoshio has a very nice interview with him in Documentary Box.  
Check it out, and then if you haven't seen Kuroki's films track them  
down.

http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/18/box18-1-1-e.html

I also discuss Kuroki's documentaries and his role in transforming  
the institutional setting of nonfiction film in my upcoming book on  
Ogawa Pro.

Markus







On Apr 12, 2006, at 11:53 AM, Roland Domenig wrote:

> It was just reported that director Kuroki Kazuo died today at age  
> 75 due to a cerebral infarction.
> Kuroki was one of the many talents that emerged in the 1950s from  
> Iwanami Production. He made himself a name as director of very  
> innovative PR films and documentaries such as Wagaai no Hokkaido  
> (Hokkaido, My Love; 1957) or Koi no hitsuji ga umi ippai (The seas  
> are full of sheeps in love, 1961) and was one of the founding  
> members of the legendary Iwanami Blue Group (ao no kai). In the  
> mid-1960s he left Iwanami and continued as independent director.  
> His films often encountered troubles, as with the documentary film  
> Aru marason ranna no kiroku (Record of a Marathon Runner, 1964)  
> which reflected the struggle between old and new left within the  
> Association of Documentary Filmmakers, or his feature film Kyuba no  
> koibito (Cuban Lovers, 1969) shot in Cuba. His brilliant first  
> feature film, Tobenai chinmoku (Silence has no Wings, 1966),  
> explored (like many of his documentaries before) new visual and  
> narrative ways and was distributed by the Art Theatre Guild who  
> produced his subseque!
>  nt films Nihon no akuryo (Evil Spirits of Japan, 1970), Ryoma  
> ansatsu (The Assassination of Ryoma, 1974), Matsuri no junbi  
> (Preparations for the Festival, 1975) and Genshiryoku senso (Lost  
> Love, 1978). With the first part of his WWII trilogy, Ashita  
> (Tomorrow, 1988), which was followed by Utsukushii natsu no  
> Kirishima (A Boy's Summer in 1945; 2002) and Chichi to kuraseba  
> (The Face of Jizo, 2004), he also gained international recognition.  
> Kuroki was one of the most versatile Japanese directors switching  
> freely between documentary and fiction, gendaigeki and jidaigeki,  
> cinema and TV. Although rarely at the center of attention he was  
> one of the most important directors of his generation and his death  
> is a great loss to Japanese cinema.
>
> Roland Domenig
> Institute of East Asian Studies
> Vienna University
>
>
>