In memoriam Jissoji Akio

[Roland Domenig]

I just got the very sad news that director Jissoji Akio passed away last night. Jissoji Akio was one of the most interesting and, outside of Japan, underrated Japanese directors. 
He started his career as TV-director for TBS and became famous with the Ultraman and Ultra Seven series. In 1968 he directed the 44-minute independent feature film Yoiyami semareba (When Twilight Draws Near) based on a script by Oshima Nagisa. The film, which was originally planed as TV-feature, was finally released by the Art Theatre Guild that also produced Jissoji's following films after his departure from TBS in 1970. His first ATG feature, Mujo (This Transient Life, 1970), became the most successful film of the early ATG years and is one of the most brilliant Japanese films of the 1970s. Mujo won Jissoji also international recognition - it was awarded the Grand Prix at the Locarno Film Festival and caused a sensation at a FIPRESCI conference in Milano about eroticism in film. With his subsequent films Mandara (Mandala, 1971), Uta (Poem, 1972) and Asaki yumemishi (Life of a Court Lady, 1974) Jissoji established himself as the most important ATG director of the 1970s (beside Kuroki Kazuo), but couldn't achieve the same critical and commercial success as with Mujo. In 1979 he once again returned to his origins with a cinema version of Ultraman. After a 10 years absence from cinema he directed Teito monogatari (Tokyo: the Last Megalopolis, 1988), which consolidated Jissoji?s reputation as cult director. In the 1990s he directed a number of adult videos as well as the Edogawa Rampo adaptations Yaneura no sanposha (Watcher in the Attic, 1994) and D-zaka no satsujin jiken (The D-slope murdercase, 1998). Rampo was also the inspiration for the omnibus film Ranpo jigoku (Rampo Noir, 2005) that was shown at film festivals around the globe. The Udine Far East Film Festival dedicated this year a special to Jissoji, but he couldn?t follow the invitation because he had to undergo medical treatment. His final films, one episode of the omnibus film Yume juya (Dream of Ten Nights) after Natsume Soseki and a cinema remake of his 1971 TBS TV-series Shiruba kamen (Silver Mask) were finished this autumn. Jissoji didn?t live to see their premieres, he died on November 29th at age 69. 
Although Jissoji is best know as director of the Ultraman series and his eroticism in films such as Mujo and Mandara, he was also a prolific writer and author of several books, a successful stage director, especially of Opera (I remember vividly his production of Mozart?s Magic flute last year with Ultraman monsters as Monostatos? slaves) and, perhaps most of all, the hugest fans of locomotives in Japan. His death is a huge loss.
     
Roland Domenig
Institute of East Asian Studies
Vienna University
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