Futaba Juzaburo

[Aaron Gerow]

The Asahi reported today that the great film critic, Futaba Juzaburo,  
passed away last month on December 12, 2009. He was 99 years old. The  
family held the funeral in secret.

Futaba began writing criticism while working for Sumitomo, only  
quitting in 1945. For nearly half a century, he rated films for the  
magazine Screen, showing no prejudice over what he would rate, looking  
at every thing from art films to B-films. Since Screen was a magazine  
centered on foreign film, however, he did not rate many Japanese films  
there, but his books on Japanese film include Nihon eiga hihan:  
1932-1956 and Nihon eiga boku no 300-pon (he liked to compile lists).  
His most recent book, which came out in 2008, was Boku no tokkyū  
nijisseiki: Taishō Shōwa goraku bunka shōshi.

He won many awards, including the Kikuchi Kan Prize, the Nihon Film  
Pen Club Award, and the Yamaji Fumiko Award. He also apparently  
translated mystery novels such as Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.

He was one of the last giants of Japanese film criticism and a witness  
to his era.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Associate Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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