(18 November 1903 – 16 September 1981) was a prominent left-wing Japanese

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

, and producer. Born in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, he became interested in

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

from his student days at

Tokyo University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

. Early on, he helped introduce

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that does not apply standard cinematic conventions, instead adopting Non-narrative film, non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many e ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and was instrumental in getting

Teinosuke Kinugasa was a Japanese filmmaker and actor. His best-known films include the Silent film, silent Experimental film, avant-garde films ''A Page of Madness'' and ''Crossroads (1928 film), Crossroads'' and the Academy Awards, Academy Award-winning historic ...

's masterpiece ''

A Page of Madness is a 1926 Japanese Silent film, silent Experimental film, experimental Horror film, horror film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Lost film, Lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971, the film is the produc ...

'' screened in Tokyo. Afterward, he became involved in

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

politics and established a career promoting progressive cinema and criticism. He wrote or edited over thirty books of film criticism, history, theory and biography during his career. He was also involved in film production, first serving from the late 1920s as a central member of the

Proletarian Film League of Japan The , shortened to Prokino, was a left-wing film organization active in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Japan. Associated with the proletarian arts movement in Japan, it primarily used small gauge films such as 16mm film and 9.5mm film to record ...

( Prokino), where he acted as not only the theoretical brain of the movement alongside

Genjū Sasa (14 January 1900 – 7 July 1959) was a left-wing Japanese film director and film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic ...

, but also as a filmmaker. When Prokino was effectively eliminated by police oppression under the

Peace Preservation Law The was a Japanese law enacted on April 22, 1925, with the aim of allowing the Special Higher Police to more effectively suppress alleged socialists and communists. In addition to criminalizing forming an association with the aim of altering the ...

, Iwasaki continued his critical activities, becoming involved in the Yuibutsuron Kenkyūkai with such thinkers as Jun Tosaka, but was eventually arrested in 1940, in part for his opposition to the Film Law, which authorized increased government control of the film industry. He was the only film critic arrested by the ideological police during the war. After his release, he worked for a time at the Tokyo office of the

Manchukuo Film Association or () was a Empire of Japan, Japanese film studio in Manchukuo during the 1930s and 1940s. After the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the Soviet Red Army facilitated the transfer of Man-ei's assets and equipment to the Chinese communists. This b ...

thanks to the help of Kan'ichi Negishi. After Japan's defeat in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Iwasaki was active in criticizing those who participated in the war effort. He joined Nihon Eigasha (Nichiei), primarily a

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film company, and helped produce two important, but ill-fated documentaries: '' The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki'', which was confiscated by Occupation authorities, and '' The Japanese Tragedy'', directed by

Fumio Kamei (1 April 1908 – 27 February 1987) was a Japanese documentary and fiction film director. Biography Kamei went to the Soviet Union in 1928 to study filmmaking, but had to return home because of an illness. He eventually began working at Photo Ch ...

, which was banned for its critical depiction of

Emperor Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...

.Hirano, pp. 104–145. While continuing to work as a film critic from the 1950s on, including pursuing a vigorous debate on the nature of cinematic

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *American Realism *Classical Realism *Liter ...

with Taihei Imamura, Iwasaki helped produce some of the independent films made by

Tadashi Imai was a Japanese film director known for social realist filmmaking informed by a left-wing perspective. His most noted films include '' An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and '' Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life Although leaning towards left-win ...

and

Satsuo Yamamoto was a Japanese film director. Yamamoto was born in Kagoshima, Kagoshima City. After leaving Waseda University, where he had become affiliated with Left-wing politics, left-wing groups, he joined the Shochiku film studios in 1933, where he worke ...

after many left-wingers were expelled from the major studios in the

Red Purge The was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.: "From 1947, the Japanese government, supported by MacArthur, unleashed a Red Purge that targeted those Japanese considered to have left-wing views." Carri ...

. In 1974, he was a member of the jury at the

24th Berlin International Film Festival The 24th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 21 June to 2 July 1974. The Golden Bear was awarded to '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' directed by Ted Kotcheff. Juries The following people were announced as being on t ...

References

Bibliography

* * * *
Prewar Proletarian Film Movements Collection
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. Full text of many Prokino publications, including some of Iwasaki's articles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Iwasaki, Akira Japanese film critics Japanese film producers 1903 births 1981 deaths Japanese documentary filmmakers Japanese communists