(1 April 1908 – 27 February 1987) was a left-wing Japanese documentary and fiction film director.

Biography

Kamei went to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in 1928 to study filmmaking, but had to return home because of an illness. He eventually began working at Photo Chemical Laboratories (PCL), one of the precursors to

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

, where he made a name for himself making documentaries - or "culture films" (''bunka eiga'') as they were called at the time - that were strongly influenced by

Soviet montage theory Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing (''montage'' is French for "assembly" or "editing"). It is the principal contribution of Soviet film theorists to global cinema, and broug ...

. Many were propaganda films about Japan's war in China, such as ''Shanghai'' and ''Peking'', but his '' Fighting Soldiers'' (''Tatakau heitai'') was criticized by authorities as a potentially anti-war film, one police official in fact protesting that "These aren't fighting soldiers, they're tired soldiers!" Arnold, Michael.
Fighting Soldiers
" ''Midnight Eye''. 21 November 2002. Accessed 9 November 2009 The release of the film was blocked, but ''Fighting Soldiers'' was later celebrated as one of the masterpieces of Japanese documentary.Nornes, Abé Mark. ''Japanese Documentary Film.'' Pp. 148-182 After making a film about the poet

Kobayashi Issa was a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū. He is known for his haiku poems and journals. He is better known as simply , a pen name meaning Cup-of-teaBostok 2004. (lit. "one up oftea"). He is regarded as one of the four ...

, Kamei was the only Japanese film director arrested for violation of the Peace Preservation Law and became the first filmmaker to lose his license to direct under the 1939 Film Law. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he resumed filmmaking with '' The Japanese Tragedy'' (''Nihon no higeki''), a film produced at Nichiei by

Akira Iwasaki (18 November 1903 – 16 September 1981) was a prominent left-wing Japanese film critic, historian, and producer. Born in Tokyo, he became interested in film from his student days at Tokyo University. Early on, he helped introduce German experimen ...

, which charged Japanese leaders with responsibility for pursuing a disastrous war. The film, however, was eventually banned by

Occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

authorities in particular for its critical depiction of

Emperor Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

.Hirano, Kyoko. ''Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo.'' Pp. 104-145 Kamei thus had films banned by both the Japanese government and the American Occupation forces. Kamei also made fiction films such as ''War and Peace'' (Sensō to heiwa), co-directed with

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

, but he primarily continued to produce independent documentaries protesting such issues as American bases in Japan, the nuclear bomb, discrimination against

burakumin is a name for a low-status social group in Japan. It is a term for ethnic Japanese people with occupations considered as being associated with , such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, or tanners. During Japan's ...

in Japan, and environmental destruction.

Selected filmography

* Shanghai (上海) (1937) *

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

(北京) (1938) * Fighting Soldiers (戦ふ兵隊　Tatakau heitai) (1938) *

(小林一茶) (1941) * The Japanese Tragedy (日本の悲劇 Nihon no higeki) (1946) * War and Peace (戦争と平和 Sensō to heiwa) (1947) *

It's Good to Live English auxiliary verbs are a small set of English verbs, which include the English modal verbs and a few others. Although definitions vary, as generally conceived an auxiliary lacks inherent semantic meaning but instead modifies the meaning of an ...

(生きていてよかった Ikite ite yokatta) (1956) * Record of Blood: Sunagawa (流血の記録　砂川 Ryūketsu no kiroku: Sunagawa) (1957) *

Men Are All Brothers A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

(人間みな兄弟　Ningen mina kyodai) (1960)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamei, Fumio 1908 births 1987 deaths Japanese documentary film directors Place of birth missing

Biography

Selected filmography

References

Further reading

External links