was a Japanese filmmaker who served primarily as a

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

, but also as a writer and director. He was most famous for producing several films for Akira Kurosawa, including ''

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven ...

'', ''

Ikiru is a 1952 Japanese drama film directed and co-written (with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni) by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat (played by Takashi Shimura) and his final quest for meaning. Th ...

'' and '' Throne of Blood''. He also produced films for other directors, including Mikio Naruse, for whom he produced '' Spring Awakens'' and ''

Battle of Roses }) is a 1950 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a novel by Fumio Niwa. Cast *Kuniko Miyake *Setsuko Wakayama * Yōko Katsuragi *Kōji Tsuruta * Tōru Abe *Mitsuo Nagata *Yōko Wakasugi *Shirō Ōsaka *Noriko Sengoku *Hansh ...

'', and Kazuo Mori, for whom he produced '' Vendetta for a Samurai''. As a writer, he provided the story for Kei Kumai's 1968 film ''

The Sands of Kurobe is a 1968 Japanese drama film directed by Kei Kumai. It was Japan's submission to the 41st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. Produced by its stars Toshiro Mifune and Yujiro Ish ...

'', starring Kurosawa favorite

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in over 150 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration (1948–1965) with Akira Kurosawa in such works as ''Rashomon'', ''Seven Samurai'', ''The Hidden Fortress'', ''Throne of Blood'', and '' ...

. Besides the films he is credited with producing, Motoki also had an influence on other Kurosawa films. For example, he was involved in the production of '' Rashomon''. Motoki sent the letter to screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto inviting him to help expand the script of ''Rashomon''. During the late 1940s, Motoki joined with directors Kurosawa, Senkichi Taniguchi and Kajiro Yamamoto (eventually joined by Naruse as well) to form a short-lived independent production company, the

Motion Picture Art Association In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer an ...

, which was responsible for such films as ''Rashomon'', ''

The Quiet Duel is a 1949 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Plot The film centers on Dr. Kyoji Fujisaki, a young, idealistic doctor who, during his service as an army physician during World War II, contracted syphilis from the blood of a patient when he ...

'' and ''

Stray Dog A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not confined to a yard or house. Free-ranging dogs include street dogs, village dogs, stray dogs, feral dogs, etc., and may be owned or unowned. The global dog population is estimated to be 900 million, of w ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Motoki, Sojiro Japanese film producers Japanese film directors 1914 births 1977 deaths 20th-century Japanese screenwriters