was a 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: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outl ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. He has been called "a leader who established film criticism and film research in Japan".

Career

After graduating from the Tokyo Prefectural First Middle School (now

Hibiya High School is a Japanese high school founded in 1878 as the . It was well known in the 1950s and 1960s for the large proportion of graduates who gained admission to the prestigious University of Tokyo; though it suffered a decline in the 1970s, as of 2005 ...

), he attended the Third High School (later becoming part of

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = 22 ...

), where he shared a room with Motojiro Kajii. Iijima had already begun publishing film criticism even before he graduated from the Department of French Literature at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1929., joining the editorial board of ''

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ...

'' in 1922. He published his first book, ''Shinema no ABC'', in 1928, which included both his own theoretical writings and criticism as well as translations of French film theory. In addition to film criticism, he also helped edit literary journals and published novels, poetry, and theatrical plays. He even wrote screenplays for television dramas in the early years of the medium. His range of interests was broad, as he even studied Hungarian. He joined the faculty of

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

in 1946 and rose to professor in 1957. His book ''Zen'ei eiga riron to zen'ei geijutsu'' (1971) earned him a doctorate from Waseda.

Awards

Iijima received the Minister of Culture award for criticism at the Geijutsu Senshō in 1970. In 1993, he received the 11th Kawakita Award, and at the 50th

Mainichi Film Awards The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935 ...

, he received a posthumous Special Award for his contributions to film criticism.

References

External links

Iijima Tadashi
''Terebi Dorama Dētabēsu'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Iijima, Tadashi Japanese film critics 1902 births 1996 deaths University of Tokyo alumni Waseda University faculty 20th-century Japanese screenwriters