Kō Nakahira

was a Japanese film director.

After dropping out of the University of Tokyo in 1949, Nakahira joined Shochiku as an assistant director. As assistant director, he worked for such filmmakers as Akira Kurosawa, Eisuke Takizawa, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yuzo Kawashima. In 1954, he moved to Nikkatsu. Two years later, while at Nikkatsu, he co-directed his first feature with Koreyoshi Kurahara, a 1956 noir film entitled The Shadow of Fear (Nerawareta otoko). That same year, he made his solo directorial debut with the film Crazed Fruit (Kurutta kajitsu). His 1971 film A Soul to Devils (Yami no naka no chimimoryo) was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

He was known for his foundational, and frequently controversial, Sun Tribe (Taiyōzoku) films in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as his late 1960s collaborations with the Shaw brothers and his independent period of the 1970s. Nakahira's body of work spanned multiple genres, including noirs, thrillers, comedies, exploitation films, erotic dramas, gambling movies, girl gang films and spy parodies. His films were noted for their tight pacing, modernist visual flair and experiments with narrative and cinematic form, as well as Nakahira's ability to produce them quickly. Among his thematic preoccupations were the changing role of women in Japanese society, evolving standards of sexual ethics, the rejection of tradition among Japan's disaffected countercultural youth, infidelity and the dark side of human sexual desire.

Filmography as assistant director Ojōsan shachō (お嬢さん社長 lit. Madame Company President, 1953) (dir. Yuzo Kawashima) The Path of Sincerity (真実一路 Shinjitsu ichiro, 1954) (dir. Yuzo Kawashima) Jigoku no kengô Hirate Miki (地獄の剣豪: 平手造酒 lit. Hirate Miki the Swordman, 1954) (dir. Eisuke Takizawa)

Filmography List of films as director. Crazed Fruit, aka Juvenile Jungle (狂った果実 Kurutta kajitsu, 1956) The Shadow of Fear (狙われた男 Nerawareta otoko, 1956) (co-directed with Koreyoshi Kurahara) Frankie the Milkman (牛乳屋フランキー Gyûnyû ya Furankî, 1956) Shu to midori: Zenpen shu no maki: Kôhen midori no maki (1956) Summer Storm (夏の嵐 Natsu no arashi, 1956) Bitoku no yoromeki (美徳のよろめき The Flesh is Weak or Misstepping of Virtue, 1957) – Based on a Yukio Mishima novel. Streetlights (街燈 Gaitô or Koi to uwaki no seishun techô: Gaitô, 1957) Temptation (誘惑 Yûwaku, 1957) Who's the Real Killer? or Who is the True Murderer? (殺したのは誰だ Koroshita no wa dare da, 1957) Kurenai no Tsubasa (紅の翼 Crimson Wings, 1958) – One of the biggest Japanese box office successes of the 1950s. Diary of a Lady-Killer (獵人 Lie ren, 1969 Hong Kong remake of Nakahira's own The Hunter's Diary) Rebel Against Glory (栄光への反逆, 1970) A Crash Landing of Youth (1971) – A South Korean production.

Nakahira had planned to direct Kah-chan as his first film, but this was never realized. The film would eventually be made by Kon Ichikawa in 2001.

Personal life Originally, Nakahira was named Koh Nakahira. He inherited his surname from his mother. Nakahira's Chinese name was Yeung Shu-Hei (楊樹希).

Nakahira was born on January 3, 1926 in Takinogawa Ward, Tokyo. His father, Toranosuke Takahashi, was an oil painter, and his grandmother had graduated from a music school and taught violin. Thus he grew up in a family that encouraged him to become an artist.

He became enthusiastic about film as a junior high school student upon seeing the works of René Clair and Billy Wilder. In 1948, Nakahira enrolled in the Department of Art of The Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo, but he dropped out the next year to become an assistant director at Shochiku.

Nakahira was an alcoholic. On September 11, 1978, he died of stomach cancer at the age of 52.