Taihei Imamura

was a Japanese film critic and film theorist. Born in Saitama Prefecture, he attended the Kobe University of Commerce (the precursor to Kobe University) but left before graduating. In 1935 he helped found the film dojinshi Eiga shūdan (Film Collective). Writing from a left-wing perspective, he was a strong advocate of the realistic aspects of cinema and thus a champion of documentary film. Underlining how Imamura was a unique figure in the history of Japanese film theory, Heiichi Sugiyama subtitled his autobiography of Imamura, "A solitary and original critic of the image".

Anime directors such as Isao Takahata have expressed their debt to Imamura. Studio Ghibli republished his book on animation, Manga eigaron, in 2005 with an essay from Takahata titled "What I Learned from Imamura Taihei."

Selected publications