Toshio Masuda

is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He developed a reputation as a consistent box office hit-maker. Over the course of five decades, 16 of his films made the yearly top ten lists at the Japanese box office—a second place record in the industry. Between 1958 and 1968 he directed 52 films for the Nikkatsu Company. He was their top director of action films and worked with the company's top stars, including Yujiro Ishihara with whom he made 25 films.

After the breakdown of the studio system, he moved on to a succession of big-budget movies including the American-Japanese co-production Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the disaster epic Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974). He worked on such anime productions as the Space Battleship Yamato series. His corporate drama Company Funeral (1989) earned him a Japanese Academy Award nomination and wins at the Blue Ribbon Awards and Mainichi Film Awards.

In Japan, his films are well-remembered by fans and called genre landmarks by critics. He remains little known abroad save for rare exceptions of his post-Nikkatsu work such as Tora! Tora! Tora!. However, a number of his films were screened in a 2005 Nikkatsu Action Cinema retrospective in Italy, and a few have since made their way to the United States. In 2009, he helped produce Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection.

Early life and education Toshio Masuda was born in Kobe, Japan. His father was a seaman. He enrolled in a technical training school, however, his mindset did not mesh with the school's military indoctrination, and he was expelled in July 1945. He next attended the Osaka University of Foreign Studies (now Osaka University) where he specialized in Russian literature. There he became enamoured with French cinema, which led him away from Russian grammar and toward a career in the film industry. He thought he would have been bored as a salaryman and that filmmaking would better suit him but suggested he probably would not have followed through had his friends not sought similar careers. After graduating in 1949, he moved to Tokyo to study screenwriting at the Shintoho Studio's Scenario Academy. Masuda joined the studio as an assistant director and writer. He continued to write scripts for and with his mentor Inoue, who had also made the switch. He served as 1st assistant director to Kon Ichikawa on the sets of The Heart (1955) and The Burmese Harp (1956). Masuda was promoted to director in 1957 and debuted with A Journey of Body and Soul the following year.

Rusty Knife (1958) marked Masuda's third film and first major hit. It starred Nikkatsu's top Diamond Line stars Yujiro Ishihara and Akira Kobayashi. They play two hoodlum brothers who attempt to go straight but witness a murder and find themselves pursued by the killers. The script was written by Ishihara's older brother, and future governor of Tokyo, Shintarō Ishihara. Masuda only directed the first film in the series but it provided another blueprint, this time to the studio's New Action subgenre, films which increased the sex and violence quotient while mirroring the tumultuous times of the late 1960s/early 1970s. The film depicts the attack on Pearl Harbor from the perspectives of both sides of the conflict. Masuda was responsible for the Japanese segments and asked director Kinji Fukasaku to join him, while American director Richard Fleischer filmed the American segments. Throughout the next 20 years Masuda helmed a string of major studio productions, including Catastrophe 1999: The Prophecies of Nostradamus (aka Last Days of Planet Earth, 1974) and three more big-budget war films for the Toei Company: The Battle of Port Arthur (1980), The Great Japanese Empire (1982) and The Battle of the Sea of Japan: Go to Sea (1983).

He also made room for more intimate subject matter such as his High Teen Boogie (1982), in which a teenage biker falls in love with a straight-laced girl. The corporate drama Company Funeral (1989) was selected for the Kinema Junpo annual Best Ten list. Masuda's most recent feature film was the crime thriller Heavenly Sin (1992). It starred Sayuri Yoshinaga as a detective in near-future Tokyo and Omar Sharif as a Chinese Triad boss. Sharif replaced Yūsaku Matsuda who had died of cancer. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Masuda continues to direct and write for television. Despite production line genre work forming the bulk of his oeuvre, Masuda has always been able to express his views, even subversive ones, and reflect on societal issues through his films. though Velvet Hustler was released on VHS cassette by Home Vision Entertainment on September 21, 2001 in North America.

After the collapse of the studio system, Masuda's career continued unabated. Masuda's animated works, especially the Space Battleship Yamato series, are remembered by anime fans worldwide. The first Yamato film originally reached overseas audiences in 1978, including theatrical screenings in England and American television.

A comprehensive, Japanese language book detailing Masuda's career was released in 2007, titled Masuda Toshio: The Complete Action Films of Giant Star Toshio Masuda ( Eiga kantoku Masuda Toshio: akushon eiga no kyosei Masuda Toshio no subete). It includes an extensive interview with Masuda, approximately 500 pictures, poster images of his 52 Nikkatsu films and notes on all 82 feature films. Widely neglected by Western critics, writer Mark Schilling dedicated a section of his 2007 book No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema to Masuda, predominately focusing on said cinema. No Borders, No Limits is an expanded edition of the version that accompanied the Nikkatsu Action Cinema retrospective Schilling programmed for the Far East Film Festival. The Criterion Collection has optioned a number of films from the retrospective to be made available for the first time in the North American home video market.

Filmography

Between 1958 and 1992, Toshio Masuda directed 82 feature films, 52 of those over the course of his decade with the Nikkatsu Company. He developed a reputation as a "hitmaker" and 16 of his films breached the top ten list for domestic Japanese box-office revenues. Only one other director has superseded that record.

Year Title Japanese Romanization Box Office Rank in Release Year 1958 A Journey of Body and Soul Kokoro to nikutai no tabi 1958 The Perfect Game Kanzen'na yūgi 1958 Red Quay Akai hatoba 1958 Rusty Knife Sabita naifu 7 1959 The Man Who Risked Heaven and Earth aka The Sky Is Mine Ten to chi o kakeru otoko 10 1960 The Brawler Kenka Tarō 4 1960 Man at the Bullfight Togyu ni kakeru otoko 3 1962 Hana and Ryu aka A Man with Dragon Tattoos Hana to Ryu 2 1964 Red Handkerchief Akai hankachi 3 1965 Taking The Castle Shirotori 1967 Velvet Hustler Kurenai no Nagareboshi 1968 Outlaw: Gangster VIP Burai yori daikanbu 1969 The Fatal Raid Daikanbu Nagurikomi 1970 Tora! Tora! Tora! Tora! Tora! Tora! 1971 Law of the Outlaw aka Farewell to the Code Saraba Okite 1972 Shadow Hunters Kage Gari 1972 Shadow Hunters 2: Echo of Destiny Kage Gari hoero taiho 1973 The Human Revolution Ningen kakumei 2 1974 Catastrophe 1999: The Prophecies of Nostradamus Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen 2 1974 Orenochi wa Taninnochi Orenochi wa Taninnochi 1976 The Human Revolution 2 Zoku ningen kakumei 1 1977 Space Battleship Yamato: The Movie Uchū Senkan Yamato: Gekijōban 1978 Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato Saraba uchu senkan Yamato: Ai no senshitachi 2 1979 Yamato: The New Voyage Uchū Senkan Yamato Aratanaru Tabidachi 1980 The Battle of Port Arthur aka 203 Kochi Ni hyaku san kochi 3 1980 Be Forever Yamato Yamato yo towa ni 5 1982 The Great Japanese Empire Dainippon teikoku 3 1982 High Teen Boogie Hai tiin bugi 2 1982 Future War 198X Fyūchā Wō Sen Kyū Hachi Ekkusu-nen 1983 Battle Anthem aka The Battle of the Sea of Japan: Go to Sea Nihonkai daikaisen: Umi yukaba 1985 Love: Take Off aka Love: Starting on a Journey Ai: Tabidachi 7 1987 Tokyo Blackout Shuto shōshitsu 1989 Company Executives Shaso 1991 Earthshaking Event Dōten 9 1991 Sure Death 5 Hissatsu!5 Ōgon no Chi 1991 The Great Shogunate Battle Edo Jō Tairan 1992 Great Conquest: Romance of Three Kingdoms Sangokushi Daiichibu Eiyū-tachi no Yoake 1992 Heavenly Sin Tengoku no Taizai

Awards and nominations At the 1981 Japanese Academy Awards, Toshio Masuda was nominated for Best Director for his film The Battle of Port Arthur. He won the Kinema Junpo Readers' Choice Award for Best Film for the same film. In 1990, he was again nominated for Best Director at the Japanese Academy Awards for Company Funeral. He won in the same category at the Blue Ribbon Awards and the Mainichi Film Awards.