Yasuzô Masumura
Date of Birth: 25 Aug 1924
Country: Japan
Biography: Born in Kôfu, Yamanashi. Studied Law and philosophy at the University of Tokyo and worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio. Studied film in Italy at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti. From 1955, he worked as a second-unit director on films directed by Mizoguchi, Ichikawa and Ito, before directing his own first film, Kisses, in 1957. Over the next three decades, he directed 58 films in a variety of genres.
Total Credits at Criticker: 40 (Director), 11 (Writer)
Biography submitted by Moribunny
Find more information about Yasuzô Masumura at The Internet Movie Database
Titles you haven't rated - Director (40) | Writer (11)
A young woman who models for a well-known photographer, as well as for a sculptor, attends an exhibition of the work in which she features as a subject, and notices a strange man paying very close attention to the feel of a sculpture of her body.
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When Takeo is released from prison for attacking Handa, a rival yakuza lord, the last thing on his mind is taking over the position of his recently deceased father, boss of the Asahina clan. As he and his older brother Aikawa contemplate their options, they soon entertain the idea of falling in love with maidens and leaving the yakuza life altogether. But their exit proves more difficult than planned when their rival clan steps in to exact a little revenge.
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Sonoko, a bored housewife entering middle age, finds herself driven to steal a small trinket from a shop. She notices another woman watching her, however, and decides to follow the woman out of the store to explain herself... (imdb)
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Yonosuke was lived in insatiable pursuit of love affairs with women and men as well, and a celebrated courtesan; the son first made love to a woman at the age of seven. Thereafter, always devoting himself to the affairs, Yonosuke ended up, at 60, sailing to Nyogogashima ("Isle of Women"). This film was adapted for the famous novel, Koshoku ichidai otoko which narrates 54 years of his adventures in affairs of women. (Twitchfilm.net)
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In 1939, Sakura Nishi is a young army nurse who is sent to the field hospitals in China during the Sino-Japanese war. She has to assist Dr. Okabe with an incredible number of amputations. In the crowded wards, she gives sympathy to some of the soldiers, including sexually servicing one who has no hope of returning home.
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Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies. His boss builds up Kyoko, a vivacious girl with bad teeth, as their mascot. Kyoko is smitten with Nishi when he is assigned to look after her.(imdb)
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Director Masumura used a full palette of primary colors (with very vivid reds) to tell us about the story of Otsuya, a beautiful young woman from a middle-class merchant family who is abducted into geisha work, and who catches one day the eye of Seikichi, a tattoo master who marks her back with a huge, monstrous spider. From that moment on, Otsuya will take her revenge with every man who shared her bed. (IMDb)
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He's Hanzo "The Razor" Itami; the incorruptible and uncompromising samurai cop, and he packs a weapon more devastating than any sword. In the name of justice, there's no torture he won't endure, no pain he won't inflict, and no superior he'll bow to. (surrealmoviez.info)
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Okane, a beautiful girl from a poor family, must serve as a mistress to a much older rich man. Upon the death of the man and her father, she returns to her village where she meets a young soldier, Seisaku. The locals despise them because of Okane's past, the young woman meets them with arrogance and haughty behavior. The two fall in love and marry against the spite of the whole village, but then Seisaku has to go to war against the Russians and their world falls apart... (imdb)
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Kinichi and Akiko meet when they visit their fathers in prison. After successfully gambling on a bicycle race, they spend an enjoyable day together at the beach. Akiko, who tries to make money as an artist's model to pay for her mother's medical expenses, now has to find 100,000 yen to pay off the company from which her father embezzled. Kinichi also requires 100,000 yen as bail for his father, who is accused of election fraud. (imdb)
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A young woman on a mountaineering holiday is accused of murdering her husband. Tied to a mountain between her brutalising spouse and her secret lover, disaster strikes. To prevent all three from plunging to their deaths, the woman is forced to choose between cutting her husband's rope or that of her lover. An elliptical narrative structure shot in Masumura's trademark 'scope explores dark themes of gender, guilt and voyeurism in this blistering film.
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Having botched his entrance exams to a prestigious university, the dim-witted but earnest Hikoichi Otsu (Fujio) refuses to swallow his pride by doing the decent thing and admitting his failure to his mother back home in the country. (midnighteye.com)
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An orphan, brought up in a sheltered environment by her grandmother struggles to adjust to the brutality of the outside world upon her grandmother's death.
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Two car manufacturers spy on each other to try to find out details and prices of a new sports car each is about to launch. (imdb)
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Naomi's story is focused around a man's obsession for a modan garu or modern girl. The main character, Joji, is a well-educated Japanese man who is a middle management white collar worker in the city, and comes from a wealthy landlord family. Joji wishes to break away from his traditional Japanese culture, and becomes immersed in the strange new Westernized culture which was beginning to form in Japan.....
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A young woman undergoes psychiatric treatment after she no longer hears music and develops sexual hang-ups. (imdb)
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This classic tale is the Japanese Romeo & Juliet. When the starcrossed lovers get to the climactic suicide scene, it is stretched out in lurid detail and their white garments are totally encrimsoned by the time they have finished the horrific chore. (imdb)
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The wife (Ayako Wakao) and mother (Hideko Takamine) of a nineteenth-century physician battle for his love in this extraordinary drama from the perennially underrated Yasuzo Masumura.
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Ayako Wakao plays good-natured Yuko, the illegitimate daughter of a well-off executive, raised in the country by relatives.
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Set in 1937, this is the story of Asakichi, who is played by Shiuntaro Katsu, best known as being Zatoichi in 26 films. Asakichi has been disowned by his father for gambling, so he heads off to make his living in cockfighting. He, in quick order, wins some money, takes up with a fallen geisha and quickly comes in conflict with the yakuza. Besting their top man, Asakichi, is drawn into the life of a yakuza despite his efforts to remain outside of it. (imdb)
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A young intellectual conscientious objector is forced to serve with the Japanese army in Manchuria. He joins with a dim-witted former gangster in an effort to desert by stealing a train. (imdb)
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The first story concerns an attractive young woman who works in a Tokyo nightclub. In the second story, a beautiful young woman is employed by an unscrupulous real estate agent to convince male clients to invest in worthless property. The last story is about a widowed geisha who has no real financial worries and when she falls in love with a forger, she opts to wait for him after he is sent to prison, rather than follow societal or family dictates. (All Movie)
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Fleeing from China, where the Japanese army is in retreat, Kisaburo, a vindictive soldier who always questions the orders of his officers, falls in love with a Chinese spy, they're on different sides of this war, and yet. But soon he'll be forced to choose between the love for his woman and sacrifice for his country. (japanesesamuraidvd)
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A 16-year-old girl works in a factory to pay her late father's debt. When she makes up her mind to be a hostess, a young man approaches her with kind and gentle manners. It's the first time for her to be treated nicely like this. Actually, he is a yakuza (gangster) and forces young girls into prostitution, but this time he falls in love with her.
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Basically the plot revolves around an endebted entreprenor who sell his fields to a business-man who plan to build an car-factory. Instead of this factory, the fields will prove to be used for the Shinkansen line. Then, the endebted entreprenor will seek back the business-man for get much more money he deserved in this real trade. (KG)
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The palmist "blue-moth (Seiga)" is rumored to manipulate the Japanese political and business from behind. Journalist Omoda had inquired into the "blue-moth" but is killed. Sudo who is Omoda's juniors of the newspaper he used to be in took over Omoda's work. (imdb)
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A young pick-pocket meets a sheltered teenage girl at an art museum while trying to lift her wallet. He falls in love with her and lures her to deserted strip of beach where he pretends his stolen motorbike has broken down and they are stranded. An unlikely romance follows. (imdb)
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Ken Ogata plays Shiro Miyagi, a sprinter with Olympic aspirations whose dreams were shattered by WWII. A broken man, he leads the dissolute life of a gigolo until a chance meeting with a fiery young athlete named Hiroko (Michiyo Yasuda). Realizing that she has talent as a sprinter, Miyagi sees a second chance at Olympic glory in becoming her coach. Her greatest hurdle proves to be a "sex check" which all professional athletes must pass. (imdb)
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This Japanese melodrama chronicles the exploits of a geisha’s beautiful daughter. The daughter is the geisha’s pride and she spares nothing to insure that she has a bright future. But the hard-working young woman’s dreams of becoming a dressmaker are shattered… She then becomes a nightclub hostess who plays cards with male patrons using her body as the prize. (letterboxd.com)
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A young doctor running a small hospital has to choose between two women: a dedicated nurse or a wealthy girl who has been spoiled.
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The inventor of a ground-breaking glue, Sanada, becomes thanks to his discovery a high executive in his company. Because of this promotion, his world is changing completely : his wife behaves like never before, considering she's now rich and has the right to do whatever she wants, even having an affair. (KG)
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After a random encounter at a bar, two couples collide. Two men, two women, embroiled in a love-and-hate drama that threatens to engulf them. The sexual anxiety between the interwoven couples tautens right up to the nearly unbearable tension of the climax. (imdb）
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After a businessman is murdered, an investigation identifies a suspect who is then put on trial for that crime. (imdb)
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In the forties in Japan, a group of brilliantly qualified university students are selected to break all ties with their previous lives and form the Japanese spy service. (imdb)
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Based on the original novel by Tokuda Shusei, adaptation by Kaneto Shindo, Masumura Yasuzo directs. A battle of woman competing for the same man. Masuko (Ayako Wakao) is the number one hostess at a cabaret, living with her lover, but finds out that he has a wife. (imdb)
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A yakuza member's half-sister means much more to him in a film that repeatedly depicts realities other than what normal societal rules allow. The overly protective and loving brother; however, soon has to contend with his sister falling for and dating her school teacher, but there is not much he can do about it if he is going to land in jail for stepping outside the bounds of the law. (imdb)
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A young student wants to avenge his sister from an office worker who abandoned her after leaving her pregnant. To do this, he decides to seduce the student's sister to make him suffer the same fate. (imdb)
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