Masayuki Suo

Masayuki Suo
Born	October 29, 1956 (1956-10-29) (age 55) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Film director and screenwriter
Years active	1983 – present

Masayuki Suo (周防 正行, Suo Masayuki^?, born October 29, 1956 in Tokyo) is a Japanese film director. He is perhaps best known for his two Japan Academy Prize-winning films, 1992's Sumo Do, Sumo Don't and 1996's Shall We Dance?.

According to Suo:

"The most important thing for me in movie making is to love the characters of the movie, so even though you only have a few seconds with a character, that person has to have his own life. Therefore, I want to respect it, I want to make movies where each character has his own individuality."^[1]

Life and career

In 1982, along with filmmakers Yoshiho Fukuoka, Itsumichi Isomura, Toshiyuki Mizutani and Akira Yoneda, Suo founded a production company called Unit 5.^[2] Suo worked as an assistant director and appeared in the cast of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's directorial debut, the pinku eiga Kanda River Pervert War (1983).^[3] At this early stage in his career, Suo also wrote scripts for the pink genre, such as Scanty Panty Doll: Pungent Aroma (1983).^[4] Suo first film as director was also in the pinku eiga genre: Abnormal Family (1984), a film designed as a tribute and satire of Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story.^[5] In his book on the pinku eiga, Behind the Pink Curtain (2008), Jasper Sharp calls Abnormal Family an early masterpiece, and one of the wittiest films ever made in the genre. Suo not only pokes gentle fun at Ozu's story, but also mimics many of his stylistic techniques, such as shooting his actors from a low, tatami-mat angle, stiff and static characters speaking to each other with mis-matched eye-angles, and a simple, sentimental melody which accompanies the film.^[6] In the years since its release, the film has amused film students with the activity of locating and identifying Suo's many nods to Ozu and his oeuvre.^[4] Abnormal Family was Suo's only directorial work in the pink genre.

He next worked for Jūzō Itami, to film "making of" pieces for that director's A Taxing Woman (1987) and A Taxing Woman 2 (1988).^[6] He made his regular feature film debut with Fancy Dance in 1989, and won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for his next feature, Sumo Do, Sumo Don't, in 1991.^[7] As of 2007^[update], his most recent film is the 2006 drama I Just Didn't Do It.^[8]

Personal life

Suo is married to Tamiyo Kusakari, a ballet dancer, who starred in Shall We Dance?. They met each other during the production of the movie.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

• Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride (変態家族兄貴の嫁さん, also known as Spring Bride, Daughter-in-Law,^[1] or My Brother's Wife) (1984)^[5][9]
• Making of A Taxing Woman (1987) (documentary)
• Making of A Taxing Woman 2 (1988) (documentary)
• Fancy Dance^[10] (ファンシイダンス, also known as Manic Zen^[1]) (1989)
• Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (シコふんじゃった) (1992)
• Shall We Dance? (Shall We ダンス？) (1996)
• I Just Didn't Do It^[10] (それでもボクはやってない, also known as Even So, I Didn't Do It) (2006)

Awards

• 1993 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year – Sumo Do, Sumo Don't
• 1997 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year – Shall We Dance?

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Eight Questions for Masayuki Suo, The Director of "Shall We Dance?"
2. ^ Weisser, Thomas; Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. p. 117. ISBN 1-889288-52-7. 
3. ^ Weisser, p.217.
4. ^ ^{a b} Weisser, p. 308-309.
5. ^ ^{a b} Midnight Eye review: Abnormal Family (Hentai Kazoku: Aniki No Yomesan, 1983, director: Masayuki SUO)
6. ^ ^{a b} Sharp, Jasper (2008). Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Guildford: FAB Press. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-903254-54-7. 
7. ^ "Nihon Eiga Kantoku Kyōkai Shinjinshō" (in Japanese). Directors Guild of Japan. http://www.dgj.or.jp/award_g/. Retrieved 11 December 2010. 
8. ^ Frater, Patrick (November 1, 2006). "Suo pic hits dance card". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117953110.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2566. 
9. ^ "変態家族兄貴の嫁さん" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1984/dh002290.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-22. 
10. ^ ^{a b} I Just Didn'T Do It - Altamira Pictures Presents Movie Official Web

External links

• Masayuki Suo at the Internet Movie Database
• Masayuki Suo at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)

Persondata
Name	Suo, Masayuki
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 29, 1956
Place of birth	Tokyo, Japan
Date of death
Place of death