Nobuo Nakagawa

Nobuo Nakagawa
Born	18 April 1905(1905-04-18) Kyoto, Japan
Died	17 June 1984(1984-06-17) (aged 79)
Occupation	film director, screenwriter, editor
Years active	1938 - 1982

Nobuo Nakagawa (中川 信夫, Nakagawa Nobuo^?, 18 April 1905 — June 17, 1984) was a Japanese film director, most famous for the stylized, folk tale-influenced horror films he made in the 1950s and 1960s.

Career

Born in Kyoto, Nakagawa was early on influenced by proletarian literature and wrote amateur film reviews to the Kinema Junpō film magazine.^[1] He joined Makino Film Productions in 1929 as an assistant director and worked under Masahiro Makino.^[1][2] When that studio went bankrupt in 1932, he switched to Utaemon Ichikawa's production company and made his debut as a director in 1934 with Yumiya Hachiman Ken.^[1][2] He later moved to Toho, where he made comedies starring Enoken and even documentaries during the war.^[1] It was at Shintōhō after the war that he became known for his cinematic adaptations of Japanese kaidan, especially his masterful version of Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan in 1959.

To Western audiences, his most famous film is Jigoku (1960), which he also co-wrote. The film was released on DVD by the Criterion Collection in 2006.

He also filmed many kaidan for television. His last film was 1982's Kaidan: Ikiteiru Koheiji.

Filmography

(incomplete)

• Gekka no wakamusha (1938)
• Itahachi jima (1938)
• Shinpen Tange Sazen: Sekigan no maki (1939)
• Tange Sazen: sekigan no maki (1939)
• Rinchi (1949)
• Shinya no kokuhaku (1949)
• Wakasama samurai torimonochô: nazo no nômen yashiki (1950)
• Kyo wa kaisha no getsuyobi (1952)
• Kinsan torimonochô: nazo no ningyôshi (1953)
• Shishun no izumi (1953)
• Horafuki tanji (1954)
• Wakaki hi no takuboku: Kumo wa tensai de aru (1954)
• Natsume Soseki no Sanshirô (1955)
• Ningyo Sashichi torimonocho yoen roku shibijin (1956)
• Kaii Utsunomiya tsuritenjo (1956)
• Koi sugata kitsune goten (1956)
• Vampire Moth (Kyuketsuki-ga) (1956)
• The Depths aka The Ghost of Kasane (Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi) (1957)
• Borei kaibyo yashiki (1958)
• Dokufu Takahashi oden (1958)
• Kenpei to yurei (1958)
• Kyōen Kobanzame (侠艶小判鮫) - first part is Kyōen Kobanzame zenpen (侠艶小判鮫 前篇) and the second part is Kyōen Kobanzame kōhen (侠艶小判鮫 後篇).
• Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (1959)
• Nippon romansu kyuko (1959)
• Onna kyuketsuki (1959)
• Jigoku (1960)
• Hatamoto kenka taka (1961)
• Nendo no omen' yori: kaachan (1961)
• Inazuma to uge no kettô (1962)
• Kaidan hebi-onna (1968)
• Yoen dokufuden: Hitokiri okatsu (1969)
• Yoen dokufuden: okatsu kyojo tabi (1969)
• Kaidan: Ikiteiru Koheiji (1982)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Shigeno, Tatsuhiko (1997). "Nakagawa Nobuo". Nihon eiga jinmei jiten: Kantokuhen. Tokyo: Kinema Junpō. pp. 560–561. ISBN 4-87376-208-1. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Nakagawa Nobuo". Nihon jinmei daijiten+Plus. Kōdansha. http://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%AD%E5%B7%9D%E4%BF%A1%E5%A4%AB. Retrieved 23 August 2011. 

External links

• Nobuo Nakagawa at the Internet Movie Database
• "Hell on Earth" essay by Chuck Stephens for The Criterion Collection
• Nobuo Nakagawa at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)

Persondata
Name	Nakagawa, Nobuo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	18 April 1905
Place of birth	Kyoto, Japan
Date of death	17 June 1984
Place of death