Yoshishige Yoshida


Yoshishige Yoshida, also known as Kijū Yoshida, is a retired Japanese film director and screenwriter.

Career

Graduating from Tokyo University, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and debuted as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi. He was a central member of what came to be called the "Shōchiku Nouvelle Vague" along with Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda, and his works have been studied under the larger rubric of the Japanese New Wave. Like many of his New Wave cohorts, he felt restricted under the studio system and left Shōchiku in 1964 to start his own production company where he directed such films as Eros + Massacre.
He has directed more than 20 films between 1960 and 2004. His film A Promise was screened in the Un Certain Regard section the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. Two years later his film Wuthering Heights would compete for the Golden Palm at the 1988 Festival. He returned with Women in the Mirror, his first feature film in 14 years, in 2002.
He has also written a number of philosophical books about his work and the cinema, including an award-winning study of Yasujirō Ozu.
He is married to actress Mariko Okada, who has starred in some of his films.

Selected filmography

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