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Shôhei Imamura

Highest Rated: 100% The Pornographers (1966)

Lowest Rated: 77% 11-09-01: September 11 (2002)

Birthday: Sep 15, 1926

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

Shohei Imamura's films dig beneath the surface of Japanese society to reveal a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath. Along with his colleagues Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda, Imamura began his serious directorial career as a member of the New Wave movement in Japan. Reacting against the studio system, and particularly against the style of Yasujiro Ozu, the director he first assisted, Imamura moved away from the subtlety and understated nature of the classical masters to a celebration of the primitive and spontaneous aspects of Japanese life. To explore this level of Japanese consciousness, Imamura focuses on the lower classes, with characters who range from bovine housewives to shamans, and from producers of blue movies to troupes of third-rate traveling actors. He has proven himself unafraid to explore themes usually considered taboo, particularly those of incest and superstition.

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Highest rated movies

100% 81% A Man Vanishes
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100% 78% The Pornographers
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100% 88% Vengeance Is Mine
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94% 77% Dr. Akagi
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94% 88% The Ballad of Narayama
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86% 89% Black Rain
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86% 76% Insect Woman
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81% 82% The Eel
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81% 76% Warm Water Under a Red Bridge Watchlist
77% 66% 11-09-01: September 11
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Filmography

Movies

Credit
77% 66% 11-09-01: September 11 Director $120.0K 2002
81% 76% Warm Water Under a Red Bridge Director,
Writer
$62.0K 2001
94% 77% Dr. Akagi Director,
Writer
$71.8K 1998
81% 82% The Eel Director,
Writer
$413.8K 1997
86% 89% Black Rain Director - 1988
No Score Yet 83% Zegen Director,
Writer
- 1987
94% 88% The Ballad of Narayama Director,
Screenwriter
- 1983
No Score Yet 74% Eijanaika Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1981
100% 88% Vengeance Is Mine Director - 1979
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Youth Killer Producer - 1976
No Score Yet No Score Yet Karayuki-san, The Making Of A Prostitute Director - 1975
No Score Yet No Score Yet Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home Director - 1973
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Pirates of Bubuan Director,
Screenwriter
- 1972
No Score Yet No Score Yet History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess Director,
Writer
- 1970
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Neon Jungle Screenwriter - 1968
No Score Yet 91% The Profound Desire of the Gods Director,
Writer
- 1968
100% 81% A Man Vanishes Unknown (Character),
Director,
Producer
- 1967
100% 78% The Pornographers Director,
Screenwriter
- 1966
86% 76% Insect Woman Director - 1964
No Score Yet 60% Intentions of Murder Director,
Screenwriter
- 1964
No Score Yet No Score Yet A Modern Samurai Village Screenwriter - 1963
No Score Yet No Score Yet Pigs and Battleships Director - 1961
No Score Yet 87% Pigs and Battleships (Buta to gunkan) (Hogs and Warships) Director - 1961
No Score Yet 44% Nianchan Director - 1960
No Score Yet No Score Yet My Second Brother Director,
Writer
- 1959
No Score Yet No Score Yet Nishi Ginza Station Director,
Writer
- 1958
No Score Yet No Score Yet Endless Desire Director,
Screenwriter
- 1958
No Score Yet 69% Stolen Desire Director - 1958
No Score Yet 92% Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate Writer - 1957
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Balloon Screenwriter - 1956