Ichikawa KonFlamboyant Stylist

Ichikawa KonIchikawa has made 80 feature films between 1946 and 2006

I don't have any unifying theme. I just make pictures I like

Ichikawa KonBorn in 1915Entered Kyoto JO Studio as an animator in 1933.When JO was merged with PCL in 1937 and became Toh, he became an assistant director.

Ichikawa belongs to the generation of the directors who started career during WWII. He became a prominent post-war film director along with Kurosawa Akira and Kinoshita Keisuke.

Debuted as director with Musume Dojoji (A Girl at Dojoji Temple) in 1945Mainly worked on screwball comedies and satires in his early career

Mr. Pu (1953) is about a school teacher who goes stultified with the fear and paranoia of A-bomb and The Millionaire (1954) is an absurd comedy on a man who is determined to avoid to be a nuclear target and moves to a derelict house only to find his neighbour making an A-bomb.

Cold War - fear of the outbreak of a nuclear warDaigo Fukuryu Maru, exposed and contaminated by nuclear fallout near Bikini Atoll, 1st March, 1954Godzilla (1954)

Ichikawa from metteur en scne to auteur.

5 films in 1951; 5 films in 1952; 4 films in 1953; 4 films in 1954; 2 films in 1955; 3 films in 1956; 3 films in 1957; 1 film in 1958; 3 films in 1959; 3 films in 1960; 1 film in 1961

Ichikawas FilmsIn the later part of the 50s Ichikawa turned to more serious subjects.The Burmese Harp (Biruma no Tategoto, 1956) a lyrical epic about a Japanese soldier who became a Buddhist monk from the guilt of his complicity with killing.

Ichikawas FilmsEnjo (1958) is about a novice monk who sets fire on Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavillion) as he does not want to watch its purity and beauty being tainted by human corruption and greed.

Ichikawas FilmsFires on the Plain (Nobi, 1959) is about a soldier in the retreating army in the Philippines who refuses to eat human flesh despite the desperate shortage of food.

Punishment Room (Shokei no Heya,1956) is about a college student who has no respect for his hard-working parents. He rapes one of his classmates and provoke the gang of the youth to criminal actions.

Ichikawas FilmsOdd Obsession (Kagi , 1959) is about a man getting on in years who sets out to find a way to resurrect his flagging virility and sexual passion by deliberately making his own wife flirting with a young, handsom doctor.

Ichikawa as AuteurDo Ichikawas films have any consistent themes and styles which qualify him as auteur?Eclectic motifs, social and personal concerns, themes and styles

Ichikawa as AuteurMere illustrator - Oshima Nagisa Elements which may make Ichikawa an auteur: the total control of filmmaking (he designed sets, adjusted the lighting, touched up actresses' make-up [and] went to music school so he could write scores

Ichikawa as AuteurJames Quandt (ed.), Kon Ichikawa, Cinmathque Ontario, Toronto, 2001His abiding concern is with the recent history of his country; his background and experiences still demonstrably shape the abiding concerns of his films. A native of the Kansai region, he set many films in its major cities of Osaka and KyotoAlexander Jacoby

Ichikawa as AuteurWorking in every available genre and turning out several films for every major company and claiming that he makes the films that he likes, he has been the most successful in adapting literary works into films.

The Burmese Harp Takeyama MichioEnjo Mishima Yukio

Odd Obsession, Sasameyuki Tanizaki JunichiroKokoro, I Am a Cat Natsume Soseki

Fires on the Plain Ooka ShoheiPunishment Room Shintaro Ishihara

Bridge of Japan Izumi KyokaHakai Shimazaki Toson

Ichikawas Literary AdaptationRetelling literary stories in effective and entertaining ways Require the power to interpret the literary text accurately (and originally) and the skill to visualize it.

Ichikawas Literary AdaptationWada Natto - Ichikawas scriptwriter since Human Patterns (Ningen Moyo, 1949) and wife - she provided 34 scripts, most of which were the adaptations of literary worksSpecial talent for adapting non-cinematic sources.

Ichikawas Literary AdaptationIchikawas talent to adapting into the film the text whose visualization is considered almost impossible or extremely difficult, contextually and technicallyHe adapt not only literary works but also the most well-known and the best loved works.Takeyamas The Burmese Harp (the best seller)Misimas The Temple of Golden Pavilion (based on a controversial event) Tanizakis Sasameyuki (epic length psychological novel)Sosekis I am a cat and Kokoro (literary classics)Ishiharas Punishment Room (controversial subjects)

Ichikawas Literary AdaptationHe is able to etch complex characters The stuttering young monk who burns down Golden Pavillion in EnjoThe elderly husband who resorts to injections and voyeurism in order to remain sexually active in Odd Obsession

Ichikawas Literary AdaptationThe member of a pariah class who tries to deny his identity and to "pass" in regular society in HakaiThe soldier who survived in a extreme and insane condition and kept his sanity in Fires on the Plain

Ichikawas Literary AdaptationActions are seen and filmed from the view point of a black cat (I am a cat) or a two-years old boy (Being two isnt easy) Exaggerated visual styles - stylization

Ichikawa as Auteur: Style Flamboyant technical tricks Direct address to the audience Stop motions Pale, subdued colours like a water-colour painting or sepia colours.As seen in Odd Obsession

Ichikawa as Auteur: StylePictorial CompositionDecentred widescreen compositionsExaggerated raw colours, composition by coloursChiaro-scuro lighting and high-contrast photographyActors Revenge, 1963

Ichikawa as Auteur: StyleThe style nurtured in fiction films are applied for documentary: pictorial composition; multiple cameras, telephoto lens, etc.Tokyo Olympiad (1965)

Ichikawa as Auteur: StyleThe most stylistic documentary film since Leni Riefenstahls Fest der Volker and Fest der Schnheit (1938)

Ichikawa as Auteur: Style