Takeo Kimura filmography

The following is the filmography of Takeo Kimura, the Japanese art director, writer, and film director who has art-directed more than 200 films over a span of more than six decades and ranks among Japan's best-known art directors.[1] His training began with the Nikkatsu Company in 1941, whose production division was merged into Daiei during the wartime industry reorganization, where he was promoted to art director in 1945.[2][3] His debut film as such was Umi no yobu koe (1945).[4] Nikkatsu re-opened its production studio in 1954 and Kimura moved there.[2] He worked with several directors, including top action director Toshio Masuda on films such as Red Quay (1958) with top star Yujiro Ishihara and Gangster VIP (1968) starring Tetsuya Watari.[1][5] However, his longest and most famous collaboration has been with director Seijun Suzuki, which began with The Bastard (1963). Together they developed a bold, expressive style exemplified in Gate of Flesh (1964) and Tokyo Drifter (1966).[1] Suzuki often rewrote his scripts with Kimura, who was given his first screenwriting credit on The Flower and the Angry Waves (1964). Kimura was also a part of Guryū Hachirō, the pen name of the writing group that formed around Suzuki in the mid-1960s and wrote Branded to Kill (1967).[6]

Takeo Kimura in 2007

Kimura left Nikkatsu in 1973 to work freelance.[2] He subsequently art-directed many films for director Kei Kumai over almost 20 years. This included Kumai's best-known film Sandakan No. 8 (1974), Love and Faith (1978) featuring Toshirō Mifune and The Sea Is Watching (2002) based on one of Akira Kurosawa's final scripts.[4][7] Kimura's collaboration with director Kazuo Kuroki exceeded 20 years, including the Art Theatre Guild film Preparation for the Festival (1975) and The Face of Jizo (2004).[1][8] He worked with Suzuki on several more films, including Zigeunerweisen (1980) and Pistol Opera (2001), a follow-up to Branded to Kill. Zigeunerweisen was voted best Japanese film of the 1980s by Japanese film critics.[1][9] He art-directed on Fire Festival and Tampopo (both 1985), career highlights in the respective oeuvres of directors Mitsuo Yanagimachi and Juzo Itami.[1][10] Kaizō Hayashi's best remembered and debut film To Sleep so as to Dream (1986) marked the beginning of another long collaboration which also encompassed his Maiku Hama trilogy: The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994), Stairway to the Distant Past (1995) and The Trap (1996).[11][12]

At age 86 Kimura directed the first of four short films with Mugen Sasurai (2004), which earned him the title for oldest directorial debut.[4][11] The last was Matouqin Nocturne (2007) in which Suzuki appeared in a prominent role.[13] Kimura then wrote and directed the feature-length film Dreaming Awake (2008) based on his own self-published novel.[1] He was recognized by Guinness World Records for "the oldest debut as a feature film director" at age 90.[14] Suzuki again appeared in the film.[15] Kimura himself acted in a couple small roles for other directors.[16]