Yoshishige Yoshida

Yoshishige (Kiju) Yoshida (b. 1933, Fukui), the least conspicuous artist of the Japanese New Wave, studied French at Tokyo University, and the influence of French cinematography was distinctly evident in his pictures. In 1955, he won a competition to become a director's assistant, and graduated from the school of the renowned director Kinoshita, like his predecessor Masaki Kobayashi. When the Shochiku studio decided to give young directors a chance, Yoshida found himself, along with Oshima and Shinoda, at the epicentre of events. His films dealing with alienation and isolation and pervaded by sex and senseless violence, however, soon deprived him of the goodwill of the studio's chiefs. In 1964 he set up his own independent production company, which created one of the milestones of Japanese cinematography at the turn of the 1960s – the controversial and multilayered Eros Plus Massacre (Erosu purasu gyakusatsu, 1969).

MFF Karlovy Vary