Toshio Masuda

Biography

Toshio Masuda (born October 5, 1927 in Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan) is a Japanese film director. He developed a reputation as a consistent box office hit-maker. Over the course of five decades, 16 of his films made the yearly top ten lists at the Japanese box office—a second place record in the industry. Between 1958 and 1968 he directed 52 films for the Nikkatsu Company. He was their top director of action films and worked with the company's top stars, including Yujiro Ishihara with whom he made 25 films. After the breakdown of the studio system, he moved on to a succession of big-budget movies including the American-Japanese co-production Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the science fiction epic Catastrophe 1999: The Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974). He worked on such anime productions as the Space Battleship Yamato series. His corporate drama Company Funeral (1989) earned him a Japanese Academy Award nomination and wins at the Blue Ribbon Awards and Mainichi Film Awards. In Japan, his films are well remembered by fans and called genre landmarks by critics. He remains little known abroad save for rare exceptions of his post-Nikkatsu work such as Tora! Tora! Tora!. However, a number of his fil…

Directed

1. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) — Director
2. Rusty Knife (1958) — Director
3. Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974) — Director
4. Port Arthur (1980) — Director
5. Outlaw: Gangster VIP (1968) — Director
6. Space Battleship Yamato (1977) — Director
7. Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978) — Director
8. Future War 198X (1982) — Director
9. Odin: Starlight Mutiny (1985) — Director
10. Be Forever Yamato (1980) — Director
11. Lone Wolf and Cub (1973) — Director
12. Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage (1979) — Director
13. Tokyo Blackout (1987) — Director
14. Velvet Hustler (1967) — Director
15. Zero (1984) — Director
16. The Perfect Game (1958) — Director
17. Red Handkerchief (1964) — Director
18. Red Pier (1958) — Director
19. Shadow Hunters (1972) — Director
20. Company Executives (1989) — Director
21. The Great Shogunate Battle (1991) — Director
22. The Imperial Japanese Empire (1982) — Director
23. Heavenly Sin (1992) — Director
24. Shadow Hunters 2: Echo of Destiny (1972) — Director
25. Battle Anthem (1983) — Director
26. Love: Starting on a Journey (1985) — Director
27. Keep Your Chin Up (1962) — Director
28. The Day of Youth (1960) — Director
29. My Blood is the Blood of Others (1974) — Director
30. The Fatal Raid (1969) — Director
31. Highteen Boogie (1982) — Director
32. The Cleanup (1969) — Director
33. Monument to the Girl's Corps (1968) — Director
34. A Man with Dragon Tattoos (1962) — Director
35. Showdown in the Red Valley (1965) — Director
36. This Story of Love (1987) — Director
37. Iemitsu, Hikoza and Isshin Tasuke - A National Crisis: Edo Castle in Danger (1989) — Director
38. Human Revolution II (1976) — Director
39. Sure Death 5 (1991) — Director
40. Man at the Bullfight (1960) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974) — Voice