Masaki Kobayashi

Biography

Masaki Kobayashi (小林 正樹, Kobayashi Masaki; February 14, 1916 – October 4, 1996) was a Japanese filmmaker. He is best remembered for directing the epic war trilogy The Human Condition (1959–1961), the samurai films Harakiri (1962) and Samurai Rebellion (1967), and the horror anthology epic Kwaidan (1964). Senses of Cinema described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s." Although overshadowed by other Japanese filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu in his lifetime, his work has gained wider traction in the 21st century with several of his films being ranked as some of the greatest films ever made. Description above from the Wikipedia article Masaki Kobayashi, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Directed

1. Harakiri (1962) — Director
2. Kwaidan (1965) — Director
3. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959) — Director
4. Samurai Rebellion (1967) — Director
5. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959) — Director
6. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961) — Director
7. Black River (1957) — Director
8. The Inheritance (1962) — Director
9. Inn of Evil (1971) — Director
10. The Thick-Walled Room (1956) — Director
11. I Will Buy You (1956) — Director
12. The Fossil (1975) — Director
13. Sincere Heart (1953) — Director
14. Fountainhead (1956) — Director
15. Tokyo Trial (1983) — Director
16. Youth of the Son (1952) — Director
17. Beautiful Days (1955) — Director
18. Somewhere Beneath the Wide Sky (1954) — Director
19. Hymn to a Tired Man (1968) — Director
20. The Empty Table (1985) — Director
21. Three Loves (1954) — Director
22. Glowing Autumn (1978) — Director
23. Fossil (1972) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Masaki Kobayashi on 'The Human Condition' (1993) — Self
2. Unification of Japan 62 (2024)