was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 film critic, director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

, and biographer. His real name was Aji Shūichirō. Born in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, he became interested in film from his days in high school and, continuing on to Keio University

Keio University

,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...

, began submitting reviews to magazines such as Kinema Junpo

Kinema Junpo

, commonly called , is a Japanese film magazine which began publication in July 1919. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology . In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three...

 and editing theater programs. Starting a dōjinshi

Dojinshi

is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...

 Eiga kaihō with Tsuneo Hazumi, Kishi became involved in the left-wing film movement of the late 1920s, eventually becoming a member of the Proletarian Film League of Japan

Proletarian Film League of Japan

The was a left-wing film organization, known as Prokino for short, active in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Japan. Associated with the proletarian arts movement in Japan, it primarily used small gauge films such as 16mm film and 9.5mm film to record demonstrations and workers' lives and show...

 (Prokino). He soon left out of dissatisfaction with such a political approach to film. In 1932, he became the first critic to champion the work of Sadao Yamanaka

Sadao Yamanaka

was a Japanese film director and writer who directed 24 films during a seven-year period in the 1930s. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi and one of the primary figures in the development of the jidaigeki, or historical film. Yamanaka died of dysentary in...

, and later was a strong supporter of the films of Hiroshi Shimizu

Hiroshi Shimizu (director)

was a Japanese film director, known for his silent films with detailed depictions of Japanese society.-Career:Shimizu was born in Shizuoka and attended Hokkaidō University but left before graduating. He joined the Shochiku studio in Tokyo in 1921 and made his directorial debut in 1924, at the age...

. In 1937, he gave up being a film critic and became an assistant director at Toho

Toho

is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...

, where he directed one film, Kazaguruma, in 1938 before concentrating on screenwriting. After the war, he mainly worked at Shintōhō

Shintoho

was a Japanese movie studio. It was one of the big-6 film studios during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. It was founded by defectors from the original Tōhō Company...

, serving as producer on a few films, and wrote scripts for such directors as Shimizu and Mikio Naruse

Mikio Naruse

was a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed some 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967.Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook...

. All along he continued writing on film, especially penning numerous biographical accounts of the many people he knew in the Japanese film world.

External links

• Prewar Proletarian Film Movements Collection. Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. Full text of many publications, including some of Kishi's articles.