Yoshishige Yoshida

Directing

Yoshishige Yoshida

Born — Died

1933-02-16 — 2022-12-08

Place of birth

Fukui, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

47 titles

Yoshishige Yoshida (吉田 喜重 Yoshida Yoshishige; 16 February 1933 - 8 December 2022), also known as Kijū Yoshida, was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Graduating from Tokyo University, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and debuted as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi. He was a central member of what came to be called the "Shōchiku Nouvelle Vague" along with Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda, and his works have been studied under the larger rubric of the Japanese New Wave. Like many of his New Wave cohorts, he felt restricted under the studio system and left Shōchiku in 1964 to start his own production company where he directed such films as Eros + Massacre. He has direct…

Known for

Lumière & Company poster
6.4

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Lumière & Company

1995

The Affair poster
6.6

As a young woman, Oriko condemned her widowed mother for openly pursuing relationships with younger men. After her mother passes away, she finds herself in an unhappy, loveless marriage and begins to understand her mother’s actions.

The Affair

1967

Eros + Massacre poster
7.3

Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.

Eros + Massacre

1969

Cinématon poster
4.9

Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.

Cinématon

1978

Heroic Purgatory poster
7.0

Rikiya Shoda is an engineer working for the Atomic Agency in Japan. One day, his wife Nanako returns home with a lost teenager called Ayu. A man, pretending to be the father, comes to get her back; Ayu keeps telling him that Rikiya and Nanako are her parents. Through this disruption, Rikiya suddenly starts remembering his youth as a revolutionary.

Heroic Purgatory

1970

Good-for-Nothing poster
6.9

Yoshida's first feature follows the lives of young students against a background of jazz, emptiness and boredom. The plot is fairly simple: a "good-for-nothing" from a poor background falls in love with the young secretary of his rich friend's father. The woman senses good in him and tries to lead him on the right path.

Good-for-Nothing

1960

Film credits

1990s · 2 titles

1970s · 1 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Lumière & Company poster
6.4

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Lumière & Company

1995

The Affair poster
6.6

As a young woman, Oriko condemned her widowed mother for openly pursuing relationships with younger men. After her mother passes away, she finds herself in an unhappy, loveless marriage and begins to understand her mother’s actions.

The Affair

1967

The Affair poster
6.6

As a young woman, Oriko condemned her widowed mother for openly pursuing relationships with younger men. After her mother passes away, she finds herself in an unhappy, loveless marriage and begins to understand her mother’s actions.

The Affair

1967

Eros + Massacre poster
7.3

Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.

Eros + Massacre

1969

Eros + Massacre poster
7.3

Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.

Eros + Massacre

1969

Heroic Purgatory poster
7.0

Rikiya Shoda is an engineer working for the Atomic Agency in Japan. One day, his wife Nanako returns home with a lost teenager called Ayu. A man, pretending to be the father, comes to get her back; Ayu keeps telling him that Rikiya and Nanako are her parents. Through this disruption, Rikiya suddenly starts remembering his youth as a revolutionary.

Heroic Purgatory

1970

Heroic Purgatory poster
7.0

Rikiya Shoda is an engineer working for the Atomic Agency in Japan. One day, his wife Nanako returns home with a lost teenager called Ayu. A man, pretending to be the father, comes to get her back; Ayu keeps telling him that Rikiya and Nanako are her parents. Through this disruption, Rikiya suddenly starts remembering his youth as a revolutionary.

Heroic Purgatory

1970

Good-for-Nothing poster
6.9

Yoshida's first feature follows the lives of young students against a background of jazz, emptiness and boredom. The plot is fairly simple: a "good-for-nothing" from a poor background falls in love with the young secretary of his rich friend's father. The woman senses good in him and tries to lead him on the right path.

Good-for-Nothing

1960

Good-for-Nothing poster
6.9

Yoshida's first feature follows the lives of young students against a background of jazz, emptiness and boredom. The plot is fairly simple: a "good-for-nothing" from a poor background falls in love with the young secretary of his rich friend's father. The woman senses good in him and tries to lead him on the right path.

Good-for-Nothing

1960

Coup d'Etat poster
6.5

A freestyle biopic of Ikki Kita, the ultranationalist intellectual whose ideas inspired the failed military coup in 1936.

Coup d'Etat

1973

Coup d'Etat poster
6.5

A freestyle biopic of Ikki Kita, the ultranationalist intellectual whose ideas inspired the failed military coup in 1936.

Coup d'Etat

1973

Wuthering Heights poster
6.8

Young orphan Onimaru is adopted by the wealthy Yamabe family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Kinu. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Kinu, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Mitsuhiko, a man of means who befits her stature. Onimaru vows to win her back.

Wuthering Heights

1988

Wuthering Heights poster
6.8

Young orphan Onimaru is adopted by the wealthy Yamabe family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Kinu. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Kinu, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Mitsuhiko, a man of means who befits her stature. Onimaru vows to win her back.

Wuthering Heights

1988

Akitsu Hot Springs poster
6.5

Just after WW2, a romance between an innkeeper and a man with tuberculosis unravels near a thermal spring.

Akitsu Hot Springs

1962

Akitsu Hot Springs poster
6.5

Just after WW2, a romance between an innkeeper and a man with tuberculosis unravels near a thermal spring.

Akitsu Hot Springs

1962

A Human Promise poster
6.7

An old woman has died and her widower with dementia confesses to killing her. After this, the story goes back in time to show the events leading up to her death.

A Human Promise

1986

A Human Promise poster
6.7

An old woman has died and her widower with dementia confesses to killing her. After this, the story goes back in time to show the events leading up to her death.

A Human Promise

1986

Escape from Japan poster
5.7

As Japan is preparing to host the Olympics, a gang member wanting to go to America is sought after by the police after helping his friend conduct a robbery.

Escape from Japan

1964

Escape from Japan poster
5.7

As Japan is preparing to host the Olympics, a gang member wanting to go to America is sought after by the police after helping his friend conduct a robbery.

Escape from Japan

1964

Dreams of Tokyo, Dreams of Cinema poster
NR

A documentary about cinematographer Gabriel Veyre's adventures introducing cinema to Japan and South America. Veyre was a traveling cameraman for the Lumiere Co. He declared cinema dead only 2 years after its inception after he saw a villager jerk a woman's head to face the camera when he was filming a small group of them.

Dreams of Tokyo, Dreams of Cinema

1995

Dreams of Tokyo, Dreams of Cinema poster
NR

A documentary about cinematographer Gabriel Veyre's adventures introducing cinema to Japan and South America. Veyre was a traveling cameraman for the Lumiere Co. He declared cinema dead only 2 years after its inception after he saw a villager jerk a woman's head to face the camera when he was filming a small group of them.

Dreams of Tokyo, Dreams of Cinema

1995

Affair in the Snow poster
6.9

In an isolated mountain resort, a woman gets involved in a love triangle between herself, her volatile lover and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she had platonic feelings.

Affair in the Snow

1968

Affair in the Snow poster
6.9

In an isolated mountain resort, a woman gets involved in a love triangle between herself, her volatile lover and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she had platonic feelings.

Affair in the Snow

1968

A Story Written with Water poster
6.3

Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.

A Story Written with Water

1965

A Story Written with Water poster
6.3

Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.

A Story Written with Water

1965

Confessions Among Actresses poster
6.0

In this intricately layered Japanese film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.

Confessions Among Actresses

1971

Confessions Among Actresses poster
6.0

In this intricately layered Japanese film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.

Confessions Among Actresses

1971

Confessions Among Actresses poster
6.0

In this intricately layered Japanese film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.

Confessions Among Actresses

1971

Women in the Mirror poster
7.9

Three women who share memories of the Hiroshima disaster try to uncover the hidden family ties that may or may not bind them together.

Women in the Mirror

2003

Women in the Mirror poster
7.9

Three women who share memories of the Hiroshima disaster try to uncover the hidden family ties that may or may not bind them together.

Women in the Mirror

2003

Women in the Mirror poster
7.9

Three women who share memories of the Hiroshima disaster try to uncover the hidden family ties that may or may not bind them together.

Women in the Mirror

2003

Blood Is Dry poster
6.3

An employee in an assurance company threatens to commit suicide when management announces a massive layoff, the company uses this threat to its own advantage by turning the incident into an advertising campaign. With the success of the campaign, however, he is no longer a desperate man pointing a gun to his head, but a potential leader who wishes to take advantage of his failed suicide.

Blood Is Dry

1960

Blood Is Dry poster
6.3

An employee in an assurance company threatens to commit suicide when management announces a massive layoff, the company uses this threat to its own advantage by turning the incident into an advertising campaign. With the success of the campaign, however, he is no longer a desperate man pointing a gun to his head, but a potential leader who wishes to take advantage of his failed suicide.

Blood Is Dry

1960

Bitter End of a Sweet Night poster
6.0

An opportunistic department store clerk gets involved with three women and attempts to manipulate them so he can move up the social ladder.

Bitter End of a Sweet Night

1961

Bitter End of a Sweet Night poster
6.0

An opportunistic department store clerk gets involved with three women and attempts to manipulate them so he can move up the social ladder.

Bitter End of a Sweet Night

1961

Impasse poster
6.4

Shingo and Ritsuko have a baby: Takashi. They happen to be a happy couple, but soon Ritsuko wants to know who is the true father of Takashi, born by artificial insemination.

Impasse

1967

Impasse poster
6.4

Shingo and Ritsuko have a baby: Takashi. They happen to be a happy couple, but soon Ritsuko wants to know who is the true father of Takashi, born by artificial insemination.

Impasse

1967

Welcome to São Paulo poster
6.3

All the feature is given prestige to by the narration in Caetano Veloso's voice, that also signs one of the segments of the project. São Paulo is the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere, with an incessant dynamics of cultural mixtures, with immigrants of all the world and migrants of all parts of Brazil. The gathering of these peculiarities are seen through the 13 film directors's sensibilities and their segments.

Welcome to São Paulo

2004

18 Roughs poster
6.7

Experienced shipyard worker Shimazaki gets an offer of free lodging from his employer in the company seaside rest house if he agrees to see to its running. After moving in, Shimazaki finds out that this will also mean taking care of a flock of youngsters, and he soon becomes their none-too-successful warden. At work the boys are disciplined, as soon as they return to their dormitory however they turn into an unmanageable mob.

18 Roughs

1963

18 Roughs poster
6.7

Experienced shipyard worker Shimazaki gets an offer of free lodging from his employer in the company seaside rest house if he agrees to see to its running. After moving in, Shimazaki finds out that this will also mean taking care of a flock of youngsters, and he soon becomes their none-too-successful warden. At work the boys are disciplined, as soon as they return to their dormitory however they turn into an unmanageable mob.

18 Roughs

1963