Masahiro Shinoda

Directing

Masahiro Shinoda

Born — Died

1931-03-09 — 2025-03-25

Place of birth

Gifu, Gifu, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

43 titles

Masahiro Shinoda (篠田 正浩 Shinoda Masahiro, March 9, 1931 – March 25, 2025) was a Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. He married the actress Shima Iwashita, who appears in several of his films, such as 1969's Double Suicide. His 1986 film Gonza the Spearman was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution. He won the 1991 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year for Childhood Days. He retired from directing after the release of Spy Sorge in 2003, a biopic on the life of Richard Sorge.

Known for

Funeral Parade of Roses poster
7.6

In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.

Funeral Parade of Roses

1969

Ballad of Orin poster
7.2

Expelled from her group for losing her virginity, blind travelling musician Orin endures a life of hardship, abuse, and poverty while wandering the countryside, finding brief companionship with an army deserter, and struggling against a society that marginalises her.

Ballad of Orin

1977

Double Suicide poster
7.0

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

Double Suicide

1969

Demon Pond poster
6.6

When a lone traveller stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants, including lovers Akira and Yuri, in their hands.

Demon Pond

1979

Silence poster
7.2

In 17th-century Japan, two Portuguese Jesuit priests seek their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Silence

1971

Pale Flower poster
7.4

A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

Pale Flower

1964

Film credits

Behind the camera

Ballad of Orin poster
7.2

Expelled from her group for losing her virginity, blind travelling musician Orin endures a life of hardship, abuse, and poverty while wandering the countryside, finding brief companionship with an army deserter, and struggling against a society that marginalises her.

Ballad of Orin

1977

Ballad of Orin poster
7.2

Expelled from her group for losing her virginity, blind travelling musician Orin endures a life of hardship, abuse, and poverty while wandering the countryside, finding brief companionship with an army deserter, and struggling against a society that marginalises her.

Ballad of Orin

1977

Double Suicide poster
7.0

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

Double Suicide

1969

Double Suicide poster
7.0

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

Double Suicide

1969

Double Suicide poster
7.0

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

Double Suicide

1969

Demon Pond poster
6.6

When a lone traveller stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants, including lovers Akira and Yuri, in their hands.

Demon Pond

1979

Silence poster
7.2

In 17th-century Japan, two Portuguese Jesuit priests seek their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Silence

1971

Silence poster
7.2

In 17th-century Japan, two Portuguese Jesuit priests seek their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Silence

1971

Pale Flower poster
7.4

A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

Pale Flower

1964

Pale Flower poster
7.4

A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

Pale Flower

1964

Gonza the Spearman poster
7.0

During the peaceful Tokugawa period, handsome samurai Gonza becomes entangled in a tragic love triangle and a web of deceit while trying to advance his social standing through the tea ceremony.

Gonza the Spearman

1986

Takeshi: Childhood Days poster
7.5

A city boy, Shinji, is sent to live in the countryside to escape the Tokyo bombings, where he experiences the complexities of rural school life, including a power struggle with the local class leader, Takeshi.

Takeshi: Childhood Days

1990

MacArthur's Children poster
5.5

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the denizens of a small Japanese fishing village struggle with defeat, cultural change, and the arrival of American troops.

MacArthur's Children

1984

Epitaph to My Love poster
7.8

A young reporter falls for a beautiful waitress, but fate conspires against their burgeoning romance when the latter is involved in a car accident and loses her memory.

Epitaph to My Love

1961

Epitaph to My Love poster
7.8

A young reporter falls for a beautiful waitress, but fate conspires against their burgeoning romance when the latter is involved in a car accident and loses her memory.

Epitaph to My Love

1961

Spy Sorge poster
6.6

A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the Japanese imperial ambitions in Eastern Asia. The spy becomes acquainted with a sympathetic communist who like he is attached to the ideals of freedom and rule of the masses. Sorge is able to feed the Soviet Union useful information regarding the Axis allies and their movements in Asia and beyond.

Spy Sorge

2003

Spy Sorge poster
6.6

A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the Japanese imperial ambitions in Eastern Asia. The spy becomes acquainted with a sympathetic communist who like he is attached to the ideals of freedom and rule of the masses. Sorge is able to feed the Soviet Union useful information regarding the Axis allies and their movements in Asia and beyond.

Spy Sorge

2003

Spy Sorge poster
6.6

A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the Japanese imperial ambitions in Eastern Asia. The spy becomes acquainted with a sympathetic communist who like he is attached to the ideals of freedom and rule of the masses. Sorge is able to feed the Soviet Union useful information regarding the Axis allies and their movements in Asia and beyond.

Spy Sorge

2003

Captive's Island poster
6.7

Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when he encounters a strange and beautiful young woman.

Captive's Island

1966

Samurai Spy poster
6.4

Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.

Samurai Spy

1965

Owls' Castle poster
6.0

As great military commander Nobunaga Oda consolidates his power across Japan, one of his actions is to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one survivor has hired a young, skilled assassin to avenge his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and eliminate the supreme ruler.

Owls' Castle

1999

Owls' Castle poster
6.0

As great military commander Nobunaga Oda consolidates his power across Japan, one of his actions is to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one survivor has hired a young, skilled assassin to avenge his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and eliminate the supreme ruler.

Owls' Castle

1999

Sharaku poster
7.0

Crippled Kabuki player Tonbo is taken in by a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold art, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal.

Sharaku

1995

Sharaku poster
7.0

Crippled Kabuki player Tonbo is taken in by a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold art, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal.

Sharaku

1995

Himiko poster
6.9

A reimagination of the myth of Himiko, focused on her divine role as a sun goddess's oracle and her forbidden love for her half-brother Takehiko, which threatens her power and the kingdom's stability.

Himiko

1974

Himiko poster
6.9

A reimagination of the myth of Himiko, focused on her divine role as a sun goddess's oracle and her forbidden love for her half-brother Takehiko, which threatens her power and the kingdom's stability.

Himiko

1974

Himiko poster
6.9

A reimagination of the myth of Himiko, focused on her divine role as a sun goddess's oracle and her forbidden love for her half-brother Takehiko, which threatens her power and the kingdom's stability.

Himiko

1974

Island of the Evil Spirits poster
6.2

Renowned detective Kosuke Kindaichi is called to an island where a dying man's words lead him to investigate a series of murders connected to the 'Nue' legend and the powerful Osakabe family, who separate twins at birth.

Island of the Evil Spirits

1981

Assassination poster
7.1

In 1863, when American warships approach Japan, an enigmatic ronin becomes an important figure in a complex game of power between the Shogunate and the empire.

Assassination

1964

The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan poster
7.1

An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.

The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan

1970

Clouds at Sunset poster
6.0

A Japanese soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money.

Clouds at Sunset

1967

Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees poster
7.0

A mountain bandit abducts a woman who demands he kill his other wives to please her, leading to a cycle of violence and madness fueled by superstition and obsession.

Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees

1975

Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees poster
7.0

A mountain bandit abducts a woman who demands he kill his other wives to please her, leading to a cycle of violence and madness fueled by superstition and obsession.

Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees

1975

Akanezora Beyond the Crimson Sky poster
7.0

A young tofu maker, Eikichi comes from Kyoto to open a tofu shop in a friendly neighborhood. He meets there a feisty local girl Ofumi who befriends him as he sets up his shop, Kyo-ya and in spite of the difficulties stemming from cultural differences between the two ancient capitals including the favored taste of tofu itself, they eventually marry and become the owner of a tofu shop on a more respectable street. Behind the rock-solid business of Kyo-ya, their son, Eitaro bears the brunt of other tofu shops' animosity toward Kyo-ya's refusal to comply with Edo's way of running business and starts to frequent a gambling hall run by the mysterious "Boss", which throws the family into a critical situation that threaten to pull them apart...

Akanezora Beyond the Crimson Sky

2007

The Petrified Forest poster
6.3

Troubled medical student Haruo navigates a toxic relationship with his mother and a dangerous affair with former classmate Eiko, leading to a murder plot involving a potent poison.

The Petrified Forest

1973

Killers on Parade poster
6.5

A vengeful contractor hires a series of young killers to target a woman muckraker. Trouble brews when an amateur marksman shows up his eclectic competition.

Killers on Parade

1961

Sapporo Winter Olympics poster
6.9

An artistic and unconventional approach to winter sports, using striking visuals, sound design, and a focus on both the spectacle and the human element—including behind-the-scenes figures like ice maintenance workers—to create an intimate and aesthetically unique portrayal of the Olympics.

Sapporo Winter Olympics

1972

With Beauty and Sorrow poster
5.7

When the man who seduced famous painter Otoko Ueno as a teenager–and then wrote a bestselling novel about it–reappears in her life, her pupil–and lesbian lover–hatches a plot to destroy the man and his livelihood.

With Beauty and Sorrow

1965

Moonlight Serenade poster
6.0

A journalist reporting on the 1997 Kobe earthquake recalls a boat trip he took as a boy after WWII to bury his brother's ashes, during which his family grapples with life in occupied Japan.

Moonlight Serenade

1997

A Flame at the Pier poster
6.1

A union-busting Yokohama dockworker learns that the loyalties that rule his life are based on shaky foundations. Believing that his manager was responsible for saving his life as a baby, he falls victim to a manipulative cycle of deceit and revenge.

A Flame at the Pier

1962