Undying Pearl

Shimizu Hiroshi was born in Shizuoka Prefecture on 28 March, 1903 and died in Kyoto on 23 June, 1966. He dropped out of his studies at Hokkaido University in order to join Shochiku’s Kamata studio as a director’s assistant in 1922. By the age of 21, he had risen to the rank of director with his first film, Toge no kanata (Beyond the Pass, 1924), and proceeded to forge a reputation as a skillful director, particularly of melodramas and comedies. A “trial marriage” to the actress Tanaka Kinuyo in 1927 ended in divorce two years later. Shimizu directed 140 films for Shochiku up to and throughout World War II. After the war he established the Hachinosu Eiga studio in collaboration with several colleagues. This allowed him to work independently of the studios, and films such as Children of the Beehive (1948), where he employed homeless children he had taken in and raised himself, resulted. He also directed films for Shin-Toho and Daiei, the last of which, Haha no omokage (Image of a Mother), he made in 1959. Shimizu directed a total of 163 films over his career.

Shimizu was highly regarded by the other master filmmakers of his era. Ozu Yasujiro, a close friend who was born in the same year, once declared, “I can’t shoot films like Shimizu,” while Mizoguchi Kenji is quoted as saying, “People like me and Ozu get films made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius.” Disliking anything contrived, Shimizu preferred to improvise in his films, making frequent use of children and location shots and weaving lyrical stories that used Japan’s natural surroundings to maximum effect. The works of Shimizu Hiroshi are unique: full of wit and humour, and possessing a rare and special charm all their own. —TOKYO FILMeX