Nonagenarian Shindo Kaneto gearing up for last film
Posted on Tuesday, 6 March 2007 at 11:23 pm
Back in January of last year I wrote about 90-year-old Ichikawa Kon’s return to directing for a remake of his own “Inugami-ke no Ichizoku“. As it turns out, he’s got nothing on Shindo Kaneto (perhaps best known overseas for “Onibaba” and “Kuroneko“), who at 94 is Japan’s oldest active film director, and he’s not about to be outdone by a young upstart like Ichikawa.
At a February 11th talkshow held as part of a retrospective of director Yoshimura Kozaburo’s works at the Shinbungeiza cinema in Ikebukuro, Shindo revealed he is in the midst of preparations for “Hana aru Zasso” (unofficial translation: “Flowers in the Weeds”), to be shot on location in his hometown of Ishiuchi Village (now Itsukaichi Town, Saekiku Ward) in Hiroshima. “The model [for the central character] was a teacher of mine when I was in elementary school. They’ve already passed away, but I want to make a film about a teacher who lived to teach. Mind you, I don’t want people to think I’m making an education film.”
This will be his 44th film since making his directorial debut over fifty years ago in 1951 with “Story of a Beloved Wife” (Aisai Monogatari), and it follows his most recent effort “The Owl” (Fukuro, 2003). “Maybe I’ll make this one my final work. People live through their jobs. I want to stay true to mine, so I don’t mind if I collapse during the shoot.” (sources: Sanspo, Ginga Blog)