Kurahara, Koreyoshi

Born on the island of Borneo in the city of Kuching (the kingdom of Sarawak , now one of the states of Malaysia ), Koreyoshi was the nephew of the literary critic Korehito Kurahara. In March 1945, not yet eighteen years old, Koreyoshi was drafted into the Navy ^[1] . Demobilized at the end of the war. Since 1952 he studied at the Faculty of Cinema at the College of Art at the University of Nihon. At the end of his studies, in 1952 he got a job as an assistant director in the Kyoto studio of the film company " Shёtiku ". In 1954 he transferred to the Nikkatsu company, where for three years he was the chief assistant with the director Eisuke Takizawa ^[1] . He also assisted other directors: Katsumi Nishikawa , Ko Nakahira (including in his famous film “The Mad Fruit ”, 1956) ^[1] .

He made his directorial debut, staging a crime drama based on the script by Sintaro Ishihara “ I am waiting ” about a lonely cafe owner, a former boxer who saved the girl from suicide, but her gangster friends are starting to pursue them. The film was recognized for using bold foreshortenings and expressionist lighting ^[2] , which made it possible to rank it among the best examples of noir . An important factor in the success of the picture was the leading role of the tough guy and idol of the Japanese youth of those years, Yujiro Ishihara , who then played in other director's works: “Wind Speed ​​40 Meters”, “Showdown in a Storm” (both - 1958), “ Ginza 's Love Story ” , “ I hate, but love ” (both - 1962) and others; in the last two of his partners was Ruriko Asaoka and these films were big hits of his time ^[3] .

Kurahara's films have been especially noted for their use of jazz soundtracks ^[3] . For example, this music was a descriptive element in the film "The Black Sun " (1964), which tells of a Japanese jazz fan who helped a black soldier who went AWOL after killing a white man. This film was one of several where Kurahara talked about more serious problems. Among them were The Flame of Devotion (1964), a poetic tale of a marriage destroyed by war; “ Chronicle of love and death ” (1966), about a girl’s love for a guy affected by radiation sickness; “ Thirst for Love ” (1967), adaptation of Yukio Mishima ’s novel about sexual tension between a widow, her father-in-law cohabiting with her and the young gardener whom she loves. The non-commercial qualities of the last film prompted Nikkatsu to postpone its release, and Kurahara left the studio to work as a freelance artist, while making a series of commercial hits based on foreign material and with foreign capital. Among them was another collaboration with Yujiro Ishihara, Five Thousand Kilometers to Glory (1969).

In the 1970s and 1980s, he directed not so many films in genres that were completely unusual for him. "Two in Amsterdam" (1975), a melodrama with the participation of the duo Keiko Kishi - Kenichi Hagiwara was shot on the wave of great success of the tape with the same actors " Promise " (1972, dir. Koichi Saito ). In those same years, he worked a lot on television, making series. Kurahara’s talent suddenly appeared in documentary: his film “Glacial Fox” (1978) about wild foxes in Hokkaido was successful in commercial distribution ^[3] . Then he shot another documentary about animals “The Elephant's Story” (1980), showing a successful example of a family film. Filmed in 1980 with another recognized director of directing Kinji Fukasaku, it was not the first film adaptation of the best-selling book of Itsutsuki Hiroyuki's Youth Gate about a young worker who had lost his parents early on display at the Soviet box office. The biggest commercial success was expected by Kurahara's film " Antarctic History " (1983) about dogs abandoned on the Antarctic expedition, which collected 5.9 billion yen at the national box office ^[1] and became at that time the highest grossing film in Japanese history ^[1] . This record was broken only in 1997 by Hayao Miyazaki 's animated film “ Princess Mononoke ” ^[1] . His film Strawberry Road (1991) captures the experiences of a Japanese expat working on a strawberry farm in California . The last film directed by Hiroshima (1995) was shot together with the Canadian-American film director Roger Spottyswood for television.

Despite the popularity of many of his later films, critics for the most part believe that the most interesting tapes of Kurahara were made during his work on Nikkatsu ^{[3] [4]} .

Died at the age of 75 in a Yokohama hospital from pneumonia.

In 1991, Koreyoshi Kurahara was awarded the Medal of Honor with a purple ribbon for his services in the field of culture.

• 2003 award ceremony

• A special award from the chairman of the Japanese Academy for his career (posthumous) ^{[5] [6]} .

West Berlin International Film Festival (1984)

• Nomination for the main prize of the Golden Bear festival is the film Antarctic History ^[6] .

Mainity Film Award

• 1984 Award Ceremony

• Prize of audience sympathy for readers of the magazine Mainity - Antarctic History ^{[6] [7]} .

• 2003 award ceremony

• Special Career Award (posthumous) ^{[6] [8]} .

• The director of erotic films in the pink-eig genre of the 1970s film company Nikkatsu, Koretsugu Kurahara, is the younger brother of Koreyoshi Kurahara.

• Koreyoshi Kurahara on the Internet Movie Database

• Jacoby, Alexander . A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. - Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, 2008 .-- ISBN 978-1-933330 -53-252295