Ieki, Miyouji

Born in Tokyo, Miyouji Ieki graduated in 1940 from the philological department of the University of Tokyo ^[3] . In the same year, he came to work as an assistant director at the Ofuna studio of the Shiku movie company, where he was an assistant with Heinosuke Gosho and Minoru Shibuya ^[1] .

He made his debut as a director in 1944 , putting the film "Stormy Stream". This film was commissioned by the authorities of a belligerent power in order to increase productivity in mines and showed a hero miner seeking to increase coal production. The project was originally developed by director Minoru Shibuya, but then passed on to his assistant, Ieki ^[3] .

After the war, Ieki directed a number of youth-themed films. In the second half of the 1940s : “Young Blood Burns” (1947) and “ Sad Whistle ” (with the participation of the popular young singer Khibari Misora , 1949 ).

In 1950, Ieki was dismissed from "Shёtiku" during the purge of suspects of communist sympathies ^[1] and in the 1950s he improved his directorial skills mainly in independent cinema ^[4] . The anti-war film “ Following the Floating Clouds ” ( 1953 ), directed by the director, excited the masses of spectators so much that it gave rise to a series of military films about “special forces”. The film takes place shortly before the end of the war. Kamikaze suicide base in the south of Kyushu . Students of the school of naval aviation are waiting for an order to speak. The order may come at any time. To the best of pathetically and with a certain dose of heroism, the film depicts the everyday life of cadets awaiting death, the fun of desperate people, their reconciliation with their fate, their self-sacrifice and self-deception.

The film about the school teacher " Spark " ( 1954 ) Ieki expressed concern about the conservatism of traditional methods of school teaching and the extent of poverty in rural areas.

The film “ Sisters ” ( 1955 , based on the novel by Fumi Kuroyanagi) tells with a slight smile about two sisters living in a small town, how they turn from girls into girls, how faith grows and strengthens them in a bright future and justice. In this film, the specific features of Ieka’s creativity were most clearly manifested ^[5] .

According to many researchers of the director’s work, one of his best films is recognized ^{[2] [1]} “ Step Brothers ” ( 1957 , according to the story of Torahiko Tamiya). His theme is the violent manifestations of love and hatred in the relations of fathers and children. The theme of the film is developing against the background of the family life of the officer - a typical professional servant of the old army - and complex estate relations in his family. Domestic cruelty becomes a microcosm of the wider tyranny of the pre-war militarist regime, symbolizes the moral insanity and decay of the Japanese in the era from Meiji to Showa .

Beginning in 1958 , when creative activity in the framework of independent studios became almost impossible, Ieki worked until 1965 at the Toei film company ^[3] . Here he directed the film The Naked Sun ( 1958 ). The story, which formed the basis of the picture, was written by the railway worker Kazutosi Kimura, and tells a youthful drama in which a young locomotive fireman and his lover are involved. The next work of the director “Wonderful Girls” ( 1959 ) is dedicated to the life, love, marriage of workers and workers of a textile factory. The mystery film , released in 1960 (based on the work of Katsumoto Sotome), again showed the image of a young poor worker who lost his father and was forced to support his entire family. Once in a difficult position, the hero commits a robbery. In 1964, Miyouji Ieki was the director of the movie " Roadside Stone ", the fourth film adaptation of the popular novel of the same name by the writer Yuzo Yamamoto , telling a touching story of a teenager who dreams of getting an education and suffers from the tyranny of his father and submissive mother. In other films shot by Ieki in Toei: City (1961), Days and Nights of Young People (1963), Fugitive (1965), the director also described in detail the problems of young people.

During his thirty-year career in cinema, Miyouji Ieki shot not so many films by Japanese standards - only 22, but nonetheless the director earned respect among critics and fans of Japanese cinema. As noted by the famous American film expert, a great connoisseur of Japanese cinema, Alexander Jacobi in his guide to filmmakers in Japan: “In the films of Ieka, you can see the influence of his mentor Gosho in their subtle, undisciplined technique, realistic structure and human details. He was able to convey the emotions of his characters through the subtleties of gestures and expressions, and solve political issues through personal drama. His works deserve international recognition ” ^[1] .

XI International Karlovy Vary Film Festival 1958

• The main prize of the festival is the film “Step Brothers” (ex aequo - “ Quiet Don ”, USSR , dir. Sergei Gerasimov ) ^[6] .

IX Berlin International Film Festival 1959

• The Youth Cinema Award is the best feature film (“Naked Sun”) ^[6] .
• Nomination for the " Golden Bear " (the main prize of the festival) - ("Naked Sun") ^[6] .

• Miyoji Ieki at the Internet Movie Database

• Iwasaki, Akira . "Contemporary Japanese Cinema", 1958, (translated from Japanese 1962, Translators: Vladimir Grivnin, L. Levin), - M .: Art, 1962, P.524 (pp. 87–89).
• Iwasaki, Akira . “History of Japanese Cinema”, 1961 (translation from Japanese 1966, Translators: Vladimir Grivnin, L. Levin and B. Raskin). - M.: Art, 1966, S.320 (p. 205-208).
• "Cinema Dictionary" / Edited by S. I. Yutkevich . - Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1970. - T. 1 AL. - S. 976 (p. 629).
• Jacoby, Alexander . A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. - Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, 2008 .-- ISBN 978-1-933330 -53-252295