Zenzō Matsuyama
Birth : 1925-04-03, Kobe, Japan
Death : 2016-08-27
History
Zenzō Matsuyama (松山 善三 Matsuyama Zenzō, born 3 April 1925) is a Japanese script writer and film director. He was born in Kobe and grew up in Yokohama. After leaving school, he began training to become a doctor but dropped out of medical school to take up a career in films. In 1948 he became an assistant director at Shochiku studios. With the support of Keisuke Kinoshita, he also began writing film scripts. His first filmed script was Kojo no tsuki, based on the song Kōjō no Tsuki, filmed in 1954. In 1955 he married actress Hideko Takamine. He made his debut as a director with a film called Na mo naku mazushiku utsukushikuin 1961. He continued to work as a scriptwriter for films like Proof of the Man as well as a director. He also wrote the lyrics for a song Ippon no enpitsu for Hibari Misora.
Writer
Screenplay
In 1940, Kubota Shoten, which has been in business for generations, goes bankrupt due to the debauched lifestyle of its president, Kunimitsu Kubota. Subsequently, Kunimitsu moves back to his hometown and his children are sent to live with other relatives.
Writer
Set in Edo-era Kyoto, this drama depicts the adolescent battles and the love between parents and children who are born and raised in the same tenement house.
Director
Set in Edo-era Kyoto, this drama depicts the adolescent battles and the love between parents and children who are born and raised in the same tenement house.
Writer
From the point-of-view of the children, "Mother" tells the story of the most unappreciated, loving and giving mother, who would sacrifice her own life, and sometimes the life of others, for her loved ones. In the autumn of 1955, a family of five children is living in the Tohoku area. In order to take care of her paralysed husband, the mother has to sacrifice her five children by giving them away. The children has to suffer all the loneliness and hardships that this decision has brought them. 15 years have passed, all five of them have got married. Now, they come to understand that their mother's love for them was the greatest love of all.
Director
From the point-of-view of the children, "Mother" tells the story of the most unappreciated, loving and giving mother, who would sacrifice her own life, and sometimes the life of others, for her loved ones. In the autumn of 1955, a family of five children is living in the Tohoku area. In order to take care of her paralysed husband, the mother has to sacrifice her five children by giving them away. The children has to suffer all the loneliness and hardships that this decision has brought them. 15 years have passed, all five of them have got married. Now, they come to understand that their mother's love for them was the greatest love of all.
Screenplay
A one armed boy wants to become a football (soccer) player.
Director
Fictionalized account of 20-year-old Noriko Tsuji, a real-life victim of a severe birth defect which afflicted 8,000 Japanese, children whose mothers took the sedative thalidomide during pregnancy. Tsuji has stunted flipper-like arms amputated at the behest of a father who deserted her soon after her birth. Nonetheless, the resourceful Noriko uses her feet to accomplish most of the tasks others would do with their hands.
Screenplay
Fictionalized account of 20-year-old Noriko Tsuji, a real-life victim of a severe birth defect which afflicted 8,000 Japanese, children whose mothers took the sedative thalidomide during pregnancy. Tsuji has stunted flipper-like arms amputated at the behest of a father who deserted her soon after her birth. Nonetheless, the resourceful Noriko uses her feet to accomplish most of the tasks others would do with their hands.
Screenplay
A young man who travels around the world with a camera in his hand finds the circus a fascinating subject. The huge tents and life-threatening acrobatics were filled with dreams, laughter, and excitement. From that moment on, his destiny changes. While living in the circus, the young man becomes fascinated by the art of performing, trains hard, and makes his debut on the big stage. He puts all of his youth into his quest to become a clown, the flower of the circus and the origin of laughter.
Writer
When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.
Screenplay
A taut, economical policier-cum-gang-hostage thriller.
Screenplay
A beautifully told story of a woman hardened by marriage to a man she doesn't love, after giving herself to another. She dedicates herself to her work, designing and creating plaited cords for kimono.
Writer
A woman looks after her father in law.
Director
Based on the hit song, the story involves a young boy and girl who leave their home in Hokkaido to come and live in Tokyo.
Screenplay
Based on the hit song, the story involves a young boy and girl who leave their home in Hokkaido to come and live in Tokyo.
Original Story
Based on the hit song, the story involves a young boy and girl who leave their home in Hokkaido to come and live in Tokyo.
Writer
Masako is a humble waitress who has a chance encounter with playboy Tamotsu. With the aid of his sister, Tamotsu seeks to win Masako's affection despite the disapproval of his wealthy parents and Masako's own feelings towards the working-class cabbie Noro.
Screenplay
A girl is in love with two men.
Original Story
A girl is in love with two men.
Screenplay
Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their long-suffering mother. The mother and her brother try various schemes to find husbands for them.
Original Story
Four sisters are all named after flowers. While the two youngest are married, the eldest two remain single, much to the annoyance of their long-suffering mother. The mother and her brother try various schemes to find husbands for them.
Screenplay
When an only child is struck by a car and dies, the child's mother seeks vengeance against the driver in this thrilling drama. The car was driven by the wife of a company president who is having an affair. The woman's husband manages to buy silence about the incident, but the victim's mother discovers the identity of the driver. After she secures a job in the home of the company president and his philandering spouse, the woman plans to murder the couple's son when he reaches the age of her late son.
Writer
Young widow Ine is suffering under the harsh treatment of her mother in law. As a former Geisha, Ine had struggled to be accepted into the well-established Rokujo family from the beginning. With the support of Jiro, a young man Ine's late husband had saved from homelessness as a young boy, Ine tries to keep the family's heritage of silk processing alive. Their close relationship soon causes gossip among the villagers and threaten Ine's position in the family even further ...
Director
Young widow Ine is suffering under the harsh treatment of her mother in law. As a former Geisha, Ine had struggled to be accepted into the well-established Rokujo family from the beginning. With the support of Jiro, a young man Ine's late husband had saved from homelessness as a young boy, Ine tries to keep the family's heritage of silk processing alive. Their close relationship soon causes gossip among the villagers and threaten Ine's position in the family even further ...
Screenplay
The last judgment.
Writer
Could I But Live
Director
Could I But Live
Original Story
Screenplay
After a bombing raid destroys the family store and her husband, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.
Screenplay
Screenplay
Futari dake no toride
Writer
Story of a resourceful hobo (Kobayashi), a con woman (Takamine) who pretends to be a victim of the Nagasaki A-bomb, and two orphaned children who become a most atypical Japanese family.
Director
Story of a resourceful hobo (Kobayashi), a con woman (Takamine) who pretends to be a victim of the Nagasaki A-bomb, and two orphaned children who become a most atypical Japanese family.
Screenplay
A story about the lives of four sisters and their manipulative mother who must come to terms with each of their decisions in life.
Screenplay
An investigation into a drug smuggler who is assassinated in front of an insurance building sets two detectives, Sumikawa and Akine, into a sprawling investigation through Tokyo's underworld.
Screenplay
In 1919, a group of Japanese immigrants arrives in Hawaii. Among them Yoshio Inoue and his wife Kishimo and Sumi, a young woman ready to get married soon. With the soil that is hard to work and the subtroipical climate, the immigrants have to cope with a hard life. But after years of hard work, Yoshio finds work as a teacher while his wife manages to open a small grocery store. But with the war around the corner, life becomes more and more complicated for the Japanese immigrants in a foreign country.
Director
In 1919, a group of Japanese immigrants arrives in Hawaii. Among them Yoshio Inoue and his wife Kishimo and Sumi, a young woman ready to get married soon. With the soil that is hard to work and the subtroipical climate, the immigrants have to cope with a hard life. But after years of hard work, Yoshio finds work as a teacher while his wife manages to open a small grocery store. But with the war around the corner, life becomes more and more complicated for the Japanese immigrants in a foreign country.
Screenplay
When two sisters fall in love with the same man, one must decide to look elsewhere.
Screenplay
A father and son are both heavy drinkers. However, the son dies in an accident at a bar, leaving behind a fiance…. A unique social satire that focuses on why people drink alcohol.
Screenplay
Drama about the lives of the five daughters and daughter-in-law of a store owner.
Screenplay
Gen is a lonely orphan boy. His sole sense of companionship comes from an imaginary friend, the god Prince Fudo-Myo. Prince Fudo-Myo comes to the boy's rescue in times of difficulty.
Screenplay
The university professor Ozeki Hitoshi (Ryu Chishu) is regarded as an eccentric by people in his surroundings. When his daughter Tokiko is asked to marry a colleague, she and her mother are overjoyed, but Hitoshi is not satisfied with the situation.
Screenplay
In "The Other Woman" the children of a distinguished professor find that the woman they have come to regard as their racy and slightly disreputable Ginza aunt is really their mother.
Screenplay
After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.
Screenplay
The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.
Director
The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and mute. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations ... and joys.
Screenplay
A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself "already dead."
Writer
Starring Akira Takarada as a lightweight boxing champion.
Screenplay
Sanae is left a widow after her prestigious husband dies, but holds the proceeds of a million yen insurance policy. Being childless, her former in-laws have no objection to her return to her own family.
Screenplay
A story of an ardent young man who laid down his life for his country.
Screenplay
Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against the recruit Obara. He also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.
Screenplay
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
Editor
Eight filmmakers collaborate with Teshigahara to create a "frantic, non-stop pop newsreel". Mixing cutout animation with color and black & white photography, this snapshot documents Tokyo in 1957-58, when it had eight and ½ million people and was the largest city in the world. Pollution, bridal fashion, rites, rituals, partying-- Nearly every angle of Tokyo life is compacted into a mere 24 minutes.
Producer
Eight filmmakers collaborate with Teshigahara to create a "frantic, non-stop pop newsreel". Mixing cutout animation with color and black & white photography, this snapshot documents Tokyo in 1957-58, when it had eight and ½ million people and was the largest city in the world. Pollution, bridal fashion, rites, rituals, partying-- Nearly every angle of Tokyo life is compacted into a mere 24 minutes.
Screenplay
Eight filmmakers collaborate with Teshigahara to create a "frantic, non-stop pop newsreel". Mixing cutout animation with color and black & white photography, this snapshot documents Tokyo in 1957-58, when it had eight and ½ million people and was the largest city in the world. Pollution, bridal fashion, rites, rituals, partying-- Nearly every angle of Tokyo life is compacted into a mere 24 minutes.
Director
Eight filmmakers collaborate with Teshigahara to create a "frantic, non-stop pop newsreel". Mixing cutout animation with color and black & white photography, this snapshot documents Tokyo in 1957-58, when it had eight and ½ million people and was the largest city in the world. Pollution, bridal fashion, rites, rituals, partying-- Nearly every angle of Tokyo life is compacted into a mere 24 minutes.
Writer
The story follows a university student who moves into an apartment building and becomes involved with a waitress. The landlord then attempts to evict the tenants and sell the building through illicit means.
Screenplay
Writer
A young man and woman are determined to marry despite opposition from her parents.
Writer
Pierre Marsac, a French engineer working for the Nagasaki shipbuilding yards, has fallen in love both with Japan and a charming Japanese girl named Noriko. But Françoise Fabre, a French journalist and Pierre's former lover, contacts him while visiting the Land of the Rising Sun. They meet again, find out their love might not be dead. Meanwhile, Pierre gradually becomes estranged from sweet, humble Noriko. One day, a typhoon strikes Nagasaki...
Screenplay
A talent scout moves sharply, dead-set on signing a promising athlete to the baseball team the Toyko Flowers.
Writer
A botanist woos the secretary of an industrialist whose company threatens the local water supply.
Screenplay
Directed by Yoshiro Kawazu
Writer
Portmanteau film about young lovers.
Screenplay
A young widow, made world weary by her abusive, neglectful husband, finds herself in a minor scandal when she's seen with her intense, no-nonsense childhood sweetheart.
Writer
Masaki Kobayashi directs this romantic drama concerning a family of florists.
Assistant Director
A girl who'd left her hometown for the exciting adventure of the big city returns home years later for a visit, soon somehow causing scandal.
