Shibuya Minoru

He is yet to be discovered outside of Japan: the director Shibuya Minoru (1907-1980), who between 1937 and 1965 made more than forty films for the production company Shochiku. After the presentation of his films at the Forum of the Berlinale, we will screen eight works from his most important creative phase in the 1950s and 60s. Shibuya joined Shochiku in 1930 and was initially an assistant to Naruse and Gosho and also in one of Ozu’s movies. He gave his debut as a director in 1937. He was mainly dedicated to social dramas and comedies, which were typical of Shochiku, focusing on ordinary people and their everyday worries. Shibuya’s work is characterized by a sober, cool and satirical – at times also viciously sarcastic – view of Japanese society in the post-war period, coupled with a keen eye for the character weaknesses of his protagonists and the moral abysses of a greedy society. His style is shaped by visual excessiveness and vitality, with which he holds the often digressing narrative strands together.