Noboru Nakamura

After their screening in the Berlinale Forum, we will show the new prints of three films by the Japanese director Noboru Nakamura. After finishing his studies, Nakamura (1913 – 1981) became an assistant director at Shochiku studios in 1936. He worked with Yasujiro Shimazu among others and made his directorial debut in 1941 with a documentary. He was instrumental in shaping the studios' "Ofuna" style that depicts the everyday life of "little people" with humor and sympathy, focusing on domestic life and the lot of women in particular. HOME SWEET HOME (1951) won Nakamura his first critical acclaim and he went on to make many films that have become classics of Japanese cinema. He was twice nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign-language film. In 1967, the director's "Lost Spring" was presented at the Berlinale.