Hiroshi Shimizu - Part II runs May 16-June 1 at Japan Society
Co-organized with Museum of the Moving Image, the National Film Archive of Japan, and the Japan Foundation, New York
Born the same year as his close friend Yasujiro Ozu, Hiroshi Shimizu (1903-1966) remains one of the forgotten masters of Japanese cinema, praised by contemporaries including Sadao Yamanaka and Kenji Mizoguchi but neglected despite his radical spirit and versatile talent. With over 160 films directed over a 35-year-career that spanned the silent era into the golden age of Japanese cinema, Shimizu is distinguished by his unconventional approach to plotting—one loosely sketched and carefree—and a roaming camera that drifts through the open airs of provincial Japan. Shimizu’s world is suffused with an innate naturalism—one populated by pastorals and country passages—and a lyrical humanism that observes the journeys of children, working women, outcasts and travelers alike.

The second half of a two-part retrospective on the major filmmaker (the first part The Shochiku Years will be presented at MoMI starting May 4), The Postwar and Independent Years tracks Shimizu’s career after leaving Shochiku, embarking on a new path into self-financed films, independent productions, and contract work at Shintoho and Daiei studios. Shimizu’s postwar filmography encapsulates the everyday tragedies of life, the delicate sentiments of love and loss in the wake of the war, and the pains that befall common people—from the hardships of motherhood to the ostracization of disability. Capturing Japan in a changing of eras, these films illustrate a nation trying to pull itself together, weaving themes of collective struggle and hope while focusing on the lives of the dispossessed.

Bookmarked by his self-produced Beehive trilogy—a poetic trilogy that chronicles the lives of war orphans and starred orphans raised by Shimizu himself after the war at his Beehive orphanage (named for the excited “buzz” of children that emanated from the home)—The Postwar and Independent Years features rare screenings of the director’s late-career period. Shimizu’s postwar films have seldom screened internationally, despite being achievements on equal footing with his prewar years. As part of the series, Japan Society has commissioned new English subtitles for five films—some never-before seen in English-speaking countries before. Previously the organizers of the first U.S. Shimizu retrospective in 1991, Japan Society is proud to co-present the largest ever focus on Shimizu in North America.

Hiroshi Shimizu - Part I: The Shochiku Years runs May 4–19, 2024 at Museum of the Moving Image