Katsu Kanai
Japanese film director (1936–2026)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Katsu Kanai (金井 勝, Kanai Katsu; 9 July 1936 – 22 April 2026) was a Japanese experimental and avant-garde film director. The Harvard Film Archive has called him "one of the most vital and inventive filmmakers in the history of Japanese underground film".[1]
Kansu | |
|---|---|
金井勝 | |
| Born | 9 July 1936 Kanagawa, Japan |
| Died | 22 April 2026 (aged 89) Hino, Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Film director |
Career
Born the son of a farmer in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanai graduated from the College of Art of Nihon University before finding work at Daiei Film.[2][3] He later became a freelance cinematographer and founded Kanai Productions in 1968.[2] His first film, The Deserted Archipelago (1969, aka The Desert Island) won the grand prix at the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival.[4][3] His second film, Good-Bye (1971), was the "first post-war, post-liberation Japanese feature to be filmed in Korea," and according to the film scholar Oliver Dew, illustrated "how a surreal, decided non-representational approach could block the determinations of cultural essentialism".[5] His 2003 work, Super Documentary: The Avant-Garde Senjutsu, was awarded the FIPRESCI award at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.[6] Kanai has been the subject of retrospectives at Oberhausen,[7] the Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival,[8] and the Harvard Film Archive.[1]
Selected filmography
- The Deserted Archipelago (1969)
- Good-Bye (1971)
- The Kingdom (1973)
- The Stormy Times (1991)
- Super Documentary: The Avant-Garde Senjutsu (2003)