This retrospective surveys the remarkable body of work of Daisuke Ito, whose directorial career spanned nearly half a century. For film historians, his reputation rests on his revolutionary contribution to the silent-era samurai film, when, breaking with the theatrical norms of early Japanese cinema, he brilliantly employed rapid montage and flamboyant camera movement to craft stylish action scenes while advancing trenchant social criticism. His postwar work, however, remains underrated. Working in collaboration with some of Japan’s finest actors, he ranged from the battlefield to the theatre to the world of shogi (Japanese chess), crafting stylish swashbucklers that recalled the visual exuberance of his silents, more austere, severe period dramas, and subtle, intimate character studies. One section of this retrospective gathers Ito’s surviving silent films and fragments, presented, through the support of the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, with accompaniment by Japanese musicians and live spoken commentary by benshi narrators. Alongside these, a selection of his finest postwar films will be shown in high-quality 35mm prints, including some restored by the NFAJ from original nitrate material.

Curated by Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordstrom. In collaboration with The Japan Foundation and NFAJ – National Film Archive of Japan

Photo: Oedo gonin otoko (Five Men from Edo, 1951) by Daisuke Ito. Courtesy of National Film Archive of Japan © Shochiku