About

Known credits:
23
Birthday:
1948-01-13
Place of birth:
Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, Japan
Website:
N/A

Shinji Sōmai

Overview

Shinji Sōmai (相米 慎二, Sōmai Shinji, 13 January 1948 – 9 September 2001) was a Japanese film director. He was born in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, and was brought up in Hokkaido. Somai began his career in 1975 as an assistant director with Nikkatsu Co., one of Japan's leading film production companies, after he dropped out of Chuo University.

Somai made made his debut as a director in 1980 with The Terrible Couple - an adaptation of a popular boys' manga of the time. The film deals with the trials and tribulations of adolescence, presaging a long thread of Somai works in which young people are called upon to test their capabilities while discovering the unreliable nature of adult society. In Somai's hands, children and teenagers are always treated and presented sympathetically and seriously.

An actor's director from the start, Somai's trademark was a use of long takes, usually involving constantly-moving and spectacularly sweeping shots, which he felt allowed his cast to achieve the proper mood for scenes which would have been ruined by excessively quick editing. Perhaps the most extraordinary use of this technique is to be found in his 1985 film Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion (one of three of his films released that year), in which Somai uses an apparently single fourteen-minute take to reveal a succession of significant events in one character's childhood.

The best of Somai's films often straddle genres, taking off in unpredictable directions toward stimulating destinations.

Somai directed 13 films between 1980 and 2000. He died of lung cancer at 53.

Known for

Directing

2000 Kaza-hana Directing Director 58
Average
1998 Wait and See Directing Director 59
Average
1994 The Friends Directing Director 59
Average
1993 Moving Directing Director 59
Average
1990 Tokyo Heaven Directing Director 59
Average
1987 Luminous Woman Directing Director 58
Average
1985 Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion Directing Director 59
Average
1985 Typhoon Club Directing Director 59
Average
1985 Love Hotel Directing Director 59
Average
1985 愛しい女 Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 The Catch Directing Director 58
Average
1983 P. P. Rider Directing Director 59
Average
1981 Sailor Suit and Machine Gun Directing Director 59
Average
1980 Dreamy Fifteen Directing Director 59
Average
1979 The Man Who Stole the Sun Directing Assistant Director 59
Average
1979 Almost Transparent Blue Directing Assistant Director 59
Average
1979 Grass Labyrinth Directing Assistant Director 59
Average
1976 The Youth Killer Directing Assistant Director 59
Average
1976 Late Bloom: Campus Erotica Directing Assistant Director N/A
N/A
1975 Hostess Confidential: Three Juicy Sisters Directing Assistant Director N/A
N/A
1975 100 High School Girls: Secret Motel Report Directing Assistant Director N/A
N/A
1975 Lesbian World: Fondling Directing Assistant Director 59
Average

Writing

1975 100 High School Girls: Secret Motel Report Writing Screenplay N/A
N/A