Background
Teinosuke Kinugasa was born on 1 January 1896 in Mie, Japan.
Teinosuke Kinugasa was born on 1 January 1896 in Mie, Japan.
Kinugasa began directing in the year that the Japanese cinema forsook male actors in female parts. He had been a female impersonator himself. and when the retaliatorv strike failed, he chose to become a director. Similarly, when sound was introduced, he went on a two-year excursion to Russia to study under Eisenstein. His enormous output, especially in the silent era, is inaccessible to Western audiences. Only Gate of Hell. Crossways, and the rediscovered Page of Madness are at all well known. They suggest a distinct talent, a master of shadow and low key, with a special interest in disturbed psychology. It seems likely that a thorough investigation of all those years would prove rewarding.