Yasujirō Shimazu (島津 保次郎, Shimazu Yasujirō; 3 June 1897 – 18 September 1945) was a Japanese film director and…Yasujirō Shimazu (島津 保次郎, Shimazu Yasujirō; 3 June 1897 – 18 September 1945) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, and a pioneer of the shōshimin-eiga (common people drama) genre at the Shōchiku studios in pre-World War II Japan.
Yasujirō Ozu (小津 安二郎, Ozu Yasujirō; 12 December 1903 – 12 December 1963) was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career…Yasujirō Ozu (小津 安二郎, Ozu Yasujirō; 12 December 1903 – 12 December 1963) was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. The most prominent themes of Ozu's work are family and marriage, and especially the relationships between generations. His most widely beloved films include Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest and most influential filmmakers, Ozu's work has continued to receive acclaim since his death. In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll, Ozu's Tokyo Story was voted the third-greatest film of all time by critics world-wide. In the same poll, Tokyo Story was voted the greatest film of all time by 358 directors and film-makers world-wide. He is the subject of several documentaries, including Wim Wenders's Tokyo-Ga (1985) and Daniel Raim's The Ozu Diaries (2025).
