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Toyoda and the Challenge of Representation

1996; University of California Press; Volume: 50; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1213421

1533-8630

William W. Johnson,

Asian Culture and Media Studies

Shiro Toyoda began his directing career in 1929, just after Ozu and just before Naruse, and made several films that can stand comparison with the best of his contemporaries'-indeed, his body of work is in some ways both more varied and more unusual than theirs.1 Yet Toyoda is little known in the West. And although he was recognized as one of Japan's leading film-makers by the 1950s, and some of his films were box-office hits, his route to recognition even in Japan was slow and frustrating. As a teenager Toyoda had hopes of becoming a playwright, but was told he stood a better chance of making a living in the cinema. He entered the Shochiku studios at age 18 as an assistant and writer to