Masahiro Shinoda
Known for Directing
Born
March 9, 1931
Died
March 25, 2025 (age 94)
Birthplace
Gifu, Gifu, Japan
Filmography
59 films
Known for Directing
Masahiro Shinoda (篠田 正浩 Shinoda Masahiro, March 9, 1931 – March 25, 2025) was a Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. He married the actress Shima Iwashita, who appears in several of his films, such as 1969's Double Suicide. His 1986 film Gonza the Spearman was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution. He won the 1991 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year for Childhood Days. He retired from directing after the release of Spy Sorge in 2003, a biopic on the life of Richard Sorge.
Born
March 9, 1931
Died
March 25, 2025 (age 94)
Birthplace
Gifu, Gifu, Japan
Filmography
59 films

Spy Sorge
2003 · 3h 2m
country: Germany
A foreign spy using the Sorge alias is assigned to Tokyo the capital of Japan just prior to the outbreak of World War II and in the midst of the Japanese imperial ambitions in Eastern Asia. The spy becomes acquainted with a sympathetic communist who like he is attached to the ideals of freedom and rule of the masses. Sorge is able to feed the Soviet Union useful information regarding the Axis allies and their movements in Asia and beyond.

Owls' Castle
1999 · 2h 19m
country: Japan
As great military commander Nobunaga Oda consolidates his power across Japan, one of his actions is to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one survivor has hired a young, skilled assassin to avenge his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and eliminate the supreme ruler.

Moonlight Serenade
1997 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
A journalist reporting on the 1997 Kobe earthquake recalls a boat trip he took as a boy after WWII to bury his brother's ashes, during which his family grapples with life in occupied Japan.

Sharaku
1995 · 2h 20m
country: Japan
Crippled Kabuki player Tonbo is taken in by a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold art, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal.

Takeshi: Childhood Days
1990 · 1h 59m
country: Japan
A city boy, Shinji, is sent to live in the countryside to escape the Tokyo bombings, where he experiences the complexities of rural school life, including a power struggle with the local class leader, Takeshi.

The Dancer
1989 · 2h 3m
country: Germany
Against the backdrop of late 19th-century Berlin, Toyotaro Ota, a young Japanese uni student studying in Germany, meets and falls in love with 16-year-old local dancer Elise. Their unconventional affair and subsequent cohabitation stir up a massive scandal that threatens his reputation, eventually reaching the ears of officials in Japan.

Gonza the Spearman
1986 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
During the peaceful Tokugawa period, handsome samurai Gonza becomes entangled in a tragic love triangle and a web of deceit while trying to advance his social standing through the tea ceremony.

Allusion: Reincarnation Story
1985 · 48m
country: Japan
Musical film: Hiromi Go plays a warrior, a gigolo, and an officer spread across a thousand years of history

MacArthur's Children
1984 · 2h 23m
country: Japan
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the denizens of a small Japanese fishing village struggle with defeat, cultural change, and the arrival of American troops.

Island of the Evil Spirits
1981 · 2h 11m
country: Japan
Renowned detective Kosuke Kindaichi is called to an island where a dying man's words lead him to investigate a series of murders connected to the 'Nue' legend and the powerful Osakabe family, who separate twins at birth.

Demon Pond
1979 · 2h 4m
country: Japan
When a lone traveller stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants, including lovers Akira and Yuri, in their hands.

Ballad of Orin
1977 · 1h 58m
country: Japan
Expelled from her group for losing her virginity, blind travelling musician Orin endures a life of hardship, abuse, and poverty while wandering the countryside, finding brief companionship with an army deserter, and struggling against a society that marginalises her.

Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees
1975 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
A mountain bandit abducts a woman who demands he kill his other wives to please her, leading to a cycle of violence and madness fueled by superstition and obsession.

Himiko
1974 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
A reimagination of the myth of Himiko, focused on her divine role as a sun goddess's oracle and her forbidden love for her half-brother Takehiko, which threatens her power and the kingdom's stability.

The Petrified Forest
1973 · 1h 58m
country: Japan
Troubled medical student Haruo navigates a toxic relationship with his mother and a dangerous affair with former classmate Eiko, leading to a murder plot involving a potent poison.

Sapporo Winter Olympics
1972 · 2h 48m
country: Japan
An artistic and unconventional approach to winter sports, using striking visuals, sound design, and a focus on both the spectacle and the human element—including behind-the-scenes figures like ice maintenance workers—to create an intimate and aesthetically unique portrayal of the Olympics.

Silence
1971 · 2h 10m
country: Japan
In 17th-century Japan, two Portuguese Jesuit priests seek their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan
1970 · 1h 44m
country: Japan
An outlaw pushes the residents of Edo's red light district to rebel against a growing number of stifling, moralistic laws.

Double Suicide
1969 · 1h 45m
country: Japan
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

Clouds at Sunset
1967 · 1h 46m
country: Japan
A Japanese soldier deserts his position and travels to a small town on the Sea of Japan to start over. When a young maid falls for him, he talks her into sleeping with an older man for money.

Captive's Island
1966 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
Seeking revenge against the guard who tormented him, a young man returns to the island where he was imprisoned in reform school. But his plans for vengeance are disturbed when he encounters a strange and beautiful young woman.

Samurai Spy
1965 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.

With Beauty and Sorrow
1965 · 1h 46m
country: Japan
When the man who seduced famous painter Otoko Ueno as a teenager–and then wrote a bestselling novel about it–reappears in her life, her pupil–and lesbian lover–hatches a plot to destroy the man and his livelihood.

Assassination
1964 · 1h 44m
country: Japan
In 1863, when American warships approach Japan, an enigmatic ronin becomes an important figure in a complex game of power between the Shogunate and the empire.

Pale Flower
1964 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
A recently released gangster has to cope with the recent shifts of power between gangs, while taking care of a thrill-seeking young woman, who got in bad company while gambling.

A Flame at the Pier
1962 · 1h 32m
country: Japan
A union-busting Yokohama dockworker learns that the loyalties that rule his life are based on shaky foundations. Believing that his manager was responsible for saving his life as a baby, he falls victim to a manipulative cycle of deceit and revenge.

Glory on the Summit
1962 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
A treasury official passed over for promotion and obsessed with careerism interferes in the lives of his three sons, who seek escape from his relentless pressure in the mortal danger of mountain climbing.

Our Marriage
1962 · 1h 6m
country: Japan
Poverty-stricken sisters reach the age when they start attracting marriage proposals. They must decide between marrying for love or money, but their ambitions clash when they both fall for the same man.

Love New and Old
1961 · 1h 21m
country: Japan
A woman brings her injured daughter to the hospital, only to realize that the doctor is the estranged father of her child.

Epitaph to My Love
1961 · 1h 30m
country: Japan
A young reporter falls for a beautiful waitress, but fate conspires against their burgeoning romance when the latter is involved in a car accident and loses her memory.

Killers on Parade
1961 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
A vengeful contractor hires a series of young killers to target a woman muckraker. Trouble brews when an amateur marksman shows up his eclectic competition.

Youth in Fury
1960 · 1h 28m
country: Japan
Amidst the 1960 Japanese-American mutual security treaty, alienated young nihilist Takuya struggles to find his footing between his do-nothing wealth and the outer Western extremism as major student protests take place.

One-Way Ticket to Love
1960 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
The backstage romances of an egotistical singer and his under-valued manager, a lovelorn bandman and a nude dancer.