Park Seung-ho's ILGOGAM ยท #01 Editorial Letter 2026-09-18
Shohei Imamura (1926-2006)

[Park Seung-ho's ILGOGAM #01] Shohei Imamura โ€” Centenary of 'Film Anthropologist' Shohei Imamura

๐Ÿ’Œ ์—๋””ํ„ฐ์Šค ๋ ˆํ„ฐ
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Shohei Imamura (1926-2006), the two-time Palme d'Or winner ('The Ballad of Narayama', 'The Eel') who excavated the unvarnished vitality of post-war Japan.
Shohei Imamura
์ด๋งˆ๋ฌด๋ผ ์‡ผํ—ค์ด ๊ฐ๋… (1926-2006)[์‚ฌ์ง„=ํ‚ค๋„ค๋งˆ ์ค€๋ณด/์œ„ํ‚ค๋ฏธ๋””์–ด ์ปค๋จผ์Šค]
๐ŸŽฌ Behind-the-Scenes Episodes
Highlight 01

Apprenticed under Yasujiro Ozu before forging the exact opposite path into human desire and grassroots life

Shohei Imamura (1926โ€“2006), one of Japan's most representative film directors, marks his 100th birth anniversary this year. September 15th marked exactly 100 years since his birth, and this year also commemorates the 20th anniversary of his passing.

Highlight 02

Two-time Cannes Palme d'Or winner and founder of the Japan Institute of the Moving Image

Imamura walked a path diametrically opposed to the restrained, static style of his mentor, Ozu. He pursued a realism that captured human desire, survival instincts, and life at the bottom of society. Emphasizing thorough field research from the scriptwriting stage, he insisted on all-location shooting and maintained a practice where actors and staff lived together on-site for long periods. Obsessed with human nature to the point of considering himself an anthropologist, he was dubbed a "film anthropologist" by Western critics.

๐Ÿ” Classic Cinema Trivia
๐Ÿ’ก Note 01
Unfortunately, no comparable movements have been confirmed in South Korea yet. While the Seoul Art Cinema held a retrospective in 2017 and the Korean Film Archive held one in 2004, no special programs for his 100th anniversary have been found. His essay collection, ยซThe Eel Teacherยป (Maumsanchaek), is available in Korean.
๐ŸŽž๏ธ Weekend Watchlist Pick
Shohei Imamura
Centenary of 'Film Anthropologist' Shohei Imamura
๐ŸŽฌ 1๋ถ„ ์˜ํ™” ์‡ผ์ธ  ยท 1๋ถ„ ์˜ํ™” ์‡ผ์ธ 
Centenary of 'Film Anthropologist' Shohei Imamura
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Park Seung-ho's ILGOGAM
Curated behind-the-scenes essays and archive notes on postwar Japanese cinema.
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๋ฐœํ–‰์ธ: ๋ฐ•์Šนํ˜ธ ยท ๋ฌธ์˜: shpark@ajunews.com