Shinji Sōmai

Shinji Sōmai 相米 慎二 Sōmai Shinji 13 January 1948 9 September 2001 was a Japanese film director He was born in Morioka Iwate Prefecture and was brought up in Hokkaido Somai began his career in 1975 as an assistant director with Nikkatsu Co one of Japans leading film production companies after he dropped out of Chuo University Somai made made his debut as a director in 1980 with The Terrible Couple an adaptation of a popular boys manga of the time The film deals with the trials and tribulations of adolescence presaging a long thread of Somai works in which young people are called upon to test their capabilities while discovering the unreliable nature of adult society In Somais hands children and teenagers are always treated and presented sympathetically and seriously An actors director from the start Somais trademark was a use of long takes usually involving constantlymoving and spectacularly sweeping shots which he felt allowed his cast to achieve the proper mood for scenes which would have been ruined by excessively quick editing Perhaps the most extraordinary use of this technique is to be found in his 1985 film Lost Chapter of Snow Passion one of three of his films released that year in which Somai uses an apparently single fourteenminute take to reveal a succession of significant events in one characters childhood The best of Somais films often straddle genres taking off in unpredictable directions toward stimulating destinations Somai directed 13 films between 1980 and 2000 He died of lung cancer at 53