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Masaki Tamura

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Biography

Masaki Tamura (たむら まさき, Tamura Masaki, 26 January 1939 – 23 May 2018) was a Japanese cinematographer. Born in Aomori Prefecture, Tamura early on worked at Iwanami Productions (Iwanami Eiga), where. as an assistant, he helped photograph documentary films. He became a full-fledged cinematographer working on many of the documentaries of Shinsuke Ogawa. At the same time, he began photographing feature fiction films by directors such as Kazuo Kuroki, Yōichi Higashi, and Toshiya Fujita. He particularly became known for his collaborations with Mitsuo Yanagimachi. After working with many famous directors such as Juzo Itami, Sōgo Ishii, Gō Takamine, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Kaizō Hayashi, he began working in the 1990s with a new generation of directors, such as Nobuhiro Suwa, Naomi Kawase, and Makoto Satō. His collaborations with Shinji Aoyama were notable in his final years. In 1982, he won the Mainichi Film Award for best cinematography for the film Farewell to the Land. The same year, he won the best cinematography award at the Yokohama Film Festival for Farewell to the Land and A Japanese Village - Furuyashikimura.

Known For

The Unspoiled Diamond
4.3

A college student has an affair with a married, middle-aged teacher.

The Unspoiled Diamond

1982
Tampopo
7.8

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

Tampopo

1985
Eureka
7.8

In rural Japan, the survivors of a tragedy converge and attempt to overcome their damaged selves, all while a serial killer is on the loose.

Eureka

2001
Ordinary Miracles
7.7

One day, a middle-aged man, Fujimoto Makoto, is standing on a train platform, about to jump in front of a train. Nakashiro Kana and Tasaki Shota both happen to be on the same platform, and sensing what is about to happen, they quickly pull him back to safety. There's a reason why Kana and Shota realized Makoto's intentions, they both have the kind of emotional scars that can't be put into words. Even after so much pain, through a series of e-mails, they've become attracted to one another and slowly learn to open up their hearts once again.

Ordinary Miracles

2009
Lady Snowblood
7.5

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.

Lady Snowblood

1973
Farewell to the Land
4.9

Yukio is an ex-farmer working as a dump-truck driver in Kashima. Haunted by the drowning of his two young sons, whose names he has had tattooed on his back in penance, and locked in a sibling rivalry with his traditional but urbane younger brother who lives in Tokyo, Yukio has become an amphetamine-addicted loner at odds with his family, friends and colleagues.

Farewell to the Land

1982
Serpent's Path
6.9

With the help of a mysterious acquaintance, a former low-level yakuza tracks down and kidnaps the man he believes kidnapped and murdered his daughter, but others are soon implicated in the death.

Serpent's Path

1998
Sad Vacation
6.8

Kenji, abandoned by his mother, scrapes out a meager existence doing odd jobs including driving bar hostesses and their customers home. Besides this he takes care of the sister of an old friend in jail and a young illegal immigrant. Eventually his life reaches a turning point.

Sad Vacation

2007
P. P. Rider
6.0

Three high-school students tangle with indulgent yakuza and lackadaisical police as they set out in search of the class bully, who has been kidnapped.

P. P. Rider

1983
Suzaku
7.3

Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.

Suzaku

1997
The Assassination of Ryoma
4.8

Story of the last three days in the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867), the imperial loyalist who tried to unite the Choshu and Satsuma clans and prepared the way for the Meiji Restoration (1868).

The Assassination of Ryoma

1974
Untamagiru
4.6

A magical realist story of the legendary Okinawan hero Untamagiru participating in efforts to form an independent Okinawa before the island was returned to Japan in 1972.

Untamagiru

1989
Desert Moon
6.1

A successful businessman and his alcoholic wife attempt to piece together their unhappy lives and shattered marriage. Little do Nagai and Akira know that their precarious relationship will soon be transformed by a stranger, the enigmatic Keechie.

Desert Moon

2001
The Lakeside Murder Case
6.5

Three couples are staying at a lakeside cottage with their children. They want them to prepare intensely for a prestigious high school's entrance exam with the help of a private tutor. One night, one of the wives confesses to her husband that she has killed his mistress.

The Lakeside Murder Case

2005
The Legend of Zipang
5.8

Jigoku Gokurakumaru is a samurai on the run. One bounty hunter hoping to collect the sizeable reward is Teppo Oyuri, a comely lass who is an ace shot with her pearl-laden pistol. Before she can set her sights on Gokurakumaru, he is attacked by a hoard of sword-wielding thugs also hoping to collect the reward. He dispatches them with bloody aplomb. Later, Gokurakumaru and Oyuri -- who has fallen for the master swordsman in spite of herself -- venture to Zipang, the Land of Gold, in search of a magical gold sword.

The Legend of Zipang

1990
The Crazy Family
7.0

Shortly after moving to the suburbs, the Kobayashis start to come undone. Convinced a family curse is at the root of their erratic behavior, the man of the house takes it upon himself to course-correct before it takes the last of their sanity.

The Crazy Family

1984
Eyes of the Spider
6.8

After killing the man he believes murdered his daughter, a white-collar worker returns to his mundane life, until he's approached by a man offering a mysterious job opportunity.

Eyes of the Spider

1998
Evil Dead Trap
6.0

A talk show hostess takes a camera crew out to an abandoned factory to investigate a purported snuff film that was made there. As she gets closer to the truth, she and her friends are subjected to a brutal nightmare.

Evil Dead Trap

1988
Red Persimmons
8.0

The ostensible subject of this film is the growing, drying, peeling and packaging of persimmons in the tiny Japanese village of Kaminoyama. The inhabitants explain that it is the perfect combination of earth, wind and rain that makes their village’s persimmons superior to those grown anywhere else, including the village just a few miles away. The film’s larger subject, however, is the disappearance of Japan’s traditional culture, the end of a centuries-old way of life.

Red Persimmons

2001
I’m a Cat Stalker
6.6

Haru works at a part-time job for a bookstore. Her dream is to become an illustrator and she also loves cats. One day, after a cat named Chibutomu disappears from the bookstore Haru canvasses the neighbourhood in search of Chibutomu.

I’m a Cat Stalker

2009