Biography for
Kaneto Shindô More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

22 April 1912, Hiroshima, Japan

Date of Death

29 May 2012, Hiroshima, Japan

Spouse

Nobuko Otowa	(1978 - 22 December 1994) (her death) 1 child
?	(? - ?) (divorced)

Trivia

Entered the film industry with the goal of being a screenwriter.

He became a trainee under director Kenji Mizoguchi. Although Mizoguchi did not teach screenwriting, Shindo thought that working under him would improve his screenwriting skills.

He served for 21 months in World War II.

He made the film Hadaka no shima with his own production company, which was facing financial ruin at the time. Using one-tenth of the average budget, he took one last impassioned risk to make this film. Hadaka no shima won the Grand Prix at Moscow International Film Festival (where Luchino Visconti was a jury member). It is now considered to be one of Shindo's major works and saved his production company from bankruptcy.

He was the second oldest active film-maker in the world and the oldest film director in Japan.

He was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was one of only six members of his 100 man unit to survive the war.

He is survived by a son, Jiro Shindo, and a granddaughter.

His family were once landowners who lost their money.

Entered the film industry in 1934 as an assistant art director.

When he returned from World War II, he was able to get a job in the Script Department at the Shochiku Ofuna Studios.

Personal Quotes

[on Hadaka no shima (1960)] The film was made as a 'cinematic poem' to try and capture the life of human beings struggling like ants against the forces of nature.

I have always had the souls of the 94 with me and have made them the theme of my existence.

[on his parents in labor] The backbreaking labor of wheat harvesting and the grueling job of threshing by hand with primitive implements.

Where Are They Now

(September 2008) His latest film, "Ishiuchi jinjo koto shogakko: Hana wa chiredomo" (2008), which he both wrote and directed, has been released. At 96, this is believed to make Kaneto Shindo the world's second oldest active film director, after the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira who is 4 years older and still active as of November 2008.