Shintaro Ishihara, Former Toho Director and Screenwriter (and Governor of Tokyo), Passes Away at Age 89

Akira Takarada, Reiko Dan, and Shintaro Ishihara on the set of the 1960 Toho film The Dangerous Kiss.

Shintaro Ishihara, the outspoken and controversial former governor of Tokyo from 1999 through 2012, passed away on February 1 at age 89.

Mr. Ishihara's political opinions will be the subject of debate for years to come, and it should go without saying that they are well beyond the scope of this blog post. I would simply like to point out Mr. Ishihara's often-ignored stint as a writer-director at Toho.

For some background, let me quote from The Japan Times:

Born in Kobe on Sept. 30, 1932, Ishihara first rose to national fame as a young writer, winning the prestigious Akutagawa Award in 1956 for his novel “Taiyo no Kisetsu” (“Season of the Sun”), which he wrote a year earlier at the age of 22 while a student at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University. The book became a best-seller, and Ishihara’s younger brother, Yujiro, who would go on to become one of Japan’s top film stars, made his debut as an actor in the novel’s film adaptation.

That film adaptation was Crazed Fruit (1956), produced by Nikkatsu Studios, which garnered international acclaim. Shortly thereafter, he wrote and directed the boxing drama The Young Beast (1958) at Toho, starring Akira Kubo. In 1960, one of Mr. Ishihara's books was adapted into a much different boxing story, the farcical romance The Dangerous Kiss, starring Akira Takarada. This film, directed by Yuzo Kawashima with a screenplay by Zenzo Matsuyama, features a cameo by Mr. Ishihara himself.

The poster for The Dangerous Kiss (on the right), which prominently advertises the involvement of Shintaro Ishihara. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I saw The Dangerous Kiss theatrically back in 2017, so please follow this link if you'd like to read my writeup on it. 

It's quite amusing to think that such a consequential political figure in Japan once wrote the story on which an Akira Takarada comedy was based, but, lest we forget, the U.S. has seen its share of characters in public office, too. In this case, at least we can all put aside our political opinions and talk about some fun and entertaining movies for a change.