Born in Mie in 1896 and dying in Kyoto in 1982, Teinosuke Kinugasa began as an onnagata, a male actor of female roles, before becoming a director. A Page of Madness (1926), set in a mental asylum, was an avant-garde silent film made with the Shinkankakuha writers, including the later Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, and was long thought lost until he found a copy in 1971. Crossroads (1928) was shown in Europe. After the war he made colourful costume dramas, and Gate of Hell (1953), the first Japanese colour film to be seen widely abroad, won the Palme d'Or and an Oscar.
Filmography
- A Page of Madness (1926)
- Crossroads (1928)
- Yukinojo's Revenge (1935)
- Gate of Hell (1953)