Setting Out from Tottori: An Awakening to Art
Born Kihachiro Okamoto on February 17, 1924, the thirteenth year of the Taisho era, in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture, Kihachi Okamoto would later leave a major mark as a uniquely brilliant director in Japanese cinema. Detailed records of his childhood are scarce, but in light of his later life, his discovery of cinema and attraction to it while growing up in the regional city of Yonago seems a natural course. After graduating from Yonago Commercial and Sericulture School, now Yonago Minami High School, in 1941, he moved to Tokyo like many young people of his time and enrolled in the commerce course of Meiji University's professional division. His passion for film is said to have already begun growing then. He was reportedly particularly influenced by John Ford's Stagecoach and resolved to become a director.
Japan was moving into a wartime system, but Okamoto could not abandon his desire to make films. After graduating from Meiji University's professional commerce division in 1943, he joined Toho as an assistant director. In his own words, the decision was that if he was going to die anyway, he should aim for the world of film he loved. His extraordinary passion for cinema drove him forward even under the harsh conditions of wartime.
Wartime Experience: The Life-Changing Air Raids in Toyohashi
As Okamoto began his path into film, however, the inescapable reality of war confronted him. He was called up in 1944 as the Pacific War worsened, and entered the Army Engineering School in Matsudo in January 1945. He was then assigned to the First Army Reserve Officer School in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. His experiences there would decisively influence the themes of his later films.
While in Toyohashi, Okamoto witnessed many comrades losing their lives in air raids. The Army Reserve Officer School in Toyohashi is said to have been directly hit by an air raid in April 1945. This experience left deep scars and instilled a strong anger toward war and the army and navy leadership. Toyohashi became the starting point for the many antiwar films he would later make, profoundly influencing his creative work.
A Postwar Life in Film: Training under the Masters
After the war, Okamoto returned to Toho, marking the true beginning of his filmmaking life. He trained as an assistant director under leading Japanese directors of the time, including Masahiro Makino, Senkichi Taniguchi, Mikio Naruse, and Ishiro Honda. His talent is said to have been particularly evident in Makino's Jirocho Sangokushi series.
After this period of training, Okamoto made his directorial debut with All About Marriage in 1958. Winning NHK's Best New Director Award for the film, he went on to direct Desperado Outpost from his own screenplay in 1959. It became a major hit and developed into a series. Set on the Chinese front near the end of the war, the story of undisciplined soldiers and a mysterious war correspondent was an innovative work that opened up the then largely unexplored genre of war-action cinema.
Establishing a Distinctive Cinematic World: Creating from Wartime Experience
Kihachi Okamoto's directorial career continued to develop remarkably. He released films across many genres, including The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (1963), Oh, Bomb! (1964), and Japan's Longest Day (1967), considered his greatest hit. Japan's Longest Day, in particular, is a historical epic depicting the tense struggles within the government on August 14–15, 1945, immediately before the war ended, and is highly regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese film history.
Okamoto's distinctive style combines sharp criticism of war and social contradictions with an enduring sense of humor. About half of his 39 films are said to be set against the background of war, undoubtedly reflecting his own wartime experiences. His visual expression is also highly regarded for techniques such as detailed cutting, compositions emphasizing depth learned directly from Mikio Naruse, and cutting out intermediate action, epitomized by the phrase an average of 1,000 cuts in 100 minutes.
After leaving Toho in 1975, Okamoto continued creating acclaimed films, including Battle Cry, Dixieland Daimyo, and Rainbow Kids, through his own Kihachi Productions. He devoted his entire life to cinema until his death from esophageal cancer on February 19, 2005, at age 81. Beginning in a regional city in Tottori and passing through the harsh experience of war, his life in film built a distinctive visual world and left a brilliant mark on Japanese cinema.
