Shiro Kido: Cinema Shogun

This is the first biography in English of Shiro Kido, the most famous and influential producer in the history of Japanese cinema. As the head of production and later president of Shochiku, one of Japan leading studios since its start in 1920, he not only shaped Shochiku's distinctive studio style, but launched the careers of such renowned directors as Yasujiro Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yoji Yamada.

Ozu, whose masterpiece "Tokyo Story" (1953) was voted the best film of all time in the recent "Sight & Sound" Directors' Top Ten survey, has been the subject of numerous studies and books in the West. But Kido, who gave Ozu his first directing assignment and had a large and lasting impact on his four-decade career at Shochiku, is little known abroad.

Based on Kido's own autobiography and other materials available only in Japanese, "Shiro Kido: Cinema Shogun" fills that lacunae with a detailed analysis of Kido's approach to film-making, as well as anecdotes and quotes that bring the man himself to life.

The author, Mark Schilling, has been writing and researching about Japanese cinema for more than two decades, including weekly reviews of Japanese films in "The Japan Times" since 1989 and such book publications as "Contemporary Japanese Film" (Weatherhill, 1999), "The Yakuza Movie Book" (Stone Bridge Press, 2003) and "No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema" (FAB Press, 2007). Since 1999 he has also been a program consultant for the Udine Far East Film Festival, Europe's leading showcase of popular Asian cinema.