Shochiku Company, Limited (松竹株式会社, Shōchiku Kabushiki Gaisha) TYO: 9601 is a Japanese movie studio and production company for kabuki. It also produces and distributes anime films. Its best remembered directors include Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita (Twenty-Four Eyes, 1954), and more recently Yoji Yamada. Shochiku has also produced films by highly regarded independent and 'loner' directors such as Takashi Miike, Tak...
more
Shochiku Company, Limited (松竹株式会社, Shōchiku Kabushiki Gaisha) TYO: 9601 is a Japanese movie studio and production company for kabuki. It also produces and distributes anime films. Its best remembered directors include Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita (Twenty-Four Eyes, 1954), and more recently Yoji Yamada. Shochiku has also produced films by highly regarded independent and 'loner' directors such as Takashi Miike, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa and Taiwanese New Wave director Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
Formed in 1895 by Takejirō Otani and his brother as a Kabuki production company, Shochiku grew quickly, expanding its business to many other Japanese live theatric styles, like Noh and Bunraku. The company began making films in 1920 and was the first film studio to abandon the use of female impersonators and sought to model itself and its films after Hollywood standards, bringing such things as the star system and the sound stage to Japan. By the early 1930s, Shochiku...
less
