Published: July 03, 2023| 03:56 PM

Japanese filmmaker Yasuzō Masumura would turn one hundred years old next August, and KVIFF is celebrating the anniversary this year with the festival’s richest retrospective of his work to date. Among the eleven films you will find a melodrama, a film noir or a war satire Hoodlum Soldier. Like all of Masumura’s work, it was presented in Karlovy Vary by critic and script editor Joseph Fahim.

“As many others, Masumura was also trying to come to terms with Japan’s role in World War II. And he did it through making films of various genres. Hoodlum Soldier is his most satirical film. What’s more, this film marked a start of his collaboration with a very popular Japanese actor – Shintaro Katsu,” explained Fahim, who helped prepare the Masumura tribute section for this year’s KVIFF.

“In this film, the greatest virtue is not patriotism but individuality. That is the most distinctive element. In its mood and resistance to authority, Hoodlum Soldier is similar to Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, except that Hoodlum was made seven years earlier,” Fahim pointed out. The tribute section celebrating the work of the Japanese master continues during the entire festival.