Director YOSHIDA Yoshishige (Kijū) has passed away on December 8, 2022, at the age of 89.
 
Born in 1933 in Fukui. After graduating from the Department of French Literature, Tokyo University in 1955, Yoshida entered the Shochiku Studio, working as an assistant director for Kinoshita Keisuke. Yoshida made his directorial debut with Good for Nothing (1960), and as a leader of the “Shochiku Nouvelle Vague,” he directed such films as Akitsu Springs (1962) starring Okada Mariko, who later became his wife. In 1966, Yoshida established his own production company Gendai Eigasha, where he directed numerous feature films and documentaries, including Eros + Massacre (1969) and Coup d’État (1973). His film Women in the Mirror (2002) was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, a retrospective of his work was presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2020, Yoshida published a historical novel inspired by the life of Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler.
 
In 2020, he participated in the “Asia Lounge” conversation series at the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival, where he spoke with filmmaker Rithy Panh about the origins of his filmmaking and his profession as a filmmaker.
 
We would like to express our sincere condolences and would like to convey our deepest sympathy.
Tokyo International Film Festival