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Japan's Okamoto Kihachi master works to be showcased in Berlin

Dec 18, 2006, 16:34 GMT

Berlin - Nine film classics by Japanese director Okamoto Kihachi are to be showcased at next year's Berlin Film Festival, organizers announced Monday. Okamoto, who died in 2005 at the age of 82, was one of the pioneers of the new Japanese cinema, but has remained largely unknown internationally. Along with his samurai, gangster and comedy films, Okamoto also shot modern anti-war films with this movies often shaped by his experiences during the Second World War. Born in 1924, Okamoto was a teenager during much of the war years. However, his films to be shown in Berlin date from his so-called middle creative period - the 1950s and '60s - and comprise movies shown as part of a retrospective in Tokyo earlier this year. Together with some of the director's co-workers, Okamoto's wife Minako, who produced some of his films, will present the series in Berlin. The Berlin festival, which is one of the world's top three film festivals, is to take place between February 8 and 18. The Okamoto movies to be shown in Berlin, include the World War II film Desperado Outpost (Dokuritsu gurentai) as well as The Last Gunfight (Ankokugai taiketsu), and The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman (Eburiman shi no yuga na seikatsu) which portrays the everyday life of a simple office employee who is rewriting his life into a novel. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Japan's Okamoto Kihachi master works to be showcased in Berlin

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