Kon Ichikawa, 1915-2008

Japanese director Kon Ichikawa is dead at 92. A contemporary of Akira Kurosawa, Ichikawa directed his first feature,in 1946 and his last in 2006. He began his career in the animation department at what would become Toho studios, and moved to assistant director of live pictures in 1935 before making A Girl at Dojo Temple in 1946. Beginning in light comedies, he directed historical dramas (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, 1958), war movies (Fires on the Plain, 1959), documentaries (Tokyo Olympiad, 1965) and mysteries (The Inugamis, 1976, 2006). He was considered to be on a par with the greatest of Japanese filmmakers of the last century, up alongside Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Keisuke Miyashita. (sources: Variety and Zee News).