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Kaneto Shindō (新藤 兼人, Shindō Kaneto, born April 28, 1912), Hiroshima, Japan) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His best known films include Children of Hiroshima, The Naked Island, Onibaba, Kuroneko and A Last Note. Shindō has often made films dealing with Hiroshima or the atomic bomb. Like his early mentor Kenji Mizoguchi, many of his works feature strong female characters (some demonic, as in Onibaba), most of which were played by the actress Nobuko Otowa (1925–1994), who eventually became his wife. Born in Hiroshima, Shindō's family went from wealthy landowners... MORE

Kaneto Shindō (新藤 兼人, Shindō Kaneto, born April 28, 1912), Hiroshima, Japan) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His best known films include Children of Hiroshima, The Naked Island, Onibaba, Kuroneko and A Last Note. Shindō has often made films dealing with Hiroshima or the atomic bomb. Like his early mentor Kenji Mizoguchi, many of his works feature strong female characters (some demonic, as in Onibaba), most of which were played by the actress Nobuko Otowa (1925–1994), who eventually became his wife. Born in Hiroshima, Shindō's family went from wealthy landowners to bankruptcy and he grew up in poverty with his farmer parents. Shindō first joined the film developing lab of Shinkō Kinema in 1934 as an apprentice. By the late 1930s he moved to the art department and began working as an assistant to his mentor Kenji Mizoguchi on several films, most notably being in charge of the sets for The 47 Ronin. Shindō has acknowledged Mizoguchi as being the main influence on his body of work. He also began writing scripts at this time and made his debut as a screenwriter with the film Nanshin josei in 1940. His scripts were filmed by such directors as Kon Ichikawa, Keisuke LESS