Kei Kumai

Kei Kumai (Japanese熊 井 启, Kumai Kei; born June 1, 1930 in Nagano, † 23 May 2007) was a Japanese film director.

Recognition brought Kumai 1968 A Tunnel In The Sun ( Kurobe no Taiyo ) with Toshirō Mifune. It followed the drama Shinobugawa (1972, with Komaki Kurihara and Gō Katō ). With his film House Sandakan No. 8 ( Sandakan Hachiban Shokan bōkyō, with Komaki Kurihara and Kinuyo Tanaka ) from the year 1974, he became famous.

An international success in 1976 The North Cape ( Kita no misaki, with the Frenchwoman Claude Jade and Gō Katō and Kinuyo Tanaka ). It travels a nun (Jade ) from Marseille to Yokohama and falls in love with an engineer ( Katō ). Another success was in 1980 over all the seas ( Tenpyo no Iraka ).

His films Chi no mure, Asayake no uta and Hikarigoke were nominated as Sandakan for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. For Umi to dokuyaku (海 と 毒薬, Sea and Poison, a novel by Shusaku Endō ) Kumai received at the Berlinale Silver Bear in 1987.

Among his most important late works include The death of a tea master ( Sen no Rikyu, 1990, Toshirō Mifune and Gō Katō ) for the Kumai was awarded the Silver Lion at the International Film Festival in Venice, and the film adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's last screenplay The sea is ( Umi wa miteita, 2002).