Masato Hara
While still in secondary school, Hara Masato (1950) won several prizes with his 16mm film A Sad Yet Funny Ballad. In 1970, he wrote the script for Oshima Nagasi's film The Man Who Left His Will on Film. In 1973, he completed The First Emperor, a film on which he worked for three years. The film was selected by the magazine Kinema Jumpo as one of the most important films in Japanese film history. From the 1980s on, Hara focused increasingly on television documentaries. In his work, he makes use of various media, mainly animation and laser disk images and he often combines the screening of his films with live performances.
20th Century Nostalgia (1997)
A young student believes that the spirit of an alien from another planet has gone back in time, taking over his body to infiltrate and study humanity in order to find the reasons why our civilization is doomed to future destruction. He replicates the spirit of ... (more)
A young student believes that the spirit of an alien from another planet has gone back in time, taking over his body to infiltrate and study humanity in order to find the reasons why our civilization is doomed to future destruction. He replicates the spirit of ... (more)
Funeral Parade of Roses
(1969)
In late 60s Tokyo, Eddie, a young drag queen, is the favourite of Gonda, the owner of the bar where she works. This relationship provokes the jealousy of Gonda's mistress, Leda, the bar's matron. Eddie and Gonda decide to get rid of her... (more)
In late 60s Tokyo, Eddie, a young drag queen, is the favourite of Gonda, the owner of the bar where she works. This relationship provokes the jealousy of Gonda's mistress, Leda, the bar's matron. Eddie and Gonda decide to get rid of her... (more)
A Sad Yet Funny Ballad (1968)
A young man sets out to make a Super 8 film, but isn't sure what the film should be about. (more)
A young man sets out to make a Super 8 film, but isn't sure what the film should be about. (more)
The First Emperor (1973)
In 1971, Hara Masato and a group or actors started shooting his 16mm film, The First Emperor, based on an old Japanese book about history and myths that is known as the Kojiki ('Record of Ancient Matters'). He did not finish the film. (more)
In 1971, Hara Masato and a group or actors started shooting his 16mm film, The First Emperor, based on an old Japanese book about history and myths that is known as the Kojiki ('Record of Ancient Matters'). He did not finish the film. (more)
SOAR: I Wish You Were Here (2015)
A tragic love story set in a mountain village in the Showa era, waiting for a fiancé who died in the war, but it is more than that. It breaks through the existing concept of a film with a beginning, middle, and end, and like Fellini or Godard... Hara Masato's ... (more)
A tragic love story set in a mountain village in the Showa era, waiting for a fiancé who died in the war, but it is more than that. It breaks through the existing concept of a film with a beginning, middle, and end, and like Fellini or Godard... Hara Masato's ... (more)
MI • TA • RI! (2002)
Film director Masato Hara welcomes MAORI as a partner and begins a new life. The two of us routinely turn the 8mm camera and make songs while the days go by. The time between the two will soon be the time for the three with their newborn eldest son, KOBOH. And a ... (more)
Film director Masato Hara welcomes MAORI as a partner and begins a new life. The two of us routinely turn the 8mm camera and make songs while the days go by. The time between the two will soon be the time for the three with their newborn eldest son, KOBOH. And a ... (more)
Yakeato Chronicle (2022)
Hara's new film 「焼け跡クロニクル」 is a documentary film about Hara's attempt to rebuild his life from scratch after his house burned down in 2018 and he lost all his household goods and film equipment. Co-produced with Maori Hara, his partner in both public and private ... (more)
Hara's new film 「焼け跡クロニクル」 is a documentary film about Hara's attempt to rebuild his life from scratch after his house burned down in 2018 and he lost all his household goods and film equipment. Co-produced with Maori Hara, his partner in both public and private ... (more)
The Eternal Traveller (1995)
Filmmaker Masato Hara and his teenage son set off on a road trip, following the route of Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North. (more)
Filmmaker Masato Hara and his teenage son set off on a road trip, following the route of Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North. (more)
Futago Rekki (2018)
At the age of 63, Masato Hara becomes father to a pair of twin sisters, and for the first time in his life must work part-time jobs to make a living. (more)
At the age of 63, Masato Hara becomes father to a pair of twin sisters, and for the first time in his life must work part-time jobs to make a living. (more)
A Man Who Became Cinema (2018)
Never Ending Summer (1997)
With two people I met on the live screening tour of my previous film The Eternal Traveler, Kaneko Tomokazu (17) and Onuma Ryoko (23), posing as my son and my daughter, the "Road Movie Family" went on voyage in the summer of 1996, taking five cameras with them. This ... (more)
With two people I met on the live screening tour of my previous film The Eternal Traveler, Kaneko Tomokazu (17) and Onuma Ryoko (23), posing as my son and my daughter, the "Road Movie Family" went on voyage in the summer of 1996, taking five cameras with them. This ... (more)