Yoshitaro Nomura, 1919 - 2005.

Japanese film director Yoshitaro Nomura, best known for the 1974 thriller Castle of Sand, has died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital.

The BBC.

Nomura was one of Japan's most prolific and celebrated post-World War II directors, making an astonishing 89 films - from samurai dramas to musicals to crime stories - over more than three decades.

The AP's Kenji Hall

What’s most original - and best - about Zero Focus is its marvelous atmosphere. Nomura sets his action in a civilized world perched in the shadow of the menace of nature. Teiko's trip to northern Japan takes her from the comforts of the city to a snowbound, provincial landscape fraught with natural peril: here cliffs tower over raging, icy seas, shanty communities perch along rocky slopes, gorges open up beneath roadways, and snow falls ceaselessly. As Kenichi's double life comes into focus for Teiko, this landscape becomes ever more threatening, until at last this guileless young wife has cause to wonder if she’s in mortal danger herself.

Jake Euker at Filmcritic.com.

Posted by dwhudson at April 12, 2005 3:52 AM