©Courtesy of “The Youth Killer”

Film director Kazuhiko Hasegawa, known for works such as “The Youth Killer” and “The Man Who Stole the Sun,” died yesterday, January 31, at a hospital in Tokyo due to multiple organ failure caused by aspiration pneumonia, Kyodo News reported. He was 80.

Born January 5, 1946, in Hiroshima Prefecture, Hasegawa joined Imamura Productions under director Shohei Imamura while attending the University of Tokyo, subsequently dropping out. He participated as staff on Imamura’s film “Profound Desire the Gods” and served as assistant director on works by Keiichi Ozawa, Shogo Nishimura, and Tatsumi Kamishiro.

He also worked as a screenwriter, penning works such as “Love Bandit Rat Man,” “Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland,” “Bitterness of Youth,” and “Evening Primrose.” He made his directorial debut in 1976 with “The Youth Killer.” Starring Yutaka Mizutani and Mieko Harada, this debut film won first place in the 50th Kinema Junpo Best Ten Awards. In 1979, he released his second directorial work, “The Man Who Stole the Sun.” Featuring Kenji Sawada and Bunta Sugawara, this film was selected as number one in Kinema Junpo’s “1970s Japanese Film Best Ten.”

In 1982, he co-founded Directors’ Company with Shinji Sōmai, Kichitarō Negishi, Tomomasa Takahashi, Kazuyuki Izutsu, Toshiharu Ikeda, Kazuki Ōmori, Sōgō Ishii, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The company produced films such as “Typhoon Club,” “DOOR,” “Sweet Home,” and “Tôkyô jôkû irasshaimase.”

Hasegawa remained a director whose new work was eagerly anticipated. In 2015, Kinema Junpo’s late April issue even published a call for project ideas for the “Director Kazuhiko Hasegawa New Project,” but it never materialized.