Shūe Matsubayashi(1920-2009)
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
After starting at Toho in 1942, Matsubayashi's career, like that of so
many others, was stalled by the Second World War. After serving in the
Imperial Navy, to which he was fiercely loyal, Matsubayashi returned to
the industry via the Shintoho studio in 1946. Shintoho gave him his
first directorial job, Tokyo Dimples, in 1952. After returning to Toho
in 1955, Matsubayashi specialized in salaryman comedies such as the
Shacho (Boss) series. He directed more of that series (23 entries) than
any other filmmaker. Due to Matsubayashi's wartime patriotism, greater
than that of many of his contemporaries, Toho often entrusted him with
their big-budget, special effects-laden war pictures from the 1960s up
through the early 1980s. His best known movie outside Japan is probably
Sekai Daisenso (aka The Last War, 1961).
