Masao Adachi

Author, critic, theorist, screenwriter, actor and director, Masao Adachi is a freeform artist whose work has served the purpose of creative research as well as political action, which has resulted in several decades spent in hiding followed by a stint in prison. His spirit of independence and radicalism contributed to his falling off the Japanese cinema radar until recently. As the works of his contemporary Wakamatsu were internationally restored, Adachi’s name has logically resurfaced and his oeuvre finally recognised.
Adachi is a man of his times, incarnating the revolutionary avant-garde spirit of the political and artistic context that formed him. He studied cinema and directed his first movies through experimental collectives that he himself started. He also became political during the student protests and saw in the film medium a weapon of social upheaval. In 1966 he became acquainted with Wakamatsu, with whom he collaborated extensively through the years, and also took part in some of Ôshima’s films. In 1974, after having travelled through Palestine with Wakamatsu, Adachi decided to extend the film revolution into the armed revolution and left Japan in order to join the Palestinian cause as a member of the Japanese Red Army. He lived in clandestine hiding until his arrest in Beirut in 1997 and spent three years in prison until his extradition to Japan. He now lives in Tokyo and can never leave the country. In 2006 he directed a film inspired by his experiences and has most recently collaborated with French artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire.