Ishirō Honda
Director
b. 1911 · Japan
Honda studied filmmaking at Nihon University before his career was interrupted by years of military service and captivity during World War II, experiences that profoundly shaped the tone of the film that would make him famous.
A World War II veteran and Kurosawa's close friend, Honda channeled the trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki directly into a 50-meter monster — and invented an entire genre in the process. He served in the Imperial Japanese Army and was later held as a prisoner of war before returning to filmmaking.
He went on to direct numerous sequels and other giant-monster films throughout his career, remaining the genre's defining director and a lifelong close friend and occasional collaborator of Akira Kurosawa.
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