Wikipedia:Today's featured list/February 19, 2024
Japanese special-effects director and filmmaker Eiji Tsuburaya worked on roughly 250 films during his five-decade career. Having pioneered and popularized the special-effects sector of the Japanese film industry, he is popularly known as the "Father of Tokusatsu". Tsuburaya started his career in the Japanese film industry as a cinematographer for several successful dramas and jidaigeki (Japanese historical drama) films in the early 1920s. Following the completion of photography on this film, he worked as the cinematographer and had his debut as the special-effects director for Princess Kaguya (1935), one of Japan's first major productions to feature special effects. In 1954, Tsuburaya directed the special effects for Hiroshi Inagaki's jidaigeki epic Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto and the Ishirō Honda kaiju film Godzilla. For the latter film, he achieved his first Japan Technical Award for Special Skill and attained international recognition. (Full list...)