Yoshimitsu Morita, who died last December at 61, would seem to be a classic example of a brilliant young independent filmmaker who ends up as a mainstream journeyman, a career path all too common in Japanese films.
After winning international praise for "Kazoku Gemu (The Family Game)," a 1983 black comedy about a cynical home tutor's takeover of a dysfunctional family, Morita was hailed as the fresh, new voice of Japanese cinema.
In the 1990s, however, he took a more commercial turn, scoring a smash hit with 1997's "Shitsurakuen (Lost Paradise)," a portentous drama about an adulterous middle-aged couple who commit double-suicide. Morita, however, was never easy to pigeonhole; to the end he kept returning to his experimental and comic roots, with varying box office and critical success.