Murata Minoru was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor in the Taisho and early Showa periods born in Ogawamachi, Kanda-ku, Tokyo. He is the first deputy director of the Directors Guild of Japan.

He joined Norimasa Kaeriyama's Film Arts Association from the Shingeki movement and is known for directing "Rojo no Reikon". He actively adopted Western-style techniques and laid the foundation for a masculine and profound Nikkatsu contemporary drama against Shochiku's "Kamata style."

He watched stage plays before graduating from junior high school, and after being impressed by Edward Gordon Craig's stage design, he decided to pursue a theatrical career. After studying painting at a research institute and serving as a waiter for the Teigeki Literary Club, he worked as a student of Kurishima Sagoromo and Ishikawa Kibune

Murata is said to be one of the first directors to establish the so-called cinematic technique of subdividing the production for each cut.

In March 1927, he was elected first place in the "Director Popularity Vote" of the March issue of "Movie Era", and established a solid position as a director.

In August 1932, a big dispute broke out due to the mass dismissal of 186 studio employees, and he led the dispute with other executive directors on the employee side. In September, he left the company, saying that he "did not have the ability to manage the dispute". He lost his eldest daughter at the same time.

In the fall of 1936, he collapsed due to diabetes while shooting "Shingetsusho" and was admitted to the University of Tokyo Hospital.

He died of pleurisy at the age of 43 on June 26, 1937. Edit Biography