Source: Hollywood Reporter

Director Yoshitaro Nomura, whose 1974 suspense thriller "Castle of Sand" has been ranked by critics as one of Japan's best films ever, died Friday at 85. Nomura died of pneumonia at Tokyo's Okubo Hospital, where he had been receiving treatment since March 22, his son, Yoshiki, told The Associated Press by telephone.

Nomura was one of Japan's most prolific and celebrated post-World War II directors, making an astonishing 89 films -- from samurai dramas to musicals to crime stories -- over more than three decades.

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