Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi. He would become known as a maverick director whose main legacy was films portraying and promoting individualism, which was the opposite of the norm in Japanese society. He entered the law department of Tokyo University, but his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army at the later stages of the Pacific War. As with later Daiei colleague Kenji Misumi, few details are known about Masumura's tenure in the Imperial armed forces, but the fact that he didn't return to Japan until 1947 indicates that he too was likely made prisoner of war after the conflict ended. After dropping out of a law course at the University of Tokyo he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio in late 1947. joined the Daiei studio as an assistant director in late 1947. This job gained him enough money to finance a return to university to study philosophy. He graduated as a Philosophy Major in 1951, all the while continuing to work at Daiei. He then won a scholarship allowing him to study film in Italy at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia under Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He was the first Japanese to study at Rome. Masumura returned to Japan in 1953 and worked as assistant to Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa. . From 1955, he worked as a second-unit director on films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa and Daisuke Ito, before directing his own first film, "Kisses" (1957), with Kuchizuke, which was a commercial success and also won praise from director Oshima Nagisa.. Despite the genre's popularity, Masumura's debut didn't fare well at the box office, due, according to some accounts, to the unusual speed and rhythm Masumura gave the film. What with Japanese film studios each turning out close to a hundred films a year for film-hungry audiences, a single flop didn't carry grave consequences for those involved. All talent was under contract and demand for Watch drama online for free.