Nomura is a Japanese director, producer and screenwriter. His father was also a director. He began working in film at the age of 22 and his first job was in Shocihki, one of the biggest film studios in Japan. He soon became assistant director to the director Akira Kurosawa on his film Hakuchi (Idiot, 1961). He made his directing debut with the film Hato (Pigeon, 1952). His first film to achieve great success was Harikomi (Stakeout, 1958). His most famous films include the thrillers Suna no utsuwa (The Castle of Sand, 1974) and Zero no shoten (Zero Focus, 1961). He mostly made criminal dramas and is famous as a pioneer of Japanese film noir. He also directed musicals and samurai films. He made Yatsu haka-mura (Village of the Eight Tombs, 1977), Jiken (The Incident, 1978), Kichiku (Demon, 1978), which earned him the award for Best Director from the Japanese academy in 1979. His other films are Haitatsu sarenai santsu no tegami (The Three Undelivered Letters, 1979), Warui yatsura (Bad Sorts, 1980), Giwaku (Suspicion, 1982) and Kikenna onna-tachi (Dangerous Women, 1985), a film version of Agatha Christie’s novel. Later in his career, he worked as a film and TV producer and mentor to young Japanese directors.