邦画監督 Japanese Directors
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- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948) was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).七人の侍- Director
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- Cinematographer
Akiyoshi Imazeki was born on 19 November 1959 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Kalina's Apple: Forest of Chernobyl (2011), Klevani: Ai no Tunnel (2014) and Drive My Car (2021).Time Leap- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Hiroshi Teshigahara was born the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (flower arrangement). In 1950, he graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Centre and took a leading role in avant-garde activities in many fields of art. Beginning in 1980, acting as movie director, he was the Iemoto (Headmaster) of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana.砂の女- Actor
- Writer
- Director
A tragic end belies a life led with purpose. The son of a successful filmmaker, Juzo Itami made his name acting in television and films before making a late career shift into screenwriting and directing at age 50. Known to choose the subjects of his films through everyday observations, he often followed up significant events in his life with films depicting idiosyncrasies that he felt were unique to the evolving Japanese culture. He was the definition of an iconoclast who took the great Molière's words to heart, "castigat ridendo mores" (criticise customs through humour).
Attributed as a key figure in the re-emergence of the latest wave of Japanese films that marked their presence outside of Japan, Itami proved to be a force of energy and originality that revived the country's stake in international cinema during the 1980s. Critics and audiences alike were simpatico when it came to his clever and keenly entrenched satires of his country's societal misgivings and he quickly became the most famous modern director of his generation. Throughout his directorial oeuvre of 10 films (list at the end), which stretched from 1984 to his final film in 1997, they were popular both domestically and maintained a staunch international following.
Every so often, Itami was compared to his then recently deceased French counterpart, Jacques Tati, who utilised similar styles of critiquing their society's cultural transition while crafting films with trenchant distinctions in humour and sadness. They also had almost similar, brief numbers of films that they directed and wrote before their death and they also used similar elements in the majority of their films. Itami cast his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto in every one of his 10 films. She was synonymous with Itami's fans across the world. Her versatility with melodrama and her impeccable comic timing proved invaluable to her husband's unique blend of the two genres as she portrayed characters that have been labeled as an "Everywoman" role. These roles laid the groundwork for a much more diverse representation of genders in Japan's films as Itami's women were usually strong, smart and gifted with moral fortitude when faces with tremendous adversity.
A common misconception outside of Japan would be that Tampopo (1985) was Itami's career-making debut. And although Tampopo (1985) is his most successful and critically acclaimed to date, his first feature was actually a humourous look at the Japanese attitudes towards death in The Funeral (1984), which touched on the generational gap opposing the stringently revered traditional values of the elders and the often-callous modernism of their children. Tampopo (1985) followed it to immense and unexpected success outside of its native land. The gastronomic "noodle western" as Itami himself had coined it, was an episodic venture (which formed the structure of his other films) of a restaurateur determined to create the best possible noodle for the best possible noodle eatery. Consumed with quirky characters and their own respective obsessions, it was a surreal fusion of wink-wink ribald imagery that was obstinately Japanese and a cheeky lampoon on the Leone "spaghetti westerns" that showed early signs of his development to an auteur. The public was now aware of Itami's established comedic style and free-wielding use of the narrative and they wanted more.
After a string of successful hits such as A Taxing Woman (1987) (A Taxing Woman) and its sequel came one of Itami's most intriguing films to date in Minbo also commonly held as Minbo (1992) (The Anti-Extortion Woman). It was scathing attack on the pride of the Japanese Yakuza through the film's story of a spirited female protagonist skewering and training feeble men to fight back against the criminal elements through courage and determination instead of resorting to violence. The film's realistic content apparently hit a sore spot with real gang members who waited outside of Itami's home and slashed him across his face that left him in the hospital. During his recuperation at the hospital, he found material for his next feature in The Last Dance (1993) about a dying film director accepting with his illness amidst an uncaringly cold healthcare system with an ironic look at infidelity and suicide that was a precursor to the rest of Itami's life. Still haunted and suitably outraged by the attack following Minbo, Itami's final film in 1997 was the black comedy Woman in Witness Protection (1997). It was his ode to freedom of expression that revolved around an actress witnessing a cult murder and becomes a target, both in the media and for hired guns.
On December 20, 1997, the 64-year-old Itami was found seriously injured on the street below his office and later died in the hospital. A suicide note was left behind by Itami that expressed innocence to a tabloid's accusation of his infidelity with a younger woman. Itami's energy and aversion to jadedness in his long career in films would have no doubt been still at use to this day if he was alive.- Director
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Shinobu Yaguchi was born on 30 May 1967 in Isehara, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Wood Job! (2014), Swing Girls (2004) and Down the Drain (1993).- Producer
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Hiroshi Sugawara is known for Hotaru no hoshi (2003), Bokura no nanoka-kan sensô (1988) and Dreammaker (1999).- Director
- Editor
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Hiroyuki Nakano was born in 1958 in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan. He is a director and editor, known for Samurai Fiction (1998), Deee-Lite: Groove Is in the Heart (1990) and Have a Nice Day (2006).- Director
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- Producer
Yoshimitsu Morita was born on 25 January 1950 in Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for The Family Game (1983), Sorekara (1985) and Haru (1996). He was married to Misao Morita. He died on 20 December 2011 in Tokyo, Japan.- Producer
- Director
Yasuo Baba is known for Messengers (1999), Kanojo ga mizugi ni kigaetara (1989) and Baburu e go!! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki (2007).- Producer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Takashi Yamazaki was born on 12 June 1964 in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan. He is a producer and director, known for Godzilla Minus One (2023), The Fighter Pilot (2013) and Always: Sunset on Third Street (2005). He has been married to Shimako Sato since April 2012.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sadaaki Haginiwa is known for Bang! (1991), Nanba kin'yû-den, Minami no teiô: Supesharu gekijô-ban (1995) and Torarete Tamaruka! (1992).- Director
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Shohei Imamura's films dig beneath the surface of Japanese society to reveal a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath. Along with his colleagues Nagisa Ôshima and Masahiro Shinoda, Imamura began his serious directorial career as a member of the New Wave movement in Japan. Reacting against the studio system, and particularly against the style of Yasujirô Ozu, the director he first assisted, Imamura moved away from the subtlety and understated nature of the classical masters to a celebration of the primitive and spontaneous aspects of Japanese life. To explore this level of Japanese consciousness, Imamura focuses on the lower classes, with characters who range from bovine housewives to shamans, and from producers of blue movies to troupes of third-rate traveling actors. He has proven himself unafraid to explore themes usually considered taboo, particularly those of incest and superstition. Imamura himself was not born into the kind of lower-class society he depicts. The college-educated son of a physician, he was drawn toward film, and particularly toward the kinds of films he would eventually make, by his love of the avant-garde theater. Imamura has worked as a documentarist, recording the statements of Japanese who remained in other parts of Asia after the end of WWII, and of the "karayuki-san"--Japanese women sent to accompany the army as prostitutes during the war period. His heroines tend to be remarkably strong and resilient, able to outlast, and even to combat, the exploitative situations in which they find themselves. This is a stance that would have seemed impossible for the long-suffering heroines of classical Japanese films. In 1983, Imamura won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Ballad of Narayama (1983), based on a Shichirô Fukazawa novel about a village where the elderly are abandoned on a sacred mountaintop to die. Unlike director Keisuke Kinoshita's earlier version of the same story, Imamura's film, shot on location in a remote mountain village, highlights the more disturbing aspects of the tale through its harsh realism. In his attempt to capture what is real in Japanese society, and what it means to be Japanese, Imamura used an actual 40-year-old former prostitute in his The Insect Woman (1963); a woman who was searching for her missing fiancé in A Man Vanishes (1967); and a non-actress bar hostess as the protagonist of his History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970). Despite this anthropological bent, Imamura has cleverly mixed the real with the fictional, even within what seems to be a documentary. This is most notable in his A Man Vanishes (1967), in which the fiancée becomes more interested in an actor playing in the film than with her missing lover. In a time when the word "Japanese" is often considered synonymous with "coldly efficient," Imamura's vision of a more robust and intuitive Japanese character adds an especially welcome cinematic dimension.- Writer
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Having received his education at Yokohama National University, Shunji Iwai started out in the entertainment industry by directing music videos and television dramas, including the likes of Maria, Lunatic Love and Fireworks, for which he received the award for Best Newcomer from the Japanese Director's Association. He eventually moved onto larger things with his short film Undo (1994), later followed by the hit Swallowtail Butterfly (1996) starring Japanese pop singer, Chara.
As his career progressed, he received even more awards, especially for his films Love Letter (1995) and All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) (All About Lily Chou-Chou). Shunji Iwai resides in Japan.- Director
- Writer
Eiichirô Hasumi was born on 29 March 1967 in Chiba, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Assassination Classroom (2015), MOZU (2014) and Assassination Classroom: The Graduation (2016).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Katsuyuki Motohiro was born on 13 July 1965 in Marugame, Kagawa, Japan. He is a director and producer, known for Bayside Shakedown (1998), Odoru daisosasen the movie 2: Rainbow Bridge wo fuusa seyo! (2003) and Satorare (2001).- Director
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Born in Yamanashi, Japan, Yasuzô Masumura 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 earned a law degree towards the end of World War II from Tokyo University, yet joined Daiei Studio as an assistant director in 1950. He pursued a second degree at Tokyo University as a literature and philosophy double major. He was the first Japanese to study at Rome, Italy's Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia. He returned to Japan in 1953 and worked as assistant to Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa. Masumura's own lead directorial debut came in 1957 with Kuchizuke, which was a commercial success and also won praise from director Oshima Nagisa. Masumura went on to become a prolific director who also continued writing on Japanese cinema. A 1996 ten-day retrospective on Masumura in Rome was attended by Michaelangelo Antonioni who was an admirer.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Kôki Mitani was born on 8 July 1961 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a writer and actor, known for Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997), The Magic Hour (2008) and The Kiyosu Conference (2013). He was previously married to Satomi Kobayashi.- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yamada Yoji graduated Tokyo University in 1954, the year he joined Shochiku as an assistant director. In 1969, he launched the popular "Tora-san" series, the world's longest theatrical film series. "The Twilight Samurai" (The Twilight Samurai (2002)) marks his 77th film as well as his 41th year as a director since his first film in 1961: Nikai no Tanin (Stranger Upstairs).- Director
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Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), based on a Teru Miyamoto novel and drawn from his own experiences while filming August Without Him (1994), won jury prizes at Venice and Chicago. The main themes of his oeuvre include memory, loss, death and the intersection of documentary and fictive narratives.- Director
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tetsuya Nakashima was born on 2 September 1959 in Fukuoka, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Confessions (2010), Kiraware Matsuko no isshô (2006) and Kamikaze Girls (2004).- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Masayuki Suô was born on 29 October 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Shall We Dance? (1996), Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1992) and I Just Didn't Do It (2006). He has been married to Tamiyo Kusakari since 9 March 1996.- Director
- Writer
Nori Koizumi is an award winning film director based in Japan. After years of student-film making he was hired for Robot Communications Inc., one the most competitive film productions in Japan. His ability soon lead him to direct his first feature "Midnight Sun"(2006) in age of 25. This film earned 1.1 billion yen at the box office which was an enormous hit in Japanese film industry. He was immediately hailed as one of the most promising young directors. His follow up film, "Gachi Boy, Wrestling with a Memory"(2008) also went on to receive critical acclaim. It was premiered in AFI FEST 2008 and have won a Grand Prize in the 10th UDINE FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL. After working with the top 6 major actresses in Japan in "Flowers"(2010), he has earned more than 1.7 billion yen with his 5th feature "The Liar and his Lover"(2013) which he took part as much as writing as well as directing. His next work "Chihayafuru Part1 & Part2 "(2016) has not only earned nearly 3 billion yen at the box office but also won a Director of the Year in the 8th TAMA FILM FESTIVAL. His latest work "Chihayafuru Part3"(2018) became a big hit again earning more than 1.7 billion yen at the box office. He has been exceeding 1 billion yen; a standard for a big hit in Japanese Film Industry, for 4 films in a row. Nori Koizumi is one and only successful Japanese Director in his generation who constantly earns more than 1 billion yen at the box office. His reputation is focused on his sensitive depiction of human emotions and his remarkable story telling skills, all under perfect balance of entertainment and aesthetics. He is also known to be foresighted for finding a new talent. He always promotes a new comer for a key role and every single one of them now have become top actors/actresses/singers. Almost 5 years of childhood days in Los Angeles made him to speak, listen and write English as fluent as native. Nori Koizumi is, with no doubt, one of the most significant high profile young directors in Japan expected to be the next world class filmmaker from Asia.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi was born on 9 January 1938 in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. He was a director and editor, known for House (1977), Turning Point (1994) and The Discarnates (1988). He was married to Kyôko Ôbayashi. He died on 10 April 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Norifumi Suzuki was born on 26 November 1933 in Shizuoka, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Truck Rascals (1975), Kantô Tekiya ikka: Goromen himatsuri (1971) and Girl Boss Revenge: Sukeban (1973). He died on 15 May 2014 in Tokyo, Japan.- Visual Effects
- Director
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- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Teruo Ishii was born on 1 January 1924 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Gensen-Kan Inn (1993), Female Yakuza Tale (1973) and The Great Villain's Strategy (1966). He died on 12 August 2005 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Takashi Harada is known for Hakurai jingi: Kapone no shatei (1970), Ningyo-tei ibun: Muhôgai no Surônin (1976) and Hitokiri kannon-uta (1970).- Director
- Actress
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Misao Arai is known for Natsu no arashi (1973), Shojo no irezumi (1976) and The House Where Evil Dwells (1982).- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Shinsuke Sato was born on 16 September 1970 in Hiroshima, Prefecture Hiroshima, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for I Am a Hero (2015), The Princess Blade (2001) and Inuyashiki (2018).- Writer
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yûzô Kawashima was born on 4 February 1918 in Tanabu, Aomori, Japan [now Mutsu, Aomori, Japan]. He was a director and writer, known for The Temple of Wild Geese (1962), Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957) and The Balloon (1956). He died on 11 June 1963 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Shun Nakahara was born on 25 May 1951 in Kagoshima, Japan. Shun is a director and assistant director, known for The Cherry Orchard (1990), Candidate for Seduction (1982) and Coquille (1998).- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Takashi Motoki is known for GACHI-BAN MAX2 (2010), GACHI-BAN: WORST MAX (2012) and Survive Girls (2006).- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Actor
Yûji Tajiri was born in 1968 in Hokkaido, Japan. He is an assistant director and director.- Director
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Yûki Aoyama is known for Recently, My Sister Is Unusual (2014) and Finding the Adolescence (2014).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Kôta Yoshida was born on 28 August 1978 in Tokyo, Japan. Kôta is a director and writer, known for Come as You Are (2011) and Sexual Drive (2021).- Director
- Writer
Nori Koizumi is an award winning film director based in Japan. After years of student-film making he was hired for Robot Communications Inc., one the most competitive film productions in Japan. His ability soon lead him to direct his first feature "Midnight Sun"(2006) in age of 25. This film earned 1.1 billion yen at the box office which was an enormous hit in Japanese film industry. He was immediately hailed as one of the most promising young directors. His follow up film, "Gachi Boy, Wrestling with a Memory"(2008) also went on to receive critical acclaim. It was premiered in AFI FEST 2008 and have won a Grand Prize in the 10th UDINE FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL. After working with the top 6 major actresses in Japan in "Flowers"(2010), he has earned more than 1.7 billion yen with his 5th feature "The Liar and his Lover"(2013) which he took part as much as writing as well as directing. His next work "Chihayafuru Part1 & Part2 "(2016) has not only earned nearly 3 billion yen at the box office but also won a Director of the Year in the 8th TAMA FILM FESTIVAL. His latest work "Chihayafuru Part3"(2018) became a big hit again earning more than 1.7 billion yen at the box office. He has been exceeding 1 billion yen; a standard for a big hit in Japanese Film Industry, for 4 films in a row. Nori Koizumi is one and only successful Japanese Director in his generation who constantly earns more than 1 billion yen at the box office. His reputation is focused on his sensitive depiction of human emotions and his remarkable story telling skills, all under perfect balance of entertainment and aesthetics. He is also known to be foresighted for finding a new talent. He always promotes a new comer for a key role and every single one of them now have become top actors/actresses/singers. Almost 5 years of childhood days in Los Angeles made him to speak, listen and write English as fluent as native. Nori Koizumi is, with no doubt, one of the most significant high profile young directors in Japan expected to be the next world class filmmaker from Asia.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Hayato Kawai is known for Love's Stoppage Time (2019), Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (2019) and Tokusô (2014).- Director
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Shion Sono is a Japanese director, writer and poet. Born in Aichi Perfecture in 1961 he started his career working as a poet before taking his first steps in film directing. As a student he shot a series of short films in Super 8 and managed to make his first feature films in the late 80s and early 90s, in which he also starred. The film that helped him reach a wider international audience and establish himself as a cult director is Love Exposure (2008) , released in 2008. Ai no mukidashi is the first installment of Sono's Trilogy of Hate followed by Cold Fish (2010) and concluded with Guilty of Romance (2011). The films of Shion Sono often tell the stories of socially marginalized teenagers or young adults who end up engaging in activities that involve murders, sexual abuse and criminal behavior. Sono's films in most of the cases contain scenes filled with graphic violence and blood that echo the long pinku eiga and anime tradition of Japanese cinema.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, primarily because there were no entrance exams. By his own account Miike was an undisciplined student and attended few classes, but when a local TV company came scouting for unpaid production assistants, the school nominated the one pupil who never showed up: Miike. He spent almost a decade working in television, in many different roles, before becoming an assistant director in film to, amongst others, his old mentor Imamura. The "V-Cinema" (Direct to Video) boom of the early 1990s was to be Miike's break into directing his own films, as newly formed companies hired eager young filmmakers willing to work cheap and crank out low-budget action movies. Miike's first theatrically distributed film was Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) (Shinjuku Triad Society), and from then on he alternated V-Cinema films with higher-budgeted pictures. His international breakthrough came with Audition (1999) (Audition), and since then he has an ever expanding cult following in the west. A prolific director, Miike has directed (at the time of this writing) 60+ films in his 13 years as director, his films being known for their explicit and taboo representations of violence and sex, as seen in such works as Bijitâ Q (2001) (Visitor Q), Ichi the Killer (2001) (Ichi The Killer) and the Dead or Alive Trilogy: Dead or Alive (1999), Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000) and Dead or Alive: Final (2002).- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Yûichi Fukuda was born on 12 July 1968 in Oyama, Tochigi, Japan. He is a writer and director, known for HK: Forbidden Super Hero (2013), Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku (2020) and Jossy's (2014).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Senkichi Taniguchi was born on 19 February 1912 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Swift Current (1952), Shiosai (1954) and A Man in the Storm (1957). He was married to Kaoru Yachigusa, Setsuko Wakayama and Yôko Mizuki. He died on 29 October 2007 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
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- Producer
Born in Gifu, Japan. He studied literature at Waseda University. After graduation, working as businessman, he made some movies personally. 1977-1979, he worked as assistant director under some directors like Koji Wakamatsu, Banmei Takahashi, Tatsumi Kumashiro, etc. 1979-1990, he made many blue movies as director or producer. In these movies, we can find "Hentai Kazoku: Aniki no yomesan" known as the first movie of director Masayuki Suo (the director of "Shall We Dance?"). "Since 1990, he has directed non-pornographic films, like "Asatte Dansu", "Ningen Kosaten - Michi", "Me wo tojite daite", etc. In 1993, he founded a movie production company "Altamira Pictures Inc." with Masayuki Suo and "Shall we dance" team. Since then, he works as director and producer in the company.- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Rintarô Mayuzumi was born in 1953 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a director and producer, known for Nezumi, Edo wo hashiru (2014), Rampo (1994) and Kaze no Tôge: Ginkan no Fu (2015). He has been married to Yoshie Taira since 1989.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Kazuyoshi Okuyama was born on 4 December 1953 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a producer and director, known for Rampo (1994), Violent Cop (1989) and Sonatine (1993).- Director
- Writer
Shota Sasaki is known for Kyôkasho ni nai! (2016), Kyôkasho ni nai! 2 (2016) and Help of God (2010).- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Masaki Kobayashi was born on 14 February 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on 4 October 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.- Director
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent era, only his last 12 productions are really known outside of Japan because they were especially produced for Venice (e.g The Life of Oharu (1952) or Sansho the Bailiff (1954). He only filmed two productions in color: Yôkihi (1955) and Taira Clan Saga (1955).- Writer
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Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first film the next year, Zange no yaiba (1927). Ozu made thirty-five silent films, and a trilogy of youth comedies with serious overtones he turned out in the late 1920s and early 1930s placed him in the front ranks of Japanese directors. He made his first sound film in 1936, The Only Son (1936), but was drafted into the Japanese Army the next year, being posted to China for two years and then to Singapore when World War II started. Shortly before the war ended he was captured by British forces and spent six months in a P.O.W. facility. At war's end he went back to Shochiku, and his experiences during the war resulted in his making more serious, thoughtful films at a much slower pace than he had previously. His most famous film, Tokyo Story (1953), is generally considered by critics and film buffs alike to be his "masterpiece" and is regarded by many as not only one of Ozu's best films but one of the best films ever made. He also turned out such classics of Japanese film as The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), Floating Weeds (1959) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962).
Ozu, who never married and lived with his mother all his life, died of cancer in 1963, two years after she passed.- Director
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- Cinematographer
Kazuo Hara was born on 8 June 1945 in Yamaguchi, Japan. He is a director and actor, known for The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987), A Dedicated Life (1994) and Sennan Asbestos Disaster (2016).- Director
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- Producer
Considered a major figure of Japan's 'golden age of cinema', Mikio Naruse was a filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed 89 films in the period 1930 to 1967. Although Naruse's work is lesser known in the twenty-first century than those of his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujirô Ozu, his films remain unique in the way they give a central place to female characters. While neither Naruse or his audiences would have identified themselves as 'feminist', these films tend to challenge the rigid gender norms of Japanese society. Among Mikio Naruse's most noted films, of which many can be described as bleak social drama (or shomin-geki = ordinary people drama), are Sound of the Mountain (1954), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Floating Clouds (1955).- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Born in Takaoka, Toyama, Yojiro Takita came to international audiences' attention with the release of Okuribito ('Departures'), which won the Best foreign Language film awards at the Oscars in 2009. He had begun his directorial career in the 1980s with the 'chikan' ('molester') series depicting gropers in settings like trains. Still in the 'ping eiga' adult sub-genre he also completed the Serial Rape thriller in 1983. He diversified to comedy and TV serial work and, at the turn of the century, directed the mainstream Onmyoji. More recently he has been less prolific.- Director
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Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), based on a Teru Miyamoto novel and drawn from his own experiences while filming August Without Him (1994), won jury prizes at Venice and Chicago. The main themes of his oeuvre include memory, loss, death and the intersection of documentary and fictive narratives.- Director
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Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of the widescreen, and in the strong, angular patterns seen in many of his compositions. He has directed Mr. Pu (1953), a popular film based on Junichi Yokoyama's "Mr. Pu" comic strip. At various points in his career Ichikawa has shown that he is capable of appealing to a popular audience without compromising his artistry. A great visual stylist and perfectionist, Ichikawa excels at screen adaptations of literary masterpieces, including Sôseki Natsume's The Heart (1955), Yukio Mishima's Conflagration (1958), Jun'ichirô Tanizaki's Odd Obsession (1959) and I Am a Cat (1975) and Tôson Shimazaki's The Outcast (1962). He has also remade film classics, such as Yutaka Abe's Ashi ni sawatta onna (1926) (Ichikawa's version: 1952) and Teinosuke Kinugasa's Yukinojô henge: Daiippen (1935) (Ichikawa's version: 1963), transposing them to contemporary settings.
The West was first introduced to Ichikawa when his The Burmese Harp (1956) won the San Giorgio Prize at the 1956 Venice Film Festival. His epic documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965) (released the following year) and Alone on the Pacific (1963) explore, with dignity and imagination, the limits of human endurance. He has also worked in the thriller genre, with The Hole (1957), The Inugami Family (1976) and The Devil's Island (1977). Ichikawa tends to present strongly etched, complex characters: the stuttering acolyte who desires to preserve the "purity" of the Golden Pavilion (ENJO); the elderly husband who resorts to injections and voyeurism in order to remain sexually active (KAGI); the member of a pariah class who tries to deny his identity and to "pass" in regular society (HAKAI). More recently, Actress (1987) is a tribute to the fiercely independent Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka, who starred in many of Kenji Mizoguchi's films and was herself a director in later life. On the lighter side, Ichikawa's characters also include a 19th-century cat; a good-hearted, hapless teacher; and a baby who narrates how the world looks from his vantage point. He is especially adept at mixing comedy and tragedy within the same story. Until 1965, Ichikawa's close collaborator was his wife, screenwriter Natto Wada, with whom he produced most of his finest films.- Writer
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Kaneto Shindô was born on 22 April 1912 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Postcard (2010), The Island (1960) and A Last Note (1995). He was married to Nobuko Otowa and Miyo Shindo. He died on 29 May 2012 in Hiroshima, Japan.- Actor
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Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw his chance when a comedian suddenly fell ill, and he went on stage in the man's place. With a friend he formed the comic duo "The Two Beat" (his artist's name, "Beat Takeshi", comes from this period), which became very popular on Japanese television.
Kitano soon embarked on an acting career, and when the director of Violent Cop (1989) (aka "Violent Cop") fell ill, he took over that function as well. Immediately after that film was finished he set out to make a second gangster movie, Boiling Point (1990). Just after finishing Getting Any? (1994), Kitano was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that almost killed him. It changed his way of life, and he became an active painter. This change can be seen in his later films, which are characterized by his giving more importance to the aesthetics of the film, such as in Fireworks (1997) and Kikujiro (1999).- Additional Crew
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Seijun Suzuki was born in Nihonbashi, Tôkyô, on May 24, 1923. In 1943, he entered the army to fight at the front. In 1946, he enrolled in the film department of the Kamakura Academy and passed the assistant director's exam. For the next few years, he worked as an assistant director at several studios. In 1958, he directed his first film, Victory Is Ours (1956), and from then on he directed three to four films each year. With Branded to Kill (1967), he came into conflict with Hori Kyusaku, who was the president of Nikkatsu Studios at the time. Because of this, he was forced to work in television the next ten years. In 1977, A Tale of Sorrow (1977), his return to theatrically-released films, was released.