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25-621: After working as a set assistant or assistant director under such filmmakers as Sogo Ishii and Kazuyuki Izutsu , he made his directorial debut in 1989 with Dotsuitarunen (earning the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award ) and followed it up with another boxing film, Tekken , in 1990. Sakamoto became known for action films focusing on the conflicts between male characters, such as Tokarefu and New Battles Without Honor and Humanity , but has also made films centered on female characters such as Face and Awakening . He won

50-572: A 2012 film starring Sayuri Yoshinaga , to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Toei Company . His 2013 film, Human Trust , starred Kōichi Satō , Yoo Ji-tae , and Vincent Gallo . A number of Sakamoto's works, such as Ōte and Biriken , are set in Osaka , particularly the Shinsekai sector. His films have also taken up such controversial topics as postwar Japanese history and the problem of national sovereignty ( Out of This World or Aegis ), or

75-410: A heavy toll on the film industry and in order to remain profitable Nikkatsu turned to the production of Roman Porno , which focus on sex , violence , S&M and romance . Hori resigned over the change in focus, and many stars and directors left the company. A few, including the film directors Yasuharu Hasebe , Keiichi Ozawa , Shōgorō Nishimura , and Koreyoshi Kurahara , stayed. It also witnessed

100-457: A new production studio. A graduate of Tokyo Keizai University , Hori had joined the company in 1951 after quitting his initial employment as the manager of Sanno Hotel (now rebuilt as Sanno Park Tower ). Under Hori, Nikkatsu is considered to have had its "Golden Age". The company began making movies again in 1954 . Many assistant directors from other studios, including Shōhei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki from Shochiku , moved to Nikkatsu with

125-800: A thriller film shot in Thailand, was denied to screen at the Bangkok International Film Festival in 2008. Zatoichi: The Last , a jidaigeki film starring Shingo Katori , and Strangers in the City , a thriller film starring Toru Nakamura and Manami Konishi , were both released in 2010. Someday , an ensemble comedy film starring Yoshio Harada , won the Best Picture prize at the Yokohama Film Festival in 2011. He also directed A Chorus of Angels ,

150-477: A wild gang of quasi-mutant bikers who ride into a town staging protests against the construction of a nearby nuclear reactor plant. The film starred members of Japanese punk bands The Roosters , The Rockers , The Stalin and Inu, among others. He became a favorite among rebel and punk cineastes in Japan. The film is also credited as a precursor to the underground Japanese cyberpunk movement that emerged later in

175-529: Is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō . The name Nikkatsu amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin , literally "Japan Motion Pictures". Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%). Nikkatsu is Japan's oldest major movie studio, having been founded on September 10, 1912, when several production companies and theater chains, Yoshizawa Shōten , Yokota Shōkai , Fukuhōdō and M. Pathe , consolidated under

200-585: The cyberpunk movement in Japan. A number of contemporary filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino have cited Ishii's films as an influence. Born Toshihiro Ishii , ( 石井 聰亙), he grew up in Hakata , and because of all the American military bases in the area, he was exposed to a lot of American rock music. He spent his teenage years a part of the punk rock movement that grew in that region, singing and playing

225-549: The 16mm film was subsequently bought by Toei , who distributed it in 35mm. As his fame started to grow, a popular punk band named Anarchy hired Ishii to shoot a promo for them, which resulted in a 10-minute film called Anarchy '80 Ishin . He also adapted Katsuhiro Otomo 's manga Run into the 30-minute film Shuffle . He continued to use the university's film equipment as long as he could, but since he had no intentions of actually graduating, they eventually kicked him out. In 1982, Ishii directed Burst City , an action film about

250-661: The award for Best Director at the 24th Japan Academy Prize and at the 22nd Yokohama Film Festival for Face . He won the Special Jury prize for My House at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival in 2003. Chameleon , an action film starring Tatsuya Fujiwara and Asami Mizukawa , screened at the Busan International Film Festival in 2008. Children of the Dark ,

275-827: The decade. Ishii took a short break from filmmaking in 1983 to form a band called Sogo Ishii and the Bacillus Army, which recorded one album, Asia Strikes Back . He also created a 30 min film for the band that was played during their tour. In 1984 he released his fourth feature film, The Crazy Family . After the release of The Crazy Family , there was a period of ten years where Ishii couldn't get any funding to make another feature film. His previous films had been very popular with foreign film festival audiences, but not with Japanese ones: they didn't understand his films. He spent his time during this gap making shorts, music videos, and concert films, including ones for The Roosters and Einstürzende Neubauten . Finally in 1994, he

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300-546: The emergence of such new directors as Tatsumi Kumashiro , Masaru Konuma and Chūsei Sone . Between 1974 and 1986, Nikkatsu promoted a number of their leading Roman Porno actresses of the popular BDSM niche under the epithet "SM Queen" ( SMの女王 , SM no joō ) . They include Naomi Tani (1974–1979), Junko Mabuki (1980–1981), Izumi Shima (1982–1983), Nami Matsukawa (1983), Miki Takakura (1983–1985), and Ran Masaki (1985-1986). The advent of home video brought an end to active production at Nikkatsu. Bed Partner (1988)

325-428: The erotic fantasy film Bitter Honey ( Mitsu no aware ), based on the novel by Murō Saisei , about the relationship between a dying writer, played by Ren Osugi , and his goldfish who takes the form of a beautiful girl, played by Fumi Nikaidō . In June 2018 he released Punk Samurai Slash Down , which was produced by NTT DoCoMo . Nikkatsu Nikkatsu Corporation ( 日活株式会社 , Nikkatsu Kabushiki-gaisha )

350-413: The experimental noise band MACH-1.67, which would later compose some of the music for the film Electric Dragon 80.000 V . Ishii directed two films back to back: Gojoe , a 2000 action film about 12th century Japan, and Electric Dragon 80.000 V , a 2001 black-and-white 55-minute film starring Tadanobu Asano and Masatoshi Nagase . These two films combined the abstract style of his recent films with

375-523: The films himself. During his first year of college, one of Ishii's short films called Panic High School got noticed by Nikkatsu , a movie studio known at the time for its pink films . Nikkatsu provided the funding to adapt the short into a feature-length film. Yukihiro Sawada co-directed the film with Ishii, who was still only a sophomore in college. It was around this time that he started going by Sogo Ishii. Ishii directed his second feature Crazy Thunder Road as his senior thesis for university, and

400-476: The guitar. In 1977 he enrolled at Nihon University in Tokyo , and founded Kyōei-sha (Crazy Film Group). He borrowed equipment from the school to shoot his own 8mm and 16mm short films, which featured the style and philosophy of his punk roots. It was difficult for a young person in Japan to make films during that period, and he decided to skip the traditional corporate ladder route to film directing by just making

425-422: The height of the popularity of Japan's 1960s daikaiju (giant monster) genre, Nikkatsu only produced one Godzilla -type monster movie, 1967's Daikyoju Gappa ( Giant Beast Gappa ), released internationally as Gappa: The Triphibian Monster and Monster from a Prehistoric Planet , a film generally regarded as a remake of the 1961 British film Gorgo . By 1971 the increased popularity of television had taken

450-910: The intense energy of his early works. Ishii himself described this transition: "When I was young, all I could think about was speed. Then I wanted to start to slow things down a bit—now both are important." While Electric Dragon was praised by critics, both films were huge financial flops: so much so that they put Suncent Cinema Works out of business. Those films were followed by another ten-year gap in making feature films. Ishii started teaching film at Kobe Design University in 2006, and spent those ten years focused on teaching and experimenting with digital filmmaking by creating music videos, television episodes, and experimental shorts. In 2012, he returned with Isn't Anyone Alive? , changing his name from Sogo Ishii to Gakuryu Ishii ( Gakuryu meaning dragon ). In 2013 he released The Flower of Shanidar , which stars Gō Ayano and Hana Kuroki,. In 2016, Ishii released

475-412: The name Nippon Katsudō Shashin. .The company enjoyed its share of success. It employed such notable film directors as Shozo Makino and his son Masahiro Makino . During World War II, the government ordered the ten film companies that had formed by 1941 to consolidate into two. Masaichi Nagata , founder of Daiei Film and a former Nikkatsu employee, counter-proposed that three companies be formed and

500-736: The production of urban youth dramas, comedy , action and gangster films. From the late 1950s to the start of the 1970s, they were renowned for their "borderless action" ( mukokuseki akushun ) movies, designed for the youth market, whose directors included Suzuki, Toshio Masuda , and Takashi Nomura . The studio also employed such stars as Yujiro Ishihara , Akira Kobayashi , Joe Shishido , Tetsuya Watari , Ruriko Asaoka , Chieko Matsubara and, later, Meiko Kaji and Tatsuya Fuji . Director Shōhei Imamura began his career there and between 1958 and 1966 made for them such notable films as Pigs and Battleships ( 1961 ), The Insect Woman ( 1963 ) and The Pornographers ( 1966 ). Strangely during

525-438: The promise of advancement to full director status within one or two years. Suzuki made dozens of films for Nikkatsu from 1956 onwards, developing an increasingly inventive visual style, but was controversially fired following the release of his 40th, Branded to Kill (1967), which Hori deemed "incomprehensible". The company made a few samurai films and historical dramas but by 1960 had decided to devote its resources to

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550-525: The suggestion was approved. Nikkatsu, set to merge with the two weakest companies, Shinkō Kinema and Daito , were verbally displeased. The committee formed to establish the value of each company retaliated by purposefully undervaluing Nikkatsu, which led to Shinkō becoming the dominant head of production. The reformed Nikkatsu continued to prosper as an exhibition company but ceased all film production. The postwar film industry expanded rapidly and, in 1951 , Nikkatsu president Kyusaku Hori began construction of

575-454: The trafficking of children in Asia ( Children of the Dark ). In 2023 , Sakamoto was honoured by New York Asian Film Festival with Lifetime Achievement Award. Sogo Ishii Gakuryu Ishii ( 石井 岳龍 , Ishii Gakuryū , born January 15, 1957) , formerly known as Sogo Ishii ( 石井 聰亙 , Ishii Sōgo ) , is a Japanese filmmaker known for his stylistic punk films, which helped spark

600-515: Was hired to direct the feature film Angel Dust . Around this time he started to change his filmmaking style partly because he wanted to challenge himself to something new, but also because it had been very difficult to find funding for the types of films he made before. During this period he directed two films that were less plot driven: August in the Water and Labyrinth of Dreams . The actor Tadanobu Asano teamed up with Ishii in 1996 to form

625-446: Was the last release in the venerable 17-year Roman Porno series. Nikkatsu declared bankruptcy in 1993. In 2005, the company was sold to Index Holdings and in 2010, a revived Nikkatsu studio announced new production of Sushi Typhoon , a movie series made in partnership with a U.S. distributor. The Sushi Typhoon arm of Nikkatsu creates low-budget horror, science fiction, and fantasy films aimed at an international audience. By 2011,

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