Famous directors

Hello! Today, I talk about leading directors of Japanese horror movie.

What directors of Japanese horror movie do you think of? You can think of some horror movies such as “Ring”, “Juon”. Those movies leaded to J-horror boom. But who makes the movie? I think that it is better to know it to enjoy watching horror movies more. So, I would like to introduce about people made those movies. What is more, I would like to do some older directors, too.

 

 

Nobuo Nakagawa (1905 ­- 1984)

 

He has been called a very skillful director of horror movie. But he made other various movies and many TV dramas, too. His famous works are “Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan” (1959) and “Jigoku” (1960). He made many TV dramas and wrote some novels. He had kept trying how to make an audience enjoy watching movies, so his works has many interesting ideas. In 2005, he was introduced in a special edition of Venice International Film Festival, and his international appreciation is getting higher.

 

 

 

Ishiro Honda (1911 - 1993)

 

He is a famous director as making popular monster films with Eiji Tsuburaya. His famous works are “Godzilla” (1954), “Mosura” (1961), “Kaizyu Daisenso” (1965). He made “Matango” (1963), too. I will put in You Tube URL of Matango.   http://youtu.be/FCo7cAN2TEA

He was a leader of monster movie boom as special effects movie director, and his name became famous in the world.

 

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (1955- )

 

 　He is a movie director and a movie theorist. His famous works are “Sweet home” (1989), “Kairo: pulse” (2000), “Sakebi” (2007). He gets many foreign movie prizes. He is very good at describing feeling of characters, and it brings us fear. He was called “Godfather of J-horror” from a trailer of “Pulse” which remade in Hollywood because he was chief editor of “Juon” (2003) with Hiroshi Takahashi. Because of this success, he took office as professor of Graduate School of Film and New Media TOKYO GEIJUTSU DAIGAKU (Tokyo University of the Arts).

 

 

 

Hideo Nakata (1961- )

He is a famous movie director who made “Ring (1998)”. His other works are “zyoyu rei” and “Honogurai mizu no soko kara” (2002). “Ring” and “Honogurai mizu no soko kara” are remade as “The Ring” and “Dark Water” in America. In Hollywood, he took “The Ring2” (2005) which is next story of “The Ring”. He took TV series “Honto ni atta kowai hanasi”, too. It talks horror stories by omnibus style. He made many horror movies and works, but he says that “I wouldn’t like to take horror works really.”  

 

Takashi Shimizu (1972- )

He is one of the greatest J-horror movie directors. The most famous work is “Juon” in his works. This origin is not movie; it was a film released direct-to-video. This got so popular as it is difficult for this video to be rented. Because of the reason, “Juon” was made in 2003 to show at theaters. In the end, “THE GRUDGE which is remade by himself was showed as Hollywood movie in 2003. Thus work had come the top in USA box office. His other famous works are “Tomie re-birth” (2001), “Senritsu Meikyu 3D –THE SHOCK LABRINTH” (2009), and “Rabbit Horror 3D” (2011).

 

There are more horror movie directors I can’t introduce. Most horror movie directors don’t only made it such as other genres like comedy. You may enjoy movies from knowing directors. I will talk about the quality of J-horror in next post. See you!