Shinya Tsukamoto
The panorama of human affairs encounters the “man with a movie camera”. His playground has no boundaries, his curiosity no limits. Characters, situations and places pitch camp in the life of a humanity that is at once the viewer and the thing viewed. But what are the last days of this humanity? Have they already passed? Are they now or still to come?
In this personal tribute message, filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto recounts his memories of Nobuhiko Obayashi and shares how the late director impacted his life.
Hayami Teruya is a dedicated salaryman who does a workman like job as the chief editor for a magazine. He has personal charm, get along with both the publisher and subordinates and runs the ship well. Chatting with his direct boss he picks up a certain vibe. Did he misunderstand that the magazine is doomed and will be terminated? If so, he is not going down without a fight. He will fight to make it through and keep his, and the others', jobs.
Career spanning interview up to 2020.
Set during the Edo period, "Zan" follows the life a ronin, Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu), and those around him. Mokunoshin Tsuzuki spends time in a village helping farmers there. To keep his sword skills sharp, he spars daily with a farmer's son Ichisuke (Ryusei Maeda). His sister Yu (Yu Aoi) watches them. Meanwhile, the nation is about to undergo major unrest and potentially a civil war. A group of outlaw ronin led by Sezaemon Genda (Tatsuya Nakamura) enters the village.
Shinya Tsukamoto recalls the development of his adaptation of 'Fires on the Plain' by Shohei Ooka
When a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and tears through the city, the government scrambles to save its citizens. A rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side - the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes.
A recently divorced and traumatized man moves to Hakodate, Hokkaido and attends a vocational college to learn carpentry along with several other students who are in the same boat as he. When a couple of the guys go to a hostess club the man meets an unconventional girl who likes him and a relationship is born.
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
Kazunari Katsuki (Gaku Sano) lied to his classmate that Tokyo stinks. Because of his comment, he goes to Tokyo alone. On his way back, he misses his flight back to Kumamoto. Kazunari only 3,400 yen in his pocket. He becomes confused about his missed flight. At that time, Masami Tanaka (Kaoru Sugita), who works at an airport souvenir shop, talks to Kazunari. On Kazunari's unusual trip back to Kumamoto, he meets many different adults and begins to think about his life.
Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
Shinya Tsukamoto's "Venice 70: Future Reloaded" short about the future of cinema.
Suffering from double vision, a single mother (Cocco) tries to take care of her baby in the grip of terrifying hallucinations. Experiencing a nervous breakdown, she is deemed unfit to take care of her child and has it taken away from her. The only respite the mother has from her visions is when she sings. An award-winning novelist (Tsukamoto) overhears her singing whilst riding the bus and the pair subsequently develop a volatile relationship.
Shinya Tsukamoto's animated promo for the Ca' Foscari Cinema in Venice.
Eleven major film makers from Europe, America and Asia talk about Akira Kurosawa and discover surprising influences on their own work.
Tokage concerns a love affair between two healers who are unable to heal their own mental wounds. The narrator is a counselor for disturbed children. He has fallen in love with a profoundly sad woman nicknamed 'Tokage' who longs for oblivion, but only feels her place in the world is to heal having an uncanny ability to diagnose and treat other people’s illnesses. The story follows their mutual fumbling towards the point where they can share with each other their most personal stories. Based on the short story by Banana Yoshimoto, Tokage was commissioned by television network NHK for a series in which the works of famous Japanese authors would be narrated on film, as captured by noteworthy directors. Shot on hi-def video, Tokage follows actress Ryô as she reads Yoshimoto’s text. Tsukamoto films under a variety of light sources, primarily natural and filmed it in a single continuous shot at sundown with the use of few minimal practical effects.
An American named Anthony is living and working in Tokyo and married to a Japanese woman. When their son is killed by the same driver who creates the Tetsuos in previous films, he makes the transformation into Tetsuo.
A story of the unexplainable things that inflict sheer terror on human beings and how they leave victims psychologically devastated. It is as much a true horror film as it is a psychological drama.
Three people in Tokyo take a surreal voyage of self-discovery through memory and nightmares. "O" intends suicide while talking on a cell-phone with a stranger he meets on line who plans a simultaneous suicide. Events take a horrifying turn. Keiko Kirishima is a cool, seemingly emotionless police detective, brilliant but off-putting. She's faced with two mutilated corpses who appear to have killed themselves, but she's not sure. A cell-phone number links the deaths. She calls on Akumu Tantei, a poor and suicidal young man who has the ability to enter people's dreams. He's reluctant to help. His past haunts him. A subconscious duel of terror and blood awaits the three.
A man awakes to find himself trapped in a dirty, confined crawlspace. He barely has enough room to move. He also has no memory of why he’s there, or why he’s bleeding from a stomach wound. Apparently drugged, he occasionally ‘zones out’ of his surroundings as he tries to edge towards his way to freedom. But the more he explores, the more pain he has to endure, and the more frightening his predicament becomes.
"The Law of Causality" documents a live perfomance at Shibuya O-NEST, which took place on May 26, 2004. Director of "Tetsuo The Iron Man" Shinya Tsukamoto's crew filmed the gig, which features all new material based around metal percussion and custom intsruments built by Chu Ishikawa.
An elusive alligator named Jake leads you on a worldwide psychedelic journey in this animation / live action combo. Play name that celebrity as 24 top Japanese stars (including cast members of Battle Royale and several cult film directors) recollect their stream of consciousness encounters with the cuddly croc.
Live-action adaptation of a madcap manga about art, opposites, love and a whole lot of cosplay.
Documentary about the Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, where we see him attend film festivals, personal influences and of course the study of his main films, apart from the opinions about him by other filmmakers such as Takeshi Kitano or Kinji Fukasaku.
Hiroshi wakes up in a hospital room and realizes that he was in a serious car accident that caused the death of his girlfriend, Ryoko, as well as the loss of his memory. While trying to regain his memory, one of the first clues that Hiroshi finds are his old medical textbooks that he studied prior to his accident. This gives him a renewed purpose in life and he delves forward into his medical school studies.
Interview with world renown cult director Shinya Tsukamoto. This interview will tell you how and when he started creating his own world of cinema exactly the way he thought it should look. Also he is an accomplished actor appearing in many films directed by other directors like Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer). The interview includes very rare footage of never released films like "10000 Channels" his TV commercials and rare footage of live shows at the Kaijyu Theater in Tokyo.System
Set in an anonymous Japanese metropolis, the film tells the tale of shy career woman, Rinko, and Shigehiko, her hygiene-obsessed, workaholic husband. The couple explore their sexuality in a number of ways, causing their lives to be disrupted.
Canny relationship comedy follows the personal and professional lives of sisters (Asaka Seto, Mikako Ichikawa) who make a living playing the chess-like game shogi.
A blind masseur kidnaps young women and kills them and then make sculptures of them, while a mysterious dwarf spreading severed body parts around. Detective Akechi Kogorô investigating crimes.
Tokio finds his wife Kumiko drowned in the bathtub one night. He lifts the telephone handset to call an ambulance but put on again without having to dial the number. Instead, he takes a cup of coffee before he decides to empty the bathtub and Kumiko carry over to the couch. With her dead body next to them so violates the panic out of shock and he begins to drink to numb it. When he wakes up after drinking a lot so he finds that he lies in bed and Kumiko enters the room and asks how he is.
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.
Shotaro and Minako are arguing. Minako has confessed her infidelity to her husband and informs him of her intention to leave him. She has ceased to enjoy living with a submissive husband. Minako, who works for a construction company, loves her job and is progressing in her successful career, while her husband eagerly takes care of the house and the kids. He buys groceries, he cooks, he does the laundry – constantly. The couple’s arguing intensifies until Minaka files for divorce. Their older daughter Mari isn’t that upset by her parent’s problems as she’s more interested in the piano piece she’s got to play with her mother at a concert organised by her music school; admittedly, she’s also rather interested in her music teacher. But her younger brother Toru feels betrayed by his mother and can’t manage to reconcile himself to his father’s role as a housewife. A partial reconciliation occurs at Minako and Mari’s concert, where their entrance on stage is met with loud applause.
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Shin'ya Tsukamoto's film "Gemini".
Two contract killers cross paths in the middle of the same job and realize they are childhood friends. Together they take a break from killing and visit the small island they once called home. After reflecting on their past lives they decided to team up and use their talents in killing for good... much to the upset of the crime syndicates.
The eruption of Mt. Fuji in 1707 released hordes of demons from deep inside the earth. Sakuya, the young daughter of a samurai killed fighting these demons, accepts a mission to travel to Mt. Fuji and defeat the evil spirits. Accompanying her on her journey are two veteran warriors who served her father, and Taro, a young kappa, or river spirit, whom she has adopted as her little brother. Along the way, the two warriors have doubts about Taro's loyalties, and the young kappa himself must decide if he will stand with his own species or with the humans who have cared for him.
After his girlfriend commits suicide, a man (Shinya Tsukamoto) becomes embroiled in gang warfare attempting to obtain a gun in hopes to kill himself.
Schoolgirl Kuniko is kidnapped by a middle-aged man Iwazono when she is jogging. He tells her that he had a failed marriage which leaves him a deep and everlasting scar in his mind. He kidnaps her in search of a perfect marriage and intends to lock her in the room and 'educate' her to perform perfect sex where body and soul are united.
A tough woman is dragging a weaker man deeper and deeper into crime. Woman cop Miki is chasing a wanted man when she stumbles on a crashed car and sees the driver, Koichi, ignite spilled petrol to kill himself and his passenger. She drags Koichi to safety, but the passenger dies. Miki says nothing to challenge the inquest finding of `accidental death', and when she visits Koichi in hospital he begins to understand that her complicity in his crime implies a sexual invitation. But a gumshoe has photos of the crash, and the only way to stall his blackmail is to kill him, the first of several murders...
A pair of friendly coworkers at a rental video store accidentally become murders. Borrowing a station wagon, they flee with no particular destination in mind.
A salaryman faces a major life change as his firm undergoes financial difficulties. To add to his troubles, a man claiming to be his long-estranged father shows up at his house requesting shelter. One of the best of Somai's seriocomic studies of the messiness of family life.
This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
The life of a urban planning official and that of an old fellow student, now project developer, are turned upside down by a chance encounter with a beauty obsessed by UFOs.
"Atlanta Boogie" centers around a mock track meet between the "normal" and "good" citizens of Yokohama and those they want to expel from the neighborhood: the illegal foreign workers, the deadbeats, the juvenile delinquents, and elderly.
Broke, his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama's past, returns to town, the fuse is lit on a criminal powder keg set to blow the lid off the Yokohama underworld.
A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Tajuki, on the subway. Tajuki is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Tajuki might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.
Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. Through a series of double-crosses Hama gets embroiled in a gang war and a revenge plot between the two brothers
In Harari-cho, a small and quiet bayside town by the sea, the firemen have not seen a fire for nearly twenty years. Each day passes eventlessly... until one day. The monotony of their daily lives is interrupted by the appearance of a beautiful female college student, Momoko (Suzuki Kyoka), who comes to visit her aunt. After catching a glimpse of Momoko, both Tatsuya (Takenaka Naoto) and Nobuyuki (Akai Hidekazu) can't stop thinking about her. Since then, the small town is not so quiet anymore…
A Japanese salaryman, finds his body transforming into a weapon through sheer rage after his son is kidnapped by a gang of violent thugs.
A school was built on one of the Gates of Hell, behind which hordes of demons await the moment they will be free to roam the Earth. Hiruko is a goblin sent to Earth on a reconnaissance mission. He beheads students in order to assemble their heads on the demons' spider-like bodies. Hieda, an archaeology professor, and Masao, a haunted student, investigate the gory deaths and eventually battle Hiruko
A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.
Hikari is a boy who is bullied and teased by the other boys at school because he has the odd distinction of having an electricity pole growing out of his back. However, one of his classmates, a girl named Momo, comes to his rescue. Hikari thanks her by sharing his secret possession with her: a time machine. He then activates the time machine which transports him 25 years into a dark, dystopian, world of the future. There he encounters members of the Shinsengumi Vampire Gang in the process of hunting a woman named Dr. Sariba who is revealed to be Momo's future self. She explains to Hikari that she had been long expecting his arrival from the past and that he has a crucial role to play here -- he and he alone must save the world.
A short film where Shinya Tsukamoto experimenting with effects and ideas, which then resulted in the feature film Tetsuo.
“Terry 100 Channels is a 30 minute animated film drawn at the peak of King Terry’s powers and directed by the cult filmmaker Shinya (Tetsuo: The Iron Man) Tsukamoto. It was first issued in 1985 on VHS as part of a series of illustration-based videos produced in Japan. I am proud to reissue this, Terry’s only film, and declare it a masterpiece of drawn cinema and a truly funky good time. Long live the King. Strictly limited edition, man.” – Dan Nadel, (Picturebox)
A giant prehistoric man destroys some cities. Early Super-8 Tsukamoto short film. Loosely based on a short Shigeru Mizuki story.
A collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and Shinya Tsukamoto for MTV Japan Station.
