Shinya Tsukamoto

Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto at the Venice Film Festival 2009
Native name	塚本晋也
Born	(1960-01-01) January 1, 1960 Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Director, producer, writer, and actor
Years active	1989–present
Website	塚本晋也 Official Website

Shinya Tsukamoto (塚本 晋也, Tsukamoto Shin'ya, born January 1, 1960) is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.

Biography

Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. His cinematic influences included Akira Kurosawa. He made a number of films, ranging from 10-minute shorts to 2-hour features, until his first year at college when he temporarily lost interest in making movies. Tsukamoto then started up a theatre group, which soon included Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, and Tomorowo Taguchi, all of whom would continue to work with Tsukamoto up through the filming of Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

One of their theatre productions at this time was Denchu Kozo no boken. At the end of the production, Tsukamoto did not want to waste all the effort they had put into building the set, so he decided to shoot a film version.

Tsukamoto's early films, Futsu saizu no kaijin (A Phantom of Regular Size) and Denchu Kozo no boken (The Adventures Of Electric Rod Boy) made in 1986/87, were short subject science fiction films shot on colour 8 mm film. His black & white 16 mm feature Tetsuo: The Iron Man, made in 1988. Tsukamoto has stated he has a love-hate relationship with Tokyo, and in the end the characters of this film set out to destroy it. Tetsuo is considered the definitive example of Japanese cyberpunk.

Tsukamoto's next film, Hiruko the Goblin, was a more conventional horror film, about demons being unleashed from the gates of hell. He then created a follow-up to Tetsuo: The Iron Man, named Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, which revisited many of the same ideas as the first movie but with a bigger budget and shot in color on 35 mm film. As a result, the film is often interpreted more as a companion piece than as a straightforward sequel. In Body Hammer, a salaryman's son is kidnapped by a group of thugs, who then force the man's nascent rage to make him mutate into a gigantic human weapon. Tokyo Fist (1995) again dealt with the idea of rage as a transformative force (similar to David Cronenberg's The Brood). Here, a meek insurance salesman discovers that an old friend of his, now a semi-professional boxer, may be having an affair with his fiancée. The salesman then enters into a rigorous and self-destructive boxing training program to get even.

In Bullet Ballet (1998), a man (played by Tsukamoto) discovers that his longtime girlfriend committed suicide with a gun, and becomes obsessed with getting a gun just like that one. His single minded behavior causes him to run afoul of a gang of thugs, especially when he shows interest in the young girl who is one of their compatriots. Gemini (1999) was an adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo story, in which a country doctor with pretensions of superiority has his life torn apart when another man who appears to be his exact duplicate enters his life. Things are complicated further by the twin taking control of his wife, an amnesiac with a criminal background. A Snake of June (2002) once again found Tsukamoto employing the formula of two men in competition for one woman, as a young lady is blackmailed into perverse sexual behavior against her husband's will—until her husband finds that he enjoys the blackmail more than the blackmailer does.

Vital (2004) again features a love triangle, this time consisting of two women and one man. The story concerns a young man whose girlfriend is killed in a car crash whilst being driven by him. He is a medical student and is given her body to dissect in class (whether by coincidence or intentionally is not clear). Tsukamoto also acted in and directed the short film Haze in 2005. In 2006, Tsukamoto directed the horror thriller Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei). The film centres around a vagrant with the supernatural ability to enter the dreams of others and a police officer who pleads with him to help her solve a series of bizarre murders committed by a serial killer with a similar ability, played by Tsukamoto himself.

Tsukamoto acts in nearly all of his films, with the exception of those that he worked on as a "director for hire" (namely Hiruko the Goblin and Gemini). Tsukamoto has appeared in many other directors' films as well, such as Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000), and Ichi the Killer (2001), as well as Teruo Ishii's Blind Beast Vs the Dwarf (2002). He was the lead actor in Takashi Shimizu's Marebito (2004), and appeared more recently in Welcome to the Quiet Room (2007). He is also a successful voiceover artist for TV advertising in Japan. He also provided the Japanese voice of Vamp in the 2008 PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (a character previously voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty).

Filmography as director

Year	English title	Japanese title	Romaji	Notes
1974	Genshi-san	原始さん	Genshi-san	Early Super-8 short (10 min).
1975	Story of a Giant Cockroach	巨大ゴキブリ物語	Kyodai Gokiburi Monogatari	Super-8 (50 min).
1975	Wings	翼	Tsubasa	Super-8 (25 min).
1976	Cloudy	曇天	Donten	B&W Super-8 (60 min).
1977		地獄町小便小僧にて飛んだよ	Jigoku Machi Shouben Kozou ni te Tobenda yo	Super-8 (120 min).
1978	New Wings	新・翼	Shin: Tsubasa	Super-8 (40 min).
1979	Flying Lotus Flower	蓮の花飛べ	Hasu no Hana Tobe	Super-8 (90 min).
1986	The Phantom of Regular Size	普通サイズの怪人	Futsu Saizu no Kaijin	Super-8 (18 min).
1987	The Adventures Of Electric Rod Boy	電柱小僧の冒険	Denchu Kozou no Boken	Super-8 (47 min).
1989	Tetsuo: The Iron Man	鉄男　ＴＥＴＳＵＯ	Tetsuo	16mm B&W (67 min)
1991	Hiruko The Goblin	ヒルコ　妖怪ハンター	Hiruko Youkai Hanta	35mm (89 min)
1992	Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	鉄男 II　ＢＯＤＹ　ＨＡＭＭＥＲ	Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	35mm (83 min)
1995	Tokyo Fist	ＴＯＫＹＯ　ＦＩＳＴ	Tokyo Fist	16mm (87 min)
1998	Bullet Ballet	BULLET BALLET　バレット・バレエ	Bullet Ballet	16mm B&W (87 min)
1999	Gemini	双生児-GEMINI-	Sōseiji	35mm (83 min)
2002	A Snake of June	六月の蛇	Rokugatsu no Hebi	16mm (77 min)
2004	Vital	ヴィタール	Vital	35mm (86 min)
2005	Haze	ＨＡＺＥ	Haze	DV (49 min)
2005	Female	female フィーメイル	Fīmeiru	Segment: Tamamushi.
2006	Nightmare Detective	悪夢探偵	Akumu Tantei
2008	Nightmare Detective 2	悪夢探偵2	Akumu Tantei 2
2010	Tetsuo: The Bullet Man	鉄男 THE BULLET MAN	Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
2011	Kotoko	KOTOKO
2014	Fires on the Plain	野火

Filmography as actor (other directors)

Films

• Tōkyō Biyori (1997)
• Wait and See (1998)
• Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000)
• Ichi the Killer (2001)
• Blind Beast Vs the Dwarf (2002)
• Marebito (2004)
• Otakus in Love (2004)
• Welcome to the Quiet Room (2007)

Television

• Saka no ue no kumo (2009–2011, TV series)
• GeGeGe no Nyōbō (2010, TV series)
• Carnation (2012, TV series)

Awards

• Adventures of Electric Rod Boy – PIA Film Fest (Japan) – Grand Prize
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man – Fantafestival (Italy) – Grand Prize
• Tetsuo – Sweden Fantastic Film Festival – Audience Award Best Feature
• Hiruko – Fantasporto – Best Film
• Tetsuo II – Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film – Silver Raven
• Tetsuo II – Fantasporto – International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award
• Tetsuo II – 3rd Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival (1992)
• Tokyo Fist – Sundance (Tokyo) – Grand Prize
• Bullet Ballet – Sweden Fantastic Film Festival – Jury Grand Prize
• Gemini – Neuchatel International Fantasy Film Festival – Best International Film
• A Snake of June – Venice Film Festival – Kinematrix Film Award Feature Films
• A Snake of June – Venice Film Festival – San Marco Special Jury Award
• Vital – Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film – Silver Raven
• Vital – Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival – New Visions Award
• Vital – Fantasporto – Orient Express Section Special Jury Award
• Kotoko – The Orizzonti prize at the 68th Venice International Film Festival (2011)

References:

External links

• Shinya Tsukamoto director profile at subtitledonline.com
• Shinya Tsukamoto on Twitter
• Shinya Tsukamoto at the Internet Movie Database