, also

romanised In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

as ''Akiko Ohku'', is a Japanese

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

. Ōku was born in

Yokohama, Kanagawa is the second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a population of 3.7 million in 2023. It lies on Tokyo B ...

. In high school, she joined a

rakugo is a form of Japanese verbal comedy, traditionally performed in '' yose'' theatres. (Bibliographyvolume 38(1)article
T ...

group. While studying Politics and Economics at

Meiji University is a Private university, private research university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Originally founded as Meiji Law School () by three lawyers in 1881, it became a university in April 1920. As of May 2023, Meiji has 32,261 undergradu ...

, she was part of a student theatre troupe. After graduating, Ōku briefly had an office job at a subsidiary of the Ministry of Labour. She then entered a comedy acting school for one year and performed as a stand-up comedian, and afterwards, at age 27, she entered Eigabi School, a film school where director

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic, author, actor, and a former professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (2005-2023). Noted for his psychological films that often focus on ambiguous narratives and on their characters' i ...

taught, among others.

''Igaito shinanai''

While still at film school, Ōku won a screenwriting contest with a script that would become her theatrical feature film debut as director, (''Igaito shinanai'', literally "don't die unexpectedly"). The film was released in 1999. It is about an elementary school teacher troubled by pupils, parents, colleagues and a stalker.

''Lost After School''

''Lost After School'' (original title ''Hōkago rosuto'') is an anthology film released in 2014 consisting of three episodes about high school girls. The film is based on the

shōjo manga is an editorial category of Manga, Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent girls and young adult women. It is, along with Shōnen manga, manga (targeting adolescent boys), Seinen manga, manga (targeting young adult and adult men ...

''World Gaze Clips'' by Ran Igarashi. Each episode was directed by a different female director, the other directors besides Ōku being Chihiro Amano and Ai Nagura. Ōku's segment is titled (''baion'', literally "overtones").

''Fantastic Girls''

''Fantastic Girls'' (original title ''Dērē gāruzu'') was released in 2015. It is adapted from the novel of the same title by

Maha Harada is a List of Japanese women writers, Japanese writer. She has won the Japan Love Story Grand Prize, the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, and the Nitta Jiro Literature Prize, she has been nominated multiple times for the Naoki Prize, and several of her n ...

. The word ''dērē'' in the title is

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

dialect and means "very". The story is about two high-school friends in 1980 who reunite 30 years later.

''Tremble All You Want''

(''Katte ni furuetero'') is a romantic comedy released in 2017. It won the Audience Award at the 30th

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. According to the FIAPF, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals and the second largest film festival in Asia behind the ...

, and its leading actress

Mayu Matsuoka is a Japanese actress. She has been awarded the Tama best Emerging Actress Award and Fumiko Yamaji Freshman Actress Award in 2016. She gained international attention as an ambassador of the Tokyo International Film Festival for 2017 and her rol ...

was nominated for a

Japan Academy Film Prize The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

Later films

Further films by Ōku include ''Bijin ga konkatsu shite mitara'' / ''Marriage Hunting Beauty'' (2019, based on the manga by Arako Toaru) and ''Watashi wo kuitomete'' / ''Hold Me Back'' (2020, based on the novel by Risa Wataya).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oku, Akiko 1968 births Living people Japanese women film directors Japanese women screenwriters