, born 15 August 1958, is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

, best known for

low-budget A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced o ...

parody film A parody film or spoof film is a subgenre of comedy film that lampoons other film genres or films as pastiches, works created by imitation of the style of many different films reassembled together. Although the subgenre is often overlooked by cri ...

s featuring

surreal humour Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causality, causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portra ...

and traditional practical effects. Kawasaki began his career with mostly self-financed work, including the ''Den-Ace'' short films, featuring a parody of kyodai-style Japanese superheroes, before working on Tsuburaya Production's ''

Ultraman Tiga is a Japanese tokusatsu TV drama and the eighth entry (twelfth overall) in the Ultra Series. Produced by Tsuburaya Productions and Mainichi Broadcasting System, ''Ultraman Tiga'' had aired at 6:00 pm and aired between September 7, 1996, t ...

'' (1996-1997). He had his first hit with '' The Calamari Wrestler'' (2004), about a wrestler who inexplicably becomes a

giant squid The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, ...

. He followed this up with ''Executive Koala'' (2005), about an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

salaryman The term is a Japanese word for salary, salaried workers. In Japanese popular culture, it is portrayed as a white-collar worker who shows unwavering loyalty and commitment to his employer, prioritizing work over anything else, including family. ...

who may or may not have murdered his wife, and '' Kabuto-O Beetle'' (also 2005), another wrestling-themed movie, this time with a giant

stag beetle Stag beetles comprise the family Lucanidae. It has about 1,200 species of beetles in four subfamilies.Smith, A.B.T. (2006). A review of the family-group names for the superfamily Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera) with corrections to nomenclature and a c ...

. In 2006, he released '' The World Sinks Except Japan'', a spoof of

Shinji Higuchi is a Japanese filmmaker. Known for his ''tokusatsu'' blockbusters, Higuchi is considered one of Japan's leading filmmakers of the 21st century. Higuchi became known for his work on '' Gamera: Guardian of the Universe'', for which he won the Spe ...

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of '' Japan Sinks'', and '' Crab Goalkeeper'' (also 2006), a film Kawasaki describes as being his ''

Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. An adaptation of the Forrest Gump (novel), 1986 novel by Winston Groom, the screenplay of the film is written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks in the title rol ...

'' (1994). Kawasaki has also directed 2008's '' Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit'', a sequel to the 1967

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

kaiju is a Japanese term that is commonly associated with media involving giant monsters. Its widespread contemporary use is credited to ''tokusatsu'' (special effects) director Eiji Tsuburaya and filmmaker Ishirō Honda, who popularized the ''kaiju'' ...

film ''

The X from Outer Space is a 1967 Japanese science fiction ''kaiju'' film directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu, and stars Eiji Okada and Toshiya Wazaki. Guilala returned in a 2008 Shochiku sequel (of sorts) called '' Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit''. Plot The s ...

''. While the original, made during the height of Japan's "Kaiju Boom" (1966–1967), is "played straight", the sequel is another parody. Kawasaki has since directed two more

films: ''Kaiju Mono'' (2016) and '' Monster Seafood Wars'' (2020).

Filmography

As director

* '' The Calamari Wrestler'' (2004) * '' Kabuto-O Beetle'' (2005) * '' Executive Koala'' (2005) * '' Crab Goalkeeper'' (2006) * '' The World Sinks Except Japan (2006)'' * ''The Rug Cop'' (2006) * '' Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit (2008)'' * (2008) * ''Outer Man'' (2015) * '' Kaiju Mono'' (2016) * '' Monster Seafood Wars'' (2020) *'' Planet Prince 2021'' (2021)

References

External links

* * 1958 births Living people Film people from Tokyo Japanese film directors {{Japan-film-director-stub