was 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 ...

. He was first a director of

television commercials A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

before adding filmmaking to his creative activities. His most famous film outside Japan is '' Tony Takitani'', an adaptation of a short story by

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for hi ...

. He died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

after suddenly collapsing at a restaurant,Variety Obit.
shortly before his latest film, '' Buy a Suit'', was to premier at the

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 ...

Filmography

* '' Buy A Suit'' (2008) * '' How to Become Myself'' (2007) * '' Aogeba Tôtoshi'' (2006) * '' Tony Takitani'' (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

) * '' Ryoma's Wife, Her Husband and Her Lover'' (2002) * '' Tokyo Marigold'' (2001) * '' Zawa-zawa Shimo-Kitazawa'' (2000) * '' Osaka Story'' (1999) * '' Tadon to Chikuwa'' (1998) * '' Tokyo Lullaby'' (1997) * '' Tokiwa: The Manga Apartment'' (1996) * '' The Tokyo Siblings'' (1995) * '' Kurêpu'' (1993) * '' Dying at a Hospital'' (1993) * '' Kin Chan no Cinema Jack'' (1993) (segment "Kitto Kurusa") * '' Tugumi'' (

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

) * '' No Life King'' (1989) * '' Kaisha monogatari: Memories of You'' (1988) * '' Bu Su'' (1987)

References

External links

* * 1948 births 2008 deaths Japanese film directors People from Western Tokyo 20th-century Japanese screenwriters {{Japan-film-director-stub