Kenji Takama
Birth : 1949-03-10, Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Director of Photography
Masao Adachi's first new film in six years that secretly started filming at the end of August. About the life of Tetsuya Yamagami, suspected assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Director of Photography
Biopic about the life of Kitazawa Rakuten, who laid the foundation for the Japanese manga industry.
Director of Photography
A troubled teenager who is about to kill herself has a life changing encounter with a female vampire.
Cinematography
Video artist Ryosuke visits the suburb of Furano in Hokkaido, where his friend lives, in order to shoot a video. His car breaks down and Ryosuke decides to walk to a house and ask for a phone. The person that opens the door is his former girlfriend and first love Haruka. They meet for the first time in 23 years. Even though Ryosuke knows that she is married, he takes her to his video shooting and they get close. Ryosuke leaves Hokkaido in 2 days and he asks Haruka to spend one more day with him.
Director of Photography
25-year-old Nanami is managing an amateur band. She is broke, cannot pay her rent, and the singer has run off. Yoshinori is 65. His wife dies the day before his retirement. Having suddenly lost everything, he becomes desperate. After the two accidentally meet, Nanami moves into Yoshinori's place and invites a few other people to become their flatmates – the beginning of an extraordinary life together.
Director of Photography
In a bid to bring back life to their town after seeing its population dwindle in recent years, the manager of a shopping mall in northern Saitama Prefecture and the executive director of the Honjo Chamber of Commerce start a project to put together an improvised jazz band from local citizens. A former music teacher (Shimizu Shogo) is coerced into becoming the band leader, but the other prospective members are all elderly amateurs with little knowledge of music.
Director of Photography
Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.
Director of Photography
Yuriko (Yuki Shibamoto) is tired of her relationship with a married man. She leaves Tokyo and goes back to her hometown of Yugafu, which is located on small island in Okinawa. The married man though follows Yuriko to the small island. In addition, the married man's wife also arrives on the island. They married couple causes all kinds of disturbances...
Director of Photography
"You will die six hours later." Keishi, a youth who proclaims himself a seer, suddenly says this to Mio, who is walking along the streets of Shibuya. At first, Mio scoffs at it as nonsense but ever since her acquaintance was murdered a few days ago, she realises that she has also become a victim of a stalker. Half believing it, she decides to hang around with Keishi. Later, with the help of Sawaki, a detective she knows, the stalker is identified. She thinks the case is closed but a totally unexpected person attacks her...
Tsuchiya Anna blasts back in time playing an oiran, a top-notched geisha of the Edo period’s Yoshiwara District, navigating brothel politics while trying to cling to the man she loves.
Director of Photography
In the second installment of the Death Note film franchise, Light Yagami meets a second Kira and faithful follower Misa Amane and her Shinigami named Rem. Light attempts to defeat L along with Teru Mikami (a Kira follower) and Kiyomi Takada (another Kira follower) but in the end will Light win? or will a Shinigami named Ryuk make all the difference in Light's victory or his ultimate death?
Cinematography
Nine former members of a high school baseball team reunite for the first time in seven years, invited to meet again by an unknown figure. The friends begin to reminisce about times gone by, but soon realize that there are discrepancies among their memories. When they decide to open an old time capsule to dig up the truth, they find that the box they buried now has ten keyholes instead of nine; a mystery that only a tenth person could have the answer to.
Cinematography
Terumi has no memory of her life leading up to when she nearly drowned as a child in her town's local lake, Lake Shoryu. Terumi has been supported by her family and her close childhood friend Yukio since that time, although her family also does not seem to understand the reason for this childhood incident. 12 years later, Terumi finally decides to leave her town for a new job, but before doing so, begins investigating the drowning incident together with Yukio in order to know the truth. During her investigations, Terumi meets a man named Soda, who seems to have the same experience of nearly drowning and recovering with no memory as she does. As she digs deeper, a strange relationship between her and the legend of Lake Shoryu begins to surface.
Director of Photography
Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps her. His concern about her and his boundless worship probably help, too. Something strange and beautiful blossoms between the kidnapper and his victim, but can this be the basis of a long and happy encounter?
Director of Photography
Hotel Hibiscus is the story of one very young energetic girl named Mieko and her internatioanl family who live in Okinawa. They live in a run down old hotel called Hotel Hibiscus with only one room for rent.
Cinematography
True story of a number of Imperial Japanese Army officers and soldiers who remained in Indonesia to fight off European colonists trying to retake the country after Japan's surrender.
Director of Photography
Junko was born with a type of ESP called pyrokinesis which she can use to incinerate anyone and anything at will. Junko is secretly in love with Kazuki, a young man who works with her. His sister is killed and a boy named Masaki suspected but the police don't arrest him. Junko tells Kazuki about her powers and takes revenge.
Director of Photography
Nanako returns to her hometown on the tiny island of Aguni to meet her grandmother Nabbie. However, when Nanako's ferry arrives, it is also carrying Nabbie's former lover, who has returned to Aguni after a long absence.
Cinematography
A love story written by an ordinary housewife is going to be broadcast as a radio drama and almost everyone among the crew insists on changing various parts of the play to their liking.
Director of Photography
Looking for something to do during the summer, Akihiko Suzuki teams up with four girls (Namie, Natsumi, Mishiyo, and Komugi) and a guy (Kosuke) to start a little cafe down by the beach. Actually, he is more interested in the girls than the job. They used to ignore him, but by working at the cafe, he hopes to start a friendship with them.
Director of Photography
Anthology consisting of three films.
Director of Photography
Director of Photography
Naran and his five brothers and sisters are returning to the family farm for summer. During the rest of the year, they must attend school in the city. Once they arrive, the family heads off to summer pastures for their horses and sheep. One day, Naran meets a lone minstrel and hears the tale of Sukh and his white horse who win the great Naadam horse race. Naran is deeply moved and swears that he will compete in the race with his own beloved white horse.
Assistant Director of Photography
A ship runs aground on a mysterious atoll leading to an investigation by insurance representative Kusanagi, who discovers an ancient bead that he gives to his daughter Asagi. Meanwhile, ornithologist Nagamine investigates reports of a new species of large bird named Gyaos. As the Gyaos begin to attack, an ancient guardian with a bond to Asagi emerges.
Director of Photography
Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami live different lives in Tokyo, Japan: Hojo is the leader of a small but rising Yakuza clan, while Asami is a politician aiming to become the youngest member of the Japanese parliament. But while they both live in different ways, Hojo and Asami share the same past; both of them were survivors of the Killing Fields of Cambodia. With the aggression and survival instincts they learned in the Cambodian jungles, Hojo and Asami strive in both the Yakuza and political world to reform Japan into their own sanctuary.
Director of Photography
The Golden Trio of junior high school soccer players, Toshi, Kenji and Kazu, enroll at the new Kakegawa High School merely because they want to play with Kubo, the legendary player who learned his superb soccer techniques in Germany and who helped the Kakegawa team, which then consisted of freshmen only, win eight place in the all-Japan....
Director of Photography
The Story of Untouchable Passion In a rugby match, disaster strikes as player kazuki causes serious injury to his friend Takeshi, and as a result he is left as a vegetable. Kazuki is so plugged with guilt that he quits the team and settles in a remote kamakura Girl's high School as a sport teacher. During a hot summer holiday, Kazuki has fallen into a love relationship, albeit unacceptable to the outsiders, with one of his student Moe. Later, he realizes that his attraction to her comes from nothing other than her loneliness and a crime labelled as grossly unforgivable.
Director of Photography
A man fed up with city life moves to a village in the mountains
Director of Photography
The film opens as a jury is about to acquit a defendant -- a bar hostess who pushed her ex-husband path of an oncoming truck, supposedly in self-defense. Just as everyone seems to be in agreement over the woman's innocence, one juror voices second thoughts.
Director of Photography
New graduates Ohara, Kitamachi and Tachikawa take part in the battle of job-hunting, so as big companies recruiting talents and potentials. Interviews, tests and activities with odd ideas are carried out. Ohara looks successful in getting an offer from a famous TV station but he is surprised to know he is being set up. With his intelligence, he soon gets the offer, but things never go the way as expected...
Cinematography
Set in decadent, chaotic Hong Kong and Tokyo, the film tells the story of a young woman caught up in a mysterious turn of events. A young tour guide, 23-year-old Mamiko who's had her heart set on Paris, finds herself swept off to booming Hong Kong where she is thrown into the midst of a high-profile burglary case.
Cinematography
Karin has lived alone in a secluded mountain village with her consumptive mother since her father died. Her worried grandfather advises her to send her mother to a sanatorium and be adopted by him, although she refuses to accept. On the Buddhist All Soul’s Day Festival in August, a messenger from her grandfather pays a sudden visit to her house.
Director of Photography
Roman Porno from 1988. An allegorical requiem for Nikkatsu studios.
Director of Photography
Summer Vacation tells the story of four teenage students who spend their summer vacation at school – unsupervised and untouched by the outside world.
Director of Photography
All the protagonists move about in a Tokyo Bar that has an entire wall taken up with a black-and-white reproduction of a photo of Monument Valley. The action starts as Billy the Kid, in full living color, walks out of the photo and gets a job as a waiter. Along with him on the working staff are a samurai straight out of the history books, a G.I. from World War II, and several other anachronistic characters. The plot (as such) revolves around keeping away the brutal mobsters and thugs who dominate the city streets outside of the bar, making the tavern safe for its easily recognized facsimiles of well-known characters.
Director of Photography
A documentary about French illustrator Georges Bigot, who lived in Japan for 17 years and left behind many drawings depicting life and social conditions in the Meiji period.
Director of Photography
Akira leaves for the Mt. Gassan foothills before winter's onset, visiting the local temple and interacting with the residents all while falling for fair Fumiko.
Director of Photography
ĀTMAN is a visual tour-de-force based on the idea of the subject at the centre of the circle created by camera positions (480 such positions). Shooting frame-by-frame the filmmaker set up an increasingly rapid circular motion. ĀTMAN is an early Buddhist deity often connected with destruction; the Japanese aspect is stressed by the devil mask of Hangan, from the Noh, and by using both Noh music and the general principle of acceleration often associated with Noh drama.
Director of Photography
Pinku from 1974.
Assistant Camera
Desensitized and dissatisfied, a young yet jaded sexual veteran sets out on a journey of self-discovery while teetering on the threshold of womanhood. Yasuko is taking part in an orgy when she realizes that she has lost all feeling - not just physically, but emotionally as well. Now, with the weight of responsibility and adult expectation weighing down on her shoulders, Yasuko attempts to better understand how she could be so empty at such a tender age.
Camera Department Production Assistant
In the Edo era, two man arrive in a village and engage in criminal activity. While one of them becomes successful and rich, the other gets betrayed and ends up in prison, burning for revenge. The truth changes with the viewpoint in this Wakamatsu film, which has inspired comparisons to Rashomon.
Assistant Camera
A salesman is looking in the city of Tokyo for his lost son. But he becomes increasingly angry at the young and radical hippies, who are not the least helpful.