Ryūichi Hiroki
| Ryūichi Hiroki | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born | Jan 01, 1954 / 70 yo | |
| Birth place: | Koriyama, Fukushima, Japan | |
| Occupation | Film director, film editor | |
Ryūichi Hiroki (廣木 隆一 Hiroki Ryūichi) is a Japanese artist, film director, and film editor.
Biography
Ryūichi Hiroki is now one of the most prolific film directors in Japan. He is a pioneer in using digital video to shoot theatrical films in Japan. When he wanted to learn about making films as a student, he found a training opportunity in the pink film industry, a genre of erotic films produced exclusively for theatrical release since the early 1960s. He came into his own with an erotic film Seigyaku-Onna wo Abaku (Catch the Woman Out) in 1982. Hiroki left this genre-specific circuit when he received a scholarship at the Sundance Company in Tokyo. During his stay at Sundance, he wrote the script which he later developed into his film Tokyo Trash Baby (2000).
He is described by one film critic as one of Japan's most fascinating film makers.
Pink film
Hiroki is one of several Japanese film directors who got their start in the Japanese softcore pornographic film genre of pink film. He said in an interview that in the late 1970s when he wanted to get into directing, he wrote a script for a pink film and brought it to the Ōkura Eiga studio but they told him he needed to start as an assistant director. At this time he met prolific pink film director Genji Nakamura and during the next three years, Hiroki worked as an assistant director, editor, and manager for Nakamura's company Yū Pro. Hiroki made his first film as a director with Sexual Abuse! Exposed Woman for Million Film in 1982. His debut met with poor reviews and was "terrible" according to Hiroki and he went back to being an assistant director for a time.
Hiroki's next excursion into directing, beginning in November 1983, was more successful, a trio of homoerotic pink films for ENK, a new company with links to Nikkatsu, which specialized in gay pink film. Our Season, Our Generation, and Our Moment were frank depictions of the tribulations of gay couples in 1980s Japan. All three films starred veteran pink film actor Tōru Nakane and Our Season, considered the best of the trio by the pink film historians Thomas and Yuko Weisser, had a screenplay by future director Rokurō Mochizuki.
The Weissers dub Hiroki "the prince of youth porn" for his 1984 film produced by Yū Pro and distributed by Nikkatsu, Teacher, Don't Turn Me On!, once again scripted by Rokurō Mochizuki and featuring Tōru Nakane as the college-age tutor of a high-school girl. His most notorious works for Nakamura's Yū Pro were a series of brutal S&M movies directed under the pseudonym Gō Ijūin (伊集院剛), which was also sometimes used by scriptwriter Hitoshi Ishikawa and Nakamura himself. According to Hiroki, using a pseudonym gave him greater freedom to describe S&M relationships in a new way. The "Gō Ijūin" films directed by Hiroki were 1984 The SM, distributed by Million Film, The Sexual Abuse from February 1985 and The Sacrifice from February 1986, with the latter two films being released by Nikkatsu.[5][9]
Also in 1986, Nikkatsu released Hiroki's creative but bizarrely titled Yū Pro production SM Class: Accidental Urination promoted as "New wave S&M with a sense of humor". In October 1987, Hiroki directed pioneering AV Idol Hitomi Kobayashi in the pink film The True Self of Hitomi Kobayashi released by Million Film[ and the next year supervised another early AV actress Eri Kikuchi in Eri Kikuchi: Huge Breasts released by Nikkatsu in January 1988.
Hiroki also ventured into the adult video (AV) world, directing for Athena Eizou, a company founded by former pink film director Tadashi Yoyogi, with titles such as the August 1989 Vanana Baby (ヴァナナベイビー) starring Mako Hyuga and the May 1990 video Nyū sekushī meitsu nukenukefinisshu dai kyōran (ＮＥＷセクシーメイツ ヌケヌケフィニッシュ大狂乱).
Movie awards
Hiroki made more than 40 films and some have won prizes; these include the films made in 2003 and 2005.
It's Only Talk
Hiroki's 2005 film Yawarakai seikatsu (It's Only Talk) won the Grand Prix - Best Film at the 19th Singapore International Film Festival and a Special Mention and Audience Award at the 8th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (2006). It also took a FIPRESCI Award at the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2005. The film was shown at various film festivals, including the 25th Sundance Film Festival.
Vibrator
Hiroki became internationally well known after his movie Vibrator (2003) swept many prizes in Japan and internationally. It won a Festival Prize at the Yokohama Film Festival in 2004. It also took home a Japanese Professional Movie Award in 2004. It won a FIPRESCI Award at the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2004.
Filmography
- April Bride, 2009
- "Kimi no Tomodachi", 2008
- Bakushi, 2007
- Emu (M), 2006
- Love on Sunday, 2006
- It's Only Talk, 2005
- Fîmeiru (Female) Story - Taiyô no mieru basho made, 2005
- Yokan, 2005
- Girlfriend (Someone Please Stop the World), 2004
- L'Amant, 2004
- Kikansha Sensei (Silent Big Man), 2004
- Vibrator, 2003
- Keiji tai Keiji (Cops vs Cops), short film, 2003
- Rihatsu tenshu no kanashimi (The Barber’s Sadness), 2002
- Bikyaku Meiro (Labyrinth of Leg Fetishism), 2001
- Tokyo gomi onna (Tokyo Trash Baby), 2000
- Futei no kisetsu (I Am an S and M Writer), 2000
- Tenshi ni misuterareta yoru (The Night the Angel Turned Away), 1999
- Hareta Hiniwa (On a Brighter Day), 1999
- Midori, 1996
- Gerende ga tokeru hodo koi shitai (A Love to Melt the Snow), 1996
- Kimi to Itsumademo (Forever with you), 1995
- 800 (800 Two Lap Runner), 1994
- Muma (Evil Dream), 1994
- Maougai (Sadistic City), 1993
- Sawako no Koi (A Love Affair with Sawako), 1990
- Doutei Monogatari 4-Bokumo Ski ni Tsuretette (Virgin Story 4-Take me to the skiing), 1989
- Seigyaku-Onna wo Abaku (Catch the Woman Out), 1982
External links
- Ryūichi Hiroki at the Internet Movie Database
- Radio interview with Film Director, Ryuichi Hiroki about his film, It's Only Talk
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